Sweeter Than Tea
Page 24
The reflection of the lights in the trees across the cove blurred and shimmered on the water like a million fallen stars. Wishing stars, Momma had called them. I blinked back unshed tears and took a deep breath.
A lifetime of friendship with Jake. Would that really be enough?
I glanced down river. The sun lay cradled on the ridge, darkness was coming fast. I’d learn to make it enough. After all, I was my momma’s daughter.
Urgency, not dread this time, propelled me into action. I had to get back to the party and find Jake. With any luck I might even make it before anyone realized I’d slipped away.
As I turned from the water’s edge, a shadow stepped out from the woods. My pulse skipped for just a moment until I realized it was Jake. He’d grown taller, it seemed, in the years since I saw him last. More muscular, more imposing, more . . . everything.
I steadied myself against the deck railing half convinced this was a dream, half afraid it wasn’t.
He stepped onto the dock, his blue eyes fastened on mine. “I’ve been looking for you.”
Everything I should have said, everything I wanted to say, bottled up in my throat. “I’ve been right here.”
He stepped closer. Really close. He still wore his fatigues and smelled slightly of buses and strangers, but also warm cotton and rich Tennessee earth, as if he carried home with him wherever he went.
Home. Jake was finally home for good.
I couldn’t seem to find something to do with my trembling hands, until he tucked them into his own and pulled me just a little bit closer still.
“There’s something I’ve been wanting to say, to tell you, in my letters. I . . .” He swallowed, and suddenly I realized he was as nervous as I was. Hope stole its way into my heart. “Something I should have said before now.” I think I heard him mutter “Oh, hell,” as he pulled me up against him and kissed me like I’ve never been kissed before.
I don’t know how long we stood there letting our hearts and lips say all the things we each needed to hear, but I did manage to have the presence of mind to peek open one eye and catch the sun just as it dipped over the worn edge of the Appalachians.
Going. Going. Gone.
The Authors’ Favorite Recipes
Martina Boone
Confetti Chicken Salad
Ingredients:
4 cups chopped cooked chicken breast
¼ cup finely chopped sweet onion
¼ cup finely chopped celery
1 cup quartered, red seedless grapes
¾ cup finely chopped toasted pecans
4 slices finely chopped crispy bacon
¾ cup mayonnaise
½ cup sour cream
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
½ tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon
½ teaspoon sea salt fresh ground black pepper to taste
Preparation:
Combine chicken, onions, celery, pecans, grapes, and bacon. Mix in a large bowl and refrigerate.
Whisk mayonnaise, sour cream, mustard, tarragon, salt, and pepper together in a separate bowl. Add to chicken mixture and serve on lightly toasted sourdough bread with bread and butter lettuce, or over romaine lettuce as a salad.
Deborah Grace Staley
Sausage Puffs (Toasty Balls)
Ingredients:
2 containers of crescent rolls
1 (8 ounce) package of cream cheese
1 package of breakfast sausage, any kind
Preparation:
Preheat oven according to package directions on crescent rolls and spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray. Brown sausage, breaking up meat so it will be crumbled. Drain grease, then reduce heat to low and add cream cheese in chunks. Stir until cheese is melted and well mixed with sausage. Remove from heat.
Spread crescent roll dough out on pastry sheet or waxed paper. Press together perforations. Cut dough into 2-inch squares. Spoon sausage mixture onto dough. Pull up edges of dough and press together. Place dough balls onto cookie sheet.
Cook 10-15 minutes, until dough is golden.
Jane Forest
Famous Adaptable Potato Salad
Ingredients:
6 to 8 medium potatoes (I prefer Yukon Gold)
4 eggs
¾ cup mayonnaise
½ cup chopped onion (I prefer Vidalia onion)
¼ cup sweet pickle relish
¼ cup finely chopped celery
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1 tablespoon mustard (yellow or Dijon)
¼ teaspoon garlic salt
Preparation:
Boil the potatoes until done, rinse in cold water, when cool, peel and chop into small chunks. Sprinkle with the two tablespoons of white vinegar, stir gently and refrigerate. Boil the eggs, peel while hot, and refrigerate to cool while you fix everything else.
Chop the onion. If you’re lucky to get Vidalia in season, use the whole ½
cup or more, if not, reduce the amount of onion to your family’s taste. Chop the celery. I like to mince my celery very fine.
In a large bowl, mix the mayo, onion, relish, celery, mustard, and garlic salt. Stir well. Chop and add the eggs. Last, stir in the potatoes. Adding them last keeps them from getting as mashed up.
Here’s some adaptations depending on what flavors your family likes and what you have in your refrigerator and on your spice shelf:
¼ teaspoon celery salt
1 clove of garlic, minced
¼ cup black olives
¼ cup bacon, crumbled
¼ cup green olives
¼ cup cheddar or other cheese, shredded
¼ cup Ranch dressing (reduce some of the mayo)
¼ cup chopped dill pickle (reduce or eliminate the sweet pickles)
¼ cup green onions
2 tablespoons chives
2 tablespoons chopped banana peppers (or chili peppers if you like things hot)
Salt and pepper to taste
Sprinkle a little paprika on the top, for pretty
Kathleen Watson
Chicken Salad
Ingredients:
2 ½ cups shredded, cooked chicken meat, chilled
½ cup golden raisins
½ cup coarsely chopped cashews
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Salt to taste
1 cup mayonnaise
¼ cup heavy whipping cream (not Cool Whip)
Preparation:
In a medium bowl, whip cream to soft peaks.
Combine meat, raisins, cashews, parsley, salt, and mayonnaise with whipped cream. Chill.
Valerie Keiser Norris
Slow-cooker Brunswick Stew
Brunswick Stew can require a lot of preparation, but not this version. And it’s the closest version to my favorite barbecue restaurant’s recipe I could find!
Ingredients:
1 medium onion, chopped fine
2 (14 oz) cans petite-diced tomatoes (chunkier tomatoes if you prefer)
2 (10 oz) cans barbecue pork
1 (10 oz) can barbecue beef
1 (10 oz) can chicken
1 (14 ¾ oz) can creamed corn
1 (15 oz) can whole kernel shoepeg corn, drained
¼ cup barbecue sauce
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon vinegar
Preparation:
Place all ingredients in a 6-qt. slow-cooker and stir until combined. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
Valerie Keiser Norris
Malinda’s Sweet Potatoes
Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
dash salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup water
1 tablespoon butter
4 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced in ¼-inch thick slices. (Malinda uses a ripple cutter which makes beautiful slices. Everything Malinda does is beautiful.)
Preparation:
Mix dry ingredients in a medium saucepan. Add water and butter and cook over medium heat until syrupy. Add potatoes and cook approx. 20 minutes.
Malinda’s recipe includes this note: If syrup cooks away, make another half batch and pour over. I’ve not yet had to do this, but the instructions must be in there for a reason!
Valerie Keiser Norris
Pumpkin Pudding
(Pumpkin “Stuff,” according to my family)
This recipe is the reason my husband never gets to have sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving. The rest of us love Pumpkin Stuff, and it’s too similar to mashed sweet potatoes to serve both. He loves us anyway.
Ingredients:
For Pudding (“Stuff”):
½ stick butter (4 tablespoons)
1 pound canned pumpkin. Do not use pumpkin pie filling
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
½ cup flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup canned evaporated milk
For Topping:
¼ cup sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
Preparation:
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Spray 2 ½ qt. baking dish with non-stick baking spray.
Melt butter in baking dish. Mix the remaining pudding ingredients with an electric mixer and pour into the dish.
Mix topping ingredients. Sprinkle on top of pumpkin mixture.
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until firm.
Misty Barrere
Granny’s Chocolate Wonder Pound Cake
Ingredients:
2 sticks butter
3 cups sugar
½ cup shortening
5 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 cup sweet milk
1 tablespoon vanilla flavoring
¼ cup cocoa
Preparation:
Be sure to use shortening to grease your bundt pan & flour to coat it—none of this spray-on stuff. Love, Granny.
Cream butter, sugar & shortening, add eggs one at a time, add dry ingredients alternate with milk, add flavoring.
*START IN COLD OVEN*
Bake 325 for 1 hour and 10 min. in dark bundt pan. Do not open door until done. Test with tooth pick.
Love, GRANNY.
Willis Baker
Southern Summertime Strawberry Ice
Ingredients:
2 cups buttermilk
1 pint fresh strawberries
1 cup Sugar
1 egg white
Preparation:
Combine buttermilk, strawberries (slightly crushed) and sugar.
Pour into 9 X 13 dish and place in freezer until mushy. Beat egg white until stiff, then fold into strawberry mixture. Return to freezer until firm.
Clara Wimberly
Shaker Lemon Pie
Ingredients:
2 large lemons
4 eggs, well beaten
2 cups sugar
2 (9-inch) ready-made pie crusts
Preparation:
Slice lemons as thin as possible, including rind. Add sugar and mix well. Let stand at least two hours, blending regularly. Add beaten eggs and mix well. Ladle the mix into one of the nine-inch pie crusts, making sure that the lemon slices are evenly distributed. Top with the second pie crust. Cut several slits near that crust’s center. Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 and bake for about 20 minutes or until a knife inserted near the edge of the pie comes out clean. Cool before serving.
Darcy Crowder
Caramel Chess Pie
Ingredients:
1 stick margarine
1 ½ cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons flour
½ cup milk
4 eggs
1teaspoon vanilla
1 cup nuts (optional)
2 pie shells
Preparation:
Cream butter, sugar, flour. Add milk. Beat eggs separately before adding. Add vanilla.
Pour into pie shells. Sprinkle nuts over top.
Bake at 350 degrees in preheated oven approximately 45-60 minutes.
Susan Sipal
Homemade Butter
Butter is extremely easy to make at home, even without a churn. After experimenting with an old daisy churn (oh! my arms!), a blender, and a food processor, I’ve decided that I like the food processor the best.
If you’re fortunate enough to have access to fresh, raw cream—lucky you! But you can also use cream from the store.
Let the cream come to room temperature for a couple of hours, then put it into your food processor. You’ll want to only fill your processor about 2/3 full because the cream will expand as it is whipped. As the cream blends and thickens, you’ll hear the change in tone. After it has thickened considerably, then it will start to subside. At that point, you’ll notice little globules of butter forming. Keep blending until these globules come together in lumps, probably about 30 more seconds or so.
Strain off the milk (buttermilk), but leave the butter in the processor. This buttermilk can be used in any recipe calling for cultured buttermilk, but will need to be used within a couple of days.
To the butter that is left in the processor, add enough water to cover it and turn the processor on for about 15 seconds. This whips any remaining buttermilk out of the butter so that it will not spoil. Drain this liquid, add more water, and repeat for another 15 seconds. Your butter should now be ready to place into a mold or form into a ball. Add salt as desired.
You may also want to consider experimenting with cultured butter. The process is exactly the same as above except you use cultured cream. Simply add about 1/4 cup of cultured buttermilk to a quart of cream and let it ferment outside the refrigerator for about 24 hours before processing. Use the best quality buttermilk you can find for this. The cream once cultured is a type of sour cream known as creme fraiche.
Kimberly Brock
Not Your Mama’s Pot Roast
Ingredients:
1 chuck roast
2 tablespoon vegetable oil
Water
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
1 sweet onion
8 carrots (sliced)
12 Small red potatoes
Pour vegetable oil in a large pot. Season roast generously with salt, pepper, and garlic salt. Brown on both sides in hot oil. Cover the roast with water and turn heat down to a high simmer for three hours, refilling the water to keep the roast covered. Add onion and carrots, salt and pepper to season, and more water to cover. Simmer another hour. Add potatoes and simmer until all vegetables and meat are tender, about thirty minutes.
Tom Honea
Cochon-de-Lait: (whole pig roast)
A Cochon-de-Lait is basically a Cajun pig roast of a whole young pig. The pig is slow roasted for ten-to-twelve hours: an event rather than a meal.
Ingredients:
25 to 100-pound young pig
Injecting marinade (see recipe below)
Cajun seasoning mix
Several heads of garlic
Cooking shed
Lots of wood
My expert a
dvisor, a good friend of mine, starts with several bottles of good red wine and at least a couple of cases of beer. This is for the cooks, you understand . . . not the recipe. When the beer cooler is empty, the pig is most likely done: a Cajun-meat-thermometer.
Cajun Seasoning Mix:
A Cajun seasoning mix is used in many Cajun recipes. It is basically salt with a variety of spices. There are many commercial seasoning mixes on the market. Below is a seasoning mix recipe if you would like to make your own. Experiment with every batch until you have the spice combination you like.
Ingredients:
Table salt, 26 oz.
Cayenne pepper, 5 tbs.
Black pepper, 3 tbs.
Onion powder, 3 tbs.
Garlic powder, 3 tbs.
Chili powder, 3 tbs.
Thyme, 1 tbs.
Sweet basil, 1 tbs.
Bay leaf, 1 tbs.
Mix Seasoning:
Add all the seasoning, except salt, in a blender. Cover and blend to a fine consistency. Don’t breath the dust: you’ll be sneezing the rest of the day.
Mix the blended spices with the salt until you achieve a uniform color.
Use as you would salt.
Preparing the Pig:
Obtain a young pig. We usually cook about a 70-80 pound pig. The largest we ever cooked was about 115 pounds, which fed some eighty people.
The pig needs to be butchered by scraping and not skinning. The skin needs to be on the pig so the meat does not dry out.
If you do not want the little fellow looking at you while it’s cooking, then cook it without the head. Personally, I consider having the head on part of the presentation of a Cochon de Lait. But by all means, remove the eyes.
Prepare a sturdy frame to spread and skewer the pig. You will have to partially split the backbone of the rib cage from the body cavity side in order to spread the pig flat. The pig needs to be supported for its full length, or else it may fall apart when it gets tender.
My friend lays out the whole hog on a sheet of plywood, rubs every nook and cranny of the pig. Then lets it rest for an hour. This is a good time, beverage in hand, to chop onions, bell peppers, and celery: the Cajun Trinity. Peel 25 cloves of garlic.