Cousin Cuisine

I’m getting more and more excited as my cousin, Emily, and I delve deeper into the prospects of doing a family recipe inspired cookbook.  We’ve tossed around ideas for names and it came down to one inevitable agreement -- the title must include the word Ozark in some shape or form.  It is such a huge part of our history, our culture, the way we cook, how we feel about cooking and why most recipes are going to contain mass amounts of butter and a southern woman’s true secret weapon – BACON GREASE.  I have a dear friend who’s more like an aunt to me by the name of, Sharmin.  She wrote a very witty blog of the true tale of southern women and their trusty mason jar of bacon grease.  I enjoyed reading it and found it to be very true and well written.

As, my cousin puts it: “We come from a long line of good cooks and smart alecks”.  No truer words were ever spoken.  We’ve decided to indulge in the humor that is so prevalent in our family and use it to our advantage by writing a brief synopsis of our family history and small bios of a family member if we use, (and we will), one of their particular recipes.  There were always many laughs shared around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday table and certain dishes are very representative of us as a family and should be shared.  Let me set the scene:  Granny had always been up since dawn cooking.  She was worn out, had no makeup on, wearing her coolots and house shoes.  I don’t think she ever ate and if she did, she did it standing up.  Southern holiday hostess rule #1. Look tired and pissed off and everyone’s a lot more grateful for the meal and will more than likely volunteer to do the dishes.  We’re a smart breed.  There were always funny stories being told, usually at the expense of someone else in the room.  My family is full of characters; half of them I couldn’t make up on my best day.  There was laughter and more food than you could shake a stick at.  There were tried and true recipes that were always there.  Granny’s dressing, turkey and all the fixins and God forbid Aunt Judith not make the tortilla roll-ups.  I’ve heard in the north they put fruit in their dressing - WOULDN’T DREAM OF IT.  But there were always new treats we’d never had before so we were constantly evolving and trying new things.  There are worse problems to have than an overabundance of women who can cook well and having more food than counter space.  Everyone went home with 25 tupperware containers to be reopened after your first food coma wore off. 

Every single woman in my family can cook and cook well; it’s just in our DNA.  So what do we know?  Food and funny.  Yeah, I’ll capitalize on that.  There’s already a funny story that comes to mind of the time my Ma Ma, (pronounced Maw Maw – 2 words), made the same pie as mom one Thanksgiving.  She sat hers near moms and came back later and mentioned how shabby her pie crust was…………..  Only problem is the pie she was referring to was mom’s.  In reading through Paula Deen’s cookbook she has funny little excerpts of how each recipe was born, where it came from or the story of the first time she made it.  As I was reading it, I thought, “I can absolutely do this!”  So stay tuned for Cousin Ciusine - A Taste of Ozark Southern Comfort.  Oh and speaking of Ma Ma – I will be requiring her snowball cake recipe from someone.  I never much cared for coconut so it was never my favorite but she was so I ate it anyway.