There is going to be a Potluck & Appalachian Food Program at our library tonight.
You bring your appetite and a dish to share. You can also share an old family recipe and/or family cooking tradition.
I thought and thought about what to bring. I was told I was thinking too much about what to bring.
So, after contemplating on whether to bring an old fashioned stack cake or a blackberry cobbler or cornbread and corn cob jelly or a hickory nut pie ------I came up with another idea ------ a delicious idea!
Fried apples and biscuits.
Go here for a post I did about them a few years ago.
This was one of my mom's favorite dishes. When her sister knew she was coming up for Sunday dinner, Aunt Irma made sure she had fried apples on the table. I have many memories of Mom sitting at our kitchen table with a paring knife in her hand peeling and slicing the apples into a bowl. The kids would come up to her and she'd hand them a slice to eat.
What comes to your mind, when you think of Appalachian cooking/food?
I remember . . .
Pinto beans, fried potatoes and cornbread (this was a meal we had on a regular basis. Enough beans were cooked to last several days)
Applesauce stack cake (my grandmother seemed to always have one sitting on her kitchen table)
Buttermilk biscuits
Blackberry cobblers (Grandma had berry vines on her land and every summer we trekked up the hill to pick them)
Squirrel and gravy (A favorite during squirrel season)
Fried bread
Home made apple butter (I love a spoonful with my pinto beans or to put on top a sausage patty)
Black walnuts, hickory nuts (These nuts are great in fudge, brownies, pies and cakes)
Paw Paws (The West Virginia banana. You either love them or hate them)
I have a lot of recipes listed on my side bar. If you have the time, click on them and take a look ---- and maybe try one or two of them.
I have put together two family cookbooks and took them to our family reunions.
I am also in the process of putting together another cookbook titled, Cooking in the Blackberry Patch. I am filling it with pics, stories, poems and . . . recipes.
I will let you know when I get it published. I think you will like it.
What food did you grow up with - no matter which area of America you lived.
Do you have any recipes or favorite food history story you would like to share? I would love to hear them.
