Alien Tea Shoppe

These recipes are only a few years old in our family, but have quickly become favourites that me make again and again. There is a book my sister received a few years back,  Being Dead Is No Excuse: The Official Southern Ladies Guide To Hosting The Perfect Funeral .  It seems odd to outlanders, but in the south we like to feed people.  Other places don't understand it, they simply see us shoving food at each other as our waistlines grow larger.  The Civil War had a direct impact on food for southerners; everyone, black and white.  As the losing side, food became scarce in the latter years of the war, to becoming almost nonexistent post war.  The south knows what it is to starve and it is so ingrained in us that our entire culture is nothing but food.  You came over for a visit, let me feed you.  You lost a loved one, let me feed you.  You just moved in, let me feed you.  You have no food, let me feed you.  Your boyfriend broke up ...

These recipes are from both sides, and are things that my family does very well.  They've been made in my house since I can remember (some, even before I was born.)  All are absolutely delicious! Fried Catfish Everyone in the south deep fries fish that is battered in cornmeal.  It's good.  It is very rare, however, to have fried fish that is still phenomenal when it is cold.  My grandfather and father perfected this.  We're all lake fishing people, but no one really fishes anymore, so the grand fish fry's with bass, crappie, brim, or white perch are no longer a thing.  What is also no longer a thing is cleaning and gutting our own fish or worrying with bones.  I actually miss that, but now we buy boneless catfish fillets at the grocery store.  So there's two things my dad will fry up; a fillet where he has scored x's into the top layer of meat on one side, and 2" cubes of meat, because he always made fish nuggets for my sister and I, an...

Today an internet friend of mine wanted favourite holiday recipes from her followers, and it got me thinking about my absolute favourite family recipes.  The one's that have always been a tradition to one's that have become new traditions.  There are not a lot, but there are too many to fit into one post neatly, so I'll be doing a three-parter.  This first blog post will be my favourite recipes that have something to do with Thanksgiving.     Thanksgiving, as well as Christmas, were split holidays for us.  My mom's family lived 30 minutes north of us and my dad's family lived 3 hours west of us, and we'd do both holidays with both sides of the family.  And very different traditions came from both sides. I always had a half day of school on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  I had three jobs in food preparation.  Cranberry sauce, congealed salad, and succotash, because they are all things a kid can't mess up.  All three recipes w...