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.
You know, I don't really remember anything in particular that I liked best, except after Daddy had killed hogs in the fall I loved the meat left on the backbone when Mama boiled it. Maybe it was because by then all the fryers had been used and we were hungry for meat. We had no electricity, so no way of keeping meat from one season to another. I do know I didn't like to drink milk and Mama would put sugar and vanilla in it to entice me to drink it. Love you memories of the foods you had.
ReplyDeleteOh, I bet you liked that milk! We used to butcher hogs in the fall, too. I remember Mom grinding it and making sausage and I've heard they also canned sausage balls.
DeleteThe foods you mentioned were the ones we ate as well. Usually fried chicken on Sunday. Pies too. I love friend apples and biscuits too Janet. I made fried apples last week for just me. Didn't make biscuits but ate it on toast. Tasted pretty good. Let us know how the meeting at the library went and what foods were on hand. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi Barbara. We always had fried chicken on Sundays, too. Well, there was a rhubarb cake, wilted lettuce, a squash dish, pepperoni rolls, lots of different kinds of jellies, etc. It was a pretty good evening.
DeleteJanet -- you have listed some traditional southern food that I used to hear some elders talk about but have never had the privileged of partaking any of these wonderful foods. You are fortunate to have lived in an area with a family that made sure the new generations were exposed to these dishes. I think you should publish these dishes in book form and include your family stories surrounding them. I think it would sell well. -- barbara
ReplyDeleteHi Barbara. I was very fortunate to grow up in a holler with family all around me. It was wonderful. We were all very close. I am putting together a cookbook. I am very anxious to finish it.
DeleteCorn pone and black-eyed peas, sweet potatoes and pork chops. Turnip greens -- all courtesy of my Alabama grandmother,
ReplyDeleteHi Vickie. I never was a fan of black-eyed peas, but everything else sounds delicious!
DeleteMy mom's skillet chocolate pie & banana pudding, mmm, wish she was here now to fix some.
ReplyDeleteYum, I've never heard of skillet chocolate pie. Sounds delicious.
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