The Grapevine: Introduction to German, English Food
By Rosalyn Queen on September 12, 2019 from The Grapevine
Fall is here and it is time to think about preserving our food for winter.
Over the last several columns I zeroed in on recipes and food from my Italian roots. This week, in all fairness, I am going to devote the column to my children's German and English roots. I feel that my kids had the best of two worlds and they were directly involved in both cultures.
When I became a member of the Queen family I was introduced to a new culture that I knew little about. I was willing to be a part of it and to learn about it.
My first introduction to the food was the traditional breakfast. Every breakfast included hot biscuits. The biscuits were made fresh every morning and were served with many different foods. My favorite was biscuits and gravy served with bacon or sausage or pork chops. It was kind of easy for me to learn to make biscuits from scratch but it was a long time before I could master the art of making gravy without lumps. I was finally told that after you browned the flour you removed the skillet from the heat while adding the milk. Another secret that I learned was In order to get the gravy the right color you had to add gravy coloring. Of course there is nothing quite as delicious as a hot biscuit with home made butter and home made jelly.Leslie has mastered the biscuit and gray breakfast.
The other food item that was so popular in this household was corn bread. It was made just about every day for supper. Generally it is served with some type of bean dish, usually soup beans. You might also find a pot of fresh green beans for dinner. We always had buttermilk with the corn bread and occasionally we would crush the corn bread in a bowl, pour the buttermilk over it and eat it this way. It took me many years to learn to make perfect corn bread. It was a joke in my home that it took two hands to handle mom's (my!) cornbread. It always fell apart, although it tasted great.
The Queen family household in the East View community usually had a cow and several pigs which explains why there was always an abundance of pork and beef. The butter milk was usually made fresh from the cow milk.
Another item that was always made was sauerkraut. A large crock could be found in the cellar containing the kraut.
A happy birthday to my son-in-law Dixon Pruitt and his sister, Lisa. Also I want to wish a happy birthday to one of my best friends, Becky Sprout. Also, Happy Grandparents Day to all of you grandparents. When my kids were born they had about ten grandparents living.
Fall is upon us and soon It will be winter. Plan now to take a trip somewhere in West Virginia to see our beautiful and natural scenery.. There are "leaf peeper" guides available online and from the WV Department of Tourism. Keep in touch and until next week "Now You Have Heard It Through The Grapevine."
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