Bernice Craddock - A Lifetime of Secret Recipes: 500 Southern Recipes From a Mothers Kitchen

There has to be a great story behind that title? Well, there is! It is an inside family joke that goes like this: Every year our family would grow this large garden behind our home. A 50 by 30 yard garden seems immense when you are a kid. Part of our required chores was to pick a row of snaps or dig up a row of potatoes before we could play. Every day I would get up early to do my required chores to work in the garden. And I would always be able to start summertime festivities of going to the swimming pool or ball field before my older brother and sister.

Without failevery year whatever we grew was consumed, canned or frozen. By the time it hit the kitchen table was welcomed with ummhhsand awhhhs (using a country style Mayberry USA Andy Griffith dialect). This is the best I ever put in my mouth! someone would say After several years of that repetition, my sister and I would just look at each other and bust into a gut-wrenching laugh. All those fine, homegrown ingredients are what went into my mothers cooking to become so infamous. And now, the same collection of home cooked southern recipes is being brought to you. Bernice G.

Craddock focused her entire life on being a great wife, mother and homemaker. All the adjectives that go with a good mother describe her. She spent nearly 50 years taking care of her man and showing all of us a great example of what a great wife and mother should be. One of her greatest joys in life was to provide for her family and that meant scrumptious 8-course meals. Yes, an 8-course meal was a routine dinner. Breakfast could be 5 to 6 courses! And people wonder why I have width issues?! So, to a large degree, great cooking represented her life and she always did it to the best of her ability.

Her preparations were always the talk of every gathering. Every time she made something she had to give the recipe to someone. Her infamy became very widespread through Virginia and the Carolinas. This cookbook is essentially a representation of her life. At 78 years young, she decided to write her own cookbook. Her greatest challenge was narrowing it down to her 500 most favorite recipes.

She accomplished it and sold out three hardcopy printings very quickly in local shops around Virginia. Additionally, when she retired, she began baking cakes and selling those to local restaurants. The fresh, homemade Coconut Snowball or the Red Velvet as well as the German Chocolate were HUGE hits. She would sell these for $25 and the restaurant would charge $6-7 a slice. Patrons happily paid this and didn't like it when they ran out. Mom or Bernice went home to be with the Lord and her Husband on November 9, 2012 at the ripe young age of 88 years old.

Yes, she is greatly missed! I had promised her I would continue to share these recipes with the world via the internet so as many people as possible would enjoy her labor of love. I hope you will enjoy this as much as the others before you and share it with your family and friends along the way. Bernice had a burden for hungry kids everywhere. I also vowed to honor her heartfelt love of kids with a percentage of all profits of this book being contributed for her in the name of Jesus Christ to feed the hungry children around the world. To that end, enjoy with all your heart! God Bless, Jonathan R. Craddock (Son) P.S.

A couple of my favorite recipes are the Copper Dollars and the Blueberry Cheesecake Cookies Visit our Facebook Page for recipe discussions and update information!
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