After a wonderful homefried, homegrown fried chicken dinner with fixins' like turnips and turnip greens, baked beans and either skillet fried corn bread or hot homemade biscuits, we would then laze on the porch and play cards or guitars and harmincas awaiting our next homegrown meal - super and it's tasty delights. Yes, I admit my family lived for food and yes, we have even planned vacations around what food we could either take and make or what we could feast on at our favorite restaurants.
Our tastebuds were treated to vacations with every visit to grams kitchen, that is until her tastebuds started to go. As I said before she did not use conventional methods to measure things. It was a handful of this and a pinch of that. So you had to pay close attention not only to her handfuls and pinches, but to the taste and ingredients in order to replicate her recipes. She did write some of her delightful recipes down and we are very grateful to have them.
Despite the fact that I was the laziest cousin in the family, I evidently spent more time than I realized paying attention from under the table as I put olives on each fingertip. It appears I am the one in the family that got the cooking gene from Gram and I believe my niece Lani and her cousin (my daughter) Jules and my son Justin both have been bitten by the chef/cooker bug as well. Although Justins wife Tami so loves to cook she does most of it in their home these days.
One of my mothers favorites meals was Sunday super and my grandmothers famous Hot Corn Fritters with loads of warm Apricot Syrup. There is no doubt that my gram was the best cook with my mothers sister Margaret (Aunt Maggie to me)takig a close second.I knew Gram and could fry chicken in her sleep and, I often wondered if she ever dreamt about any of those chickens necks she wrung to feed her family. But I remind myself that farmers had animals for one of two reasons,to eat or to work.
Two of my favorite dishes of Grams were her hot boysenberry cobbler with grandpa's home made ice cream churned by hand and her tarts. My real favorite(and I have yet to make them for my grandkids and MUST), were her boysenberry tarts. They were made from leftover pie crust and Grams wonderful preserves. You can make it from any kind of preserve or fresh fruit and grams pie crusts, which I still cannot accomplish though I have almost died trying.
On reading this to Tutu(my mother), she is saying another of her favorites of Gram's deserts was Apricot Fried Pie. I suspect it had a lot to do with the amount of time my mother spent picking and pitting fruits as a kid. Reaping the benefit of their juicy splender after spending her youth pitting fruit seasonally hour after hot summer sweaty hour for a lousy 6 cents a lug box, she deserved a reward!
Lug boxes are the shallower crates used for grapes and deciduous fruits (like apricots, peaches, plums, etc.) Quite a few pears were also packed in these smaller boxes, sometimes called L.A.Lugs.
Tutu says, "They had great fun, the boys spread a canvas tarp under the tree and shook the tree with a pole capturing the ripe fruit and the girls pitted the bouty hauled in by the boys. Laugter often encompassed the pitting sheds, as the boys brought the fruit in the lug boxes while girls would then pit as fast as they could. The girls were paid by the lug, she does not recall how much the boys were paid. I suspect it was in the smiles they received from the girls.
The pitted fruit would go onto a large tray which was hauled to a sulpher shed for smoking to rid the fruit of insects and disease. After which the fruit was spread out to dry in direct sunlight. What happened next she doesn't recall as her job was complete and her shopping would begin. "I was proud that I made enough money to buy my school clothes for the coming year", she said, "Except the horrible old lady shoes my mother made me buy which I had to try and hide under my skirt at dances."
Working for the right shed was important. If you could slip the pits you could make more money. Slipping a pit helped you increase speed, this was done by cutting around and then pushing the seed through the stem hole rather than all the way around and taking out the pit in a fluid motion. Slower workers had to take the fruit apart to get out the pit which meant fewer lugs were done by them and less money made. However, many sheds did not permit slipping because it tore the top of the fruit which made it's market value less. So slow or not you often had to cut and remove versus slip.
Each day after the work was done they cleaned up and went to the high schools baseball field to plY baseball. This informal league was made possible by the installation of lights on the field that were operated by inserting quarters into it. Realize that it took four lug boxes + one cent to turn the lights on, she doesn't remember how much time they got for their 25 cents, but it was worth every penny. Each shed had it's own team and compeated against other sheds making an informal baseball league. She says no competition went on between sheds as to who got the seasons harvest picked and pitted first, but the baseball league was completely anther story.
GRAMS CORN FRITTERS WITH APRICO SYRUP
CORN FRITTERS
3 cups oil for frying
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon shortening, melted
1 (12 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
Directions
1.Heat oil in a heavy pot or deep fryer to 365 degrees F (185 degrees C).
2.In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Beat together egg, milk, and melted shortening; stir into flour mixture. Mix in the corn kernels.
3.Drop fritter batter by spoonfuls into the hot oil, and fry until golden. Drain on paper towels.
APRICOT SYRUP
6 ounces Dried Apricots
¾ cup Sugar
1 slice Lemon
4 Whole Cloves
5 cups Cold Water
In a heavy saucepan, combine the apricots with the sugar, lemon, cloves, and the water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until the apricots are very soft, 1 to 1 1/4 hrs. 2. Discard the lemon slice and cloves and puree the mixture in a blender or food processor. Makes about 2 cups. Note: If the syrup has boiled rapidly and become too thick for your taste, add about 1/3 cup of cold water and bring the syrup again to a boil. This is a thick syrup, however, so avoid adding too much water.
Lets Cook with Viola Brown
I had taken my dauthers 10 year old son Nico to see "Julie and Julia" last summer and she recently rented the movie. Nico told his mom that Lala would love that cook book, and I am now the proud owner.
Nico loved the movie, which surprised me. We had spent the summer going to all the movies he wanted to see and I told him finally after about ten kids movies it was my turn to choose. So reluctantly, very reluctantly he went with me to see Julie and Julia. He laughed out loud several times at Meryl Streep's authentic portrayal of Julia Child. She totally caputed the comedy of Julia. He liked the movie, but was disinclined to start a blog himself. I suggested he write about 365 days of Pizza. Not just your ordinary pepperoni, the only kind he will eat, but Egg Benedict pizza grilled, or Chicken Alfredo Pizza (yummy white sauce), or dessert pizza with an Oreo cookie crust. All the idea made him want to do was order Domino's...
I decided yesterday (Christmas Day 2009) when I opened this gift, that I too would cook my way through Julia's book. As I began reading it this morning I realized there was something missing from today's cook and even perhaps from Julia's. Now I am not criticizing her book or her value and example. She brought French and Gourmet cooking to us, both of which appeal to my culinary sense and taste buds. But now with Pacific Rim, Fusion and the Food Channel we are all into food presentation as well as taste, and freshness. All good but shouldn't we be able to enjoy, in moderation and on occasion, some of the good old country cooking I grew up on. You know chicken and dumplings, where the chicken is browned in bacon grease. I know, I know, hearts are palpitating at the thought of heart attack on a plate supers, but my grandmother lived to be 96 years old and never owned a range where there wasn't a can of bacon grease decorating it's stove top.
Viola Brown or Grammy to me was a dirt poor chicken farmers wife. She had five children to feed as well and nothing...I mean NOTHING was ever wasted. She had recipes and used them but she knew her recipes so well that she didn't have to use them to fix a meal. And just because something called for carrots didn't mean she couldn't add broccoli too if she was so inclined or had it left over from Sunday super.
She was so known for her cooking that my mother often joked that my father married my mother for her mothers chicken and dumplings. The truth is Grammy drove him nuts, but he did love those chicken and dumplings.
As a child and a young woman I was exposed to the never waste a thing cooking mentality of the lower income families of the 1950's. It is not to say that julia or anyone who ate prime rib or porterhouse steaks for Sunday super would waste food. I am sure they didn't either, most had lived through the depression and knew better. But, as I continue to read Julia's book I realize just how poor my grandparents were. Aspic salads would be something the man my grandfather worked for family would serve. Grammy did not have luncheons, or even attend one unless it was a church social but, she knew how to feed her family and then eventually their families.
Calories were never lacking and every meal included home made bread or biscuits and butter. And bones were cooked down until every single spot of meat had escaped.
Julie talked in her blog about how long it took Julia to fix meals. This Christmas I did what every good cook that is not a baker should do at least once. I made cookies and candy. My grandmother was both a cook and a baker and if baking weren't so tedious I might be more inclined to whip up some sugary delights or high carb breads more often. As I was making pinwheel cookies and chopping (finely chopping) 3 cups of pecans I realized I could put them in one of my handy machines and do them in a heart beat. My tireless brain reflected on the fact that Grammy not only chopped her nuts by hand, she had to shell them, discard the shells and most likely picked them off the tree.
Even the landscape had a food value no Feng shui clipped decorative trees could be found in the front of their farm house. She had walnut, pecan, pomegranate, apple and apricot tree's, a full vegetable garden and even grape and berry vines.
So yesterday when my daughter was saying how GREAT her Christmas Eve dinner came out, I realized something. She has become a fantastic cook but, today's young woman knows nothing of two generations back, where recipes were just the beginning of a good dish. Where imagination, ingenuity and left overs were the heart of the meal.
Julia Child opened doors to my mothers generation about French and Gourmet cooking, but how will my daughter and her children ever know about grammy's cooking if I don't share what I learned. And learn I did, although it took sometime for this girl who was known to burn water.
So I decided to add a twist to my exploration of Julia's book. Not a "Betty Crocker", or a Julia Childs French cooking" blog, but more like a "Viola on the Prairie", recipe blog that will have some things in common with Julia's recipes.
This blog will tell you Grammy's answer to each of Julia's recipes - a poor man's style of food serving from the farms around the 1950's Food I grew up eating. At least as I would interpret them based on the experience I gained from the best cook I ever knew, Viola Brown. Lets see how far I get!
Nico loved the movie, which surprised me. We had spent the summer going to all the movies he wanted to see and I told him finally after about ten kids movies it was my turn to choose. So reluctantly, very reluctantly he went with me to see Julie and Julia. He laughed out loud several times at Meryl Streep's authentic portrayal of Julia Child. She totally caputed the comedy of Julia. He liked the movie, but was disinclined to start a blog himself. I suggested he write about 365 days of Pizza. Not just your ordinary pepperoni, the only kind he will eat, but Egg Benedict pizza grilled, or Chicken Alfredo Pizza (yummy white sauce), or dessert pizza with an Oreo cookie crust. All the idea made him want to do was order Domino's...
I decided yesterday (Christmas Day 2009) when I opened this gift, that I too would cook my way through Julia's book. As I began reading it this morning I realized there was something missing from today's cook and even perhaps from Julia's. Now I am not criticizing her book or her value and example. She brought French and Gourmet cooking to us, both of which appeal to my culinary sense and taste buds. But now with Pacific Rim, Fusion and the Food Channel we are all into food presentation as well as taste, and freshness. All good but shouldn't we be able to enjoy, in moderation and on occasion, some of the good old country cooking I grew up on. You know chicken and dumplings, where the chicken is browned in bacon grease. I know, I know, hearts are palpitating at the thought of heart attack on a plate supers, but my grandmother lived to be 96 years old and never owned a range where there wasn't a can of bacon grease decorating it's stove top.
Viola Brown or Grammy to me was a dirt poor chicken farmers wife. She had five children to feed as well and nothing...I mean NOTHING was ever wasted. She had recipes and used them but she knew her recipes so well that she didn't have to use them to fix a meal. And just because something called for carrots didn't mean she couldn't add broccoli too if she was so inclined or had it left over from Sunday super.
She was so known for her cooking that my mother often joked that my father married my mother for her mothers chicken and dumplings. The truth is Grammy drove him nuts, but he did love those chicken and dumplings.
As a child and a young woman I was exposed to the never waste a thing cooking mentality of the lower income families of the 1950's. It is not to say that julia or anyone who ate prime rib or porterhouse steaks for Sunday super would waste food. I am sure they didn't either, most had lived through the depression and knew better. But, as I continue to read Julia's book I realize just how poor my grandparents were. Aspic salads would be something the man my grandfather worked for family would serve. Grammy did not have luncheons, or even attend one unless it was a church social but, she knew how to feed her family and then eventually their families.
Calories were never lacking and every meal included home made bread or biscuits and butter. And bones were cooked down until every single spot of meat had escaped.
Julie talked in her blog about how long it took Julia to fix meals. This Christmas I did what every good cook that is not a baker should do at least once. I made cookies and candy. My grandmother was both a cook and a baker and if baking weren't so tedious I might be more inclined to whip up some sugary delights or high carb breads more often. As I was making pinwheel cookies and chopping (finely chopping) 3 cups of pecans I realized I could put them in one of my handy machines and do them in a heart beat. My tireless brain reflected on the fact that Grammy not only chopped her nuts by hand, she had to shell them, discard the shells and most likely picked them off the tree.
Even the landscape had a food value no Feng shui clipped decorative trees could be found in the front of their farm house. She had walnut, pecan, pomegranate, apple and apricot tree's, a full vegetable garden and even grape and berry vines.
So yesterday when my daughter was saying how GREAT her Christmas Eve dinner came out, I realized something. She has become a fantastic cook but, today's young woman knows nothing of two generations back, where recipes were just the beginning of a good dish. Where imagination, ingenuity and left overs were the heart of the meal.
Julia Child opened doors to my mothers generation about French and Gourmet cooking, but how will my daughter and her children ever know about grammy's cooking if I don't share what I learned. And learn I did, although it took sometime for this girl who was known to burn water.
So I decided to add a twist to my exploration of Julia's book. Not a "Betty Crocker", or a Julia Childs French cooking" blog, but more like a "Viola on the Prairie", recipe blog that will have some things in common with Julia's recipes.
This blog will tell you Grammy's answer to each of Julia's recipes - a poor man's style of food serving from the farms around the 1950's Food I grew up eating. At least as I would interpret them based on the experience I gained from the best cook I ever knew, Viola Brown. Lets see how far I get!
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
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