Vox Hunt: This Gets Me Cooking

nobody@vox.com(The K Spot) — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 15:33:06 -0700

Book: Show us one of your favorite cookbooks.

I am attached to my cookbooks and have a number of them; however, I have a small collection of my grandmother's books that are dearest to me. My favorite one is a compilation from the Louisiana Federation of Women's Clubs.

Title Page

The now tattered volume contains a myriad of deeply rooted traditional Louisiana and Southern Dishes. For instance:

Some of the pages even bear inscriptions noting the name of the recipe contributor, making alterations to the measurements, or noting the worth of the recipe. These are written in my Grandmother's own familiar hand,:

Millie's Asparagus Casserole is 'real good'

Artichokes with Author Notes

Apparently NOT impossible

My God, these pages bring memories of warm happy times flooding into my mind. I can smell the biscuits, the cornbread. I can hear the laughter and din of activity coming from the kitchen as my Grandmorther and Great Grandmother, Mother and Aunts flitted about the crowded space carrying cast iron pots and skillets of goodness to and from the stove. I remember sitting out under the shade of the old pecan snapping peas and beans as the women talked about people long dead or relatives I never knew. I can still feel the rough congrete of the steps to the house under my behind as I struggled to keep the ice cream churning with the hand crank.

Good times. History. Roots. That is what this little book represents for me.

It also provides some entertainment. I laugh outloud everytime I read some of the loosely written cooking instructions. Often recipe instructions end with the sentence: "Cook in oven until done." No temperature readings necessary. No need to ask, "How do you know when it's done?" Everyone knows when it's done!

I am sure the writers of this book would have a hard time imagining how little time the average modern Joe or Josephine (read me) spends with food preparation these days. They would shake their heads in disgust everytime we went to the freezer for a pre-prepared frozen meal to pop in the microwave oven. They would marvel that many of us eat out once, twice, sometimes three times a day.

But enough about their imagined disapproval. Let's look at some of the more interesting recipes:

Turtle Courtbouillon

Turtle Soup II

Turtles were very popular and abundant in an area of the country where "If you can catch it, you can eat it!"

As were, aparently, other wildlife:

Honey, fish the crayfish from his hole in the yard! I've got to make some dip!

Squirrel Gumbo

Doves

She wasn't boiling the bunny, she was making pot roasted rabbit!

BBQ'd Rabbit

Squirrel Mulligan

Don't forget to reserve the squirrel "juice" ^^^^^^^^^^

I also find it interesting that a bread, pastry, or other dessert may be made from absolutely anything.....

And finally, the book also contains many lovely recipes from well known Lousiana restaurants including Broussard's, Comander's Palace, and the like:

Broussard's Shrimp Chandaleur

You can see the poor book is becoming tattered. It long ago lost its cover and back and pages are becomming ragged and torn. I try to refer to it sparingly now in the hopes that it will last long enough to pass on to my grandchild one day, if I ever have one. Just trying to preserve a little of the heritage for future generations.

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