Anybody remember the series Grace Under Fire (starring Brett Butler as Grace before she imploded)? In one episode Grace’s ex-father-in-law has a heart attack in her house, which her ex-mother-in-law (played by the great Peggy Rea) dismissed as indigestion with the line:
“I’m not surprised he’s sick. Grace doesn’t use enough grease in her cookin’. You’ve gotta use grease cause that’s what makes the food go down. Just science…”
I’ve mentioned the story of my mother and the George Foreman Grill before I’m pretty sure, but if not or for those who haven’t read it her favorite feature of it was “the way it catches the drippins…” which she’d then pour back over the meat before serving.
In retrospect, I’m inclined to say that the comment is triflin’. Obviously, if scrambledeggs had actually ever eaten Southern cookin’, he/she would know better. Poor thing prolly never even had a real biscuit. Truth be told, biscuits made from lard are much superior to those made with shortening - just bad for your arteries is all.
And what self respecting [del]southerner[/del] cook of any geo-ethnic heritage cooks with canned vegetables other than as a matter of necessity or expedience?
I use flour with just a bit of cornmeal cause I like the little crunch the cornmeal makes. Ummmmmmm… how to describe it… just enough to make it all gooey. Also I fry it in small batches in just enough oil to cover the bottom of the skillet. The trick is to keep what you’ve already cooked warm while the next batch is cookin’. I let the oil heat up, fry a small batch, add a little more oil, heat it up, fry a small batch. It’s some work but trust me it’s worth it.
Are y’all sitting down? I used my flour/cornstarch/baking powder, (Mrs. Plant hid the Clabber Girl) sliced the okra with some onion. I had no green tomato or pepper on hand. Mrs. Plant, Who Isn’t From Around Here, ate three pieces! She liked it. We ate it with a $6.00 T Bone, baked potaotes and stewed yellow squash. I owe you a beer or whatever you drink over there, Swampbear.
Yay! Mama Jean’s was a true hole in the wall on Palmyra Road but moved over to Slappey Blvd. a couple of years before it closed. I loved Mama Jean’s.
carnivorousplant glad y’all liked it. You really should try it with green tomato and banana pepper. I’ve had people refuse to eat fried okra any other way after eatin’ my okra. Oh, and a beer would be nice.
Ever been to the Ramada Inn in Americus? The thing I missed most about Americus was their lunch buffet. It’s obviously not as atmospherically pleasant as the Windsor’s dining room (where the Indian chef sauteed butterbeans in the shell that were great) but as far as “artery clogging goodness” they had the best fried everythings and country vegetables I had in Georgia. (Only downside was the time that, after avoiding them for 32 years, I ate chitlin’s there, not realizing what they were— worst part of it: the realization that they arent’ that bad.)
While I’m sure it exists I’ve yet to find any really good barbecue in SoWeGa though. (For that matter, when I lived in Albenny I never found anything that looked older than the 1930s even though the city’s supposedly a century older, plus one mile in the country any direction and I expected to run into Yoda levitating an old El Camino from a swamp and groaning “Fucking annoying these mosquitoes are! And lake my ass on the sign they can call it, a swamp this is!”
I do it my own self…I don’t like having to get cleaned up, dressed, drive somewhere and wait in a damn line before having my biscuits and gravy; that’s just bassackwards, IMHO.
You just take some White Lily and… :smack: :smack: :smack: well, shit, they done fucked up White Lily, gottdamnit!
Southern food, when it’s good, it’s very, very good; when it’s bad, it’s horrid. You have to do it right.
That restaurant (and she-crab soup) is the only thing I miss from South Carolina. There’s one in Atlantic Beach, FL, and Ivylad is going to take me there for dinner one day.
