Kitchen

[NoelSeven]

On 12/9/2014 forrestwolf said:

I am TOTALLY Ga born, raised and still live, but there was a time when I lived in Jackson, MS, when my mom was at Ole Miss medical school..........Now.....the part of GA that I am from would NEVER serve grits OR cheese grits with fish, but rather french fries and hush puppies only......Where I live now, DO NOT EVER, EVER FORGET THE CHEESE GRITS...... Down here, they always have sorghum syrup to sop with the hushpuppies......I do not eat grits like many in GA, but will eat my Grits and Greens casserole, and I do cook them for my Dad, who actually must have yellow grits, if he has his choice.....I order them from the Old Mill in Pigeon Forge, TN, where I have a condo just minutes away.....Meats are totally different here, than what I grew up on, and my family always had their own beef, and pork, as well as chickens....Oh to have that flavor again....... It is so funny how the foods here are so different than what I grew up on, and I only live a couple of hundred miles from where I grew up........

Hi forrestwolf... I love your name

I'm glad you brought that up, it's fascinating to me that the South can have so many great regional differences in food.

[NoelSeven]

On 12/9/2014 betteb said:

On 12/9/2014 NoelSeven said:

On 12/9/2014 chickenbutt said:

Hey Noel! I grew up in Northern California, but my parents were from the South. Well, I don't think either of them knew how to cook but somehow or other my style developed as a little bit southern and a lot Italian - which is also weird because I'm not Italian either.

I don't do any of the big ol' ooey gooey southern type cooking, because it doesn't appeal to me, but I like to make up my own versions of stuff that have just a touch of southern, some Italian, and my teeny tiny imagination.

I guess that doesn't really contribute to the conversation but I just wanted to say 'hey'.

PS: If I ever could move back to CA, I love love love the city of SF and would want to either live there, or the Monterey/Pacific Grove area. I miss the ocean. :'(

CB, my friend Your post does contribute to the conversation because I also try to create healthy versions for the family, if possible.

I'd like to try versions of collard greens soon, and I'm always on the lookout for recipes with black eyed peas for New Year's. So far, my attempts with the latter were dull and tasteless

Noel, all you need for black eyed peas is a good smoked hock, some minced onion, a clove of garlic and some salt and pepper. Simmer it on the stove for a few hours, that's it. Oh and cornbread. Yummy

Hi bette, it's nice to talk with you again

That's basically how my mother used to make ham and lima beans, that was a delicious taste!

[Tigriss]

On 12/9/2014 Zhills said:

On 12/8/2014 tigriss said:

It is really good. My mother would make me a coffee mug of cheese grits, with American cheese, for breakfast as she drove me to day care before she went into the sewing factory for work. Grits are super easy to cook and works with darned near everything. We have fish and grits for suppers and left over grits can be poured into a pan and chilled for pan frying in the morning in bacon grease or butter. We also do hoe cakes, which are corn meal and/or flour mixed with a bit of water and pan fried to make a pancake like corn bread. Then there is lace corn bread made from a thin mix of corn meal and water and an egg and poured in small silver dollar sized rounds in a thin layer so the cooking makes holes in it making the lace. That is a common bread for meals around here as well.

We have sugar cane in the fall and grind it, then boil to make cane syrup. This isn't something done at home, or most homes. We have an old boiler pot, about 4 foot across, and an old cane grinder that was powered by horses but is now powered by an electric motor. It takes a lifetime of experience in making sure you boil it to the right consistency before you put on the steel ring for the impurities to boil over and be collected, then it will foam over the ring making dog candy (a sweet taffy like candy, but be careful eating it as too much acts as a cure for constipation!), and when it is at the right thickness/consistency (determined by how it pours when it is scooped up and poured back into the boiler, you take it up into a cheese cloth lined washtub fitted with a spout. You mix it with corn syrup to preserve it, about a 1/3 to 1/2 depending upon the color of the syrup and cane used, then bottle. It is very, very hot and will take the hide right off you!! The bottles are already sterilized when you pour the syrup into them and sealed. We did this Thanksgiving weekend before a hard freeze that would kill the sugar cane. We cook a half a hog, deer sausage, and chilies/soups cooking on the wood stove. We bake biscuits in the oven and serve them with a hole poked in the side into the center of the biscuit and pour the syrup into it. Yummy! All said and done, it takes all day and into the night to make, which is why we gather and make food and ride 4 wheelers and just gather. We are doing a low country boil for family Christmas with my granny when my uncle comes down this weekend and a traditional Christmas on Christmas Day with turkey and ham, corn bread dressing, giblets and gravy, candied yams, sticky buns (yeast rolls baked with butter/brown sugar sauce with pecans in the bottom), rice cooked in the juice from baking the ham, greens from the garden (mustards usually), pecan pie and pumpkin pies made from our pecans and pumpkins, 20 something layer chocolate cake (it depends on how it bakes up as to how many layers it has), mac and cheese, deviled eggs, creamed corn from the summer, peas from the summer, chicken and dumplings, and who knows what else. We all eat dinner and supper together and take left over plates home to finish off at work or home. We are a large family and always have plenty of food and additional people we seem to collect along with way, friends that don't have much family or neighbors that don't have much family or visiting deer hunters from Florida and who knows who else we end up bringing home from church. This is just a typical meal for our family get to-gathers about once a month or so. We all divide up the cooking and it all gets done with plenty to go around. This is really our entertainment along with long rides on the 4 wheelers and golf carts through the woods with coolers of drinks and snacks, getting a large water slide in the summer for our birthdays in July that are all so close together, and just watching all the kids play. Visit and eat is what we do in the rural south.

Oh, boy, did you wake up the memory! Born and raised in Florida and ate everything you mentioned and had a friend that made syrup the old fashioned way. I could relive your story! Wish I could find some of that syrup now.

Tigriss, I worked at the sewing factory in Douglas when I was a newlywed and my SO played football at South Georgia. It was in a hanger at the airport. Yes, you really brought back good memories today! Always enjoy your posts

Oh My Word. I'm living in Douglas right now, well northern Coffee County between Broxton and West Green in the woods. My family is from Alma/Bacon county. My BIL coaches baseball at South Georgia College. They don't have a football team, but do have softball, soccer, and baseball. The world is small after all!

[Tigriss]

On 12/9/2014 NoelSeven said:

On 12/9/2014 forrestwolf said:

I am TOTALLY Ga born, raised and still live, but there was a time when I lived in Jackson, MS, when my mom was at Ole Miss medical school..........Now.....the part of GA that I am from would NEVER serve grits OR cheese grits with fish, but rather french fries and hush puppies only......Where I live now, DO NOT EVER, EVER FORGET THE CHEESE GRITS...... Down here, they always have sorghum syrup to sop with the hushpuppies......I do not eat grits like many in GA, but will eat my Grits and Greens casserole, and I do cook them for my Dad, who actually must have yellow grits, if he has his choice.....I order them from the Old Mill in Pigeon Forge, TN, where I have a condo just minutes away.....Meats are totally different here, than what I grew up on, and my family always had their own beef, and pork, as well as chickens....Oh to have that flavor again....... It is so funny how the foods here are so different than what I grew up on, and I only live a couple of hundred miles from where I grew up........

Hi forrestwolf... I love your name

I'm glad you brought that up, it's fascinating to me that the South can have so many great regional differences in food.

Thanks NoelSeven! We tend to be very family centered people down here since we lack many of those things that draw people away from each other. You learn to live very close to them in many circumstances. In the end, your family and friends are you most valuable possessions.

Forestwolf, Where are you at in Georgia? I'm Coffee County in the centerish south of the state and from slightly east of there in Bacon County.

Since we were populated by so many different groups, the South has quite the mixed heritage, like most all of the US is. Our differences are what make us Americans. Our food is all most of those that came over could take with them, so food in America is a major part of our history that we are all part of!

[Zhills]

"Oh My Word. I'm living in Douglas right now, well northern Coffee County between Broxton and West Green in the woods. My family is from Alma/Bacon county. My BIL coaches baseball at South Georgia College. They don't have a football team, but do have softball, soccer, and baseball. The world is small after all!"

We had a football team in ''56 & 57! Played East Georgia, West Georgia, North Georgia and Middle Georgia Junior Colleges each year. And, believe it or not, head coach was Bobby Bowden and asst was Vince Gibson (deceased) who later went on to Tulane. It was Bobby's first job out of college. Lovely little town and the people were so kind, especially to college students.

[Tigriss]

I'm afraid that we aren't much bigger than when you were there, but we do have lots of people. Our middle school now has some 1800 kids, the largest outside of Atlanta Metro area. We do make babies and lots of farming. We have a few factories still, but we are very agriculture based. The school is still going strong and weathered the budgets cuts but have combined with Waycross College to become South Georgia State College. They still play all over the state and are the starting grounds for many coaches throughout the nation. SGC is possibly the oldest junior/community college in the world since the idea of community colleges are a uniquely American thing. I started there and so have so many people. You can check out the chamber of commerce site anytime for flash backs http://www.douglasga.org/

[dfyre]

I'm so enjoying this thread! I'm a Jersey girl, born and bred, and never even saw grits (which I love but DH, a Bronx boy, hates them) until my sister moved to NC about 30 years ago when her husband was transferred. I do read her issues of Southern Living every time I visit and they really do have some great recipes. I've never even had a black eyed pea.

[NoelSeven]

On 12/10/2014 dfyre said:

I'm so enjoying this thread! I'm a Jersey girl, born and bred, and never even saw grits (which I love but DH, a Bronx boy, hates them) until my sister moved to NC about 30 years ago when her husband was transferred. I do read her issues of Southern Living every time I visit and they really do have some great recipes. I've never even had a black eyed pea.

Hi dfyre

I'm glad you're enjoying it, too. In the Bay Area, I can find black eyed peas in a can or frozen in a few large stores. It's a traditional Southern New Year's food. I'm thinking I can probably find a few interesting recipes using them on Southern Living online.

[iQue]

On 12/9/2014 NoelSeven said:

A recent discovery of mine is the blog, South Your Mouth, by Mandy Rivers:

http://www.southyourmouth.com/

She gets very good reviews and tells great stories.

Thank you for this site. I found a no bake cookie that looks divine.

No-Bake Double Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

[goodstuff]

I am a Southern girl and love Southern Living magazine! It has great recipes every single month and really captures the spirit of traditional/modern Southern living. It also offers great decorating, entertaining, travel, and shopping info, plus interesting feature articles. I've been a subscriber for years, and S.L. is probably my favorite magazine.

There is so much more to being Southern than Paula Deen and the Dukes of Hazzard!