Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Sunday, January 8, 2017

Southern Food

We've had a little snow and Bob has been climbing the walls to get out in it. Had to use the broken hip threat to keep him in the house. That settled he turned to cooking.

Buttermilk Pie

He used my mother's recipe for Buttermilk Pie, using up the buttermilk left over from Christmas. I have no idea what the expiration date was on the buttermilk, he never worries about such details. I believe this fits the category of Southern cooking.

Cornbread & Cabbage

Bob's favorite meal is cornbread and cabbage. That's about as Southern as you can get. I don't like cabbage in any form and I hate how it smells up the house when you cook the real stuff. Some time ago we found a small section in our Walmart grocery that carried 'Southern Seasoned' vegetables. He tried the cabbage and loved it. I was happy because it didn't stick up the house. Then Walmart no longer carried it. 

I don't like yellow cornmeal and do not like a sweet taste to cornbread. I'm addicted to Martha White's White Cornbread Mix. For a while Daughter brought it to us from Texas until we found we could get it at Walmart. Then they stopped carrying it.

These days I order cabbage and cornbread mix from Amazon.  I'm a Prime member so I do not pay postage.  The cost of the cornbread mix is about $1 a packet but the cabbage is pricey, about $3 a can. What can I say, we're happy. It's a first world problem.

Zucchini & Pasta

This morning Bob was squirreling around in the kitchen and decided to cook some pasta. When later he said he'd put zucchini with it I could not imagine so I went to see what he'd done. I was surprised to learn we had a can of Del Monte 'zucchini in Italian seasoned tomato sauce.' It made a very tasty dish. Wonder which one of us bought that can of zucchini? Must not have been me.

He's sure it would have been better if it'd been elbow macaroni rather than bow tie, I don't think so. We're both thinking of a dish my mother used to make using elbow macaroni mixed with canned tomatoes, tomato sauce, and bacon drippings.  I hated it, Bob loved it. He wanted this dish to taste like that, I did not.

16 comments:

  1. I've never had or heard of buttermilk pie. What does it taste like? I looked up a recipe and it sounds like a boring favor profile, kind of like vanilla pudding?

    Glad you found a way to keep Bob content and inside.

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    1. Buttermilk Pie

      1 cup sugar
      3 Eggs
      2 tbsp Flour
      1 Cup Buttermilk
      1/2 stick Butter
      1 tsp Vanilla

      Beat eggs slightly. Add sugar and flour. Melt butter. Add butter, buttermilk, and vanilla to mixture. Bake in an unbaked pie crust. Bake at 325 degrees for about 45 minutes.

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    2. Thank you for the recipe!! I love butermilk pie even though I can't stand buttermilk!

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  2. I've never had buttermilk pie. Can't imagine what it's like. I chop up and freeze zucchini each end-of summer, then add it to chili, lasagna sauce, spaghetti sauce, etc., throughout the winter. No one knows it's there, and it adds nutrition to whatever.

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    1. There are so many ways to use zucchini. It must be the world's most versitle vegetable. Buttermilk pie is a little like chess pie only creamier.

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  3. P.S. Wouldn't I love to see my husband in the kitchen, cooking or baking! Never happen.

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    1. Bob worked in the kitchen of the boys home where he lived from age five until he graduated from high school. He's a good cook but his speciality is desserts.

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  4. You and Bob make me laugh. You have been together for a long time and yet you have such different tastes and opinions.
    That butter milk pie is a new one to me too.

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    1. In 54 years the only thing we've both liked was frosted Cheerios. It's been a hell of a ride.

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  5. I do love a good buttermilk pie, although pecan, coconut, and lemon meringue are my favs. Well, and peach, but peaches really belong in cobblers.

    My best zucchini recipe is a zucchini chocolate cake. Oh, is that good: nice and moist. I'm not such a cooked cabbage fan, although I do like it in a slaw. On the other hand, I'm faithful about my black-eyed peas and cabbage on New Year's day. Of course it could be -- and probably is -- a silly superstition, but as I used to remind my mother, "Think how bad things would be if we didn't eat them!"

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    1. I prefer field peas to black eyed peas. So far I've been able to get them at Walmart but they may be the next to go. Yes, black eyed peas on New Year's Day is a must. I'm sure many people, who think they don't like zucchini, eat it in all sorts of ways and never know it.

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  6. I think it is cool that Bob likes to cook. A man in an apron makes my day.
    I was going to suggest the Internet but see you all ready found success there. There are three things Walmart no longer carries that I have shipped to the store for pickup. That'll teach them to quit carrying what I want.

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    1. That's shocking you have to have items shipped to the store. Isn't Arkansas the home base of Walmart? Shame on them. I will check to see if I can have cabbage shipped to the store.

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  7. I didn't know Del Monte made zucchini in tomato sauce. I've never tried it, but I don't mind zucchini with pasta. Never tried buttermilk pie either. My husband grew up with vinegar pie. I think that's probably Southern, too. I don't like it, but he does. I do like cabbage, though. I now sauté it in a little butter, salt and pepper. I boiled it my whole life, but a few years ago I found Ina Garten's recipe for "Sautéed Cabbage." It's much better, and you don't boil all the vitamins out of it.

    I am sometimes frustrated by Walmart's penchant for suddenly dropping something that I've gotten used to buying there. I guess other stores do it, too, but I'm convinced Walmart dose it more often. Just a theory.

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    1. The Del Monte zucchini is mixed with Italian seasoned tomato sauce. The Italian seasoning gives it very good flavor. All the pies you name sound Southern to me. I don't like cabbage but the sautéed sounds like a better way than boiling to prepare it.

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