To you all,
I argue that Recipes is on the subject! It is in my genes to love chicken
fried steak with milk gravy on my mashed taters. I am genetically disposed
to being unable to resist post roasts and fried pies and fried taters, and
corn bread and buttermilk. Then there is fried chicken and more mashed
taters and white gravy, and chicken and dumplings, and beans and ham hocks
(always better the third or fourth day), and fried cat fish, and cured bacon
and green beans, and ears of corn, and fried green tomatoes, and fresh,
sweet red tomatoes, and onions and.... Is there no end to the pleasure of
it all?
It has to be genes because I was born and raised in California (the land of
fruits and nuts), spent a fair portion of my adult life in Germany (the land
of sauerkraut and schnitzel), and have lived in Northern (that is the part
invaded by Germans from PA, and the English and Dutch from New Jersey, New
York and New England) where I must limit eating outside my home to
"imported southern dishes" because all the true southerners have been driven
out to W. Virginia, N. Carolina and E. Kentucky by the southern migration of
those not well known for their culinary gusto.
I contend that could not have the taste for "down home" cooking that I do
unless it was in my genes for the reasons cited above. My better half is
also living proof of this theory. As I began to teach my spouse the joys of
these victuals, her genes (mother from Pittsburgh, PA, daddy from a little
spot near Greenville, SC) kicked in too. She began to get indescribable
longings for grits w/butter, brown sugar and milk, and took to cooking fried
chicken just to eat the skin, and calls mashed taters and gravy her "comfort
food." Pork is our other white meat and it is a very unusual week in which
I am not treated to chops, roasts or steaks. And yes, fellow genealogists,
it is very, very hard to beat a cured Virginia ham - - they come from south
of us you know.
And southern "eatin genes" is absolutely dominant. Proof of this is the
fact that my wifes' tastes are dominated by her daddy's S.C. heritage which
completely and totally has overcome any former taste she had for
sauerbraten, boiled potatoes and knoedel her mother's family embraced, and
my tastes are dominated by my mother's AR, KY, NC, VA and MD heritage (in
reverse order of occurrence). Now that is not to say the I can't appreciate
a navel orange or an almond from time to time (CA fruits and nuts, ya know)
or that I would turn down a perfectly good bratwurst with my beer if it was
handy - - I wouldn't. I am a man of the world and have perfected an
epicurean palate during my travels. Heck, I have eaten that sissy frenchy
stuff with its little sauces, lots of lasagna and other pastas, frijoles and
tacos, Russian food and smorgasbord, Greek food an Armenian food - - there
are lots of good things to eat in lots of places, but when I get a
hankerin', it real got to have it need to eat, my tastes are always true to
my genes.
My idea of heaven would be chicken fried steak (find that in Paris!), mashed
potatoes and white gravy (can't taste it in London), fresh green beans
cooked with bacon and a little red pepper just to the "crunch", a little
side of beans and 'hocks with corn bread, and a big slab of pecan pie and a
mug of hot java to top it all off - - now that's eatin' (a crispy fried pie
is an acceptable substitute - - cherry and raisin are my favorites)!!!!! My
genes demand it - - they must be served. Learning that was genealogical
research at its finest.
I submit this with tongue somewhat in cheek and mouth watering for your
personal growth, intellectual consideration and reading pleasure.
Life is too short to waste its pleasures - - the pains of it are a given.
Bill M.
PS I have been saving up my writing privileges for a long time so I feel no
guilt about he length of this document. And, as I postulate above, its
relevance to genealogy cannot be denied.
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