Our meals at home were often heavy on the vegetables with small amounts of meat. One such meal that I particularly remember was pretty much always the same - baked tomatoes, black eyed or sugar crowder peas and collard greens with slices of home cured bacon and biscuits. We frequently had either peas or greens without the tomatoes, but never the reverse.
So far as I know, mother made these by eye rather than by recipe, so like so many things, it's more a process than a recipe.
Baked Tomatoes as Mother made them
1 quart home canned tomatoes with liquid
1/2 cup sugar or more if tomatoes seem quite acid
3-4 left over biscuits or slices of cold toast
salt and pepper
1/4-1/2 cup water as needed
1 T butter
Pour tomatoes into greased or sprayed casserole dish. Slice or quarter them. Stir in sugar and taste to be sure they are somewhat sweet but not dessert sweet. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Rough chop or tear bread into chunks and stir into tomato mixture. Be gentle so that neither the bread nor the tomatoes fall apart. It should be somewhat soupy. Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup water if needed. Dot the butter over surface of casserole.
Bake at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes or until the casserole is bubbly and bread has absorbed some but not all the liquid. You want the tomatoes to be juicy/syrupy. Add more water if needed.
Note: If I were making these, I would need to use store bought canned tomatoes. I would use half the juice from the can and half water, unless the tomatoes were packed in really thin juice.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Okra - Poor Maligned Veggie.
Will everyone who considers okra inedible please say "aye"? Now, how many of you have actually tried it? Ha! I thought so. Many of you have just been put off by by what you've heard - mushy, stringy, slimy. I have even heard an indelicate person use a slang word for that which is produced by a runny nose.
Del and I grew up eating okra. Mother either fried it or made it with tomatoes. She also made okra pickles with dill. By the time I came into the family, Mrs. Williams put it in soup or stewed it. She usually put whole pods on top of her butter beans, but she always took them out and served them in a separate dish because Mr. Williams didn't like the way okra made the beans taste. Or he did if he knew they had been cooked together. Just one of the little secrets cooks keep from their families.
Both our families grew okra and used it fresh. I buy it frozen, and usually keep both the sliced, but unbreaded, and the whole pods in the freezer. When David, Tracy and Rosa come, I usually fry it, but I also use it in soup and stew whole pods or cook them on butter beans.
Here are the ways I learned to cook okra. If you try them and still aren't converted, you might want to grow a few plants anyway, because dried okra pods are beautiful in arrangements. When picking fresh okra, you might want to wear long sleeves and gardening gloves, because it is an itchy plant.
Fried Okra (Serves 6)
1 lb. frozen sliced okra
1/2 cup white stone ground corn meal
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper
healthy shake of ground red pepper
Oil to barely cover bottom of iron frying pan or other pan large enough to to hold okra in a single layer (You know your frying pans. Some may require more oil than mine do,)
Remove okra from freezer to refrigerator to partially thaw. When ready to cook, put into paper bag with meal and seasonings. Shake, shake, shake.
Put enough oil into frying pan to cover bottom of pan. It will be shiny but not of any depth. Turn onto medium high heat. Check temperature by putting a tiny pinch of meal into pan. If it sizzles, shake bag again and pour everything into the pan. Spread okra into single layer, if possible. Cook on medium heat, turning as it begins to brown. Much of the meal will fall off the okra, but that is to be expected. Continue to cook, turning frequently, until the meal is brown. You may need to turn the heat down if it browns too quickly. You want the okra to be tender and the meal brown, not burned. Taste from time to time to check texture.
Note: This will not look at all like the okra you get in Cracker Barrel and such, but the green taste of the okra comes through and it is not greasy.
Boiled Okra
Fresh or frozen okra pods, partially thawed, if frozen
Salted and peppered water to barely cover
Depending upon size of okra pods, allow 3-4 per person. Simmer, covered, for 5 -10 minutes. The okra is done when the tip of a paring knife pierces it easily. Start testing for doneness after 5 minutes. You want it to be tender but not cooked to death. Do not let it come to a full boilor cook it too long, and do be sure to gently turn it instead of stirring because the pods will break and the result will be slimy and mushy. I'm okay with that, but I expect that for the uninitiated, it would be rather like eating a raw oyster, without risking Hep whichever letter. Because of my work and our travels, I've had my shots, but here are not enough shots in the world to persuade me to eat one of those, so I can't say for sure. Apply some kind of heat, however, and it's a whole other story. But I digress.
Note: You can also lay the pods on top of your fresh/frozen butter beans (baby limas), but be sure to check often because they will cook much quicker than the beans. To be fair to Mr. Williams, the flavor of the beans will be slightly changed.
Stewed okra
Mother didn't write down a recipe for stewed okra, so this is a method based on my memory of what she did, substituting store bought/short cut ingredients.
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 cup frozen sliced okra
1/4 cup frozen corn (my addition)
salt and pepper
hot sauce
Combine tomatoes and okra and simmer for 3-5 minutes. Check after 3 minutes for tender/crisp texture. Add corn and simmer for 2 minutes. Add salt to taste and a good bit of black pepper. You can also add some garlic powder and onion powder if you like. Add a couple of big shakes of hot sauce or allow each person to add it at the table.
Okra in Soup
Add either okra slices or pods to soup during the last 10 minutes of cooking. I prefer slices because they are more forgiving of over cooking and freeze well if you make a big batch of soup.
Dilled okra
I haven't made pickles or canned anything else since I used to help Mother, so I don't know the modern rules for safety, and would hesitate to tell anyone how to proceed, except to the grocery store. Up Nawth, you may have to go to a fancy store, but I used to buy them in Ohio without difficulty.
Del and I grew up eating okra. Mother either fried it or made it with tomatoes. She also made okra pickles with dill. By the time I came into the family, Mrs. Williams put it in soup or stewed it. She usually put whole pods on top of her butter beans, but she always took them out and served them in a separate dish because Mr. Williams didn't like the way okra made the beans taste. Or he did if he knew they had been cooked together. Just one of the little secrets cooks keep from their families.
Both our families grew okra and used it fresh. I buy it frozen, and usually keep both the sliced, but unbreaded, and the whole pods in the freezer. When David, Tracy and Rosa come, I usually fry it, but I also use it in soup and stew whole pods or cook them on butter beans.
Here are the ways I learned to cook okra. If you try them and still aren't converted, you might want to grow a few plants anyway, because dried okra pods are beautiful in arrangements. When picking fresh okra, you might want to wear long sleeves and gardening gloves, because it is an itchy plant.
Fried Okra (Serves 6)
1 lb. frozen sliced okra
1/2 cup white stone ground corn meal
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper
healthy shake of ground red pepper
Oil to barely cover bottom of iron frying pan or other pan large enough to to hold okra in a single layer (You know your frying pans. Some may require more oil than mine do,)
Remove okra from freezer to refrigerator to partially thaw. When ready to cook, put into paper bag with meal and seasonings. Shake, shake, shake.
Put enough oil into frying pan to cover bottom of pan. It will be shiny but not of any depth. Turn onto medium high heat. Check temperature by putting a tiny pinch of meal into pan. If it sizzles, shake bag again and pour everything into the pan. Spread okra into single layer, if possible. Cook on medium heat, turning as it begins to brown. Much of the meal will fall off the okra, but that is to be expected. Continue to cook, turning frequently, until the meal is brown. You may need to turn the heat down if it browns too quickly. You want the okra to be tender and the meal brown, not burned. Taste from time to time to check texture.
Note: This will not look at all like the okra you get in Cracker Barrel and such, but the green taste of the okra comes through and it is not greasy.
Boiled Okra
Fresh or frozen okra pods, partially thawed, if frozen
Salted and peppered water to barely cover
Depending upon size of okra pods, allow 3-4 per person. Simmer, covered, for 5 -10 minutes. The okra is done when the tip of a paring knife pierces it easily. Start testing for doneness after 5 minutes. You want it to be tender but not cooked to death. Do not let it come to a full boilor cook it too long, and do be sure to gently turn it instead of stirring because the pods will break and the result will be slimy and mushy. I'm okay with that, but I expect that for the uninitiated, it would be rather like eating a raw oyster, without risking Hep whichever letter. Because of my work and our travels, I've had my shots, but here are not enough shots in the world to persuade me to eat one of those, so I can't say for sure. Apply some kind of heat, however, and it's a whole other story. But I digress.
Note: You can also lay the pods on top of your fresh/frozen butter beans (baby limas), but be sure to check often because they will cook much quicker than the beans. To be fair to Mr. Williams, the flavor of the beans will be slightly changed.
Stewed okra
Mother didn't write down a recipe for stewed okra, so this is a method based on my memory of what she did, substituting store bought/short cut ingredients.
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 cup frozen sliced okra
1/4 cup frozen corn (my addition)
salt and pepper
hot sauce
Combine tomatoes and okra and simmer for 3-5 minutes. Check after 3 minutes for tender/crisp texture. Add corn and simmer for 2 minutes. Add salt to taste and a good bit of black pepper. You can also add some garlic powder and onion powder if you like. Add a couple of big shakes of hot sauce or allow each person to add it at the table.
Okra in Soup
Add either okra slices or pods to soup during the last 10 minutes of cooking. I prefer slices because they are more forgiving of over cooking and freeze well if you make a big batch of soup.
Dilled okra
I haven't made pickles or canned anything else since I used to help Mother, so I don't know the modern rules for safety, and would hesitate to tell anyone how to proceed, except to the grocery store. Up Nawth, you may have to go to a fancy store, but I used to buy them in Ohio without difficulty.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Do You Remember the First Valentine Your Dear One Sent You?
I received my first Valentine from Del 46 years ago when we were freshmen at Richmond, and I have never forgotten it. It was so sweet, so tender, so romantic. Unfortunately, it didn't survive our many moves, but who could forget the beautiful words? "Wax in my ears, lint in my belly button and you in my heart." It was accompanied by a huge lavender heart shaped box of candy with a huge fake orchid on it. He confessed some years later that he bought it because it offered the best value for the money. The man is a true romantic. What more can I say?
Actually, he and some of his family members have a warped sense of humor when it comes to choosing cards. They spend more time picking out the perfect insulting card than I do a pair of shoes. He always picked out David's Valentine card, but one year he was out of town, and I did it. David opened the sweet card I had bought and asked if his dad was mad with him. It seems he thought his dad hadn't cared enough to spend the time to look for the truly obnoxious.
We didn't have special Valentines Day plans tonight. Del had oral surgery yesterday to remove a tooth and the impacted wisdom tooth under it. They hadn't wanted to remove it back in the olden days, but the time had come. The wisdom tooth left a small hole in his sinuses, so he now is the only one in the family who has had a collegen (sp?) injection. The menu for this evening was mashed potatoes with gravy. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, and lunch was macaroni and cheese and yogurt.
He has done quite well, although when we were trying to wake him up he kept talking about Boy Scouts on bikes who were trying to help senior citizens cross the street and telling the nurse he was a cheap drunk. She assured him that on this particular occasion he was quite an expensive drunk.
I saw this recipe on the Hershey's site, but haven't tried it. I'm thinking it could not possibly be anything but wonderful.
Recipe:
28 hersheys milk chocolate kisses
10 caramel filled or other type filled kisses
2 T. plus 2 t. whipping cream
1 cup ground nuts or some other covering that goes well with the type filled kiss you are using
Put the 28 kisses in microwave safe bowl with cream and nuke for 1 minute. Stir and continue to heat in 15 second bursts as needed. Cover and refriderate for 4-6 hours, or until firm.
Use 1 T. chocolate mixture to completely cover filled kiss, gently rolling to form a ball without mashing the filled kiss out of shape.
Roll in ground nuts or whatever coating goes well with the filled kiss you chose.
Refrigerate until firm, but remove from frige 5 minutes before serving for better flavor.
Sounds yummy to me. If you make them, please let me know how they turned out.
Actually, he and some of his family members have a warped sense of humor when it comes to choosing cards. They spend more time picking out the perfect insulting card than I do a pair of shoes. He always picked out David's Valentine card, but one year he was out of town, and I did it. David opened the sweet card I had bought and asked if his dad was mad with him. It seems he thought his dad hadn't cared enough to spend the time to look for the truly obnoxious.
We didn't have special Valentines Day plans tonight. Del had oral surgery yesterday to remove a tooth and the impacted wisdom tooth under it. They hadn't wanted to remove it back in the olden days, but the time had come. The wisdom tooth left a small hole in his sinuses, so he now is the only one in the family who has had a collegen (sp?) injection. The menu for this evening was mashed potatoes with gravy. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, and lunch was macaroni and cheese and yogurt.
He has done quite well, although when we were trying to wake him up he kept talking about Boy Scouts on bikes who were trying to help senior citizens cross the street and telling the nurse he was a cheap drunk. She assured him that on this particular occasion he was quite an expensive drunk.
I saw this recipe on the Hershey's site, but haven't tried it. I'm thinking it could not possibly be anything but wonderful.
Recipe:
28 hersheys milk chocolate kisses
10 caramel filled or other type filled kisses
2 T. plus 2 t. whipping cream
1 cup ground nuts or some other covering that goes well with the type filled kiss you are using
Put the 28 kisses in microwave safe bowl with cream and nuke for 1 minute. Stir and continue to heat in 15 second bursts as needed. Cover and refriderate for 4-6 hours, or until firm.
Use 1 T. chocolate mixture to completely cover filled kiss, gently rolling to form a ball without mashing the filled kiss out of shape.
Roll in ground nuts or whatever coating goes well with the filled kiss you chose.
Refrigerate until firm, but remove from frige 5 minutes before serving for better flavor.
Sounds yummy to me. If you make them, please let me know how they turned out.
Friday, February 10, 2012
The Wine of the South
I recently read or heard, I can't remember which, that sweet tea is the "wine of the south." Tea certainly flowed in our Southern Baptist home. When I say tea, I mean ice tea (without the /d/), because in our house, that really went without saying, 2 meals a day 12 months a year. Hot tea was, and except for Chinese tea, pretty much still is, associated in my mind with colds and sore throats.
The first time I recall being regularly offered a choice of coffee or hot tea was when Del was in the Army, and I had to attend the "ladies" events. We wives were even given a little etiquette book that among other things, spelled out who would pour the tea and coffee for the first five or so minutes of the party. It was considered an honor, believe it or not. The wife of the highest ranking officer was given the honor of pouring one, and the wife of the second highest ranking officer poured the other. I wish I still had the book, because it really was a hoot, and because I don't recall whether tea out ranks coffee or coffee out ranks tea. After the first few minutes, others at the party took turns pouring. I always crossed my fingers that I would not be chosen, being left handed as I am. The tea party habit continued to some extent while we were at Washington and Lee in Lexington, Va., but not much after that.
Until I started hanging around with the Williams family, I don't think I was aware that there are two strong schools of thought about what one means when one says "tea." In my family, it meant unsweetened tea, with sugar available for those who preferred it and lemon if we had company. Daddy put sugar in his, but neither Mother or I did. I can't remember about Bubba. I assumed that everybody made it that way, but have learned recently that some of my childhood friends in Emporia grew up with sweet tea.
Mrs. Williams made sweet tea. My memory is that she always used the same pitcher and had a special large spoon she used to measure 3 heaping spoons of sugar into the hot tea. The family had quite a shock one night when I made the tea with 3 of the big spoons of salt insead of sugar. Keeping salt in a canister that matched all the others was not something I had ever seen before, never mind that it was clearly labeled.
I thought her tea was pretty sweet until I met the Georgia relatives' tea. One aunt made it so sweet that I swear I could feel grains between my teeth.
I don't remember the preferences of other family members on either side at this point, but I make it plain, and David and I always drink unsweet - I with lemon and he without. Del drinks it unsweet with lemon at home, because "it isn't the same when you stir sugar into cold tea", and happily drinks sweet with lemon when we are out. Tracy doesn't drink tea, but her mother makes sweet tea most of the time, I think.
Del will drink tea anywhere, but I am an ice tea snob and firmly believe that with almost no exceptions, Chic-fila being one, restaurants above the Mason Dixon Line just can't make ice tea fit to drink. An excellent reason to stick to wine, if you ask me.
Ice Tea Recipe
6-8 tea bags (Mother usually used Luzianne or Lipton)
4 cups hot water
4 cups cold water
Bring 4 cups of water to boil, add tea bags, remove from heat
Let steep 10 minutes only, remove bags
Pour cold water into pitcher, so pitcher won't break
Pour in the hot tea solution
Serve over ice cubes
Sweet tea
(a guess, based on the size of Mrs. Williams' big spoon)
6-8 tea bags
4 cups hot water
4 cups cold water
Bring 4 cups water to boil.
Add tea bags, remove from heat
Let steep 10 minutes, remove bags
Add 3/4 to 1 cup sugar and stir until sugar dissolves.
Pour cold water into pitcher. AAdd hot mixture.
Serve over ice cubes.
Sun tea
It got to be quite the thing to make sun tea when I was a teenager. Mother used to put a covered pitcher out on the picnic table where the tea would steep to desired color. While none of us ever got sick from drinking it, the food people now tell us that sun tea is risky because tea leaves may carry bacteria that would not be killed by this method. It really is a wonder we all lived to grow up, don't you think?
Hot tea
I just dunk a bag into a cup of hot water. Friend Sandy, a tea drinker, has experienced my attempt to make a pot of hot tea. My heart was in the right place, but, bless my heart, that's all you could say about it.
The first time I recall being regularly offered a choice of coffee or hot tea was when Del was in the Army, and I had to attend the "ladies" events. We wives were even given a little etiquette book that among other things, spelled out who would pour the tea and coffee for the first five or so minutes of the party. It was considered an honor, believe it or not. The wife of the highest ranking officer was given the honor of pouring one, and the wife of the second highest ranking officer poured the other. I wish I still had the book, because it really was a hoot, and because I don't recall whether tea out ranks coffee or coffee out ranks tea. After the first few minutes, others at the party took turns pouring. I always crossed my fingers that I would not be chosen, being left handed as I am. The tea party habit continued to some extent while we were at Washington and Lee in Lexington, Va., but not much after that.
Until I started hanging around with the Williams family, I don't think I was aware that there are two strong schools of thought about what one means when one says "tea." In my family, it meant unsweetened tea, with sugar available for those who preferred it and lemon if we had company. Daddy put sugar in his, but neither Mother or I did. I can't remember about Bubba. I assumed that everybody made it that way, but have learned recently that some of my childhood friends in Emporia grew up with sweet tea.
Mrs. Williams made sweet tea. My memory is that she always used the same pitcher and had a special large spoon she used to measure 3 heaping spoons of sugar into the hot tea. The family had quite a shock one night when I made the tea with 3 of the big spoons of salt insead of sugar. Keeping salt in a canister that matched all the others was not something I had ever seen before, never mind that it was clearly labeled.
I thought her tea was pretty sweet until I met the Georgia relatives' tea. One aunt made it so sweet that I swear I could feel grains between my teeth.
I don't remember the preferences of other family members on either side at this point, but I make it plain, and David and I always drink unsweet - I with lemon and he without. Del drinks it unsweet with lemon at home, because "it isn't the same when you stir sugar into cold tea", and happily drinks sweet with lemon when we are out. Tracy doesn't drink tea, but her mother makes sweet tea most of the time, I think.
Del will drink tea anywhere, but I am an ice tea snob and firmly believe that with almost no exceptions, Chic-fila being one, restaurants above the Mason Dixon Line just can't make ice tea fit to drink. An excellent reason to stick to wine, if you ask me.
Ice Tea Recipe
6-8 tea bags (Mother usually used Luzianne or Lipton)
4 cups hot water
4 cups cold water
Bring 4 cups of water to boil, add tea bags, remove from heat
Let steep 10 minutes only, remove bags
Pour cold water into pitcher, so pitcher won't break
Pour in the hot tea solution
Serve over ice cubes
Sweet tea
(a guess, based on the size of Mrs. Williams' big spoon)
6-8 tea bags
4 cups hot water
4 cups cold water
Bring 4 cups water to boil.
Add tea bags, remove from heat
Let steep 10 minutes, remove bags
Add 3/4 to 1 cup sugar and stir until sugar dissolves.
Pour cold water into pitcher. AAdd hot mixture.
Serve over ice cubes.
Sun tea
It got to be quite the thing to make sun tea when I was a teenager. Mother used to put a covered pitcher out on the picnic table where the tea would steep to desired color. While none of us ever got sick from drinking it, the food people now tell us that sun tea is risky because tea leaves may carry bacteria that would not be killed by this method. It really is a wonder we all lived to grow up, don't you think?
Hot tea
I just dunk a bag into a cup of hot water. Friend Sandy, a tea drinker, has experienced my attempt to make a pot of hot tea. My heart was in the right place, but, bless my heart, that's all you could say about it.
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