non-member submission - Re: SC - Cider Sauce Experiments

[Michael F. Gunter]

> And then, of course, there are the cuisines from the Southeast, which usually
> don't get a whole lot of play anywhere, except possibly in the Southeast!
> Southern cooking is usually the result of a marriage of African cookery and
> European, mostly British.  Then they added in the foods that they found available
> in the New World.  A lot of what is called Soul Food is southern cooking...at
> least what I grew up with!  However, contrary to popular opinion, it doesn't
> consist mostly of veggies that are overcooked with fatback!  A lot of what you'd
> find in Martha Washington's Cookery Book is typical of Colonial southern
> cooking...and what we know today grew out of that.
>
> Kiri

I got a good example of Southern cooking this weekend. My Mother died last
Friday and I've been in Oklahoma making the arrangements and such all week.
Well, my mother's side of the family are "Cotton Patch Okies", meaning they
grew up as sharecroppers and cotton pickers along with the negro folks. And
the food I grew up with could be considered "Soul Food" by some.
To keep occupied I spent a lot of time in the kitchen cooking and cleaning. The
friends of the family brought food, as I'm sure is done by just about every
human culture, and I got reminded of my childhood dishes. Lots of sweet potato
casseroles, fried chicken, home canned green beans, beets, hot peppers. Ham
steaks, potato casserole, peach pie. I cooked up a meal of pinto beans, cornbread,
ham steak and fried potatoes & onions as one of the meals I grew up with.  It was
definately a trip back in time for me.

Needless to say that my good diet and eating schedule were wrecked. Now it's
time to hit the gym.

Gunthar