I'm feeling nostalgic for my granny & dinner at her house. I wish (m)

M

melissa-dallas

Well-known member
she was still alive. The menu would be:

Fried chicken

sliced tomatos

sliced cucumbers & onions - marinated

fresh blackeyed peas

squash, okra, potatos & onions all cubed and fried together (in cornmeal of course)

strawberry jello salad that had cream cheese nut topping

homemade German Sweet Chocolate Cake

sigh........

 
Here is my mom's REC: German Sweet Chocolate Cake, if you would like to try a hand at it yourself...

There are always certain foods that just bring back memories of loved ones so strong. I think that is one of the reasons why we all like to cook so much. We associate it with love and we prepare it as such.

Mom's German Chocolate Cake
Cake:
1/2 cup boiling water
4 ounces sweet cooking chocolate
1 cup butter -- softened
2 cups sugar
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
4 egg whites -- stiffly beaten

Frosting:
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
3 egg yoks
1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/3 cups flaked coconut
1 cup chopped pecans

Cake:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 3 round layer cake pans, 8 or 9 x 1-1/2 inches. Line bottom of pans with waxed paper. Pour boiling water into small bowl over chocolate, stirring until chocolate is melted; set aside to cool.
n a large mixer bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg yolk, one at a time, beating after each addition. On low speed, blend in chocolate and vanilla. Mix in flour, soda and salt alternately with buttermilk, beating after each addition until batter is smooth. Fold in egg whites. Divide batter among pans.
Bake 8 inch pans for 35-40 minutes, 9 inch pan for 30-35 minutes. Cakes will be done when it springs back on top.
Cool. Fill layers and frost top of cake with Coconut-Pecan Frosting (below).
Frosting:
Combine evaporated milk, sugar, egg yolks, butter and vanilla in small saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until thick, about 12 minutes. Stir in coconut and pecans. Beat until thick enough to spread. Makes 2 1/2 cups.
Serves 10

 
Sounds like my grandma's sunday dinner too, miss those very much : (

Except we had the pot o' green beans and pork instead of the black-eyed peas.

 
So did we. And my grandma made pies instead of cake.

But oh, her fried chicken! There's nothing like chicken fried in a old black cast iron skillet! smileys/smile.gif

Oh, how I wish I had one of her old aprons!

Makes you wonder what our grandkids will remember and long for. Food trends have changed so much!

 
Before my grandmother died....

I called her one day since I had moved the furthest away of anyone and had her walk me through all of her recipes since she never measured anything. I am the only one that can duplicate most of her things like: chicken and dumplings, fried pies and cobblers. She never made cakes and rarely made pies. Peas, butter beans (and don't you dare say they are the same as limas!), and some sort of greens were on every table with a pan of cornbread and the cold leftover biscuits from breakfast and a stack of plain old white bread. The tea was boiled. Soup was always made with home canned tomatoes. Fried okra, fried green tomatoes, fried chicken, fried deer steaks. And OH - her candied yams! Just like candy they were so sweet and yet they were firm and not mushy, carmelized usually on one side more than the others! Potato salad, fresh sliced tomatoes and cucumbers and banana peppers.

I actually have a couple of old fashioned aprons she made me just a few years before she died - keep them in the drawer but never use them - they are there for nostalgia. And she had this stackable aluminum carrier that she used the pans to make her chicken pie and cobblers in even when it wasn't to be carried somewhere. Well, I saw one on ebay and I finally remembered where and how she got it - Stanley Home Products - she LOVED that stuff. So I bought that one. I still want her's which is hanging around somewhere but I have my own brand new, never used one now. Just for nostalgia.

I sound like I only had one grandmother but the other one could only make three things - divinity, fig preserves, Duncan Hines lemon supreme pound cake. The only two other things she ever cooked worth eating were the boxed chicken supreme (think it was Lipton's) that had these bits of dried processed chopped chicken and a foil package of sherry, and Pillsbury crescent rolls. But you know what - i ahve been having a REAL craving for that chicken supreme lately - I can almost taste it.

 
Missy, my grandmother never measured anything either

but I never had the foresight to write down any of her recipes. She died over 15 years ago -- years before I discovered how much I enjoy cooking. One of my biggest regrets is not standing next to her with a measuring cup and a notebook to capture her recipes.

My mother never measures anything either. Her recipes look like a shopping list --- ginger, garlic, chicken, soy sauce, potatoes, scallions.
So I've taken to buying Korean cookbooks (I love "Growing Up in a Korean Kitchen") and having my mom edit the recipes to simulate her version of the dish. My mom would never tell me to add a tablespoon of anything, but she's fine at editing a recipe and saying "more" or "less". Sometimes we cook the dish together and then I can see how it is made.

When my brother got married, I made a recipe book for his wife of some of his favorite dishes. It is really sad when you have a craving and can't quite recreate the dish!

 
Mmmm, I love those apricot foldovers, Mimi. They are tasty! Next time I make them

I'll offer up a toast to your Grandma. And to you - for creating this cozy internet nest for us.

 
Oh me too, those and my aunt Judy's Nut Ball Cookies are my two faves.

Thanks for toasting my Grandma. :eek:) Although I'm sure she got the recipe from a magazine somewhere way back when. But as far as I'm concerned, it's HER recipe. You know how it is...

 
I can relate to the German's Sweet Chocolate cake.........

The one inside the green box of German's Sweet Chocolate is similar to Dawn's, and wonderful! I've made it several times and it gets eaten down to the last crumb. Recently, Cook's Illustrated did an update of the basic recipe and I wish they hadn't--why mess with tradition?

I wish my two grandmothers had been good Sunday dinner-types. My Italian grandmother was a wonderful cook but very neurotic--couldn't cope with company in her house (people have germs!) My Irish grandmother knew how to throw a party (she will be remembered for the best Manhattens in the world) but stringy boiled beef can only get you so far. My Irish mom bridged the gap by learning her MIL's recipes while entertaining like her own mom.

Melissa, I hope you recreate your grandmother's menu one Sunday, even if you have to use frozen or dried black-eyed peas, and toast her love, generosity and enterprise. I'm fried chicken-phobic, but Alton Brown recently demystified it on his show, so I may have to try it one day. Southern cooking is such an authentic cuisine.

 
Oh now you've brought the memories flooding back!!...I can still smell her kitchen..

In the summer we'd eat out in the porch...quiet except for mourning doves...so shady and cool from the grape vines that covered much of the screens. (She used the large, pretty leaves for many food presentations.) And the glass table full of corn on the cob, sweet green tomato pickles or her fabulous watermellon pickles, fresh tomatoes and cuke slices just plain, fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade bread, homemade pear preserves or grape jelly, and rhubarb cake. In cooler weather, Gramma's wonderful beef roasts and gravy. Oh the gravy. And bread pudding with raisins. To this day, we have tried to duplicate "gramma's scrambled eggs". (The secret is half n half, lots of real butter, and SLOW cooking so they are soft and moist). Everything was served in lovely antique dishes she collected. Depression glass was her specialty. Boy do I miss her.

 
Thanks. I CAN cook all these things, but I live alone and most of

my friends turn up their noses at southern food -so that would be quite a meal for just me. Besides, it just all tasted better when she made it. When she died and Daddy asked me what I wanted of her things, I just took her pyrex percolator because it reminded me of getting up and sitting in her kitchen with my cousin and sister after we'd spent the night with her.

 
Thanks Dawn. I haven't made one in a long time. It's been so

hot here since May that I've hardly turned on the oven in months-I'm sure my coworkers are disappointed because I'm kind of the resident baker and bring lots of things to share.

 
It was simply a basic white sauce, but Gramma made it right in the beans...

I could never do that right, so I make the sauce separately. Her hint too, was adding more butter, and some chicken bouillion.
I make a basic medium white sauce (Gramma style):
2 Tbls. butter (she adds more)
2 Tbls. flour
1 cup whole milk
1/2 tsp. chicken stock base

(I use "Better than Bouillion" brand paste in the jar. It's very good.)

Cook flour in butter until just starting to color. Barely browned tastes best. Add the whole milk and chicken stock base(no low-fat milk or margarine for her) and simmer until thickened. Adjust seasoning with salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Pour into saucepan of cooked, drained green beans.

 
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