Friday's Ramblings

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Hi ya'll. I hope you all have dried off a bit, for it has been raining cats and dogs this past week around here. Remember the quote, "Water, water, everywhere...", well that is what is around here. Of course down here in South Georgia where we live, it is flat as a fritter, so it doesn't drain real well. This leads to me having a creek in the front yard and a river in the ditch by the driveway. You know down here the only hill we have are the overpasses across the interstate. It is flaat.

Now don't get me wrong for we needed the rain but not a whole bucketful at one time. The good Lord knows best though and I guess He knew we needed a bunch at one time. There is a lot of flooding around here and some people not only have wet feet, but wet carpet, wet, floors, wet clothes, etc. You just might say, "We are all wet." I'm waiting to see a fish come swimming across the front yard. Now if it does, I'll be waiting with my fishing pole.

We went to Lake Park, GA today to do a little bargain hunting and ate at a good, little cafe we had not tried. It had come highly recommended by the man who cuts my hair and he was right. It is a bit of Great Britain sitting in South Georgia and I mean, South Georgia. Lake Park is in spitting distance of the Florida Line. The little cafe is called British Pasties and is quite tasty (notice that rhymes) and not very expensive. A British gentleman owns and runs it and we had Toad in a Hole.

Now for those who are ignorant of the British cuisine, it is a sausage nested in Yorkshire pudding. This is a bread made with flour, eggs and milk and cooked in the oven and it had a sausage link nestled in it with gravy. It was quite good and the green beans and mashed potatoes were quite delicious. If you come down to Lake Park you might want to try it out. They have quite a few dishes from England and the atmosphere is laid back and comfortable. The pot of tea, hit the spot.

From Great Britain to Elvis Pressley for I had a banana and peanut butter sandwich for supper. I did change it a bit, for I used raisin bread instead of light bread, which is what he liked. This is one of my favorite sandwiches, but as long as it has peanut butter on it, it is always good, right Becky? We raised our daughter on peanut butter and honey or jelly sandwiches. She was rather picky but this was always a good substitute. The rule at our house was, if you didn't like what I had cooked, the peanut butter was in the cabinet and the bread was on the counter, so have at it. Her idea of a vegetable is anything fried. That's alright baby, it was easy to please you as long as we had a big jar of peanut butter. When she was home, I bought it by the large, plastic buckets full.

We didn't eat many sandwiches growing up, for mama liked to cook and daddy didn't really care for them. He wanted real food, meat, vegetables, bread and a sweet. It was treat for us and we really liked pineapple and mayonnaise ones. Mama also made a really good pimento cheese spread for special occasions which we put on pieces of celery. What was left we could use for a sandwich.

There were also some strange ones too. I liked to take a piece of light bread, put catsup on it, stick a little green onion which I had pulled and washed, in the bread and chow down. Now being from Alabama and the South, fresh tomato sandwiches were always a treat. We had a missionary's son who visited us once every four years and that child could eat 4 at one sitting. He did love those tomato sandwiches and we would just sit back and watch. Even our brother, Arvin, couldn't eat that many and he was a big eater.

I have seen Arvin, Sam and daddy finish off a jar of fig preserves at breakfast. Mama and I would get a little bit and then they cleaned the jar. Now you really can't blame them, for mama could make some good fig preserves. Put them on hot, buttered toast or a hot biscuit and you thought you had died and gone to heaven. You know without a doubt that the angels must cook Southern food if it is is called nectar.

Now biscuits are good most anyway you cook them - hot or cold. Mama always made a bunch and the cold ones would be left on the table under a napkin. About mid-morning, we would take a big, fat biscuit, punch a hole in it with our finger, pour it full of syrup and eat with a big smile on our faces. I can hear mama now as we would head for the kitchen door, "Don't you drip that syrup all over my clean floor and for Pete's sake don't slam the screen door." Of course we did both, for we could never ease that door shut for it was a heavy screen door. It would make a great big wham as it slammed shut and mama would holler at us as we ran.

Now if you can find some good, homemade biscuits, or cat-heads as daddy would call them, try punching a hole in it and pour it full of syrup. Just be sure and don't punch a hole all the way through, just almost. Of course if it drips all over you, that's alright. Just don't slam the door on your way out. By the way, the whop-em biscuits in those little cans that you whop on the counter don't count as biscuits. It is poor substitute for a good homemade one, but the frozen ones are a bit better. Nothing is as good as the start from scratch, hand patted and a little dusting of flour on the top. Of course they have to be thick enough to let you stick your finger in.

Well, I have rambled enough for one day, so ya'll stay dry and if you want some good homemade biscuits, let me know, for mama taught me well.

Nuff said,

The Georgia Peach