Recipes July Neighbors Country Kitchen

July Neighbors Country Kitchen

July Neighbors Country Kitchen

Felicia Dewberry said she was fortunate to grow up around many wonderful cooks. However, instead of learning from written recipes, she acquired her cooking skills through observation, which can make it difficult to share her family favorites.

“My mother and both my grandmothers were really good cooks,” she said. “When you’ve learned to cook by watching, you don’t measure much.”

A lifelong resident of Clay County, Felicia says she grew up just a few miles from husband, Lamar, but they didn’t meet until high school.

“His grandmother suggested he invite me to his school’s athletic banquet, and we didn’t really know each other before that,” she recalls of her husband of 34 years.

The Dewberrys currently raise timber, own Mountain Streams Realty in Lineville and have previously raised cattle. Lamar serves on the Federation’s State Wildlife Committee and is president of the Clay County Farmers Federation. Felicia also serves on the county Women’s Leadership Committee.

Felicia says most of the recipes she shares with the Country Kitchen are those she made with her mother or grandmothers, with the exception of her original recipe for Cheesy Tomatoes.

“We have a big garden every year, and one year we had a lot of tomatoes,” she said. “Lamar asked what else I could do with some of them besides freeze them. We both love cheese, so I came up the Cheesy Tomatoes as an easy way to use our home-grown tomatoes.”

And if summertime gardens or markets have more berries than tomatoes, Felicia’s recipe for Preacher’s Blueberry Syrup makes delicious use of some of summer’s sweetest offerings.