Well, my love for food is not just in the fact that I love putting good tasting things in my mouth, but I absolutely love that food is one of the things that brings people together, no matter what the occasion. Being a people person such as myself, and raised a Southern Baptist, I know the importance of food to gatherings... it's essential, not just for survival, but essential to a good gathering.
I have three wonderful women that raised me up right in the kitchen, my mother and both of my grandmothers. All with different styles of cooking, which all come out from time to time in my food, some on their own, and some all mixed together. These ladies influenced what I call my "foundation of cooking", without their guidance, I would most likely not be even writing this. They are my "founding mothers" for my kitchen, and I hold their teachings in the highest respect.
To get a better understanding, here's a little bit of info on them:
My Grammie (my father's mother):
Picture a woman raised deep in the woods of Mississippi with a slew of brothers and sisters, a father who worked hard on the land, and a mother who worked hard to keep everyone fed, loved, and taken care of... That's my Grammie. Raised with the south in her blood and raised with knowing how to cook just about everything that comes from the land.
This is the woman who, due to making biscuits each morning from scratch without taking off her jewelry, she managed to get enough biscuit dough under her diamond in her wedding ring to pop it out of the setting within a few years of wearing it.
Going to their house in the summer was like a sentence to automatically gain 10 pounds, no matter what age you were because she always had food on the table, a cake in the oven, and ice cream in the freezer. She woke up before the crack of dawn every day to cook her famous breakfast. This wasn't any breakfast. This was the Southern Working Man's breakfast, the kind of breakfast that would fill you up for the whole day. Every day this woman cooked this meal. No substitutions, no change in the menu... just Grammie's Breakfast. All from scratch, all hot and ready to go by 7:30am, unless my mother was with us and then we would wait for her til about 9.
If you are lucky enough to get Grammie's breakfast at the Red Door Saloon, consider yourself loved because it doesn't appear much, but when it does, you won't mistake it for anything other than the best breakfast ever. (Menu to come later on)
Grammie taught me all the tricks of the trade when it came to cooking from scratch and reading recipes. She had boxes and boxes of them, and knew where each one was that she wanted. The trick I learned from her was not only are recipes great tools, but they help us have guidelines to create our own masterpieces in the kitchen that become family staples.
For comparison's sake:
Thanksgiving Dinner at Grammie's
Ham
A whole Chicken to cook the stuffing with
Cornbread Stuffing
Giblet Gravy
Smoked Turkey
Grammie's Corn
Mashed Potatoes
Potato Salad
Butter Beans
Green Bean Casserole
Cranberry sauce
Cornbread
Homemade rolls
Grammie's Chocolate Cake
Grammie's Lemon Cake
Date Balls
Peanut Butter Fudge
My Memaw (my mother's mother):
Picture a southern classy lady, a preachers wife, equipped with the 1960's beehive hair do, the latest fashion, and her nails always perfect. Picture a feisty woman of the house that knows what it's like to grow up in the dusty West Texas, to have 3 children under the age of 6 on a professors salary, and knowing that Baptist potluck lunches were the church wife's talent contest.
Picture a woman who always hosted family get togethers, and spent 20 years rotating with the same group of families for Supper Club each month.
That's my Memaw. In my mind, when I see movies like Steel Magnolias, I feel like I can just insert her right there in the middle of it and she'd fit just perfect.
She always had great food at her house, and she always had the best tricks up her sleeves, the coolest new cooking gadgets, and peanut brittle that was to DIE for!
Memaw taught me about the importance of being cooking smart, using what you had, and always having backup in the pantry. My favorite kitchen utensils are from her, and her kitchen never spared them when I was growing up either.
She, like any good Baptist preacher's wife, had collected recipes from churches and people for years and make them her own. On her 50th wedding anniversary, we decided to put together all of the family favorite recipes that she had cooked over the years. Its' a recipe book that I will NEVER get rid of! She has things in there that she can make with her eyes closed and hands tied behind her back that I couldn't do to save the life of me. And you will surely inherit these recipes in this blog, I can guarantee you that.
Memaw was great at cooking period, but when it came to baking... she was a professional. She had tricks of the trade that were and still are magical! I will probably say that 90% of my baking addiction comes from her.
For comparison's sake:
Thanksgiving at Memaw's
Turkey
Ham
Mashed Potatoes
Cornbread Dressing
Green Bean Casserole
Sweet Potato Casserole
Corn
Homemade Dinner Rolls
Fruit Salad (the jello kind)
Pecan Pie
Mincemeat Pie
Pumpkin Pie
Sugar Cookies
Peanut Brittle
Assorted Fudge
My mother:
Picture the daughter of above.
Picture the wife of a youth minister/insurance man/music minister.
Picture the mother of two kids, 3 years apart, and always equipped with a healthy appetite.
Picture a woman who bakes cookies just because it makes her happy, and who is known as "Momma B, the puppy chow queen".
Picture a woman who would let me help her cook, and when I was in the 4th grade allowed me and a friend to have complete control of her kitchen and she ate everything we cooked.
Picture a woman who still answers the dinner time phone calls from her twenty something year old daughter for a recipe verification.
Ma did it right when she made the "we eat dinner every night together at the table" rule. Growing up knowing that every night we had to all sit together and eat dinner taught me not only that I had to sit up straight and be polite even when I wanted to punch my brother in the face because he was making me mad, but it taught me that food brings families together and shares in the importance of family. Every night we would eat together, every night I was called to set the table if I wasn't already in the kitchen helping her mix together something. Every night, one of us, instead of her, would clean the dishes because in her kitchen the rule was "I cook, you clean". (Such a smart woman)
Not only did she teach me that you can incorporate butter into just about everything, she helped me learn how to not get upset if we didn't follow Grammie's recipe exactly because it will still turn out good. (unless she cooks Grammie's Strawberry cake)
Ma and I have the same love for wanting to feed and serve people, as do the rest of the women in my family, but she taught me first hand how nice it is to have a home-cooked meal every night and be thankful for it.
For comparison's sake:
Thanksgiving at Ma's
Honey Smoked Ham
Turkey
Memaw's Dressing
Green bean casserole
Mashed Potatoes
Giblet Gravy
Corn
Rolls
Cranberry Sauce
Pecan Pie
Pumpkin Pie
Fresh Apple Cake
Cookies
Fudge
Fruit Salad (the jello kind)
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