From a Cornbread Recipe to Culinary Comfort Recipes: Exploring Grandma’s Brown County Cookbook
A Cookbook Written for Those Who Don't Know How to Cook
Introduction
This cookbook is written as a story is to introduce a quick and easy way to learn to cook country meals without any of the frills of a fancy dish. It is also reflects the work put in by a new bride as she learned to make edible meals for her and her husband because she could cook not a single meal except for being able to bake cornbread when they wed. At the time, the latest recipes came from my mother and grandmother. The author was a daddy’s girl who traipsed around the farm with him while her two sisters helped in the kitchen where I grew up with one of the best cooks in the world in that kitchen. It was far more fun outside with Dad. It took a lot of hard work to learn Mother’s wonderful meals she turned out while the author of “Grandma’s Brown County Cookbook” would be created many years down the road for her to use.
A Culinary Journey
It would take many starts and stops while the new cook in town learned to cook something that would bring joy to put on the table other than the bread. It would, in fact, take about four years, just to begin.
Simple Dinner Recipes
She learned in the cookbook how to use her new set of cookware and how to cook something as simple as cooking macaroni and tomatoes and onions without having to use the entire two-pound box of macaroni at one sitting. But the neighborhood stray dogs loved what had to be thrown out after trying several times to keep it from burning dry and burned on the bottom of the pan. Love goes a long way in keeping the newlyweds from starving. You just need to keep trying different dinner recipes until you find recipes that work for you. Seeing her new husband out in the back of the house diligently planting and then harvesting many types of fresh vegetables assisted greatly, knowing that fresher was better when it was used in your cooking.
What to Expect
“Grandma’s Brown County Cookbook” was created long after the bride was no longer a bride but was the Mother of two growing sons along with the newlyweds. The boys would take the drudgery out of the kitchen because by that time the new cook knew how to cook. They would eat anything and everything. The dad and husband and the boys and sometimes the cook, would spend hours in her garden pulling weeds and hoeing and then wonder of wonders, the ripened fruits and vegetables were awaited in the kitchen on a daily basis. You could hardly miss not being able to cook something edible, but a cookbook like this one would have gone a long way in producing a nice meal as long I was actually able to cook one.
Both our children learned how to cook many simple treats to eat before I arrived home from work after they returned from school. They were helped along by the Mom who canned and/or froze or dried many things that would make it available for them to open a jar or drop a frozen butter bowl of frozen meat in the microwave for a sandwich. They never had to starve or wait until their parents got home in the afternoons.
A Culinary Legacy
When a teenager leaves home for college, much like the writer of this cookbook married and left home, a “Grandma’s Brown County Cookbook” would have meant the now new adult out on their own would be able to cook a lot of simple, easy to understand recipes they could use and develop to break the fast-food livelihood in those arenas. Being healthy enough to cook and knowing how to follow recipes that have been handed down by their mom and their family members would benefit those new cooks immensely. Both our now grown sons can pretty well deliver a decent, home-cooked meal. All the recipes in this cookbook have been vetted and stored from many old standard recipes that do not need you to open a dictionary beside the cookbook. The recipes are simple, easy to fix, and nutritious. Many are also suitable, slight modification, as slow cooker recipes. I am always adding the latest recipes I find to my collection of recipes, and will occasionally release an update of the book to include those recipes as well.
Nostalgia and Tradition
Recently the storyteller got ambitious and made the second-time-ever-in-her- life persimmon pudding. It was smoking great!!! Both the sons who live in foreign countries were both home and that pudding lasted about a whirlpool standing on the kitchen stove. It was gone along with the Cool Whip topping. If the persimmons are not all gone, maybe a second one could still be baked before frost gets the fruit. There are even recipes for persimmon pudding along with paw-paw bread in this cookbook. But those fruits are sort of rare today, but there are still a few patches around where they could be picked. For those cooks who collect cookbooks from all over creation, this “Grandma’s” cookbook would make a stellar addition to your collection. Leave the dictionary on the shelf. You will not need that when using this simple yet nice recipe book for adult cooks or the beginning cook as she was.
Conclusion
For those cooks who rely on fast food take-out meals several times each week because you are too tired to cook, you might enjoy having a quickly prepared dish or two that becomes your favorite go-to for those days. Your family should enjoy a better and more healthy life by eating at home.
Grocery Shopping Tips and Tricks
When grocery shopping, make lists to take with you after searching through the “Grandma’s Cookbook” and then inside the store, shop first through the outer aisles where the fruits and vegetables are chosen first. Bet your food cart will overflow with the good stuff you need to make these recipes, including the dozen or so bread recipes you will enjoy trying perhaps for the first time. Oh, and yea, there is a Table of Contents to make it a bit easier to make your selections for that evening meal. The younger of my sons makes wonderful cornbread that actually looks nicer and just as tasty as what this storyteller makes. I asked him how he made his from my own recipe on page 4.
Pinches and Dabs
The difference is because he measures all the ingredients where this cook was taught to use pinches and dabs, not measuring cups. It really is a big improvement when you don’t guess, but actually measure. You doubt that? Try it.
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