Since I started writing on Blind Pig and The Acorn back in 2008 I’ve realized how common it is to tie our memories and feelings to the very food we eat.
Many of my most popular posts are related to food. For many years the most visited post I’d ever written was how to make old timey pear preserves.
Somewhere along the way a dear sweet lady told me with her husband’s urging she’d been looking for a pear preserves recipe like his mother made for years. She said when she made the recipe I shared he sat and ate the first jar with tears running down his face. The taste of the preserves brought his mother, who had been gone for many years, right into the room with him as if she was the one who set the jar on the table.
Folks have shared similar stories with me on the food videos I’ve made over the last two years.
It’s an amazing thing to study on, how food can become so entwined into our being that it not only feeds our body but also our soul.
So many times I’ve heard folks say they grew up poor with not much to eat other than cornbread and beans or some variation of them. They swore when they were grown they’d never eat the things they were forced to, but once they achieved the ability to choose from a wide variety of foods they wanted the things they ate as a child even though they once associated them with deprivation.
There are certain foods that take me back to being a child sitting at Granny and Pap’s kitchen table and others that take me to my grandmothers’ capable cooking hands. I can’t relegate all of my food connections to family though, because the currents run to friends and community members too.
I’ve been blessed to always have ample food set before me to nourish my body and my very soul and I’m beyond thankful for that.
Today’s Thankful November giveaway is a free download of my eCookbook Favorite Recipes from Appalachia. Leave a comment on this post to be entered. *Giveaway ends December 2, 2022.
Last night’s video: Thanksgiving 2022 at Celebrating Appalachia – It was a Good One!
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I love your stories and recipes from your Appalachian heritage and would like to receive the cookbook. My family roots go back to Monroe County of Eastern Tennessee where my Divine family were early pioneers of that region. We are lucky to have recovered the original hand-carved fieldstone gravestone of the the original Divine (Thomas Divine) who brought our family line to America and who settled in Monroe County. Thomas Divine died in 1844, and is buried in Big Creek Cemetery in the Ball Play area of the county. The story of the recovery of the original gravestone is too long and convoluted to relate here, but the gravestone now resides next to our fireplace. A story for another time!
Here I am late to comment, but I just was able to sit down and watch your Family Thanksgiving on my TV last night. It was wonderful!
My Mother was a fantastic cook, especially old timey cooking. Watching you cook gravy, green beans, cornbread, and pinto beans, looks just like Mother stepped into your kitchen. I asked my youngest son what was the most delicious Thanksgiving dish that he looked forward to for Thanksgiving. Without hesitating he said, “Cornbread Dressing!” To me it was the same, probably because I only make it for Thanksgiving and Christmas. When we ate it this Thanksgiving, he said, Mom, this is the best Cornbread Dressing! I felt the same way. It tasted just like Mother’s moist Cornbread Dressing:)
We ate soup beans every week growing up I’m the baby of 10 kids with only 7 surviving when I was about 4 or 5 I wanted to help make soup beans so mom let me pick em and rinse em and soak em overnight then rinse em again then put them in a pot and put the water on it and salt and pepper and some fat back and I put the pot on the box heater in the living room and that’s where I cook them and all day I would lift the lid off the small pot make sure my beans were okay put the lid back on and let them cook I swear they were the best soup beans ever
Just like so many others, I’ve copied your recipes ever since I started reading. And I’m already planning to get a copy of your and Jim Casada’s cookbook just as soon as it’s published. For the past upteen years (say 10 or 12 ’cause I can’t really remember), you’ve been a breath of fresh air and fond memories of this six-year-old taking a walk with Aunt Ferrie in the forests around East Gastonia in the late 1940s. Or sitting on the back stoop snapping beans or shucking corn (my one to Aunt Marcene’s and Aunt Berlie Mae’s dozen or two). I can’t get back to North Carolina now, but you give me a trip back home with every post you make. And that’s what I’m thankful for this holiday season.
My Dear Tipper, I am new to your podcasts and words of wisdom. A co-worker suggested I look you up and see what you have to say. Tonight I have listened to your frying up some corn and fixing some streak-a-lean as I worked around the house after work. I enjoyed you quizzing your daughters on the Appalachian words. I was raised by my grandparents, my grandmother was born in 1905, my grandfather 1895, and I didn’t know we were poor until I started school. We were rich in family and watching you the last few days and listening to you, I think you would have fit ine in our family. My grandparents raised 9 children, my mom. the youngest of the 9 is still living, she turned 85 in September. Good people, who remember where they came from, remember that wae came from dust and to dust we will return, remember the hardships of the women and men who came before us are few. I believe you are one of these God fearing ladies and I salute you for what you have done and for what you are doing . I believe the time is coming that if we don’t know how to take care of ourselves and prepare for what is to come, we are going to be surprised at how quickly our world is turned upside down. You have a lovely family and are a blessing to many. Blessings to you…I look forward to learning from you.
Nema
I surely do enjoy your cooking videos and would love a copy of your ecookbook Favorite Recipes from Appalachia.
We rarely had sweets to eat other than Sorghum Syrup on biscuits when I was growing up. Therefore, whenever we visited my mother’s sister, which was often, she made her Apple Stack Cake for us, it was always a special treat. I remember watching her bake the thin cake layers in her wood stove while she cooked the dried apples when I was eight years old. But, I never knew the recipe. So thankful that you, Tipper, shared it on your blog”. Winning your ebook recipe book would be great.
(The backstory to my childhood is when I was six years old, my father was killed in an accident on the West Coast. That caused my widowed mother along with my four brothers, with one on the way; and, me to move back to “your neck of the woods” where I grew up. Mother raised us by feeding us fresh vegetables from her garden in the summer. We ate soup beans and cornbread mostly every day during the winter along with her canned green beans. Those are precious memories, and I, now, feel blessed to have grown up in “God’s Country” in Western North Carolina).
Thank you for sharing your Thanksgiving with all of us.
When i was a kid my mom and her sisters (great cooks all) started making a bakeless fruit cake from a base of graham cracker crumbs. Several years ago my bride said we’d make one if i would help. Boy did i find out how hard it is to make! Now a lady in our church makes them every year and she told me she’d make us one along with all of hers if i’d buy the ingredients (expensive). Yummy! Heat milk, melt in marshallows, knead all together, add candied fruits, nuts, whatever you choose then set up to season.
I’d give my right arm to have my Gram’s pot roast dinner. Whenever I would come home on college break she would want to have me over for dinner & that was my #1 request. Luckily, we always grew up with enough food. Some folks are not lucky enough to have plenty & some have a skewed sense of a good relationship with food. I grew up with a mother that treats food like a punishment, instead of the nourishing thing (physical & mental) that it is. Many members of my mother’s family connote food with a lack of self control/fat and that is a hard thing to grow up under. Fortunately, I have learned a healthy balance & grew much more appreciative of food once I started growing it myself. It is a lot of hard work to put a good meal on the table, no matter how humble the ingredients! My paternal grandmother showed her love with food, but my mother often would not allow us to accept. I know this hurt my grandmother deeply, when we weren’t even allowed to have something so simple as a peanut butter sandwich at her house. I am glad that my kids have had a different upbringing & can be ‘treated’ by others without feeling guilty! Especially as a lot of readers have pointed out that food can trigger many other wonderful, loving memories. Its hard to have been cheated out of that. In all things moderation (except when it comes to pot roast, then have all you want).
There is nothing better than sitting around the table sharing food and memories with the ones you love. It’s a time to remember those who are no longer with you and making memories for those who are coming after. Thank you, Tipper, for your wonderful insights that apply to all of us not just ones who live in Appalachia.
My father was born in rural Ohio in 1936. The oldest of 6 kids. They had to learn at an early age about working hard to put food on the table. These stories of Appalachia remind me of the stories he tells me of when he was young.
I don’t think I can add anything to what has already been said today but it’s so true that food brings us close to the ones we love and the ones we have lost. Thanksgiving morning, my husband said, “it smells just like your mama’s kitchen in here.” That’s because I always make her homemade cornbread dressing among other things that I only do on Thanksgiving and Christmas. I was blessed to learn from her and hope to pass it on to my granddaughters.
Food memories are often shared when our family gathers. Some recipes evolve as family tastes change; but one that hasn’t changed through the years is the “Granny Pickles” which must be on the table at every family get-to-gether.
Some recipes vary as the ingredients available change. For instance, I always made apple pies with wines as & Granny Smith apples. We have very rarely if ever found winesaps in these parts for over 30 years – even the Granny Smiths taste different – and the older generation has noticed.
Quantities in ” a package” or a “can” change & through our recipes off.
Bur we adapt and make new memories with new tastes and smells.
Thanks for all the reminiscences you stir up!
I enjoy your writings. Would love to have & share the cookbook, with friends & family.
I love to read your stories and watch your videos. They are so uplifting. The interactions you have with your family is so much a blessing.
I’d love to have the e-cookbook! I recently started making your whipping cream biscuits and they are a hit around here! I decided to make them for Thanksgiving at my parents and inlaws this year instead of buying rolls like I usually do. I’ve never quite got the hang of making lard & buttermilk biscuits and these are so easy, it’s true what you said about it being hard to mess them up because if anyone could…it would be me. I ended up having to make another batch for my husband because the leftovers we anticipated didn’t happen…everyone liked them so much they wanted to keep them lol
Tipper, recently I watched the Thanksgiving video you did for 2021 as well as the latest one. I so enjoyed both of them and they reminded me so much of our Thanksgivings with Dad and Mom. She was a wonderful cook and baker and we knew without fail she would have her dressing, wonderful pumpkin pies, (she always said her mixture needed to taste like ice cream) and her cranberry salad. After such a rich and filling meal that cranberry salad was so citrusy and refreshing. This year I used her recipes and made both. What memories each bite brought to mind.
When I was watching your 2021 Thanksgiving video one thing that I especially enjoyed was Matt sitting in the living room sharpening a knife on his wet stone just like my dad always did. And I’ve always thought Matt was so quite with little to say again just like dad. So I was delighted to hear him share the story of how you obtained the cast iron pot and lid. I had previously heard you tell the story but hearing Matt go on and on was really nice. He should talk more in your videos.
When I was a child we never had a lot but we always had plenty of food on the table. Dad raised a huge garden which he shared with all of our friends and neighbors and of course he hunted and would butcher a hog each fall. He and Mom put up lots of fruits and vegetables and filled their big stone jars with kraut, pickle bean, salt pickles, etc.
We loved moms soup beans and corn bread. Dad preferred Navy beans or Great Northerns but mom never ate a bean she didn’t love so we also had others just less often.
I enjoyed your story of the lady who hated to eat beans as the week went on and they became thicker and thicker. We seldom every had leftovers in our big family but on the occasions when there were soup beans left with more broth than beans mom would mix up her delicious drop noodles using only flour, eggs, salt and pepper. Sometimes she’d use up to 18 eggs. She would spoon teaspoons of the dough into the boiling bean broth and make the most flavorful and filling pot for supper.
Tipper, I would love to have your book of recipes and I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
I love reading stories of your family get togethers with food. Every year i use several of my old family recipes especially during the holidays… even my great grandmothers roll recipe which may even have been older as my great grandmother passed with my grandma was only 3…she learned it from her older sisters as she wasn’t old enough at the time but they were..and it was handed down mother to daughter… we have things like “granny saray’s dinner rolls” “granny nellie’s tater salad” “papaw bud’s peanut butter candy” “mommy Wanda’s apple butter” etc…
your cookbook would be an amazing collection to pull from to add to my special recipes…
This was a good topic Tipper. We all love to eat, and we have to eat to live. One of my favorite memory foods is a plate of fried arsh taters, turnip greens, soup beans, corn bread, and a big slice of onion. God provides us with such a wonderful bounty. I’m glad your Thanksgiving was so good and ours was a very blessed Thanksgiving also. Keep up the good work, you are doing a fine job dear friend.
Tipper–A sort of side road or extension to your post is the way that certain dishes, recipes, or traditions become deeply ingrained in family lore. I never look back (with great longing, I might add) to Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings of the paternal side of my family without a few culinary wonders coming to mind. Among them were Grandma Minnie’s stack cake, Momma’s applesauce cake, the baked hens that had been cackling in Grandpa Joe’s chicken lot just a day or two earlier, Aunt Emma’s orange slice cake, soup beans with fried streaked meat and cornbread as sides, fried pies, and more. Food associations are powerful and enduring ones.
My wife and I enjoy your cooking videos and she has used several of your recipes. I dried a bunch of apples from our orchard this summer and am nudging my wife toward a stack cake for us soon. We would like to have your cookbook download, and are looking forward to getting the printed cookbook you’re working on with Jim Casita.
I sure enjoy your recipes! I’ve enjoyed fixing several of them!! Thank you!
I still remember my Grandmothers breakfasts she made us when we visited and miss her and those delicious breakfasts.
I would love a copy of your cookbook. I love those old recipes like Grandma used to make
Yes, memories do come flooding back when certain foods are eaten or discussed or just come to mind all on their own. The smell of coffee, hot biscuits with butter and molasses or cane syrup or chocolate soppin sauce. Pear preserves and peach preserves are my favorites. I still make homemade jellies and preserves. Blueberry, blackberry, scuppernong, strawberry, peach, pear and fig. All is right with the world when you sit down to a plate of hot biscuits with butter and any preserve or home made jelly. Oh and dried beans of any kind and cornbread with sorghum syrup and butter, wow I am getting hungry. Watching and reading your blog brings back so many memories and I am thankful for you.
Wonderful insight on the food feeding our body and our soul. So true! I really enjoy your stories and would love to win the cookbook.
Randy, you need one of the old time percolators to get a really good smell of the coffee Mom used to make, that was the first thing I noticed when I woke up.
Tipper, I would love to have a copy of your book, however, I probably hand-wrote nearly all of the recipes you have ever posted on here. They are neatly arranged in a one-gallon zippered bag that is labeled Tipper’s Recipes. The most loved by my family is the Dandelion Jelly recipe. The biggest hit with my women’s group was Aunt Fay’s Chocolate Pie. My favorite is your recipe for chocolate frosting. The day you posted that recipe, I rushed to copy it so that it didn’t disappear for another fifty years. Mom made the same frosting when I was at home and put it on a simple yellow cake just like Pap’s favorite. When I used to ask around for that recipe, none of my older cousins knew how to make it. Now I do! It is handwritten in a variety of places that won’t be hard to find after I am gone.
My mom made the best pot roast with potatoes and carrots! The next day she would use the leftovers to make hash for breakfast or supper. So good! She was an excellent baker too. I have her recipe box and I think of her everytime I see it, which is everyday because it sits on top of our microwave. Hugs to you and yours Tipper❣️
We used to joke that we had beans and potatoes one day and potatoes and beans the next as a variation. Our church had a Thanksgiving meal and I came away with the ham bone. I’ve been enjoying pintos cooked with it all week. When I was a kid I knew to get extra stove wood in when the bean bowl got low because mom would be cooking some more. Later I began ‘looking’ the beans the night before and soaking them overnight. They cook a lot faster that way and save a lot of stove wood.
Strange and marvelous how the threads of our childhood are woven into us as adults. That story of crying over pear preserves is actually one with the Mom crying on the Detroit fire escape; each feeling a tugging on childhood threads. They are examples of how we just never quite understand how we are “fearfully and wonderfully made”. We adults though do have the advantage of knowing that is how it shall be and can work at giving children and grandchildren those threads.
My mother died when I was just 3 years old, and my two younger brothers and I were raised by our paternal grandparents. Mama was a wonderful cook and while we were poor, we didn’t always have everything we wanted we had pretty much everything we needed. Her meals were sometimes sparce and though we didn’t always like them they were sustaining and brought back loving memories in my adult years, and I was able to recreate them to some degree. All her recipes were in her head. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday as it is centered around the family and not commercial gift giving. Food does bring families and sweet memories together.
Food memories sure do bind my 6 siblings and me. Our momma was a great scratch cook, turning simple good ingredients into delicious meals.
I feel blessed to have learned from her. I’m excited about the chance to win your cookbook.
I’ve read that scientists tried to understand more about this phenomenon and found that the smell of certain food instantly provides ‘recall’ into the recesses of our brains. It jumps over time to associate a particular smell with a particular incident quickly and easily as if a light is turned on. A cold day and a large cold sugar cookie instantly takes me back to my Dad coming home from work with a treat for us. The wife of one of his co-workers had no children but loved to cook and made sugar cookies for us brought home by Dad inside his icy cold lunchbox – they worked outside and in the winter everything was cold up in Wisconsin. I can smell the cookie and feel the cold lunch box and remember Dad reaching out with his prize for us. Today, cold and sugar cookies take me back to the times Dad came home and made us smile.
Food and family memories for sure, but kitchen items as well. I have had Mama’s turkey platter for 50 years; who knows how long she had it before? There’s no markings on the bottom to identify.
Thanksgiving is especially a time for remembering special foods. Rutabaga is one for both my husband and I. Traditional for sure each year we have been married. Thanks for the reminder!
I can’t add much to what has been shared, amen.
I have your email book of recipes and I simply cherish it! Can’t wait for your other recipe book to come out, please let us know if it will be available to pre-order it! Kitchen memories are the closest to my heart and the easiest to remember. My sister and I started supper after school before my parents got home from work (my mom worked very little but a few times) and we often got the fried potatoes on. This was before my brother was born so I would’ve been 9yrs old peeling and frying potatoes (knives and hot grease!) I taught my boys to cook YOUNG, but I don’t think knives or hot grease was involved at 9 yrs old without me present that is….haha
I think back to my childhood, we grew up poor with a lot of beans and cornbread. it took a while in my adult life but I’m now to the point where I really enjoy them again. you are right about food veining into everything. I feel like all we do at church is eat but I enjoy the fellowship. I am looking forward to your cookbook coming out. I do plan on buying it!
I really enjoy watching you cook. It’s like sitting in a friend’s kitchen while they prepare their favorite foods. The stories about your memories of your childhood are always intertwined with family and friends and of course, the wonderful food that you and many of us also enjoyed and still enjoy. I always looks forward to your video each day.
Food has always been a big thing in our family for gatherings both happy and sad. My mom loved to celebrate any occasion. She made special meals for all our birthdays, school graduations, weddings, anniversaries, holidays, just any reason to celebrate. She not only made special foods, but decorated for each special event. Nothing fancy, but just enough to make the day feel special. I truly miss how special and exciting she made our family gatherings. I tried to do the same until my daughter got married and since my son in-laws family was bigger they spent the holidays with his family. They still came over, but we always had to pick a different day to celebrate the holidays. After years of always having to rearrange our family plans, I just stopped going all out like my mom did. I’m just thankful we can get together with my daughter and her family, whenever we can, because that’s what’s important.
So many of our memories center around food. I still remember Grandma’s stack cake. It’s the only dessert I remember Grandma making. It was so good. Mom made the best bread pudding, chicken dumplings and turkey dressing. My husband still brags on her dressing and I’ve just about got it down pat, but I dont think it will ever be as good as hers.
I would love to have your wonderful cookbook. I have the one from JCCFS and I know you taught cooking classes there. I remember my mother canning when I was a little girl (almost 70 years ago!) and I think that is part of why I love to can. The jars of beautiful food representing my garden and the nostalgia from knowing my mother would be proud of me make me so happy.
Thank you for all you do!!!
Food memories are special to me and my siblings. The fried chicken and pumpkin chiffon pie our mama made have never been truly replicated even by good cooks in the family. Thoughts of these dishes always brings my mama back to me.
I really liked reading all the responses you got this morning and I’m shocked to see how people equate good and bad memories and times to food. I know what is to have plenty and I know what it is to be in want but I do know in ALL things I praise my Lord!!! I know some folks who refuse to eat leftovers or pinto beans and all I can say is AINT that special!!!????
I agree with you about the connection food has to our memories. I’m so thankful for your blog and utube channel. Watching you cook, garden and your everyday life takes me back to my time spent with Granny and Papaws. Thank you for all you do. Have a blessed day.
Like so many comments, I remember pinto beans and cornbread with relish on top. Fudge and chocolate cake were special treats.
Mary
I love your channel so so much. Hard to put into words. Your family, your story, your history is precious, thank you.
My sis and I were just discussing something my mom used to cook when we were growing up. It was confusing because Mom called them ‘’Bird Eye’’beans, but later on I learned they were bagged ands sold as Yelloweye beans. The food and memories are all mixed up together, and some food just naturally conjures up memories of sitting around the table in our childhood home. We also discussed how it was sometimes common in those days to call anything by its brand or trade name. We remembered how the refrigerator was referred to as a Frigidaire by many. I still have an old friend who refers to his Frigidaire no matter the brand.
This makes me wonder how this generation will tie food with memories since so many now do drive through for meals. Our meals were always at the table in real plates, and I sure gained a lot of dish washing experience. I tried to use the “soaking” excuse to put the dishwashing off for awhile. I am so grateful to you, Tipper, for this blog that shows the uniqueness of our Appalachian heritage. It has even made the bond between myself and my sister stronger. We share memories our children cannot understand. We can laugh and talk for hours about what it was like growing up here. Yesterday I was trying to describe a neighbor, and I said that she just seemed like “somebody.” We enjoy it so much when we realize we have pulled some expression or word out of the long ago past.
I remember my family calling a refrigerator a Frigidaire. Some tools I can think of are an adjustable wrench (Crescent wrench) channel lock pliers (slip joint pliers) or Skil saw ( circular saw).
I love the food from my childhood so much especially my mom’s stack cake. I would love to win your cookbook.
this is a gift I would love! I went to Merciers and bought apples Saturday, I have been looking for the recipe you posted for Apple Stack Cake ever since. Please share it again.
Sheryl-here’s the recipe: https://blindpigandtheacorn.com/apple-stack-cake-2/ Hope you enjoy!!
Every breakfast was a hot cereal, mostly oatmeal. On special occasions we had Coco Wheats. What a treat.
I enjoy your videos on Utube! I’m still wanting to make the mixed fruit cake.
Hi Janice, my name is Janice Lee McCall (Lee is my maiden name). Nice to meet you. I make Friendship Cake. That’s what I call the pass-along fruit cake. I’ve been following Tipper since 2009. First thing I read each day is BPATA.
For me, I think it was coffee. My grandmother got up at the crack of dawn, before daylight, and the first thing I’d smell when I first woke up was the smell of Eight-O-Clock coffee, from A&P of course, perking in the kitchen. She always kept it in the refrigerator and I loved to open the container and smell the grounds. My MawMaw always said coffee should be enjoyed hot, but I think what she really meant is it should be consumed while still boiling. And, if MawMaw did it, I could do it, too!
It’s been many moons since I got to spend the night in grandma’s house and enjoy her piping hot coffee but sometimes, when I least expect it, I’ll get up at the crack of dawn and put a single-shot cup of coffee on to drip and the aromas will waft through my house and suddenly, it’s as if I’m transported back in time and I’m back at MawMaw’s house again! What a treat!
Thank you for the opportunity to win this. I was just looking at it last night on Etsy! I really enjoy watching you cook.
I remember the fig preserves from my aunt that I would eat on my buttered biscuit. Good memories
Deviled eggs sprinkled w/ paprika and homemade Christmas sugar cookies always brings back memories of my mother.
As a kid I can remember times when there food no in the house when I lived with my mother. After moving in with our dad, there was always food in the house and plenty of it. Dad didn’t always cook from scratch, but those recipes he did make from scratch were so good. On weekends he would cook a steak, ham steak, hamburgers or chicken on the grill. He also made a fruit cocktail cake that was so moist and delicious. His mom, my grandma, was a wonderful cook as well and she did mainly scratch cooking. She had so many recipes in her memory, she made the best homemade noodles and dumplins, yeast rolls, mashed potatoes, pies and other desserts. Because of watching her cook like she did I mainly cook from scratch as well. Box mixes are good in a pinch, but making it from scratch is so much better. Food is always tied to good and bad times. I’m thankful to live in an area where there is plenty of food and I have the ability to preserve the food we grow in our garden.
I never went hungry when growing up. We always had something to eat, but it was food that we had grown. The meat would be pork from a hog and chickens we raised, rabbit or squirrel, very seldom any beef. Eating a hot dog was a special occasion. I laugh about this but it is the truth, I was about 17 years old and in high school before I ever tasted or knew what pizza was and I wouldn’t eat pepperoni because I thought it was pepper. Two favorite foods to eat when growing up was fried fatback or side meat, gravy and biscuits for breakfast and mother’s citron preserves made from volunteer citrons that would back each year. I like a lot of today’s food but still love the food I grew up eating. The was always a lot of food that we had grown and mother had either canned, frozen or dried.
Randy, I accidentally put my reply to Martha Justice! Daddy told us that when he got his first ice cream cone he didn’t know whether or not he was supposed to eat the cone. When I first had shrimp, I ate tail and all!
I suppose my favorite food memory from my childhood was chicken and dumplings. No one could match my mother’s . Everytime we get-together at church there’s one lady who always brings them and they are delicious but they are not my mothers. I seldom make them myself because I ‘m always disappointed with how they turn out. My children think they are the best ever but I know better. My Daddy’s favorite was sweet potatoes anyway you fix them. After Mama died he cooked for himself and he always had sweet potatoes of some form handy. After he died I found several wrapped in th freezer just waiting to be thawed and eaten whenever he wanted one. Thanks for your hard work on the BPATA.
My daddy told us that the first time he got an ice cream cone he didn’t know whether to eat the cone or not. First time I ever had shrimp I ate tail and all!
Martha, chicken and dumplings were another favorite of mine. We also ate a good many squirrel dumplings. My mother would not put the meat from the chicken or squirrel in her dumplings. She kept the meat separate and only used the broth in her dumplings. We also ate a lot of sweet potatoes.
Martha, somehow my reply missed you too.
I agree with you about food and memories. I lost my mother a year ago and this Thanksgiving and Christmas, I find myself reaching back into my memory to make things that she always made during these times. I have always done this to an extent, but this year has brought a flood of memories and the desire to cook like she did. I made her friendship cake (30 day cake) and Russian Tea for Thanksgiving. It was just like I remember! This week I am making a huge batch of scrabble (Chex mix). Next, will be Granny’s German Chocolate Cake for Christmas. Thanks for reminding us how special some of these foods can be.
Since watching your videos and reading your posts, I’ve gained a new respect and appreciation for the Applachian folks from yesteryear. It is certainly a history for which to be proud.
Tipper,
No matter how many Appalachia Recipes one has, that is never enough. There are many, many Appalachian Recipes, but it seems that we are always looking for just one more.
Thanks yet again for your post. Do you think peach or strawberry would work for your ‘ stack cake’ in stead of rehydrated apples?…I have some of both, just not apple. Your ‘spread’ and you family and friends looked as though they enjoyed the food and time together. On another subject, I would be interested in knowing how you came across ‘Blind Pig and Acorn’ as a title. My husband has been using a similar saying…Even a Blind Pig can find an acorn….so every time I see your post, I smile. God Bless.
Glenda-I’ve never tried strawberry but I’ve had peach and it was really good! I think strawberry would be too 🙂 Here’s a post that tells about the name of the blog: https://blindpigandtheacorn.com/why-did-i-name-the-blog-blind-pig-and-the-acorn/
hi Glenda. my aunt used to tell me that Grandma sometimes put jelly inbetween the layers, but usually it was spiced applesauce or apple butter. I use spiced applesauce. Just make sure, like Tipper said, you make it a day or two beforehand.
Certain foods definitely stir our memories and bring wonderful memories of the family and friends that made those special foods.
Since I was a boy, I’ve tied certain foods to family or friends that made them. my grandmother was a great cook and she made the absolute best pear preserves that I have ever eaten. Like the man you mentioned, a jar of her preserves would surely bring tears to my eyes. Her biscuits were perfection too. My aunt Bertie made incredibly good stuffed bell peppers. Those ladies, and many more have fed both my body and soul through the years. Like you, I’m very thankful for that.
We have enjoyed and learned so much from your cooking videos and posts! I still can’t seem to make biscuits right. But we love how you connect the vegetable garden to cooking in the kitchen, like the Cushaws. I’m always learning something new about Appalachian foodways!
Thank you, Tipper. I enjoy your posts and podcast. Wish you well.
I enjoy the recipes you share of foods I’ve never heard of like chocolate gravy and chess cake, I’ve made both and enjoyed them very much, thanks!
Our family and church community do everything around food. Whatever the occasion, be it for fun, holidays, celebrations of life, or death, all things revolve around food. Maybe it’s how we are tied to our Heavenly Father as we will eat with Him one day. Many emotions are around the table. I wish the younger generation knew how important it is to be around a table together!
My grandmother was a big woman, both tall and heavy. My grandmother’s sister-in-law told me once that my grandmother knew a time in her younger life when there was not enough food and that was why she ate so much when food became available. She also kept her cellar packed with jars of canned food, just in case a shortage happened she was prepared.