Sunday, May 13, 2012

Happy Mother's Day With Love

Happy Mother's Day to all the dedicated, beautiful, strong, loving mothers I know. 
 

That's my mama and Mamas

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.  ~Tenneva Jordan

Mom at five feeding chickens

Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs in my field, since the payment is pure love.  ~Mildred B. Vermont


A suburban mother's role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after.  ~Peter De Vries


The phrase "working mother" is redundant.  ~Jane Sellman




Mother and her cousin at four

The moment a child is born, the mother is also born.  She never existed before.  The woman existed, but the mother, never.  A mother is something absolutely new.  ~Rajneesh


If the whole world were put into one scale, and my mother in the other, the whole world would kick the beam.  ~Lord Langdale (Henry Bickersteth)


I remember my mother's prayers and they have always followed me.  They have clung to me all my life.  ~Abraham Lincoln



Four generations
 
Some mothers are kissing mothers and some are scolding mothers, but it is love just the same, and most mothers kiss and scold together.  ~Pearl S. Buck


If you have a mom, there is nowhere you are likely to go where a prayer has not already been.  ~Robert Brault


Sweater, n.:  garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly.  ~Ambrose Bierce

Women's Liberation is just a lot of foolishness.  It's the men who are discriminated against.  They can't bear children.  And no one's likely to do anything about that.  ~Golda Meir


The real religion of the world comes from women much more than from men - from mothers most of all, who carry the key of our souls in their bosoms.  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes


The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.  ~HonorĂ© de Balzac

All women become like their mothers.  That is their tragedy.  No man does.  That's his.  ~Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895


An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.  ~Spanish Proverb


She never quite leaves her children at home, even when she doesn't take them along.  ~Margaret Culkin Banning


When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts.  A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.  ~Sophia Loren, Women and Beauty


If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?  ~Milton Berle


Women are aristocrats, and it is always the mother who makes us feel that we belong to the better sort.  ~John Lancaster Spalding


Motherhood has a very humanizing effect.  Everything gets reduced to essentials.  ~Meryl Streep



The sweetest sounds to mortals given
Are heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven.
~William Goldsmith Brown


The formative period for building character for eternity is in the nursery. The mother is queen of that realm and sways a scepter more potent than that of kings or priests. ~Author Unknown


Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible.  ~Marion C. Garretty, quoted in A Little Spoonful of Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul


I love my mother as the trees love water and sunshine - she helps me grow, prosper, and reach great heights.  ~Terri Guillemets

[A] mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled.  ~Emily Dickinson


A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.  ~Washington Irving


Any mother could perform the jobs of several air traffic controllers with ease.  ~Lisa Alther

Now, as always, the most automated appliance in a household is the mother.  ~Beverly Jones










Love from Delta.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

That Is Just Wrong, Y'all.

What Southern Food Really Looks Like.
      It seems that one of the more de rigueur cuisines in fancy New York restaurants is "Southern Fusion." A true denizen of The South might be appalled at some of these offerings:

     At Seersucker, you can dine on black pepper ricotta dumplings, Ozark country ham, market nettles and Georgia olive oil. (This is Southern? What is a market nettle, and why would one consume it? Georgia produces olive oil?)

     GQ magazine says, "Seersucker is 'the perfect place for your NASCAR appetite to meet your NPR lifestyle.'


     Uh-huh.


This is what they are referring to as "Market Nettles." I had to know.


     
     The Redhead will ship you bacon peanut brittle. (Bacon is being routinely abused these days.)

     From Tipsy Parson: lemon-cornmeal pancakes. (Ugh.)

    

    
    
     Winner of the Lord Have Mercy category . . . Lowcountry serves Breakfast in a Jar, consisting of stone ground grits, goat cheese, a soft poached egg, and candied bacon. In a jar.


      SoCo, (Southern Fusion, a new cuisine yet to make its mark on the New York dining scene!) dishes up organic buttermilk fried chicken over red velvet waffles.


Dear Chefs of New York,
     Red velvet does this: 

 
and this.
 

     Anything else will confuse it.

     I don't think Southern food needs to be "fused" in the first place. It is fine exactly as it's been for a hundred years or so. Y'all should make a field trip to Mary Mac's Tea Room in Atlanta or Classic on Noble in Anniston, Alabama. Or to my kitchen table.

     

     I've not been to New York City in quite a while. I know there are many wonderful things to see and do on my next trip, but locating Southern Fusion won't be on the list. Some things are simply not to be tampered with.

     Here is a classic recipe for those who cherish Dixie food:

Buttermilk Biscuits
(makes 10-12)

2 cups self-rising flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
dash of salt
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup Crisco shortening
3/4 cup buttermilk

Heat oven to 400 degrees and grease a baking sheet. Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl, then cut the shortening in with your fingers or two forks. Add the buttermilk. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board and roll to about a 3/4 inch thickness, trying not to mix in extra flour. Cut with a three inch biscuit cutter (or a glass if you must) and place on baking sheet. 
Bake for ten to twelve minutes or until lightly browned.

Serve hot with butter and honey or your favorite jam. Do not insult the biscuits with strange things.






Love from Delta.