Taylor enjoys family, fellowship, food

Taylor enjoys family, fellowship, food

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Kadee Taylor says her favorite part of cooking is sitting down with family and friends and having fun over food. 

“For me, cooking is about relationships,” Taylor said. “I’m a foodie at heart. I love to travel, and I will try anything one time. I like to try new things and sit around talking about it, and my family serves people food for a living.” 

Taylor’s mother, Pam Smith, owns the City Limits Seafood and Steaks restaurant in Philadelphia. She and Taylor are preparing to open a new restaurant, Yates Downtown, in the historic Yates building on the Square. 

Taylor enjoys spending time cooking and spending time with her husband Ryan and their three children, Hagen, Cylus, and Marliegh. 

Taylor grew up around cooking and learned her skills from her grandparents and her mother, who opened Bloomo Junction in 1991 and later sold. 

“I was around 8-9 years old when they started the restaurant,” Taylor said. “We’ll have Yates Downtown open this year, so that means my family is preparing to open a third restaurant in my lifetime. My grandfather is from the Alabama coast, so I also grew up with cajun food like crawfish boils.” 

Taylor said she learned to make things like a lemon icebox cake and red velvet cake from her grandmother when she was younger, and still makes those cakes today. 

She said cooking is trial and error a lot of the time and credits her skills today to her mother. 

“What makes me a good cook is that I still have my mother Pam, and I can call her and ask her to help me fix something if it’s quite right,” Taylor said. “There’s not a time I make anything that I don’t call her at least once.” 

She said one of her favorite dishes to make currently is a broccoli and rice casserole from her family’s cookbook. She said it’s very important to know the exact amount of ingredients when making food. 

“You can know the ingredients of something but it still won’t taste good if you don’t know the exact amount of everything,” Taylor said. “You really have to know that, with baking more so than cooking.” 

“We’re a family of cooks,” she said. “My grandmother and my mother started us off and that’s my memory.” 

LEMON ICEBOX CAKE

1 box yellow cake mix

2 cans sweetened condensed milk

3/4 cup lemon juice 

8 oz cool whip

Bake cake according to directions on the box in 3 layers. While the cake is baking, mix sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice together and put in the refrigerator to cool.

When the cake is cool, spread lemon mixture between layers, saving 1/2 cup for icing. Mix the remaining mixture with cool whip, icing the entire cake. Store in the fridge. 

AUNT NITA’S 

CHEESEBURGER PIE

1 lb Ground Beef

1 1/2 cups chopped onion

Salt and Pepper to taste

3/4 cup Bisquick

1 1/2 cups of Milk

3 eggs

2 tomatoes, sliced

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Lettuce 

Pickles

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Brown beef and onion together, and drain. Add the salt and pepper. Spread in a greased baking dish. 

Beat together bisquick, milk, and eggs with wire whisk until almost smooth, about 1 minute. Pour over the beef. Bake for 25 minutes. 

Top with tomatoes and cheese. Bake until the knife is inserted in the center until it comes out clean. Top with lettuce and pickles.

AUNT TINY’S 

BROCCOLI AND RICE CASSEROLE

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1/2 lb Velveeta cheese, diced 

3/4 cups of milk

3 cups cooked rice

2 packages frozen broccoli 

Cook broccoli in boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes. Drain well. Sauté onion in a small amount of oil. Add soup (undiluted), cheese, and milk. Let it simmer. Remove from heat and stir in broccoli and cooked rice. Pour into a large baking dish and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes.






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