summary:
Cooking and eating, eating and cooking - a southern cook tells all!
I’M A GOOD COOK CAUSE I’M AN EX-X-XCELLENT EATER!
By
Anne McKee
“OK”, so I admit it! I cook to eat instead of eating to cook, or something like that and yes, I’m definitely a “dynamite cook”! My family does enjoy my special dishes but probably not nearly as much as I do; but then everyone has their favorites. That would be true in all families, I’m sure.
I had never really thought too much on my two son’s favorite meals that I prepare until a couple of years ago I was making scrambled eggs for sandwiches for breakfast. My oldest son and his four-year-old daughter were visiting that morning and as I followed my usual routine for the eggs my son asked, “How do you get the eggs to roll over in such a perfect line?” As I considered an answer for him, I realized, I had made eggs for my taste preference, which also made them my families taste preference, too. There’s nothing better than a scrambled egg cooked in butter and rolled over and over to make the world’s best-scrambled egg sandwich, nothing!
Well….maybe a couple of things better. Let’s see I can’t leave out my Sunday pot roast while plugging my culinary attributes. You see it’s also “world famous” or I like to think it could be if given the right promotion (around the world, of course) - ten-n-nder and the gravy is to die for!
And what’s a “world-famous” pot-roast without homemade, from scratch mashed potatoes, hmm, hmm, good! Now pair that up with fresh string beans, home made mayonnaise rolls, now don’t say ugh until you’ve tried by version of the rolls – yummy, yummy!! Throw in a seven-layer salad topped off with my very own salad dressing creation then prepare to “slap yo Momma”! Not me, of course - but your Momma.
Oh, silly me, how about the dessert you ask? Of course there’s dessert, don’t forget my motto, “I’m a good cook cause I’m an excellent eater!” Hold on to your hat cause for dessert there’s no better pecan pie than mine with the recipe directly from my Granny.
Dear Granny Brooks grew up her own pecan trees, picked up her own pecans, shelled them up and cleaned them up to cook them up, and then we all just ate them up!! There have never been any better pecan pies on the face of this earth than my Granny’s!
And I’m no slouch in the Italian cuisine, either! I just call mine “Southern Italian” cause I usually tone down the spices somewhat and throw in some extra cheese along with my homemade tomato relish. The ultimate test was when our old Navy friends from Jersey drove through our hometown and took an Italian meal with us, that I had prepared, and asked for MY recipes!
Mexican is one of my favorites, too! Actually I’m not a finicky eater you may have noticed but when I decide to cook south of the border all I have to do is call our good church friends, the Stacey’s with these words, “Senora and Senorita Stacey, are you available for supper tonight at our house?” They come a running with sombreros in hand
and a big “Si! Si!” on their lips!
I can’t finish this, “gosh I love to eat” narrative without including the family reunions of my life. Banana puddings, fried apple pies, pineapple upside down cake, apple cobbler, oh how scrumptious and delightful and of course high calories and high carbs, the higher the better, after all - THIS IS a family reunion!
I suppose I should share with you a main fact behind my “gosh I love to eat” success. You see, when I was eight years old my Momma took me downtown to the Threefoot Building in my home town of Meridian to visit old Dr. Hackett Bennett. Momma complained to the Doctor “she just couldn’t get me to eat.” Dr. Bennett prescribed a tonic. It was a dark, syrupy concoction with the taste of turpentine and the smell of burnt hair but boy did it work! I have never missed a meal since that time!
To sum up this gut wrenching of food confessions I will quote a couple of analogies. If you can picture a pilot who loves to fly in the sky, the higher the better, or an ocean diver who is overwhelmed by the love of the sea then fix your attention to a Momma who eats to cook or better yet cooks to eat – that would be me!
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