Brunswick Stew

 Fall is probably one of my most favorite season.  It is is especially important to me because it brings back the memories of when my late  mother and I  made Brunswick stew together.  We would grind fresh meat.  I would shucks homegrown corn to go in it.  We would laugh and talk about her childhood memories of  her mother, father, and brothers and sisters. making Brunswick stew was one of the best time for the entire family.




Brunswick Stew

Mama's Homemade Gravy

My Mama’s Homemade Gravy This is one of the most basic gravies that pretty much  anyone can make. This is the perfect brown gravy but depending on the type of meat that you cook and the drippings from them, you can have beef or chicken-flavored gravy. Ingredients: 1/4 cup  all-purpose flour.  If you do not have any flour, then cornstarch will make a  nice substitute. 2-3 tablespoons of your meat dripping.  This  would be the residue leftover  from any meat that you cook. If there is too much grease leftover, then you can strain it. Salt and pepper  season to taste Any herbs of your choice preferably basil and oregano. They can be dried or fresh. Water or milk.  Milk makes a much creamier gravy.  Also you can use cooking wine like red or white wines.  Both add a little kick to your gravy!!!!   Directions: In a small saucepan place the meat dripping in milk or water.  Bring the mixture to a high boil.  Once it gets boiling, then lower the liquid.  While this is happening, make a paste with the flour, salt, pepper, and the herbs and any of the broths (see below) in a separate bowl.   Combine all of these ingredients and add them to your saucepan mixture. This will slow down down the boiling process so allow all of the combined ingredients to return to a high boil.  During the boiling, add the remaining ingredient of  cooking wine 1/2 cup.  Reduce to low and let simmer for 20 -30 minutes. This will be the creamiest gravy that you have ever had.  Also to keep it from clumping, lightly whisk it repeatedly.  If you want a beef or chicken flavored gravy add a can of beef or chicken broth.

The woman behind my Mama''s Recipe

Growing up in the North Georgia Mountains was a real treat for me and my brothers. We were the youngest of my parents six children and my mother raised my brothers and I as a single widowed parent. At the time of our father's death, I was 6 years old. My youngest brother was 4 and my oldest brother was 9.

 Breakfast, lunch and dinner were our most precious time for not just eating but fellowship as well. My mother and I did all the cooking, which was also our mother and daughter time together. My brothers enjoyed the benefits of tasting and eating  whatever my mother and I were preparing for each meal. Various food favorites sometimes were eaten at more than one meal. For example, biscuits would be eaten at dinnertime and the next morning as a breakfast food. Biscuits were always served with homemade jams and jellies. Also any leftover bread was usually frozen and used later in the year to make cornbread dressing with the Turkey at Thanksgiving.

Ultimately my mama's recipes provided me a sense of confidence and assurance that I could do whatever I set out to do. My mother always enjoyed having her youngest daughter in the kitchen with her since my older sisters didn't share her passion for cooking. I hope that your experience with looking through my blog causes you to reflect, reminisce and relate to enjoying and sharing timeless opportunities with those you love. 

Southern favorites

In this blog, one will be learning about how to cook southern foods. My three most favorite southern dishes to cook up anytime of the year are are fried chicken, biscuits, and apple pie. There are many delicious southern favorite cuisines out there but in my opinion, these three are the absolute best!!!

podcast

Hull's the good, the bad, and overall effects of social networking through Blogging

  After reading Hull’s article  blogging between the lines, I learned that blogging can be informative, fun, entertaining, therapeutic, and a way to advertise your business as well as making money.  Blogging is also one of the biggest and most popular forms of social networking. For many people it is a way to share hobbies, interests, and moments of their life to people they already known and total strangers.  In the article, Hull dealt with blogging mainly from the media’s perspective as in print versus the internet.  She gave the pros and cons of blogging.  She presented both sides in terms of how successful blogging for a newspaper can be as well as how damaging it can be.  The positive side of blogging can be very beneficial in terms of bringing new subscribers to a newspaper and giving voice to those that would otherwise not be heard.  However in the negative perspective, some reporters get so caught up with blogging that they fail to finish their work.  There have been instances of reporters who have used blogging for their own personal pulpits.  In turn, this type of behavior by some reporters has led to attracting the attention of negative individuals such as hate groups that might want to be heard in a national or major news publication. The final lesson learned from the article on blogging is that Hull went into details about the legalistic side of blogging. She cited several lawyers throughout her article as well as giving detailed examples of reporters who have lost their job over inappropriate blogging comments or topics. Ultimately blogging is mainly from your perspective of life and whatever you choose to talk about, if you use someone else’s wording give proper credit. Hull, D. (2006). Blogging between the lines. American Journalism Review, 28(6), 62-67.      

Preview of my next blog topic