In article >,
"Ophelia" > wrote:

> "OmManiPadmeOmelet" > wrote in message
> ...
> > In article >,
> > "Ophelia" > wrote:
> >
> >> "jmcquown" > wrote in message
> >> .. .
> >> >
> >> > Now we get into po' folks vs. what was available. IMHO (sincerely
> >> > humble
> >> > opinion), Southern comfort food was what was available cheaply
> >> > during
> >> > and
> >> > after Reconstruction. Greens, cornbread, home baked bread with
> >> > lard
> >> > or
> >> > rendered fatback.
> >> >
> >> > Chicken & dumplings, yes. Simmered beans and bean soup; mac &
> >> > cheese,
> >> > milk
> >> > gravy on biscuits (predates sausage gravy), baked potatoes.
> >> >
> >> > Later on, after the "great" American depression, these foods became
> >> > precious
> >> > again, North and South. My grandmother fed her children on potato
> >> > soup and
> >> > greens for a number of years. When they say someone had to walk to
> >> > school
> >> > uphills both ways... Grandma baked potatoes in the wood stove then
> >> > sent my
> >> > dad and his siblings to school in the 1930's with hot potatoes to
> >> > keep
> >> > their
> >> > hands warm and to eat for lunch. I'm not kidding.
> >> >
> >> > They had the occasional chicken and the greens were usually
> >> > dandylions. She
> >> > made rivels (tiny dumplings) to make the potato soup more filling.
> >> >
> >> > I am so fortunate. So lucky. So are we all.
> >>
> >> Thank you Jill. We are all very lucky. Please explain
> >> 'Reconstruction'
> >> and 'sausage gravy'
> >> recipe saved
> >>
> >> O
> >>
> >>
> >
> > Reconstruction was post-civil war. The re-structuring and rebuilding
> > of
> > the southern states that tried to cecede from the union. Very American
> > history. ;-)
> >
> > Sausage gravy??? OH boy!
> >
> > Fry some pork sausage, sliced or link. Leave the grease in the pan.
> > Add
> > flour to make a roux and enough milk to thin to the desired
> > consitency.
> > For red-eye gravy, add coffee.
> >
> > Serve over buscuits with sausage, fried eggs on the side and hash
> > browns
> > (grated potato mixed with egg) if you have them.
> >
> > Southern cooking at it's, uh, best? <lol>
>
> This sounds like you take the sausage out! Oh yes.. another
> question.. what is red-eye gravy???

Red eye, mom made it with coffee and milk, and either sausage or fried
ham drippings, or sometimes bacon.

>
> O enjoying asking about all the strange things she reads here)))))

I'm still learning southern cooking. <G> I'm a Texas transplant.
Dad was an aerospace engineer and a job shopper, so I lived all over the
US. Originally from California.

>
>
>
--
Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." -Jack Nicholson