Miss Kay's Duck Commander Kitchen (15 page)

1. With the electric mixer, beat the whipping cream with half the granulated sugar until soft peaks form. (The peaks should be able to stand and bend over as you remove the beaters.)

2. In another large bowl, beat the eggs with the rest of the granulated sugar until fluffy. Adding each ingredient one at a time, beat in the condensed milk, evaporated milk, salt, vanilla, and powdered sugar.

3. Put into the ice cream maker canister. Add the whipped cream mixture, then the half-and-half. Add the whole milk until the mixture is only 4 or 5 inches from the top of the canister.

4. Freeze as directed using ice and rock salt, or if your freezer doesn’t require ice and rock salt, just follow the manufacturer’s directions.

A Note from Phil

I learned how to cook at an early age and I enjoy cooking with Miss Kay. This is a recipe the whole family loves. It’s perfect for a hot summer day.

Nutty Good Oatmeal Cookies

Makes about 48 cookies • Electric mixer • Cookie sheets • Wire cooling racks

2 sticks (
¹
/
₂
pound) butter, softened

1 cup packed brown sugar (either light or dark is okay)

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

¹
/
₂
teaspoon baking powder

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup chocolate chips (6-ounce package)

¹
/
₂
cup chopped pecans

1. Heat the oven to 350°F.

2. With the electric mixer, beat the butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla until creamy. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and baking powder. Beat the flour into the butter mixture until well combined.

3. By hand, stir in the oats, chocolate chips, and pecans. (The dough will be very thick. Use your muscles!)

4. Drop by large spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

5. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until set. Cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheets, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

A Note from Miss Kay

I keep a cookie jar on my counter at all times! I notice as many adults reaching in as I do children. There’s just something about a full cookie jar that says, “I love you.”

5.

Company’s Coming

When company leaves, never say anything negative about how much they ate. They loved your cooking!

—Phil Robertson

Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help.

—1 Peter 4:8–10,
The Message

Recipes for When Company Comes

Smoked Ham with Sweet & Sassy Glaze

Alan’s Corn Chowder

Corn Shrimp Soup

Broiled Asparagus

Classic Banana Cream Pie

Jay’s Duck Commander Ribs

Baked Mushroom-Soup Chicken

Hummingbird Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Banana Nut Cake with Caramel Icing

Guacamole

Frying Fish

Phil and his brothers grew up challenging each other in everything, and one of those things was football. But it paid off, as Phil went to Louisiana Tech on a full football scholarship. His older brother, Tommy, and Tommy’s wife, Nancy, were already at Tech. Tommy had received a football scholarship the year before Phil got his.

I still don’t know how I did it, but I finished my senior year at Ruston High School while married to my football hero and pregnant. We lived on the university campus in the same housing complex as Tommy and Nancy. I loved having some family close by. They were both a big help to me that year—especially after I had Alan. Plus, it made newly married life more fun.

In the early years, I cooked every day for our whole Duck Commander crew—who worked at our house. Now I take meals to the warehouse from time to time. Everyone loves a home-cooked meal!

We all loved to eat fish, and it was a cheap meal. Tommy and Phil loved to fish along the Ouachita River and Lake D’Arbonne and usually caught the limit, which was fifteen at the time. But to fry fish, you have to have oil, and oil was way too expensive for us college students on limited
budgets. So Tommy, Phil, Nancy, and I would pool our money and buy oil to share. We kept it in the big cast-iron pan that we fried the fish in, and every week you would see us hauling that iron pot from our house to their house and vice versa. We would do this until the oil went bad, then we would buy some new oil and start over. I know the other students thought we were crazy carrying that heavy pot from house to house.

Family is where we first learn about sharing, getting along in a community of people, and being hospitable. That oil stands as a symbol for working together for the good of everyone. I’m so thankful that we had Tommy and Nancy in our early years. I cherish the time we spent together as young couples. No matter what stage of life you’re in, learn something from everyone you meet. You can’t do that if you keep your doors shut. Open your door to visitors. Most people don’t even care what you cook or if you have enough; mostly they just need a listening ear. You’ll be surprised what you can teach others, and you’ll be surprised what they can teach you.