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| "Me" and "Mom" in the kitchen (haha!) |
I always feel kind of dumb when I fill-out "about me" information; however, I feel that my recipe blog is somewhat different. Who I am in relation to my cooking has practically everything to do with what I cook, how I cook, what I like to cook, and so on. So, I thought I would share a little bit about my "cooking history," if you will.
My mom has always been very generous with her kitchen. For example, when I was seven, I insisted on frying my own eggs (which I'm pretty sure required me to stand on a chair in front of the stove), and my mother was nothing but supportive of my eagerness. Mom has never discouraged my culinary endeavors, even when I was very young, and I grew up being able to make anything I wanted--so long as I cleaned up the mess. So while growing up, thanks to my mom, I have always had the freedom I needed in the kitchen to experiment, and in the meantime, learned a lot about what to do in the kitchen, and
a lot about what
not to do. One year, for instance, I made my parents a celebration cake for their anniversary and took great pains to decorate it. (I think I was 11.) It wasn't until after we had cut it, and began to eat, that it was determined I must have accidentally used baking soda instead of baking powder (and if you know much about cooking, you know just about how
that turned out)! Needless to say that ever since then, I always pay close attention to whether a recipe calls for soda or baking powder and to how much.
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| Granny--my gorgeous grandmother and idol, Hattie |
I have to say, though, that my real, deep-down love for cooking comes from my grandmothers, whom I adore. Food has always been a special part of my relationship with both my grandmothers, and has always been a part of some special memories I have of them. When I was very young, I remember waking up to the smell of hotdogs frying in a cast-iron skillet at Granny and Papaw's and to buttermilk biscuits baking in a hot oven. Later, as a teenager, I walked to Mom-ma's after school and was greeted at the door by the warm smell of gingerbread or brownies baking. Nobody (sorry, Mom!) makes anything as good as Granny or Mom-ma (well, maybe with the exception of a couple of my great-aunts; but then again, they
do share the same DNA...), but I have always been fascinated with trying to. I guess you could say the cooking standards against which I measure all others are those belonging to both my grandmothers.
Most cooks are known for their "signature" dishes. Granny and Mom-ma are no exception to this rule. For example, everyone always
loved Granny's cornbread and biscuits. (Partly because she made them differently from anyone else in the history of mankind, I'm sure...) And anyone that has eaten Mom-ma's biscuits, or gingerbread, or shucky beans,
or chicken and dumplings, will tell you that they are the best they ever ate--or at least as good as the best they ever ate. I have spent many Thanksgivings foundering myself at Granny's table, and many hours copying her handwritten recipes into my own recipe book (we even had matching ones!). I have even sat at the kitchen table and taken notes while I watched her cook. And every Sunday growing up, Mom-ma would fix dinner, and we would be treated to fried chicken, biscuits, shucky beans, gingerbread or the one-and-only Reynolds Family Layer Cake.
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| Mom-ma: my beautiful grandmother and hero, Lannie |
It seems that cooking is becoming a lost art; with all the pre-made frozen foods, the convenience of fast food restaurants and the rush-rush-rush of everyday life, fewer and fewer people (especially young people) are cooking on a regular basis. It actually seems that not many people my own age even know
how to cook, and even fewer are interested in it. I think it's kind of sad, actually, because people are abandoning tradition, neglecting to learn relevant life-skills, and foregoing many excellent memory-making opportunities by not having a good, homemade meal ever so often. (Do people even really have sit-down family meals together anymore?)
I'm very fortunate to have had the excellent, culinary role-models I did while growing up, and very thankful for all the wonderful food-related memories I have of them. I guess part of the personal appeal of my recipe blog is to be able to share good food with others, so they can make their own happy memories. After all, I can't imagine having grown-up with no left-over cornbread on Granny's counter top, or without any brownies or gingerbread on Mom-ma's table.
