My mom was frugal and careful with money and we ate a lot of stretched meals also, never wasted food, but I just can't do canned peas!! I don't think I've ever had black-eyed peas. I've always read about that dish that's lucky to eat on New Year's.
I am actually looking forward to making biscuits that aren't like hockey pucks.
I didn't make the spoonbread yet as my daughter wasn't feeling well so we had soup. Hoping to make it tonight!
@polarberry My mom always bought oleo and it was gross. We used to toast white bread and put oleo and sugar on it for breakfast. There were 4 kids and my dad worked in a factory. We also would have cooked noodles with oleo for dinner. The worst thing we ate was cooked cabbage with oleo, hated it. I guess we were poor but didn’t know it because everyone we knew ate the same stuff. PS we have a container of bacon grease in the fridge for cooking. Use it when making scrambled eggs, YUM!
You don't think about it as a kid. I didn't know until I was grown how tight money was for my parents at times. I grew up in the same house and we always had food; Dad worked hard. Mom did her best with food but I think she hated cooking.
I would give anything to have them back. I hope they know. ?
lol, Mom always kept a tin can of bacon grease in the fridge. She NEVER used it! I think it was because she didn't want to pour it down the drain.
I love bacon. Guilty pleasure. Fried potatoes with bacon and caramelized onions, and cheddar cheese.
My mother did not come from a gravy-eating family. Her mom hated it, she hated it, and I guess I grew up thinking it wasn't something you needed on food. We even had many a Thanksgiving without gravy. Even now if I serve gravy, hardly anybody eats any.
Are you sure that you and your family are from this planet??? ? ?
I know I've said this before on here, but I'll reiterate it: Gravy is a beverage, okay? Mashed potatoes, meat, whatever you put it on is only there to serve as a vehicle for the gravy. ?
What about after it coagulates?
Does that happen? I wouldn't know...I've never had it last long enough to do that ?
Edited to add: I even have to buy gravy style food for the cats because they won't eat it otherwise. I chose my animals correctly! ?
@polarberry I agree 100% with you about the canned peas. Nope. Ewwww. Frozen seems like the superior option in every single way (unless it is just nostalgia)- Which I understand. I love some processed foods because I grew up with them and they comfort me. Canned cheese. Nom. Nom. I don’t buy it because I could eat the whole can. Keeping it classy. ?
I decided about three years ago I was going to learn to bake cakes. I have a few cool molds like a guitar, and a fish. I make all my own icings from scratch as well and I mix food coloring up and "paint" the cakes. I also have molded my own cakes , most notably a turkey cake for Thanksgiving a few years back. I also routinely bake cupcakes, cookies, muffins, and breads, and share with my neighbors. I make a mean banana bread. Here's a guitar cake I had made most recently.
That guitar cake is jammin'!! Couldn't resist. ?
Seriously, that's really cool. Do you have plans to open a business at some point?
I don't like store-bought baked goods unless they're from an actual bakery. They taste like chemicals and muffins and cookies shouldn't have 75 ingredients.
I'd love to see a picture of the fish cake if you have one.
They're mushy and gray. Peas should be green lol
I loathe canned cheese and spray cheese, but one of my sons loves it, so I will buy it occasionally for him. It's hilarious, because when he takes it out of the pantry, all the dogs come running and circle him. I had a past date can of it a few months ago, and would put it on their crunchy biscuits as a special treat, so now they've identified it as a target, along with cold coagulated leftover gravy. ?
He'll put it on a slice of fried Spam or squirt it directly into his mouth. I just can't. ?
Those look so good!! I haven't ordered the White Lily flour yet.
Also, forgot- Thank you very much for the spoon bread recipe! I made it last night and it was really good, much better than the last recipe I used. Easier too. I have a big family also so I doubled the recipe. It came out great! It made twelve servings and there was only one left.
It was the first recipe I ever used that called for it to be baked at 325 instead of 350. I think that contributed to it being fluffy and pudding-like.
@polarberry Yyyaaaaayyy! So glad the proof was in the eating!!!! Only one serving left? Denotes a hit!!!! :-) Oh almost forgot.. one quick tip... If ever your gravy coagulates? Just add more liquid and reheat it. Sawmill gravy (aka cream or milk gravy) or gravy for roasts etc .. use some of the broth or add a touch of water and reheat...and voila.. like fresh again. One thing I was thinking as I made the biscuits and sausage and gravy this morning? I noticed what I have taken for granted all these years... this meal? Uses everything.. no waste. You make your biscuits and while they are baking you brown your sausage, add your leftover flour from the biscuits and it gets all that good pan fond from the sausage blended in for flavor and no waste! The smell of it cooking gets folks around here out of bed faster than the smell of coffee. :-)
I'm eating the one leftover portion now lol
I am terrified to write this, but here goes (takes deep, shuddering breath), I HATE biscuits and gravy! I would never reheat gravy because I don't even like it when it's fresh; I can't even imagine eating it reheated. Please don't hate me because I consider you southern gals my friends, and I love a lot of southern recipes, but that's on my breakfasts-from-hell list! ? The no-waste part is good.
I do love a good biscuit. Lots of butter and honey. I went to the White Lily website and they have a buttermilk biscuit recipe I want to try. Brian Hart's?
@polarberry "Aw Sugah bless yore heart!" No, no.. it's ok not to like gravy!!!! I was forced to eat some things as a child (that trauma with the peas being one) I swore as a child of 9 years old I would NEVER make my child eat anything they truly disliked... I would only say try a bite.. if you don't like it you don't have to eat it. But if you don't try it you won't ever know if you like it or not. I have made good on that oath and am in my 60 somethings now.
I love a good biscuit with butter and honey. Or with some butter and brown sugar (some family members used to call it a Sugar Booger) I also make blueberry biscuits with lemon glaze, cinnamon raisin biscuits, cheese biscuits and more.
One of my favorite ways to eat a biscuit? ( and I am with your Mom on this... store boughten maters don't have much taste a'tall. Can't beat one fresh picked from the garden!) Is split the biscuit (made that morning) and put a thick slice of tomato (salt and pepper) and a slice of Vidalia onion on it and put it back together and eat it like a sandwich. Leftover biscuits the next day? split and butter and toast and pour Golden Eagle Syrup or Sorghum syrup or molasses over it and enjoy. Also good with butter and my homemade jams and preserves.
Keep exploring that White Lily site and Brenda Gantt's too ~ we'll make an honorary Southerner out of you yet!
@lenor- It is processed cheese food that you can squeeze out of a can. It probably takes 5 to 7 years off of one's life per serving, but I grew up eating it on Ritz crackers. I just love it.
@journeywithme2 Nice! Beautiful color. I make my biscuits on a pan just like that. ?