It had gotten SO dry down here…the trees were bribing the dogs!

It had been SO hot and dry, the birds were pullin worms outta the ground…usin potholders!

I was tellin Deb that it had been SO dry, I saw our neighbor Skeet feedin his chickens crushed ice to keep em from layin hard-boiled eggs.

Her response, “If Skeet’s brains were made of gasoline, he wouldn’t have enough to ride a motor scooter around the inside of a doughnut.” I left fore she could start on me!

Anyway, tonight we’re supposed to have another couple good batches, and we’re sure needing all we can get.

Well, the grow area is planted, and irrigated! YES! We like 1-1/2 rows, but that for the black tomatoes. They’ll be out there too, before long. The start off is just about behind us, and I gotta tell you guys again…I’m havin a ball watchin this stuff grow. It’s a little different, but we’re getting the hang of it.

Changing gears, we sure hope all ya’ll are doing fine. We’d seen where there were some areas that had been having some really nasty weather, and we hope you, and all your loved ones, are all in good shape.

Today’s recipes come from a book very similar to our last post’s recipes. They were from “White Trash Cooking,” while these come from… “White Trash Gatherings!” I think I recognized some of ole Deb’s people in this one…. “GATHERIN!” LOL!

It was written by, Kendra Bailey Morris, and published by Ten Speed Press. We’ve used some of her recipes before, and have gotten a kick out of her book, plus some pretty dern good recipes. Get ya one!

Miss Motley’s Buttermilk Fried Chicken With Torpedo Gravy

• 1 frying chicken, cut into pieces
• 1 cup buttermilk
• Flour
• Salt and pepper, as much as you’d like
• ½ cup butter
• ½ cup shortening
• Paprika
• ¼ cup water
• 1-1/2 cups evaporated milk, more1-1/2 cups whole milk
• Reba May’s Creamy Mashed Potatoes (below)
• Angel Biscuits (below)

Make sure your chicken pieces are all the same size, and are all on the small side. If the breasts are too large, cut em into halves. Two to three hours before you plan to fry, rinse the chicken and put it into a large sealable plastic bag with the buttermilk. Store in the fridge until ready to cook.

Take a brown paper bag and put enough flour to easily coat the chicken in it. Add salt and pepper, as much as you’d like. Remove your chicken from the buttermilk and put it in the paper bag. Shake your chicken up good and get ready to fry it. Save your flour mixture foe making gravy later on.

Melt equal parts butter and shortening in a cast iron skillet. Have your heat at medium to medium-high, but be careful not to burn the butter. When the pan is hot, drop your chicken in the pan and brown on each side. Sprinkle paprika on each side along with salt and pepper the way you like it. Cook for about 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium –low, add the water, put a lid on the pan, and steam the chicken for 15 to 20 minutes. Take off the lid and continue to cook the chicken on each side to crisp it up again. Place the chicken on a rack to drain.

Scrape up the little crispy pieces from the bottom of the pan. Add 2 to 3 heaping tablespoons of the flour mixture from the paper bag. Stir, scrape, and cook for about 3 minutes. Add equal parts of the evaporated milk and the whole milk to the mixture and stir real good. You should have about 3 cups of liquid. Bring up to a low simmer. Continue stirring until your gravy thickens (the secret to a first-rate gravy is good drippings and fast stirring). If you find your gravy is getting too thick, add a little evaporated milk. Add salt and pepper the way you like it. Serve up your gravy with a mound of mashed potatoes and hot biscuits.

Reba May’s Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Peel and cut enough potatoes into chunks for your group. (I always make a little extra, so there will be leftovers for next-day tater cakes). Cover your potatoes with water and cook until tender. Save your potato water to use when mashing.

Heat your mashing liquid, which should be half evaporated milk, half potato water, and a big chunk of butter. Using your potato masher (NO electric mixers!), smash the potatoes and add enough hot liquid to make them fluffy. Add salt and pepper the way you like it. Pile the potatoes in a big bowl and make a well in the top of your potato mound. Add a generous spoonful of butter into your potato well while your potatoes are good and hot. Let it run down the sides like a tasty, buttery volcano.

I gotta tell you guys, while I’m posting this…I’m slobbering at the mouth!

Angel Biscuits

• 1 package active yeast
• 2 tablespoons very warm water
• 5 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup shortening
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1 egg white, whisked

Turn your oven to 400. Grease up a baking sheet.

Dissolve your yeast in a bowl with warm water. Let it stand for about 5 minutes, or until foamy. If it doesn’t foam too much, use it anyway. Your biscuits will still be delicious. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar and salt together in a big bowl.

Cut in your shortening using 2 knives. Make sure you have small grains of shortening. Now, add your buttermilk and yeast mixture. Turn onto a lightly floured board and knead gently for a minute or so. Don’t worry if your dough is a little sticky. And be sure to go easy on the flour.

Roll out your dough to about an inch thick and cut your biscuits with the open end of a clean tin can or with a biscuit cutter. (My Granny once told me; avoid twisting off your, can or biscuit cutter when you’re cutting up biscuits as it can keep your biscuit from getting a good rise). Brush the tops of each biscuit with a little egg white. Put your biscuits on a baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Heavenly!

Reba May’s Next-Day Fried Tater Cakes

Take your cold leftover mashed potatoes and shape em into ½ inch thick cakes about the size of a Ball canning jar lid. Dip both sides of the cakes lightly in flour. Fry over medium-heat in shortening in a cast iron fry pan till both sides are browned and crispy. (Cast iron fries up the best cakes). Season them with salt and pepper the way you like!

If not, I want you to know “straight up” Miz Judi, the possum…was Deb’s idea! LOL!

Well, we better get started this morning, and maybe, just maybe, ole Judi won’t know we even cooked a dern possum in her kithchen, huh? Let me fire off the cook stove, and away we go!

You guys know by now that Deb and I love lookin at cookbooks, and probably me, worse than her. If ya’ll remember the old recipe for getting to sleep at night, well, it was just countin some sheep.

That just never would do it for me. I’d much rather go to sleep countin something else…like pork roasts! So, many times I’ll read through a cookbook just prior to “hittin the sack.” Works every time!

Last night I was readin through a cookbook, “Deep South Staples…or, how to survive in a southern kitchen without a can of cream of mushroom soup,” written by, Robert St. John. Now for ole Sandra, out in Vicksburg, Mr. St. John is a fellow Mississipian…Hattiesburg. It’s published by, the Different Drummer Press, Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

So if Mr. St. John uses any language that our Northern, or “Yankee friends” don’t cotton to, well, just give ole Sandra a ring…she’ll interpret it for you guys! Her HOME phone number is…601, jus kiddin Sandra! LOL!!

I’ve looked through this cookbook several times, but last night I went to readin it in earnest, and I gotta tell you, this guy is a hoot! I laughed out loud several times, and I REALLY, enjoy a laugh! It’s great! Once more, get ya one!

Buttermilk Chicken

• 8 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
• 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons hot sauce
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons Poultry Seasoning (below)
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 cup flour
• 2 tablespoons bacon grease (or canola oil)
• 2 cups Mushroom Bechamel Sauce (below)
• ½ cup sour cream
• ½ cup green onion, chopped

Preheat oven to 350.

In a mixing bowl, combine garlic, buttermilk, salt, hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Mix well and pour over the chicken. Allow to marinate for 1 to 2 hours. After marinating, remove the chicken and reserve the buttermilk marinade. Add poultry seasoning and pepper to the flour.

Place bacon grease in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Lightly flour chicken and brown on both sides in the skillet.

Pour chicken into a 3 quart Pyrex baking dish. Combine marinade, mushroom béchamel sauce, green onion, and sour cream. Spread mixture evenly over chicken. Bake uncovered for 25 minutes. (or, until done).

Poultry Seasoning

• ¼ cup Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
• ¼ cup garlic powder
• ¼ cup white pepper
• ¼ cup lemon pepper
• ¼ cup celery salt

Combine and mix well. Store in an airtight container. Yield…1-1/4 cups

Mushroom Bechamel Sauce

• 1 tablespoon olive oil, light
• ½ cup onion, minced
• ¼ cup shallot, minced
• ¼ cup celery, minced
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic, granulated
• ½ teaspoon thyme
• 10 oz. mushrooms, cleaned, and sliced (4 cups)
• 3 cups chicken broth
• ½ cup butter
• ¾ cup flour
• 1 cup whipping cream

Heat oil in a 3 quart saucepot over low heat. Add onions, shallots, celery and salt. Cook vegetables until tender. Add mushrooms and increase heat to medium. Cook 10 minutes, stirring often. Add chicken broth, garlic, and thyme. Bring back to a simmer and cook 10 more minutes.

In a separate skillet, make a light-blonde roux by melting butter and stirring in flour. Add to simmering broth mixture. Cook 3 to 4 minutes and add cream. Freezes well. Yield…2 quarts.

Jill’s Sweet Potatoes

• 4 cups sweet potatoes, cooked, peeled and mashed
• 3 cups sugar
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3 sticks butter
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 cup Rice Krispies
• 1 cup pecans, chopped
• 1 cup walnuts, chopped
• 1 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 13×9 inch casserole dish. Combine hot sweet potatoes, sugar, eggs, cream, half the butter, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl; mix thoroughly. Add sweet potatoe mixture to greased casserole dish.

Combine Rice Krispies, pecans, walnuts and remaining butter, and the brown sugar in a bowl. Mix until crumbly. Sprinkle over sweet potato mixture.

Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until center is hot. Yield…10 to 12 servings.

Baked Possum

• 1 large, adult possum

Skin and gut the possum. Place on a nice pine board and slide that combination into a hot oven. Cook for 4 hours. When the possum is thoroughly cooked, remove the possum from the oven…and eat the pine board! LOL!

This book is full of tales, such as, “the possum.” It has some great recipes, and keeps a grin on your face throughout! Like I said a little earlier…next time in town, just give it a look-see!