Grandma’s Kitchen BOW block #10 of 25

This week’s Grandma’s Kitchen block of the week by Pat Sloan is called Recipe Box and our stories are supposed to reflect that subject. I do not recall either Mammaw Cooper or Ma Neal ever using a written recipe but I still consider them two of the best cooks. Our meals consisted of things we grew or items we traded for.

I remember big bowls of gravy served with hot biscuits and fresh eggs gathered the previous day for breakfast. Dinner (served around noon) was usually the biggest meal of the day. We always had some kind of potatoes, either fried, mashed, or baked and a big pot of pinto beans and cornbread with freshly churned butter. Other vegetables would be whatever was ready in the garden. It could be corn, green beans, cole slaw, cooked cabbage, sliced tomatoes or a number of other vegetables. Lunch preparation was started as soon as breakfast was over because it took a few hours to cook pinto beans, green beans, soups or stews.

Supper was the last meal of the day and it was usually leftovers or a pot of homemade soup. There was no snacking or fast food between meals or after supper was served but I don’t remember ever being hungry. In the winter we ate stuff we canned or put up during the summer. For meat we killed a couple of hogs in the winter and we had chickens that had quit laying eggs or roosters. Each time I make chicken and dumplings or fried chicken I think about how lucky I am now that I can get chicken from the store instead of the hen house. 🙂

Thanks for visiting and reading about the ‘olden days.’