5@5 is a daily, food-related list from chefs, writers, political pundits, musicians, actors, and all manner of opinionated people from around the globe.
Break out the lard, buttermilk and White Lily flour - today's 5@5 is a little chicken fried.
Kendra Bailey Morris is the author of "White Trash Gatherings: From-Scratch Cooking for Down-Home Entertaining." She also writes a weekly food and recipe column, "The Accidental Chef," for The Richmond Times Dispatch as well as maintain a sassy blog, appropriately named, "Fatback and Foie Gras."
If y'all ever wanted to cook like a southern granny, better listen up. Get ready to put some south in your mouth.
Five Kitchen Must-Have’s For Down-Home Country Cookin': Kendra Bailey Morris
1. Fat Drippings
"When it comes to true country cooking, nothing goes to waste. My people hail from the Appalachian mountains of West Virginia where preservation rules the roost (along with my granny), and sitting right next her oven, always within arm’s reach, is a vat of various meat drippings. Mostly consisting of bacon and/or breakfast sausage renderings, this container of deliciousness serves as the nectar of saturated fat that flavors her cornbread, corn cakes, greens, gravy, sautéed onions, hash browns, cabbage, even fried apples and pie crusts. You wanna know what makes country cooking so darned tasty? Meat grease, that’s what."
2. Gelatin
"Gelatin has a special place in the hearts of country cooks, and I’m not just talking dessert. While gelatin or Jell-O is a well-known addition to any potluck table full of sweets, its finest incarnation can often be found right alongside the meat and three. Otherwise known as 'congealed' or 'molded' salad, true country-fried cooks treat the gelatin concoction (which often borders on the artistically spectacular) as simply another side dish designed to be enjoyed with brown beans, corn bread and collards. Often filled with an array of (ahem) interesting ingredients, from pretzels and pineapple to cream cheese and pimentos, the Jell-O salad is its own brand of suspended, gelatinous art that deserves a sacred spot on your next dinner table."
3. Buttermilk
"I think buttermilk gets a bad rap. In fact, some fear this soured milk (which is actually the remains from churned butter) much in the same way they do venomous spiders or vengeful poltergeists. Sure, it’s piquant stuff, and you better be prepared to pucker up when drinking it straight, but it’s also integral to country cooking and baking. Buttermilk biscuits, buttermilk fried chicken, dressings, soups, cakes of all types (black walnut, chocolate, pound) as well as pies and ice cream, all get their unique twang from the addition of pure buttermilk. Note: If you want to enjoy buttermilk in one of its most unadulterated and classically Southern forms, pour some in a tall glass filled with crumbled, day-old cornbread and dig in with a spoon."
4. Cider Vinegar as the Ultimate Home Remedy
"My first foray into the joys of cider vinegar was as a young girl. I had twisted my ankle. It was just starting to swell when my mom tore a brown paper bag into strips and submerged them in cider vinegar. She then laid the vinegar-soaked papers across my ankle until they dried. Can’t say the aroma was enticing (it’s stifling actually), but my ankle sure felt better and the swelling had gone down considerably. Cider vinegar, while essential for pickling, slaw-making, and topping all kinds of greens, is also quite the home remedy. From sore throats and acid reflux to jellyfish stings and head lice, cider vinegar is a folk-remedy cure-all for just about anything that ails you."
5. Cast Iron Anything
"This one goes without saying. Country cooks revere cast-iron almost as much as they do fatback. Brown beans, Brunswick Stew, even fall-apart braised pork barbecue taste best when simmered in a Dutch oven (a.k.a. 'that old black pot'). Cornbread, biscuits, sausage gravy, hoe cakes, fried chicken and catfish get their crispy goodness from a cast iron skillet. Fried apple pies, or 'half moon pies' as some people call them, have a crust like no other when they’re pan-seared in shortening in a shallow skillet, and my dad swears by his cornmeal fried oysters, which he cooks exclusively in a cast-iron deep fryer."
Got another southern staple for down-home cooking? Boot scoot on over to the comment section.
Is there someone you'd like to see in the hot seat? Let us know in the comments below and if we agree, we'll do our best to chase 'em down.
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I agree with ^^^
Awesome
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I am an ominvore, my ancestors were omnivores – that means they ate anything they could catch or that they could gather that didn't poison them. But they also exercisec a lot. Eat everything that doesn't make you sick – in moderation and get off your tails and move a littl;e.
Southern cooking with all of it's country-fried batter, mason jars full of rancid old pan drippings, greasy cuts of meat and fat-based, peppered sauces will give you a textbook case of GERD just before your Total Coronary Occlusion. Go to any Southern Country restaurant, there will not be a piece of raw fruit, broiled fish or a decanter of olive oil in sight. They don't call it the stroke belt for nothing. Yuck.
Anyone remember those little silver colored tins from Sear's that hold bacon drippings? You'd put them on the back of your stove and then use the bacon fat to cook with or to flavor? Gross!!!!
Good grief, y'all. This is so simple. Look at your teeth in a mirror. Now go on the web and look at the teeth of a cow, a tiger, and pig. Which do yours resemble? You're an omnivore. Eat a mix of foods, get some exercise, you'll be fine.
I see she mentioned buttermilk, but did not mention cornbread or biscuits(catheads) made with buttermilk, guess she uses a cornbread mix and them whopem biscuits, sheesh. drag a cathead buttermilk biscuit thru some real cane syrup(surp) with cowsalve butter mixed in it, then write ya another article
nothing against veggies, make great side dishes with beef, chicken,pork and fish. With a cholesterol number of 119, 68 years old and eat pork and eggs (3), every morning and some kind of meat at every meal, I'm in good health, but I don't sit on my backside, I still work on my farm daily except for Sunday which I give to my Lord. Momma lived to 98, and finally died but it was not meat that did her in. She outlived 4 doctors who told her to get off meat. People stop using that microwave and plastic, that will kill ya.
People Who Eat Steamed Carrots Die! Always! Steamed Carrots are Killers!
Eat More of Grandma's Fired Chicken, Collards and/or Mustard Greens w/Bacon Fat for seasoning. Eat this along with Corn Bread and Green Onions and live to be 91 like my mom or 93 like my grandma or 99 like my grand pa. They enjoyed what they ate everyday and worked hard everyday.
People Who eat Carrots DIE! Ditto Tofu!
The thing is that all those people cooked..They did not order out every day like most people do they stayed home watched there children and cooked for them..and there family .
Eggs fried in anything other than bacon grease don't taste good. There should be enough grease in the pan to splash over the top of the eggs for a good sunny side up. Turned out of the pan onto grits swimming in sweet cream butter and served with thick sliced bacon or boudin.
If she's from West Virginia, technically speaking, that's above the Mason – Dixon Line. Not a "southern" girl.
Actually @PickyPete, you're only right if she's from Hancock, Brooke, Ohio, or Marshall counties. The other 51 counties in the state are all south of the Mason-Dixon...
Hmmmm.....doesn't sound like the "fabulous 5" to me and I'm for Georgia (pronounced "Jaw-ja) Jello? No! Bacon drippings, stone ground corn meal, ham hocks, lard, and fat back. As far as the recipes are concerned, it's mac and cheese (from scratch), fried chicken or pork chops, pinto's and cornbread, collard greens etc. And usually banana pudding or a cobbler for dessert, (or maybe a churn of homemade ice cream) There is also just plain white rice or slaw on the table too, along with sliced tomatoes and cucumbers and maybe a hot pepper or two. This girl needs to come down to "Jawja" so we can show her what good ole' country cookin' (soul food) is all about ;-)
Jello as country cooking? Not here. What is missing is a big old glass of sweet iced tea. Country cooking where I hail from starts with red beans and fried potatoes, other than breakfast the meal is built around that foundation. Really jello? How about a peach or blackberry cobbler?
How dear you Southern whites insult the way of cooking taught to your forefather and mothers by the Black people. As you noticed, I did not refer to them as slaves. Please do not call it white trash cooking! Its called comfort food, OK! Thats a West African way of cooking with iron pots, fats or palm oil.
By the way, did you know most white trash are descendanted from BLACKS? Thats right! They are the mixed race blacks, who hated being black and turned around with the hood over their heads. Example look at Jenny Sanford,and Delta Burke and many more, they look very Black. I am quiet sure that they would say am Native, yeah right.
I am 78 years of age was born and raised in the country and let me tell you when I was a youngster to go squirrel hunting and come home with three or four squirrels, skin them little boogers, roll them in flour and fry them real crispy like , cream some red potatos, make some brown gravey with the leftover grease to go over the mashed potatos, slap a pan of homemade biscuits in the oven, pour a big glass of iced tea, drag a chair up and enjoy a real southern treat. By the way forgot to mention, fresh strawberry or blackberry jam and butter to top it all off. Now , to me , that is living the good life.
Its not the food thats killing ppl. after reading these comments and having my own experiences with food its the lifestyle. Think about it. Lets take a time travel trip... When ppl in the South (poor ppl in particular) made their food. They ate the Greens, Chitlins (sry if i misspelled that) and even more recently what we have come to love the mashed potatoes w gravy, the country fried steak, the bacon the eggs the cornmeal and everything in between. Were these ppl fat then? No. Homemade (key word homemade) food is the best for you especially when the vegis are homegrown and the stock right there on the farm.
The only trouble we are running into with food is the processed fake stuff. The stuff in boxes, the fast foods and then recently all the same fake stuff but with the "healthier" labels. Like the salads at wendy's or McDs. Plus in a generalization this Country has become so overwhelmingly lazy. Video games, tv, too much sleep and the laziness has even seeped into the FDA approved foods. I went to buy non frozen chicken thighs the other day and i noticed how much salt was in just that alone. 50%.... And considering i don't own a farm and Organic is waaaaaaaaay over priced what i do is rinse off the meat and don't add any more salt. Salt is a preservative and a little salt is good but wow 50% in 1 serving. The chicken still came out just as tasty as i had made it before especially if i baste it in it's own drippings and fat. And its less harsh on my sensitive stomach than a bag of Baked Chips.
When my parents split My mother was poor and couldn't afford good food. We would eat chicken nuggets (which back then they were like 4 bucks a bag.) Country fried chicken mashed potatoes pasta salad and so much more. I was healthy and way more active. We didn't have cable, nor any games so i was outside a lot. When i moved in with my dad we ate "healthy" foods. Granted it was all sooo delicious and i have taken some of those recipies and use em for my kids now however i gained weight living with my dad. Why? Because i stopped moving around. He had video games, cable and absolutely no back yard to be in.
Today I eat all kinds of food whether they are healthy or "so called unhealthy" like Southern food is falsely accused of. but the difference? I move around now. I have lost much weight just by doing this and the watching portions thing is just dumb. I eat what i want and when i want although i do watch out for fast food and boxed foods. I take my vitamins, getting deeper into the exercising watching less TV and games. I have lost more weight doing this then i have ever before in my past.
Man you'll made me hungry for a pan of fired okra , squash and fired ham slice with cornbread , butter-milk .
Are RED eye grave and french frays and cornbread .
Top it all with HOT apple pie with home peach Ice-cream .
93 yr young dad and 90 yr young mother
Maybe I missed it but no one has mentioned Velveeta, real "may-nase" or corn cut off the cob, fried in bacon fat with butter and cream added, and fried apple pies. Cornbread in buttermilk also requires a lot of black pepper. Don't forget the store-bought treats like "light bread", Moon Pies and RC Cola and the neon pink Peanut Patties. Dad ate those with saltines to cut the sugar.My folks were from Texas but I grew up in California from age 9 and ate everything that grew from asparagus to zucchini. Mom cooked in cast iron on Saturday all our southern favorites. On Sunday we ate left-over fried chicken, cornbread, greens, beans, potato salad, macaroni and cheese, biscuits, congealed salads and pies. Mom did not cook on Sunday because it was the Lord's day of rest. She lived to 88 and Dad until 85.
Ok, Shari, I want to come to your house. Fried apple pies were something really special to us. Every once and while, my granny would fry them for breakfast, then sprinkle them with powdered sugar while still hot. Amazing. And, my daddy used to have cornbread and milk nearly every night. Such good, simple food.
I only eat bacon made from pigs that were fed bacon. Organic, of course.
My mother's great-grandmother came from France with her sister's before the turn of the century and settled in New Orleans,LA. Later in life when I came along and being the first of the grandchildren, family recipes and how they were prepared were taught to me from by grandmother. She made everything from fresh pork sausages, to Italian ravioli and everything in between. As time marched along and I came to the age of 10, I remember her saying that duck fat was the best for cooking. Now I am in my later years and having used olive oil along with duck fat most of my life for cooking. I say try Duck fat for those you that want to add something good for your heart along with a well balanced diet.
A retired US Army veteran from NorCal
I'm late to the party here, but I have to add:
Check out the Omega 6 content of the "healthy" vegetable oils that are used today against the Omega 6/Omega 3 content in meat grease and fats. Also, meat fats have vitamins A,D,E and K in them, vegetable oils do not (unless added).
Your grandmother was right all along (and the FDA is WRONG)
Never too late, Jay. My granny, who KNOWS she is always right, ha, just turned 99 years old on a diet incorporating plenty of natural fats and grease :)
Kendra
slamming. been eating southern food all summer.
yum. bacon grease. My grandmother used to serve it poured over wilted lettuce!
with maybe just a little onion?
I have to say I am think enjoying everything in moderation is the ticket to health, happiness and balanced well being. I've lived in the south my whole life and can honestly say I don't think the term white trash is being applied to anyone these days. I would also say that the title of that cook book is old. I know that because I have the original that was published well before this writer was probably even born. I am guessing the title is used sarcastically, but would say don't let the title or the cheap paper back cover fool you. I have cooked several recipes from it and they go over well with our family. Southern is a way of life, it is a tradition to eat fatback in your Lima beans etc. This doesn't have to be an all or nothing. Let's eat southern with a side of healthy veggies and we will all be better off. As for the fat argument of course if your over weight you shouldn't load up on grease and fat but if you exercise, eat a balanced diet 90 percent of the time then the occasional indulgence should be ok. Over all though I have to say if you just want a taste of the old rich fatty foods that our grandparents grew up on, there is not a better book the white trash gatherings (the original and the new version).
You Go Girl ! I was born and raised in east Tennessee. My mothers family lived off the land and raised all their meats i.e chicken, pork, beef, all their vegetables. The only thing they had to buy was flour, sugar and spices.They burned off all that fat because they actually WORKED in the fields, something most of us have forgotten how to do. If you are a vegeterian to keep your weight in control, that is because you are a slob. Some of the fattest, unhealthy people I have known were vegetarian because they
think they can over indulge and gorge because it is not meat.
Guess what ? There is more fat in vegetables than in any meat, that ifs prepared correctly.
I agree 100% with the cast iron. But the fat dripping sounds horrific, and very unhealthy.Why would I eat last week's fat drips? As for the gellatin..yucks, it's artificial and lame. My Grandmother used to boil natural, delicious jelly by adding apple seeds to the fruit concoct.Nobody does that today anymore....
Oh no, now you are going to catch death from some people just because you shared your opinion on how gross back fat is. People can't stand it when someone doesn't agree with 100% of what they say. Careful or skinnybitch is going to come and get ya!
It's really quite sad to see adults bickering like children and typing like morons.
One person says something about eating vegetables and everyone immediately starts to call them a tree-hugger and then you start arguing about Northerners and Southerners, and 'country-folk' and 'city-goers'. Just shut up and actually comment on the article.
I'm seventeen and I'm not nearly as childish. Way to set an example for the youth of today, CNN commenters.
Anyway, I definitely agree on the buttermilk, haha. I keep looking up recipes and finding buttermilk on the ingredients and then thinking, 'Why don't I just buy some already?' It's definitely a useful ingredient (although, I can't say I would enjoy it with corn bread stuffed in it; but, to each his own).
I confess to liking tomato aspic, which is made from tomato juice, congealed chicken stock and–if the stock isn't firm enough–gelatin. I don't do pigs anymore, but buttermilk is a staple in our house. And I adore cast iron. I'll be doing a Lodge cast iron giveaway over there - http://ozarkhomesteader.wordpress.com/ - early this fall. Come on over for country cooking.
I usually enjoy these articles but this woman is slightly offensive and is causing trolling. I hope next week is better. :)
Trolling is good. People are reading more and starting good conversations even if people don't agree with others comments. The people like skinnybitch and some of the other comments here is that if they don't like something, they immediately attack. People can have a very negative response to this food author or a very positive one. Nobody is better or worse because of that opinion. We all have our opinions. I'm sure Kendra isn't offended by some of the people who say her pantry musts are fattening, bad or downright gross. Lighten up people. Oh, and please stop telling people to "get a life." If they are commenting here, it is obvious that they are alive and have a life. You might not agree with their life but they have one. Thank you.
@Joe, #50-I don't remember Jed Clampett ever eating anything cooked in "hor renderins"-I think that's against the law.
@Alex-obesity is a nationwide issue. It's simple. The reason we're becoming a nation of obese people is because it's easier and simpler to drive through McDonalds or Burger King or your fast-food chain of choice, than it is to cook at home. If you want to get down to the basics, it's calories in/calories out. Sure, some calories are better than others, but Southern cooking is based on fresh, whole foods. We just like them with a little bacon grease and flavor!
obesity has nothing to do with southern cooking. The low fat low cholesteral dogma is highly questionable. The truth is that obesity has nothing to do with too many calories in or seditary lifestyle. It has to do with exsessive carbs and constant high levels of insulin which turns it all into fat. So enjoy your bacon, and fresh grass fed butter and cut back on the corn syrups, sugars and flours and foods that are all manufactured to have a long shelf life, but when you eat them create a sickly short life. And no not an adkins diet, a if it doesn't need the sun to make it, don't eat it.
Good article. Buttermilk hasn't been the "the remains from churned butter" in quite some time, unless you happen to be Amish. These days, buttermilk is plain old cow juice fermented with lactic acid. I enjoyed seeing some of these "down home" ingredients getting their due, though. Cast iron rocks! Also, for the cityfied folk bashing "fat white trash" on here, bacon/pork fat is NOT a southern fat man's invention – ask the cooks in Southern Italy what they've been using to render onions and other aromatics for hundreds of years. People need to lighten up – truly good food is bad for you. That's a fact, jack. I cook with butter, bacon, and lard every week, and I am in great shape inside and out. With a solid exercise regimen and moderation in all things, I can (and do) eat whatever I want.
So some of you think if you eat this way you will die sooner, or if you eat nothing but vegetables you will live longer? My grandmother lived to be 105 and her sister is still alive, while my mother is 85 and ALL of them grew up on foods like the article states. Don't be an idiot! It's not just the foods you eat; attitude has a whole lot to do with health and from what I'm reading most of you will die young...
That's why we are becoming a nation of OBESE people. Especially, certain parts of the country where people just look flat out disgusting.
You began by talking about preserves. Let's have a whole article on preserves. My down home country cooking memories were based on canned everything. My mom and grandma canned everything in the summer and we ate on all kinds of vegetables and meats all winter. My fondest memories is on home canned tomatoes and tomato juice.
Let's talk about country preserves, and don't forget the jellies!
Embracing your family past culinary is a great foundation to build on. I have a booklet of my Grandmother's recipes (truth be told, they were Cooks recipes). I rarely use them but they remind me how food evolves. But, like Kendra, I have a jar of bacon grease in the fridge and my cast iron frying pan (Griswold, of course) just did us a local, grass fed rib eye 2" thick and finished off in the oven. I read her column in our Richmond paper, and she is a chef with depth , curiosity and talent. She respects her traditions but isn't trapped by them
OMG she's beautiful..................and a great cook..WHAT A COMBINATION!!!! I'm in LOVE!!!!!!!!!
For all of you with ignorant comments about the South and morbid obesity, please go GET A CLUE! I grew up in a country home, being raised by a grandmother that hailed from the South. She used nothing but bacon grease and REAL butter to cook, in Cast Iron everything. Milk, unpasteurized from the cow in the barn. She died at the age of 89, a very slender lady all of her life. My grandfather, who ate that cooking his whole life died at 83. People did not get fat from that type of cooking, because they worked their butts off, doing real manual labor. I did not start putting on weight until I left that country home and headed for San Francisco to go to college. So, it is YOUR lifestyle that is wrong. As you eat your stir fry from toxic teflon and water from PETE containers.
Bacon drippings in half runner beans...the only kind of green beans I'll eat. How about corn bread made in a cast iron skillet (that's the corn bread the author talks about in buttermilk). My parents did that...but I couldn't stomach the smell of buttermilk. And before you ask I do eat organic vegetables when I can get them, don't eat steak (but have to have a greasy burger on occasion. We don't eat every meal like our parents did.
A tablespoon of cider vinegar mixed into a large glass of water is what momma always made us drink before the church picnic. It prevents food poisoning and, as far as I can tell, has never failed us.
We love fresh veggies.... sauteed in bacon fat!!
How is it that a sweet Southern belle can raise such ire just by penning a post on meat grease? Sheesh.
First of all, to those who got personal, let me tell you a little story. Kendra and I have the same publisher, Ten Speed Press, and when my editor asked me to welcome to town a fellow 10 Speeder, you can imagine the images flitting about my imagination when I learned of the name of her book. Progressive as we all might think we are, the mind plays cheap tricks when it's trying to fill-in the blanks of expectation. Well, here came Kendra and her husband, both looking like they belonged on an LA movie set. Except it wasn't affectation or an orchestrated PR moment...it was just them showing up as who they are. They proceeded to sit down and chow down with their down-to-earth honest goodness. As an expert on manners, you'd think I'd know by now not to judge. These lessons sometimes take a while.
Over the years, I've come to know them as two of the most generous, sincere, warm and fabulous go-for-it people I've ever known. Doesn't eat?? You've obviously never met Kendra. If Lindsay Lohan could drink you under the table, I bet Kendra Bailey-Morris can eat you under the table.
Don't confuse Southern home-cookin with unhealthy food. We're not talking processed here. Kendra and I go to the same farmers markets and court many of the same sources (butcher, baker, fishmonger) for our vittles...so I can attest to the consciousness behind her cooking. She prepares it authentically and responsibly, and who can't stomach that?
Kendra and her husband run 10ks, so do I...in part so we don't have to miss out on lardo, a second helping of lemon chess pie, or a beautiful bottle of vintage Port. Americans don't need to switch to an all veggie, sticks-n-twigs diet to be lean and healthy. Watch Food Inc., google Alice Waters, read Mark Bittman and get literate with what goes on your plate. Thank goodness there are people like Kendra preserving the culture of Southern food, without compromise, but with a timeless-made-modern philosophy of cooking from the backyard, in season, with portions appropriate to a today's pushing-paper (not a plow) lifestyles.
In short, love her for her contributions to Southern cooking and quality food writing. Hate her if you must for the good fortune of a sublime gene pool, great bone structure, high metabolism, and a shapely derriere. Either way, it's as big a gaffe to mistake Kendra's trueness for a PR department concoction as it is to think that all Southern cooking is an anti-farm, health-quelling, obesity-inducing industry to be lumped in with fast food. Don't believe me, come to Richmond, VA for one of Kendra's down-home meals and see if you can keep up with the magic on her plate and the beauty behind it.
Brilliant and so true!
butter, butter and more butter plz
It is funny that in Bible times, they ate whatever they had....(a lot of meat) and lived to be hundreds of years old.....it isn't what you eat, it is how much.....Back they they worked harder also....
Honey Chile, God eats southern food exclusively cause it tastes so gooood. I grew up on a farm in North Florida and we ate the same things Kendra mentions in this article, including lots and lots of homegrown, fresh vegetables. Life was good.
I love to drink buttermilk,but I can see for some the smell could
turn off folks.The smell of broccoli and shrimp (boiled or steamed)
doesn't smell good,but Yummmmy!
I know meat grease is not good for you,but it sure flavors things
well.
I have recently lost 60#'s by going back to what I call Old School. I eat home grown Beef almost every day. Home grown pork as well. I cook my bacon then drop the eggs in the grease and cook them. My family of 5 goes through at least 2 1/2 dozen eggs about every week and 1/2. I use pure unsalted butter to saute fresh or frozen veggies. I grow my own or buy them organic when possible. If not Frozen is better than the old stuff laying on the produce shelf. We rarely eat bread but if we do it is whole wheat. I do get shrimp and fish from the market and occasionally by frozen. We drink nothing but water coffee tea and 100% juices. I feel better than I ever have. My wife also has dropped 28 pounds. at 5 foot 8 inches and 135 lbs I must say she is a looker. Our vitals? They are dead on perfect. My doc is totally impressed. So say what you will about meat, fat, organic, or homegrown.
America's Obesity issue does not come from the OLD fashion way of doing things It is a product of our obsession to do everything more conveniently. IE The fast food chains that make our lives so easy, are the same ones that will end us if we don't change!
My kids are learning the right way to eat and be healthy are yours?
Sadly, I don't have the room to raise my own livestock, but I have done what I can to eat more "Old School", it takes a LOT to change your food supply, to then change how you eat. So far, most boxed things are out, every container we do buy is read for its contents (there are some ingredients that mean we put it back on the shelf) then for their nutrients (comparing the contents, vitamins/minerals, protein, sodium, carbs, etc between brands – when possible). As to produce, fortunately there are several farmer's markets (and a few farms with signs out by the road) within a reasonable driving range. Soda was one of the hardest to quit, I quit smoking cold turkey and consider my weaning off soda to be far more difficult than shaking cigarettes. I have recently started making my own sausage (and to my delight, it cooks like hamburger – not like cheese spread or paste, like the store bought kind did). I have several more food supplies to "homebrew" or replace with natural sources, but how I feel vs. then, is TOTALLY worth it.
The Amish are some of the healthiest people, they do not have high cholesterol or a majority of the food related illnesses that most have. They eat the drippings and some very good food and it is well rounded. You have to go with what your body says you can tolerate and what you need to eat to enhance your health...for you alone. Everyone is different and that is what makes the rainbow.
Meats and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar = the key to wellness.
cornmeal
It's fine to eat this stuff occasionally (better than boxed, processed crap), just please do so in moderation, America.
Oh yeh, I will probably invoke a world of scorn and be ridiculed because I am from Seattle. "why are you people so full of hate?" Hate? How about health conscious?
I haven't heard one person on here that is saying how much they love "down home cooking" say that it should be eaten every day (or even every week). And if you think of it, most meals that someone who grew up with this cooking are going to remember are likely the big major production meals when family is gathering (and I believe many actually state this), such as family reunions, Thanksgiving and the holidays. What I have heard on here by the few, um vegetarian evangelists, is the normal "meat eaters are going to burn in (can you say that word here, or do you get censored)" spew that is as welcome and enjoyable as your pushy telemarketer or late night infomercial.
If you have Type 2 diabetes, cider vinegar is a great glucose stablizer. Cider vinegar, canola oil and some garlic and onion powder will make your green salad a pleasure to eat!
wow, meat drippings and horse hoofs! A slice of heaven a comment says. More like a ticket to the afterlife. Yeh, save those delicious bacon and sausage drippings, they make food sate great while your arteries thicken. I would love to see a heath report on the "down home" people who eat this way every day.
Keep factory farming those animals, even though it is an environmental nightmare and is not sustainable, that's the ticket. Personally, none of this makes me feel down home. It just makes me feel down.
I'll stay a vegetarian. My food tastes as good as any country gravy, greasy sausage, or horse hoof gelatin concoction. The key is to know how to cook and make food taste good without having to resort to meat juice and fat, sugar, or, God forbid – LARD! You wonder why the good ole boy image is a guy with a pot belly the size of a large raccoon!
"Hungry! Hungry Jack, come and git yer suppah, your arteries is gettin' skinny!"
Vivian pc seattle – watch out! Just because you said that, get ready to field stupid comments from skinnybitch and veev. Don't you know you can't say anything anymore without people setting themselves on FIRE??? ;)
Hey there, Frank L. Wheeler, Curler, Bob & Kate – just noting for the record that while user names might change from comment to comment, the e-mail address you use to post them does not.
Just thought you might not be aware of that.
– Your Friendly Moderators
Really people, I'm just trying to light ya'll on fire. I live in Alabama and l could care less what this author writes. I just saw it and started laughing at the thought of having cans of fatback sitting around the kitchen attracting flies. I really did this just because I ABSOLUTELY LOVE getting people all out-of-whack about comments – it is hilarious! So many people really have "lost their minds" but only in response to a person trying to get a reaction. Ha ha ha! Many of you fell for it so well!!! This woman is beautiful and I'm sure she is a wonderful person. I'm going to bed now – ha ha ha! ;)
There's a word for people like you. Starts with "socio," ends with "path."
Veve & Skinnybitch (if ever a name was fitting) do yourselves a favor. Get off these boards and go do something to make yourselves happy. Like I said, I was just trying to rile you all up and I succeeded. You are the ones that need a padded cell because you freak out and write nasty comments just because someone else does. I can have the opinion that this woman is spreading bad information to people about the common use of fatback any time I want. Have you ever seen the constitution? Really, my husband was sitting here telling me things to write because he thinks people on this board are HILARIOUS too. Don't worry about me, I'm just fine. I still think this woman is wrong in her views about the top 5 things to have in your cupboard but that's all. You two really need to get a life.
ps – please don't respond and tell me to get a life. I have one, thank you. And, I love it! And, I'm happy and healthy and grateful. Suck it now.
Kate, I'm worried. I've been up all night, pacing back & forth wondering how I should approach this subject...come, hold my hand. Look into my eyes.
You need help.
Wait, wait, wait...before you protest, realize that we care about you, and this is why we're confronting you. Your many personalities are simply not healthy. I'm sure your husband (who you speak of often...further proof of your insecurities?) is worried too.
I have the number of a therapist who can recommend a very nice in-patient treatment clinic for you. Please. Let us help you help yourself.
In the meantime, Kendra & I will be eating our fatback in moderation, exercising in moderation, keeping our food down while being attractive & pitying souls like you.
Oh, and skinnybitch (nice name!) I was also responding to this article because I don't like authors using the words "white trash" to refer to anybody. Now, hurry along and go start freaking out on all those people who wrote that they too don't like the WT comments. Hurry!!!! Psycho!
skinnybitch, why don't you leave Kate and the others you've made fun of here alone? Really, to tell someone that you want to help them find an in-patient treatment center is ridiculous. You've made some pretty bitchy statements here as well, do YOU need a psych hospital? I think Kate's comments were totally relevant about this article (except for the assumption that this woman never eats some of this food) and you went and attacked her first. Who needs a padded cell? YOU DO!!!
I said it above, but I now definitely feel the need to repeat myself...Kate...get a life!
Pijerona – get yourself a punching bag. It isn't good to take your frustrations out on a keyboard. You're pathetic too.
Why are so many people angry at Kate? She just shared her thinking about how food commentators shouldn't really try to sway the public into having bacon grease in their pantry. She didn't say that everything is bad but really, she does have a point that this author isn't just saying it is great on some things, the article is about 5 foods that MUST be in a pantry. Geesh people, stop telling this person to get a life. Just because someone doesn't agree with you you have to do this?
Kate your are really the one that needs to leave this board! If you want to eat your junk I will eat mine. Ours is Southern cuisine at it finest. Dont criticize anyone for what they eat. I guess from your remarks about being from Alabama makes you think you a southerner. Obviously you have taken Eastern culture rather than Southern. You may not be Northern but you dang sure arent Southern. You eat what the heck you want and dont criticize us for what we eat!! You are definitely an irritating person!
"White Trash" is extremely racist and offensive. Go back to town.
Loved the comments ,whether good or mean spirited.The one thing that I will say that I miss my grandparents who raised me on a farm in the South.I wish that people who can still can foods and cook,continue to do this.It's lost .If you do still can foods,I wish you would share this for I will buy some of those foods.When we ate like this,we worked hard on the farm and never got sick like people eating processed foods and laying around on their backside.We should start a website to barter can foods and down home recipes for good eating.
Southern cooking and flavors derived from the Slaves. The Slaves did the cooking, for their famililes as well as their owners' families. There has been good eating ever since. I can't lay any claim to the various gelatins, goes along w/fruitcake. That didn't come from the Slaves. ;)
So here is a woman who writes about a few essentials that should be in cooks' kitchens who like to make southern cuisine. Why is everyone so angry? WTF is wrong with you crazy people? Am I on crazy pills?? Did I miss something?
I do love me some cornbread- and the only way you can make that the right way is in cast iron– preferably in one of those iron pans with the little corn-shaped molds! And of course with some bacon grease.
Paul
My grandma's cornbread was made only with white cornmeal and bacon grease and cooked in a cast-iron skillet on TOP of the stove! She used the same pan for her biscuits which she also cooked on top of the stove in bacon grease. I would LOVE some of those with her homemade crabapple jelly!
I find all the "yuck" comments so amusing. People seem to have forgotten what makes so many foods taste so good...fat! I'm not saying cook everything you've got in bacon grease. Heavens no. But as a "once in a while" treat, go for it!
Jason, agree totally with what you are saying. But, when you are writing about the top 5 things in a kitchen pantry, you have to be more realistic than she is. I don't have anything in my kitchen (except the iron skillets; two sizes even!) that is on her list but I make delicious and healthy meals for myself and my husband.
:D
God Bless the South. Whenever I eat a down home meal i savor every morsel. Of course not very frequently rarely but still YUM! :-D
kendra - you have it figured out - nothing like the south for cooking -– the 4 southern food groups--liquor,lard,sugar & salt ...cook with these and the food will work every time -- keep up the good work -joe
Pineapple in jello? Don't work- try it. It won't congeal right.
It's done all the time. You have to drain the liquid out first and use small pieces, like the shredded kind.
Both my grandmothers made jello molds with pineapple in them usually the tidbits. The crushed pineapple was for grandma Edie's baked ham with. I am neither Southern nor Northern I am a Californian and we enjoy food from both regions and the rest of the world for that matter! It's all good if you stick to what you like and pass on what you don't. I will admit I am obese and I have noone to blame but myself.
FRESH pineapple won't work. Canned pineapple is just fine. We always make fun of my mom's jello concoctions at Thanksgiving! I remember we all had to make a jello salad in Home Ec. in 9th grade. What memories! lol
Oh and PS she really does look like that in person. Not photoshopped. She used to model.
Why are northerners so rude, so know it all? I guess because they've got no home training.
Anyway, southern food is food for gods and goddesses,and anyone who can't get behind buttermilk, fatback, ham hocks and chicken fried steak, well, I feel sorry for you. I truly do.
Why do you keep assuming that anybody who writes something negative is from the North? Seriously? I'm sure that everyone that writes something nice flies the Confederate Flag too. Seriously, people?
Ok to all you haters
YES she is from the south. YES she does eat exactly what she said she eats. YES she is an excellent cook. YES her family is from the hollers of West Virginia. YES she is thin and beautiful. She can eat anything she wants and not gain weight. YES her cookbook rocks and is filled with funny true stories and great recipes, including how to cook possum and squirrel. How do I know this? I have been friends with her for more than 20 years. So stop hating.
April, she may be "skinny and beautiful" but that doesn't mean healthy in any way, shape or form. I can't speak for the rest of the people but I'm not a hater. l just would like these women to be honest about how they cook for themselves and when supposedly "teaching" people what to have in their pantry, do be a little more careful. This is unrealistic for most people in the South & North. Once or twice a year, perhaps. Not to have it in their pantry all the time. Give me a break!
Kate, Really...get a life...I've been trying very hard to ignore your negative commentary, but you've riled me to the point that I finally couldn't take it any more without saying something. Are you just jealous, or are you just miserable? You have no clue how healthy she is or is not...and you have NO clue how she eats on a regular basis. There are many of us that balance our "down home cooking" days with "healthy" days and can stay fit and healthy. Seriously, lady, go do something to relax.
LOL. Not a hater. Right. But perfectly fine to make all sorts of accusations about anorexia, bulimia, and her general eating habits. Might not be hating but it shows a very ugly personality behind the comments. Having dined (and drank) with Kendra I can assure you she has a healthy appetite and does actually eat things that would be bad for you if not eaten in moderation. Oh, and the photo is not shopped.
Jed Klampett always enjoyed possom sausage swimmin' in hor renderins
When enjoyed in moderation and with an active lifestyle, there is nothing wrong with the occasional country cooking treat. Eat your grits and bacon, then play DDR or re-roof the house before lunch. Not a big deal.
How about homemade pound cake, chocolate pound cake, banana pudding, baked ham, potato salad, and all those wonderful things that I don't usually eat because they are too fattening. The best thing about my grandmother's cooking was that she made everything from scratch. She never measured anything. If you Yankees hate the South so much how come y'all keep moving down here!
They keep moving down there, don't appreciate it, and try to change it.
Your points are well taken. And it has been a long time since I made banana pudding. I think I will do that real soon.
It's not the buttermilk itself that bothers me; it's that ugly white coating on the inside of the glass after you're through drinking it that makes me sick.
My country grandmother would fry out a piece of fatback and leave the rendered piece on a plate on the cast iron stove; this was a childhood treat, luckily one I didn't get every day. My other grandmother would salt a piece of cabbage stalk and hand it to me when she was preparing slaw or just plain old boiled cabbage. These are practices of people who didn't get enough to eat, where scraps were precious. And as for flavoring, a small piece of smoked pork is the difference between tasty greens and stuff that tastes like lawn clippings. It's all about managing your fat calories and your carbohydrate intake, presuming you're getting enough to eat.
To the woman from West Virginia above who wrote about just not having the money for fresh vegetables, etc., that is the way it is folks. Poor people don't get to eat right because they're poor. Stop blaming the victims. Millions of people are out of a job, have been out of a job, and all we can carp about is how poor people "don't make smart choices."
Read Orwell's "Down & Out in Paris & London." It's really kind of a shocking book, even today, and might change the way you think about folks further down the economic chain from yourself.
Here's a test. You have $2 for lunch, what do you eat? You have $2 for dinner, what do you eat? You have a dollar for breakfast, what do you eat? Now imagine this is every day.
Oatmeal is for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It is about 25 cents per serving. Low calories, no fat, high fiber, good for your cholesterol and high blood pressure. Doctor Oz eats it every morning and look at how thin he is.
I have been to lots of farmers markets and to some "world markets" (Description: I'm trying to NOT be racial here – markets in the more ethnic sections of town, in most I've been in, there is a high mix of Latin american and Asian influence) I go there, generally because there are selections you will never find in a corporate run chain [straw mushrooms, bock choy (much more tender and far less abused than what you will find in a common supermarket) FRESH shitake mushrooms at a reasonable price, far better jalapeño and poblano peppers, dried seasonings of all kind (and a buck or so for a bag, not 5 bills for a teenie round container with a screw-top lid) - sorry got carried away]. I see this rich ethnic mix of people who come from the nearby area to shop there, and they are always getting plenty of good fresh friuts and veggies (even fresh fish) and I know that many cannot be that well paid.
My point is, if you buy all your produce and meats from a supermarket, you're going to pay to dollar; if you shop around, go check out the local markets and eat what's in season (and even take a gander at a neighborhood market) that anyone who wants to, can eat better. Truthfully, most of those boxed options are more expensive in the long run.
Replying to your reply – bad form... I described "world market" because some (who may even call them selves world markets) are nothing more than a Pier One WITH *SOME* FOOD (Beers mostly) and are in strip malls. The world markets I'm referring to will have produce galore (sometimes in boxes or crates), meats at an exceptional price (though there might be cuts you never seen before) foods that MIGHT have english on their container (strangely, the ingredients is always in english though) and often a bulk food section where you can pick up five to twenty pound bags of beans, rice, etc. There is a real blurring of the description out there between the neighborhood food market and the kitchy import store that is selling some ethnic foods trying to cash in on the ethnic craze – both generally calling themselves world markets.
Buttermilk sold in the stores is NOT the remains of churned butter. It is a cultured milk product like store-bought kefir and yogurt. (Store bought kefir is also not at all like home made).
Way to suggest three fatty, disease-ridden foods, one food-as-a-cure-all-but-no-as-a-food, and a piece of cookware to be categorized as "down-home foods". Perhaps there's a reason I don't go down home too often. Sorry, mom!
I'm thinking you don't go down home too often is because no one wants to hear you whine about the food.
Exactly!!! This comment and the comment about the photo shop bill feeding hundreds of people is right on point! This woman is not real. She is a size zero and still has to have photos touched. Nothing wrong with size zero at all (or size 14 for that matter) but the first thing on this list is ridiculous. She may use fatback to feed her clients but she doesn't eat it much if ever.
u have a shi**ty attitude kate
Kate,
Gee whiz, are you on a diet? you do have a bad attitude !! must be the PWT syndrome. If you truly lived on the sunny side of the street, you wouldn't be bashing comments here, you would relate with fond memories.
Everything here is true, and not to be dismissed. You can take the cook out of the south, but never the south out of the cook. Even if "good health" demands only a once weekly immersion in the above joys of cooking, a true southerner never abandons this list.
One other thing. These ingredients totally cross racial lines. Once we can admit that, most of our problems in this regard will be over.
And just one more thing: you have not had fried chicken until you have had one that was walking around out in the yard a couple of hours ago.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Some of ya'll are nasty and mean... a buttermilk douche or cider vinegar enema- if you don't like her article why read it...
She wrote her experience and said she loved home comfort foods take it why add on all that bitterness if you have to add all that crap you missed her point and obviously can not comprehend what you read...
Joe, Amen to your comments.
Ding ding ding! Joe wins "Best Comment of the Thread!" Buttermilk douches all around!
Bless you, Joe. I like staying on the sunny side of the street.
Do you think you are the only person who likes the "sunny side of the street?" Just because we write something negative about this author doesn't mean you have to take it personally or tout the fact that you're a "glass half full girl." Get over yourself!
I am from New Orleans, but I've lived in California for the last 12 years. I just realized I have all but the gelatin in my kitchen, which I can't recall ever using. However both the castiron ware and the buttermilk are for abelskivers (which we've been on an abelskiver kick lately). I have to admit bacon grease really is awesome to cook anything in, especially eggs, greenbeans, or panfried asparagus. And honestly the Cider vinegar is for my horse's ankle from a past injury, I don't think I have used it for anything unless a recipe called for it. Those of you who make fun of Southern cooking, you guys have no idea. I cook my a$$ off you'd never turn down any of it if you tried it. "I guarantee!" ;p
I wonder if she ever had
I have a set of Cuisinart cookware and I have cast iron. Guess which one I make red beans in? Stainless is no good for that. My grandma made homemade biscuits and baked them in a cast iron skillet. I'm sure she threw a little bacon grease into those biscuits. Although most humans have pretty much the same parts we don't all work the same way. Watch out for your karma, you fat-bashers! The obese person you are criticising might take in less food than you do – my skinny neighbor can put away some food! Some people are more efficient in using and storing fuel; some are damaged beyond what you can see; some are just insulating themselves from unkind people like you.
You just reminded me, I have't made red beans and rice in ages. I think I'll make them next Monday ;)
Greetings,
Sorry about that but Andersons 360 add was in the way!!! Shopping today has even changed. Try buying Bones at the groceries to flavor soup....They do not exist. I am not from the generation I mentioned in my email but all my relatives cook like you mentioned. Sadly I saw a comment from someone indicating you did not eat like this–well I am 5'ft 9"s and 130 LBS and I love to eat like this–size doesn't matter if you watch what you are doing. I use fat off my meats for flavor only and put them in cloth and throw them in my beans, soups and stews–yes I remove them and throw them away but I captured the flavor! I would love to see stores offer bones for sale again–perhaps an article on shopping in the 60's and now would be great! As far as over weight–I was lucky if I ate at a McDondalds twice a year–no I am an x-model with no weight problem!!!! Loved the article!
Kind Regards
I agree with everything you say. People who eat like this today generally don't have a weight problem if they are mindful and moderate, AND (and it is a big "AND") if they don't sit around on their duffs all day.
Make friends with your meat man or butcher and he will give you all the bones you want for soup and making broth. If you save all the bones from any type of meat and hoard them in the freezer, you can also make a delicious broth by baking the bones in the oven until brown and stewing them in water to make your soup base.
Hey people, there are ignorant people from North, South, East, and West. That does not mean any geographical area has a monopoly on rudeness, obesity, or good cooking.
I too was about to comment that we save the bones from bone-in beef roasts or ham shanks and freeze them until needed for a soup. Something I grew up watching my grandparents do. Never seen or heard of baking the bones though, just flavoring with the bones and what meat was left on the bone when we froze it... I'll have to try baking it.
Cast iron cookware is the best.
GRITS!
Cheese grits!
Amen,
My mother and her family hail from West Virgina–I can tell you they all can cook and they waste not! My genetation preserves some of the essentials but not all. However–growing up eating this food!!! Heaven! You forgot Chicken-N-Dumplings–Yummmm!!! Most families from the 1930's to about 1950's were big families–Allot of mouths to feed but the food tasted good and was made from everything possible off the farm–yes my Grandmother raised her food and canned it. A lost art you will not see much of today! I greo fruit tree's in my small yard and yes I can! Love it
Except for the greens, Minnesota isn't so different. We use lard or bacon grease to make the best pie crusts and fried doughnuts, my dad loved a glass of buttermilk. He ate butter on everything and like many of you have noted, its the moderation and the physican activity that allowed them toeat that way and stay at a healthy weight. I worry more about the artificial things we feed our kids than the fat they might get. We had Jello on the table for every special occasion and every house had a cast iron skillet that got more use than any pther pot in the kitchen. But the best memory thisd brought back was that my mother swore by cider vinegar for sunburn, my sister and I were just discussing it this weekend, remembering those hot summer days when we would all smell like pickles at bedtime after dabbing on the vinegar, but we also remember that we would sleep well and wake up in the AM with no sunburn pain!
Thanks for sharing this lovely memory. My grandfather drank buttermilk religiously and my dad still loves to eat it with cornbread. It's good stuff indeed.
Fried chicken is awesome, but us poor white trash and black trash southerners would be wise to stop eating this stuff so we won't balloon to 500 pounds. It's in our genes, and the lack of exercise don't help none.
What a "natural" looking photo Kendra. So spontaneous and un-retouched. You could probably feed a hundred hungry people from the Photoshop bill alone.
rather "from" processed foods
There is no way in the world that the author of this article has ever eaten any kind of fat let alone bacon and other meat fat "drippings." Also, I'd be willing to bet my life that this woman has never touched any fatback. This woman has never let anything but vegetables and fruits and perhaps some protein in the form of beans and tofu touch her precious lips.l She would NOT look the way she does while eating fatback...EVER!!!! Get real. Teach people to eat well and have an occasional treat while also exercising every other day; doing something you love and not stomping on a treadmill (unless you love this!) and then we will all stop having to worry about the obesity pandemic. Seriously, don't tell people that you love "country food" when you hardly ever eat anything!!!!!
Surely you jest. Eat just about anything in moderation, exercise appropriately, and balance your "fatback" (etc.) with healthy choices – - letting fatback or animal fat cross your gums won't doom you to a life of obesity. Quite the contrary, it keeps you from being a health nertz like Kate.
WTF is a health nertz? Speak in a language we can understand, please.
Hmmm, seems like Kate might be a bit jealous. How on earth do you know what the author of this article eats? Oh wait, I get it. Blond & attractive = stupid & anorexic. Brilliant stereotyping, Kate. ::golf claps:: Thanks for the chuckle. Now, get back to licking the TV when ice cream commercials come on, and leave the commentary to those who have a clue.
Wow, nobody attacks anyone else for writing unflattering things about the author. Lick the television when ice cream commercials come on? No, that would be the author. My husband, upon seeing this article and others that the author has written, said, "this woman may eat these things sometimes but I know she goes and throws it all up minutes later." I'm sick of these "chefs" writing food articles that make little to no sense. It's a free country, I can write anything I want on here. Go lick yourselves!!!
Skinnybitch, just because you're skinny doesn't mean everyone is jealous of you. You probably walk around with fake blond hair and talk on your cell phone while you're driving. You sound like an empty-headed brat. Let people post what they want – you don't have to defend Ms. Morris
Sorry Kate, your response is pretty clueless. You should probably leave commentary to the real southerners here. We know how to cook it, how to eat it, and how to be healthy when we do. I come from a long line of southerners on both sides, and no one got fat until they moved north, got fancy jobs, and forgot how to cook.
If I had to bet on it, I'd say the nastiest, snarkiest responses here come from the northerners. True southerners were brought up better.
How do you know I'm not from the deep South? Idiot.
Big 1968, at least the north has some jobs. Oh, wait, I forgot, the south has jobs. NASCAR racing and Monster Truck shows. Oh, and don't forget "gator tyin'!"
a majority of American obesity spoken of comes form processed foods.
animals fats are not only tasty but aren't as fattening as most people think.
and buttermilk?
not only healthy ( think yogurt) but DELICIOUS!
I guess all that fat was perfectly fine to eat when you had a labor intensive career on a farm from 6am til 6pm everyday. Anyone working 9-5 behind a desk that eats that junk will die in their 40's.
I grew up in West Texas and ate like this for ages. NOW I no longer eat this way and fight the battle of the bulge when I didn't while eatin' Momma's home cookin'. (Somebody will say that it just caught up with me but that's your opinion.) The buttermilk I buy in the store nowadays tastes nothing like the thick butter-specked delicacy we used to buy (at the store too.) Even "down home" restaurants like Cracker Barrel and Black-Eyed Pea don't really come close to the real thang.
Another bit of heaven is chicken and dumplings that started with a whole chicken simmered on top of a gas range and real flour dumplings rolled out and cut at my Mamie's kitchen table.
Pardon me while I wipe the drool off my keyboard. (Just like some Blacks call each other the "N-word" but Anglos can't use it, we can use PWT with impunity. :) )
BatHoney, I wish you'd post that dumplin' recipe.
My grandmother's Chicken and Dumplings died with her and I haven't tasted them since.
My mother says that Gma used to roll them out on the counter.
Maybe I can help. My momma taught me how to make homemade chicken and noodles/dumplings that had been handed down thru the generations. Flour noodles are very simple. You put some flour into a big bowl and then add to it 3 eggs and 3 half of an eggshell full of milk. I usually look over all the the broken eggshells from the 3 eggs I have broken open and the one that is the closest to being broken exactly in half is the half shell piece I pick out of the 6 to use to measure the milk into the flour.
From there you mix it all together, adding more flour or milk if needed, to get it to the thickness you need. Usually I will have enough to break it up into 3 chunks to roll out and dry. To do that, shake some flour on the countertop or table where you are going to roll the dough out, set the piece of dough in the center and then by hand press it down and spread it out some for a start. Then sprinkle some flour on top of the dough so it won't stick to the rolling pin and start rolling it out until it's about 1/4 inch thick. After you've rolled out all of the dough, it's time to leave it to dry out for a few hours. I usually will turn the dough over once an hour to make sure both sides dry about the same and let mine dry anywhere from 3 to 4 hours, depending on how much time I have. During the last hour of the drying time is when I am preparing the chicken so it's done and ready when the noodles are. If you want onions, carrots, celery you cook those at the same time you boil the chicken.
The last thing to do to the noodles is to cut them. You take the dough and roll it up, then cut off pieces from the end of it to the width you want your noodles to be. If you want dumplings, then just cut off bigger pieces and knead them into a ball shape. Now put the noodles/dumpling balls into the pot with the chicken meat and broth saved that it cooked in and cook for another 20 to 30 minutes, season to taste with garlic powder, onion powder, seasoned salt, etc, and you're done.
My grandmother's recipe for dumplings was basically the same as it was for biscuits, except with more liquid so you needed a bowl. My apologies for not having exact measurements; we have a huge family and you never knew if you'd be making dinner for five or fifty!
Mix three parts self-rising flour (or add salt and baking powder to regular flour) with two parts water and one part oil. It should have a consistency thinner than biscuit batter, so if it's thick and looks more like bread, add more water and oil. Then use a big spoon to scoop out pieces and drop them into the chicken that's been boiling on the stove. (A note on the chicken: dark meat's better to use because the fat will keep the meat moist while the dumplings are cooking! Leave the bones in, too; they'll add flavor to the broth and the chicken boils long enough the meat will fall off of them) Don't roll the dumplings!! It will make them flat and hard (more like the noodle recipe) and not light and fluffy. No carrots, etc needed for this southern dish; just chicken, salt, pepper, and the dumplings! Pure comfort food.
I am a born and bred Northerner of Maine but I LOVE buttermilk. My dad introduced me to it as a little girl. We drink it straight up, in a tall glass with lots of salt stirred in. YUM!
Oh, I forgot to add...cast iron pans are a long standing tradition in many Maine homes, including my own!
Good stuff! My wife and I love our cast irons, and use them for almost everything. And guess what- with a little tomato sauce simmering, these can actually be a good and healthy source of iron. It really makes me laugh reading some of these comments- I am an Internist, raised in the South and unfortunately now living and practicing near the west coast and this never ceases to amuse me. People- it is excess carbohydrate and a sedentary lifestyle that will worsen your cholesterol issues. That is a fact, and a sad reality in modern day America.
The food from years ago that I remember is the food I remember after reading this– greens cooked in fatback, ribs, chicken barbeque on the grill, fresh veggies from the garden at every meal (ok with fatback for flavor) and guess what– NO processed carb !!!!!
South = Fat Trash
North=Loud mouth assholes!!!
Southern rules: I don't usually condone name calling, but this I will have to make an exception for, pretty dang funny. LOL!
how stupid, who care's about this chick. Get me drunk and I might tap her.
I'm sure she'll be terribly honored that you'd consent to do such a thing. Lucky, lucky her.
Veev, again, so what if this person said something and ended it with "I'd tap her." Are you in kindergarten? Do you always have to answer someone back? Shut it.
UMMMMMM, first of all this person is not from the South!!! Please, I am from the south born and raised. I have lived all over the south from Mississippi to Kentucky. Jello??? stape in southern recipes and potluck dinners?? I dont think so, been to many a pot luck, pig pikin", and reunion I have never one seen any Jello. beside in the summer its so hot down her it would melt. South my a@@. Cast iron anything huh, well the to only cast iron I use is to cook my fried taters or fried green tomatos or cookin some cornbread in the oven. put for alot of things its useless. and I seriously doubt she even know what a Hoe cake is much less know how to cook one? and what the hell is a half moon pie?? I know what a moon pie is but I have never ever heard of half moon pie. This women aint from the south.
Also, if you are indeed a Southerner and don't remember Jellos, then you must be quite young. Jello in all of its forms can survive a Nuclear fallout.
Umm, I know what jello is not say people not eat it just saying you dont find that southern dinners, and yes I indeed am from the south I am in North Carolina
To 'southern rules': my sincere apologies. It is now obvious that your intellect and experience trump all of us here. You are right- there is no Jello in the South. Good luck with that.
Why in the world are some people obsessed with what is or isn't Southern enough for their tastes? So it doesn't match up precisely with the South you knew growing up. SO WHAT? Doesn't make it wrong. Expand your worldview a little bit. Won't make you any less Southern, I promise, but it might make you nicer.
You are totally missing the point this article is about must have SOUTHERN dishes, I am simply pointing out that Jello is not a "southern staple" at gatherings are the author as indicated. Being from the south I guess I south write a article about must have Northern dishes maybe I will included grits and gravy. How can anyone truely write a article about southern cooking if they dont know what they are talking about??
Veev, why are you so offended by people saying something might be more southern in their experience. Do you have nothing to do but sit and get upset by other people's postings? Some people are nice, some are a little more terse. So what?
Hello,
In regards to not being from the South, you are correct. I'm not. I hail from the fine state of West Virginia, Appalachia, a place that even we don't consider being part of the South– 'tis why I titled the article "Country Cooking" versus "Southern Cooking". There are many wonderful variations of Southern, country-cooking etc... which vary widely from region to region. Just giving my take on the kinds of foods I grew up eating. Really enjoying everyone's commentary. Thanks for chiming in!
My mawmaw always says that bacon grease will do everything from start a gravy to flavor beans to worm your cats, I grew up on corn bread, fried taters, and peas. Do you actually need anything else to have comfort food?
Miss Kendra , You are a very handsome woman ........
Yes, she is. If eating all that grease and greens produces specimens like her, then the South must be doing something right.
So, people have been eating fat drippings for eons, but in the last 30 years we got all squeamish about saturated fat. Yet, we're now fatter than ever. So, you gotta ask if all of the fears about saturated fats is misplaced.
I'm not saying that you should eat that every day, but I think the refined carbs and fat substitutes are worse because they're easier to digest.
We evolved eating saturated fats so I'm skeptical about all the vilification that is being thrown at sat fats.
My grandfather ate all the pork, lard, and grease he wanted and ate it every day. He was as thin as a toothpick and lived to 96 years old. Of course, he had tons of physical activity.
Buttermilk may traditionally have been "the remains from churned butter" but these days it's actually milk that's soured by adding a lactic acid culture - unless you're making it yourself or buying it from someone who is. Either way, I love the stuff.
you sound alot like the guy who does http://www.lookwhoscookin.com he loves castiron buttermilk and bacon fat...like two peas in a pod. I think he'll be the next Paula Deen
bacon fat is the best for seasoning your cast iron – so cook your bacon in the cast and kill two birds with one stone
Bacon grease is not a good seasoning for keeping your cast iron skillet from rusting. Bacon grease has a lot of salt, which will CAUSE rusting. I am from the North, and up here we use bear grease. Really. I love buttermilk for baking! The stuff you buy in the market is cultured. The leftover liquid from making butter is called whey. Real country buttermilk is made from milk which has clabbered(soured) after sitting at room temperature for an afternoon. Ot it can be clabbered by adding a little lemon or vinegar. It is made from whole milk. Skim milk just has the cream removed, it is not buttermilk.
I have a glass top range too, and I use my cast iron dutch oven on it all the time. I keep waiting for all those things to happen, so I can replace it with a proper stove, but so it's holding up better then the cast iron.
I has one of them cast iron skillety things, but my new house has a glass stove and people tells me I shouldn't use it. So now all it's good fer is threatening the kids...
I too have a glass top range, I have never been warned against the use of cast iron. While I cook many varieties of foods (and so, use the cast iron only for specific dishes) and have other cooking implements for most dishes, I have never experienced burner blowout, excessive scratching – even the white printing showing the ring is intact, so unless you plan to slide the cast iron across the glass top (or bang it down on it) I would believe you're safe.
I never make cornbread or chicken fried steak in anything other than my old cast iron skillet. It just doesn't taste right in any other. East Texas Country Cookin' rule number 1
Cast iron is universally awesome for its ability to handle extremely high heats as well as retain heat for even distribution. Fat drippings are great for attractive possum to the yard so you can then wack them with a cast iron, and then cook them in the cast iron. Again, the cast iron proving itself useful for all occasions.
Country cooking - southern, midwestern, whatever - is pretty good chow. There's cast iron on my counter, and lard in my fridge. You bet I save and use the bacon fat.
I pass, though, on the sickening overdose of southern expressions. If you stop overdoing it, and just speak normally, I swear northerners will understand you. Please stop with the corn. When you make fun of yourself, you do not look cool.
....now tell me again why she would want northerners to understand her. It is plain from the comments here that Northerners have little understanding of good eating Southern style. While I presonally don't cotton to that style of communication, her use of the style is no worse than peddling Southern cooking to Yankees and other outsiders for profit and entertainment.
is your grand-mother aware of the ongoing cholesterol problem that the nation is facing?...
The problem is what granny cooked on Sunday, we want to eat like that seven days a week. Granny knew this but we wouldn't listen because "we know better". That's why she lived to her late 90's and we're dying in our 50's.
No, the difference is "grannie" knew to "GET OFF YOUR A** AND ON YOUR FEET" no tv sitting in her house till after the work was done.
Are YOU aware that despite eating nothing by steamed veggies, drinking water and soy milk, and once a month "treating" yourself to a boneless skinless grilled chicken breast (hold the salt and pepper please) that you're going to die anyway?
My paternal grandmother (Miss.) lived into her 70's and didn't not die from being overweight and was in fact quite thin while constantly watching what she ate. My maternal grandmother died at 98 of a staph infection from a broken hip. First time she ever went to a hospital. She ate whatever she wanted, was healthy sized, and we ate well at her place. The drippings and all. So who was healther? Oh by the way before surgery she had her cholesterol checked, it wass the best the doctor ever saw!
That, dear genius, is called anecdotal evidence. It means nothing in the face of countless scientific studies showing that eating like a pig does in fact shorten your lifespan and burden your already bankrupt countyr with billions in medical costs.
@Sam – That, dear genius, is called confusing correlation with causation and time and again, studies have shown that, outside of genetic factors, its not what you eat, but what kind of exercise you do, and how much. It's a very simple forumla: the more calories taken in than used = weight gain. People have been eating that kind of food for hundreds of years, and were never obese. It's not the food, it's the lifestyle. The entire Amish community eats like truckers and there is almost no obesity among them. Why? Because they get about almost 60 hrs of hard work/exercise every week.
I've been to Gram's Recipe Box! I think I need a jello "monstrosity" on my table now, maybe that luminous rainbow ribbon jello mold that always looks so fancy. PS I've never been to Appalachia but I have a tin of saved bacon grease that I use in various things and YES, it makes just about everything taste better: Savory vegetable turnovers, stews (I mix it with flour instead of butter for roux), or grilled cheese sandwiches. But Buttermilk is not the remains of churned butter, I think that's actually skim milk. At least, that's what it tastes like when *I* make butter. The Buttermilk we all know today has been curdled with specific bacteria to make it thick and sour – nothing like leftover butter milk.
Butter at our house during my youth ('50's) was derived from milk which came from either a Jersey or a Guernsey cow. Milk was allowed to clabber then put into an old churn. We sat around working the "plunger" up and down in steady rhythm. Eventually growing tired and anxious at the same time, we would take peeks into the churn to spot the first signs of chunks of butter accumulating on the surface. When Mother determined we'd churned enough, we opened the churn to find a thick layer of butter floating on top of the liquid. I was always glad at this point because the liquid that remained was some of the most delicious buttermilk you'll ever drink. Once chilled in the refrigerator, it was always a treat to drink a large glass while having a big slice of cornbread and sometimes a green onion. What a life!
PS This all happened in Applachia
As long as you live an active, healthy lifestyle, there is plenty of room for home style cooking and old fashioned recipes. Fried chicken? You betcha! Soaked in buttermilk all day and then fried in the cast iron skillet? There is nothing better. People have gotten lazy. They think nothing of wolfing down salty, disgusting boxes of frozen dinners, gorging on an assortment of fast food and processed garbage, but they turn their nose up at fresh, old-fashioned, home-cooked food. More for me!
True and those foods are worse than anything fixed down home. After moving to PA. it took me over 25 years to see okra and I can only get it frozen at FoodLion and raw peanuts to make boiled peanuts. Greens is spinach only, I can't even get stuff to grow right here. Oh for the good real food!
You know it MarylandMom! I grew up on stick to your ribs southern cooking – bacon grease over sliced tomatos and cucumbers, mmmm mmmm. Portion control and exercise – I can eat anything and not worry about gaining weight. As for the obesity comment – many obese people I know don't eat homecooking. It's the pre-made meals and take out that's slowly killing them.
I agree eating pre cooked meal adds to gaining weight.I grew up in Calcutta learn cooking age 12 since then I've been cooking at home ,have my own 250 recipes . At 57 I have come to this conclusion .we all work so hard to make a living and can not get a home cooked fresh meal then what is worth it? My recent invention "Yogurt just for men" it easy and simple to make at home .
Corn meal. How in the world could you "fix" fried fish, or dumplings without it? For that matter, what would we call corn bread?
...and pups. The good ones that are a bit crunchy on the outside but soft and warn on the inside... NOT the ones that you can put in a potato gun and turn into deadly projectiles.
I grew up in the midwest where Jello and its endless permutations was a food group. There were usually two or mor at every midday or evening meal and what seemed like dozens or hundreds at potlucks or family reunions.
What about Tapioca, eh?
Midwest jello? Im sure the south NO!! to hot The women is stupid!!! We in the hello would but a book about southern cooking from this stupid bit@ch
Good Lord, Woman! Re-read your comment with the butchered English and then try, just try, to call any one stupid ever again. Wow.
Wow, is all I can say. Are you really calling someone stuiped.
Wow.
That was like a verbal seizure.
And you're getting the "lady" part of "southern lady" in your name from where now? Not so very ladylike to go around calling other woman a "b-word" just because you don't like what they have to say. You should be ashamed of yourself for behaving like that and giving people the notion that all southern "ladies" are as nasty and rude as you are.
Well, I guess this is the reason why Southern states are notorious for morbid obesity.
"White" trash isn't where you'll find most of the obesity in the South, if you get my drift.
Actually, the term "white trash" is offensive. I gotta wonder if some big city "ethnic" publishing exec talked her into putting it in the title of her book.
Hi Steve. I live in the South. You are wrong about obesity and white people here. There are plenty of obese whites in the South (and in other parts of America).
I do agree that "white trash" is offensive but I guess that many people embrace their white trashiness and redneck-osity, both here and in other places where I've seen a lot of poor whites, like any rural part of America.
I agree White trash in the South is extremly offensive!!! I live in the south I am White but I sure as hell am not white trash, the bit@h dont know her a@@ from a hole in the ground!!! now that a true southern sayin!
I agree White trash in the South is extremly offensive!!! I live in the south I am White but I sure as hell am not white trash, the bit@h dont know her a@@ from a hole in the ground!!! now that a true southern sayin!
Steve, is there a reason you made this racial? How about you do some research before you reveal YOUR "white trash" ways. Stop being an idiot on public forum.
I strongly recommend "White Trash Cooking" by Ernest Mathew Mickler. I, too, abhor the term 'white trash,' but some of the recipes in WTC are out of this world. Remember, do everything in moderation.
I always wondered why white people used the term "white trash". I figured it was ok if whites said but not anyone else sorta like the "n" word. I find the term pretty darn offensive as well but I'm not white.
Terrible2wenties:Paragraph 2: "Kendra Bailey Morris is the author of "White Trash Gatherings: From-Scratch Cooking for Down-Home Entertaining." Read the article before you post and become "an idiot on a public forum" yourself. You now have permission to go back to your comic book.
I would NEVER read anything with White Trash in the title.
jillybean:....how'd you know it said 'white trash' if u didn't read it ;0) Then u posted a comment on the thread.
I think we all need some clarification here?
At least we are happy and for the most healthy. I'd rather die fat than live after eating yankee cardboard. PPL in the north just don't know what good taste is.
I am Southern and lived everywhere, they do know how to cook in the North, just like everywhere has some local eats that kick butt. I love my greens, beans and fried chicken, but I also love a NY pizza, fried clams and chowder, a lobster rolls, cannolis, etc etc.
The South doesn't own good food, nor does anyone else. Maybe if people travelled and actually spoke to more than person from another area they would see that people are just people, no matter what color or accent...
Oh, don't even go there with the whole obesity thing. when it comes to southern cooking I don't care what you call me just call me in time to eat! We north westerners can tear up the kitchen with some good eats too like Chinook Salmon cook over mesquite or alder basted with real butter. Whiny spice doesn't know what he's missing.
I'll point out that it's only in about the last 15-20 years that the problem of obesity has become such a problem in the South. Growing up, there would of course be 1 or 2 "fat kids" in a class, but usually no more than that. The rise in obesity seems to have paralleled the rise in media entertainment – video games, computers, cable TV. Coincidence? Maybe.
Personally I'll take a serving of black-eyed peas flavored with bacon or some other pork, a generous slice of cornbread and some Southern fried chicken and fried okra as a meal of comfort food any day.
Living in West Virginia I would like to add what I feel is a major reason you see obesity, at least in WV. Poverty. I live on a fixed income and can attest to having to buy and eat a lot of pasta dishes and other low cost foods, that are not necessarily very healthy foods. But we do so out of not having any choice. The "bad" foods are not healthy, but they are cheap - and they also taste good. You learn to get really creative with the few things that you have. I would love to be able to afford healthy food, especially with my diabetes, but I can't afford to pay two or three times more in my food budget just to do this.
I can't stand to hear the common excuse that people can't afford healthy foods. These are the same people that drive around in a new truck, smoke cigarrettes and pay their cable and cell phone bill every month. Healthy food is important and it is not that expensive if you work at it. Fresh veggies can get pricey, but frozen veggies are usually cheap, can be bought in bulk and offer up the same nutritional value. Adding a salad to every meal and removing the wasted calories is not expensive, but it does take some effort and restraint.
add a bag of frozen spinach to that pasta for a dollar and you can get another meal from it and vitamins.
Eat smaller portions and you will be spending less.
There is a shortage of money in this country to buy expensive health foods, but there is also a shortage of education about healthy diets and how to prepare healthy but inexpensive foods. You CAN eat healthy and cheap foods. You might want to check out the following book: Centsible Meals: How to Feed Your Family for Less. The author describes how to feed your family on 1 dollar per person per day by eating healthy and inexpensive foods.
I agree with Lenny completely. It is possible to eat healthy even with limited income, especially in US with variety and sales! I grew up in former soviet union republic in 1990s when things were real bad... we had no money for weeks, and there were no credit cards at that time. And on top of that there was a shortage of food. At some point we had to stay in line for hours to get portioned butter, sugar, olive oil. The only way to get milk was couple days a week when farmers brought it early in the morning...
Nevertheless, my Mom managed to make meals that were healthy: balanced with grains, meats, and vegetables. Of course it meant puting effort in the kitchen, trying to create interesting meals from the same ingridients, instead of buying 'pasta meals.' Also it meant buying less 'stuff'... How about instead of pasta trying some lentil or rice? and instead of chips buying some apples and carrots...
Funny how so many would classify that as a true Southern dish, but my Great Grannie was born and raised in Delaware and was known around the region for her black eyed peas, fried chicken and greens! Mmmm, so good.
I agree with Cindy. Obesity has risen since more and more people do not have to do actual physical labor. Myself included. Growing up as a child on a vegetable farm. We ate all of the good down home cooking we could get along with an assortment of fresh vegetables. However, when we were not eating we were laboring in the fields or actively playing games that made us excercise as we played (i.e. softball, tag, bike riding, hide and seek, riding bikes, etc.) we were never sitting still unless it was the occasional rainy day. Our mothers would run us out of the house if the weather was nice telling us to go get some fresh air. It's not just the fact that the food is high in calories, cholesterol, fat, etc. but combine that with no exercise that is what is causing the obesity today.
The South, nay – the entire USA, has grown obese, not because of down home cooking, but because of an overabundance of easy calories – cheap sugar, cheap corn syrup, cheap white flour, cheap potatoes, usually lumped together in one permutation or another.
Down home cooking is the opposite – nothing is cheap. It is all quite dear, and none of it taken for granted.
When the proverbial dirt hits the fan, I'd much rather be surrounded by some folks who actually know how to make use of what nature gives us, instead of the nitwits who can't function beyond using a microwave and opening a bag of packaged salty corn/potato snacks.
When you truly work at cooking from scratch and work at being frugal and healthy, Southern cooking is awesome. Cast Iron pans and dried beans, saving the grease fom your hamburger and learning to make biscuits and cornbread have taken my cooking to a new level and lowered my food budget. This was a great article to this Connecticut Yankee.
I guess you haven't made a trip through the mid-west or through the upper East coast lately, huh. Typical, genius.
@grofys D*mn Yankee! ;-)
Hog jowl. Think greens.
fat drippings and gelatin? animal fat and tendons? i'll pass.
You just don't get it. It is a taste of heaven (though even I can't stand the Jell-O monstrosities she describes).
Seriously, grow up.
Good. More bacon grease for the rest of us.
Bacon makes everthing better.
My grandfather ate pork at every meal starting with bacon in the morning and fried in lard pork chops all his life. It finally killed him at the age of 92. My wife and I are close to 70, in good health and love our meat. I'm not knocking the veges because we eat lots of greens but meat has been getting a bad rap ever since Disney started cartooning.
And my dogs love the bacon grease poured over their food. Their fur coats are silky smooth and shiny as a result.
i thought the same thing. no one really needs any animal products, how about some farm-fresh, organic, vegetables? come on america!
oooh! organic! then we can all go to our colon cleansing sessions and afterwards go jogging with our dog Jake (the one with the red bandana around his neck) and then go home and whip up an organic fruit smoothie and do aerobics to Olivia Newton John records. lol LAME.
Didn't work my way to the top of the food chain to eat plants alone.
I will eat what I want to eat. Meat, veggies, and fruit. I want a rounded diet, not a leafy diet.
Hello...what she is describing IS farm food! You think farmers eat only meat? You've probably lived in the city your entire life. The most rabid pro-farm fresh foodies are almost always the least familiar with a farm.
While veggies ARE good....there is NOTHING like some good ole fashioned FLAVOR of "down home"!!!!
Meh. Sorry, but I LIKE meat, grease, salt, and all those other things you can't stand, along with the veggies and stuff you DO like. Funny how I don't try to stop YOU from eating only veggies... Hmmm...
As a side note: I have never met a truly "Vegan" (in other words, no meat at ALL including fish and chicken, no eggs, no cheese or other dairy) person who looked particularly healthy. Additionally, there are a good number of micronutrients you can ONLY get from animal-based foods. You also do NOT have to abuse your meat before you eat it (pun fully intended); there's plenty of sustainable, organic meat production out there.
Get off your high horse. Noone really cares that you hate meat.
The taste is the thing. You can modify things to get healthier, but it just isn't the real thing if you don't have some bacon grease, butter and rendered meat stocks. I won't ask you to east what I do, but you really are missing some of the true treasures of culinary comfort.
It's country cookin'! Get it? If you'd like to end up like Archie Bunker's friend Ralph who had a heart attack while jogging home from the health-food store then go for it. Whether it's sooner or later, plant some pone, fried chicken, greens and fatback beneath my belt when I go and I'll have no complaints. Bottom line: Enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Tofu and alfalfa sprouts don't qualify.
hahahaha You silly little tree huger.
Heh. As you can see from the responses to your comment, it's not gonna happen. Deal with it.
Hippy go hug a tree! Oh, wait we cut them all down.
No one said it was healthy just good! Have you ever heard of moderation.
Come on people, can't we all have the best of both worlds? There are days when I love nothing more than to rock out a delicious salad filled with all sorts of yummy organic veggies (If you live in DC, Sweetgreen is to die for). However, there are other days when I want to get back to my Midwest roots, and there is nothing better than bacon and eggs (eggs fried in the bacon grease of course), buttermilk fried chicken, gizzards, and my grandma's signature chocolate Texas sheet cake with buttermilk chocolate frosting. Sure, the latter will force you to jog an extra mile or two afterward, but so worth it. It's all about balance.
VEGETABLES, SCHMEGETABLES! I eat from 4 basic food groups:, Bird, Cow, Pig & Beer!
Man, the replies to this comment are ridiculous. Over 2/3 of the U.S. population is overweight (source: NYTimes) and it's obvious that humanity is a little too starstruck by unhealthy eating habits. Attacking jessK with such disdain is a vindication of the beliefs that turned us into an obese country. I'm a junior in college, and I believe I am the future. So I take care of my body, and I have a healthy aversion for liquid fat.
...what cracks me up is the 'TREE HUGGERS' are usually 'VEGETARIANS'???? Hahaha LoLLL, I just don't get it.
Seems very hypocritical. :0)
Come on! America is about wants, not needs. THAT is what makes us great.
Beef, pork and chicken are further processed grain, corn, grass, etc. They should be on everyone's plate.
I did not spend half a million years clawing my way to the top of the food chain to eat tofu and bean sprouts. Chicken fried steak – FOTG FTW.
Another person who is angered with the idea of "animal products". "Animal Products" have been integral to the survival of out species. Yes, in America we waste too much of most animals, a lot is sold over-seas though, so not as much is wasted in the production as in what we purchase at the store/butcher.
JessK and all of you misguided folk, If you are so anti-animal product then why don't you do something about it other than whining on CNN and maybe holding signs somewhere shouting like a fool wasting your energy. There are many more important social issues for you guys to take a stand on before you take up the mantle of attacking meat-eaters!
Then definitely don't ever eat anything in Louisiana that doesn't come in a bag with golden arches on it. Sad, too... you're missing out.
Just what do you think that the entire human race ate for approximately the first 99.99% of its existence? You have too many calories at your disposal. You should go hungry for a few months / years / generations. Then you'll realize that there's more to food than just the flavorless chicken breast and refined flour.
I am not a neanderthal. I have progressed beyond that. Moderation is a good diet, not going vegan.
Good, it'll leave the good stuff to the rest of us. Go have a soy latte and feel better about yourself.
Good, pass all you want and leave them for people who appreciate good eats.
Good!! Go chew on a carrot.
My grandmother gave me a wealth of cringe-worthy Jello monstrosity recipes. GramsRecipeBox.com. They are at times hilarious and heinous.
You must have waited a long time for a jello article so that you could plug your site. :)
LMAO!
No one mentioned Collard Greens, Blackeyed Peas, both cooked with the drippings of smoked hog jowl fried in a black skillet. Most people eat it for good luck on New Years day. We eat it whenever we darn well please..
Oh my gosh! I've been waiting my whole adult life for independent corroboration on the Southern New Year's good luck dinner. No one believes me that we ate hog jowl, greasy greens and black eyed peas and called it dinner. I absolutely remember my mom holding a jaw full of hog teeth in both hands while chomping on the cheek meat.