Among Friends

[webbgarner1]

@chrystaltree  My mother was always putting salt on watermelon and apples. I used to ask her how can you take something so naturally good and sweet and ruin it with salt. Many years later the day she had her stroke, there was watermelon ring on the counter and next to it the salt shaker.

[AuntMame]

We had relatives in the Deep South that we often visited. Among the elements of their cooking that struck me as strange as a northern kid was their love of bacon grease. They put bacon fat in everything. Green beans, butter beans, corn bread. Some even popped popcorn in bacon grease. 

Large amounts of sugar seemed to go into everything too. Especially the iced tea which seemed to me to be like drinking syrup. We drank iced tea in the north but it was always black with lemon. 

The bacon grease and sugar aside, I loved the grits, the cornbread, the fried okra. The peaches were amazing. So were the corn and tomatoes. We had nothing like these foods in the northern cities. 

[on the bay]

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@AuntMame wrote:

We had relatives in the Deep South that we often visited. Among the elements of their cooking that struck me as strange as a northern kid was their love of bacon grease. They put bacon fat in everything. Green beans, butter beans, corn bread. Some even popped popcorn in bacon grease. 

Large amounts of sugar seemed to go into everything too. Especially the iced tea which seemed to me to be like drinking syrup. We drank iced tea in the north but it was always black with lemon. 

The bacon grease and sugar aside, I loved the grits, the cornbread, the fried okra. The peaches were amazing. So were the corn and tomatoes. We had nothing like these foods in the northern cities. 

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@AuntMame ,

Your post really made me laugh. That was my southern grandmother!

And she had a vat of crisco of course always within reach lol!

But all her things sure were good!

[AuntMame]

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@on the bay wrote:

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@AuntMame wrote:

We had relatives in the Deep South that we often visited. Among the elements of their cooking that struck me as strange as a northern kid was their love of bacon grease. They put bacon fat in everything. Green beans, butter beans, corn bread. Some even popped popcorn in bacon grease. 

Large amounts of sugar seemed to go into everything too. Especially the iced tea which seemed to me to be like drinking syrup. We drank iced tea in the north but it was always black with lemon. 

The bacon grease and sugar aside, I loved the grits, the cornbread, the fried okra. The peaches were amazing. So were the corn and tomatoes. We had nothing like these foods in the northern cities. 

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@AuntMame ,

Your post really made me laugh. That was my southern grandmother!

And she had a vat of crisco of course always within reach lol!

But all her things sure were good!

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Oh yeah, the Crisco! How could I forget? 

My mom, a northern gal through and through, always kept a big bowl of beef lard in the frig. For emergency donut frying. I mean seriously. After my dad died there were many nights when she served nothing for supper except huge plates of freshly fried donuts rolled in sugar. 

That would not have happened with my southern grandma and aunties. I think they kept lard too, but they kept the Crisco for the "good frying" of the Sunday chicken. 

I remember when they told my mom about Crisco. She was like "Really?" But it never graced our kitchen. Nor did fried chicken. 

[shoptilyadropagain]

I was born, raised and still live in the midwest.  I've only heard of peanuts in your Coke because of Barbara Mandrell's song, I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool.  Never had it and don't plan on trying it. 

Boiled Peanuts is another of what I consider a southern food and it sounds disgusting to me.

I also watch Brenda Gantt.  She's a precious lady but I would go hungry if I were to eat at her house.  Most southern foods just don't appeal to me.

[Sooner]

I've had authentic boiled peanuts and to me they taste exactly like boiled peas.  I don't get that at all.  

The first I ever had were bought in Georgia from a big ole boy in cut-off over"halls" sold from the back of an old pickup truck.  

I also have tasted them since and it's just cooked peas to me.  Peas a little on the firm side, not cooked to mush.  

[Icegoddess]

@amyb You can get White Lily flour on Amazon.  

[amyb]

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@Icegoddess wrote:

@amyb You can get White Lily flour on Amazon.  

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Ok, good to know. I have enough King Arthur flour for now, but next time I'm shopping for WL, will check Amazon. I figured I would have to buy direct from WL, but will chek Amazon pricing too. Tks!

[RedTop]

Born, raised, and still live on the same farm land in southern WV.  

Moms best friend was the only person I knew personally who put peanuts in her Pepsi; she was a teen in the 60's, when all pop was in bottles.  I was a teen in the 70's and pop was in cans; I never saw anyone put peanuts in a can of pop.  I am not a fan of peanuts, so the fad was of no interest to me.  

I was raised on biscuits made with lard and buttermilk, potatoes fried in bacon fat, pinto beans, green beans and turnips were cooked with a chunk of salt pork or seasoned with bacon fat from the never empty can on a shelf above the stove.  Fried chicken was on the dinner table nearly every Sunday, always fried in Crisco in an iron skillet.  Several tablespoons of those drippings were used for milk gravy that day, and the rest went into a jar in the fridge for next weeks fried chicken.  We drink our tea strong and sweet.  My grandmothers made cornbread with yellow self rising cornmeal, fresh buttermilk, and bacon grease in the mix as well as in the iron skillet for a deep crust.  I prefer my cornbread with white cornmeal, some flour, 2% milk, but always bacon grease in the mix and a small amount in the iron skillet.  

I have never made my Thanksgiving cornbread dressing without cooking the onions and celery in bacon grease and butter.  My bacon grease is in a jelly jar in the refrigerator.  

Last July when my oldest daughter moved across the road into my parents house, as I was in the pantry sharing basic staples with her, she was looking under the sink for an empty jelly jar to start her own bacon grease collection.

[branny]

why would anyone float peanuts in a beverage. what is the reason? uh dangerous.