Browning - Heart & Soul Food: Recipes and Stories to Nourish Your Heart & Soul

Homaro Cantu Grandchildren always remember how their grandparents made them feel and a pan of hot-from-the-oven biscuits, a jar of honey, and a glass of milk is usually equated with the feeling of love. If you were to just happen to drop in at the funeral of a Southern Grandmother, you might be surprised at the eulogy given. In fact, if you werent listening with your heart, you might think you were listening to the Special of the Day list at a restaurant. I have attended many funerals where a grandson or granddaughter was given the task of eulogizing their grandmother. Among the favorite memories, favorite foods are always mentioned. Bereaved grandchildren fondly memorialize the times spent at their grandmothers table, eating whatever her specialty was.

The fact is this: its not about the food; its about how they felt when gathered around their grandmothers table. Each and every food prepared by a grandmother has the same secret ingredient. That ingredient is Love. And it soothes and comforts your heart and soul. The table is a meeting place, a gathering ground, the source of sustenance and nourishment, festivity, safety, and satisfaction. -Laurie Colwin- The recipes in this book are favorites that have been served at family dinners, church suppers, and get-togethers with friends. -Laurie Colwin- The recipes in this book are favorites that have been served at family dinners, church suppers, and get-togethers with friends.

They were concocted and shared long ago before we called macaroni pasta and before we looked at the nutritional data on all things edible. There is no calorie count here. These recipes were frugally designed using common ingredients that we all had in our kitchens in the 1970s. Love is the common ingredient in each recipe in this book.
GRANDMAS RECIPES This has always puzzled me: Just how much is a pinch? These recipes of dear Grandmas Surely are no cinch. A snip of this, a dab of that, A lump of something else Then beat it for a little while, Or, stir until it melts.

I have to be a wizard To decipher what she meant By all these strange proportions In her cookbook worn and bent. How much nutmegs in the doughnuts? Grandma wouldnt flinch As she said, with twinkling eyes, Oh, just about a pinch. There must have been in her wise head A measuring device That told her just how much to use Of sugar, salt, and spice. Author: Unknown
Grandmas Chicken and Dumplings Bless the food before us, The family beside us, And the love between us. Amen It was one of those days that required comfort food. It was cloudy, drizzly, and rainythank the Good Lordand we needed something warm and rich to comfort us.

It was the perfect day to make Grandmas chicken and dumplings. The only problem was that I dont really know how to make chicken and dumplings without using a can of biscuits. You know the kindthe cheap ones that you pop open with a butter knife and then pinch off and throw into the pot of boiling chicken and broth. And I didnt have a can of biscuits. But my youngest granddaughter and I needed something good to eat. We also needed something to occupy our time and our hands on this drizzly day.

So I pulled out an old cookbook that was put together by the ladies of the church I attended, figuring there would be one in there. Sure enough, my friend Lucy had published her recipe for chicken and dumplings. And they were the old-fashioned kind of dumplingsmade with flour and shortening, salt and baking powder and milk. They were the kind my mother used to make, the ones she never used a recipe to make . The ones I didnt learn to make by watching her. So I set the chicken to boiling in the pot and got the other ingredients for Lucys recipe out of the cabinet.

Then Baby Dear and I proceeded to make us some dumplings. I measured the flour, the salt and the baking powder, then sifted them all together while Baby Dear sat in her high chair, contentedly tossing cereal in the floor and saying Uh-oh in her sweet little voice. I cut in the shortening with a potato masher because using a fork seemed like too much work. And that worked really well. I added milk and kneaded the dough in a bowl. a handful of it and she rolled it up and rolled it up and threw it in the floor with the Cheerios. a handful of it and she rolled it up and rolled it up and threw it in the floor with the Cheerios.

And she laughed and snorted and I laughed and snorted along with her. I rolled out the dough with my mothers old rolling pin thats missing both handles. That rolling pin must have rolled out hundreds of thousands of biscuits and pie crusts in her time. When the dough was thin enoughabout 1/8 of an inchI cut it into strips and B.D. watched as I tossed each piece into the pot of hot broth. Next I took all the ragged ends of the left over dough and rolled them in sugar and cinnamon.

Then I placed them on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven, to bake a special treat for my little helperjust like my mother used to do for me. When they were baked, B.D. and I shared the little bits of sugary dough while we waited for the dumplings to cook. When the dumplings were done, I improvised and added a cup of milk and a dash of cream to Lucy's recipe...like I remembered my mother doing. When all the cooking was finished, Baby Dear and I shared her first serving of Grandmas chicken and dumplings. heartily approved. heartily approved.

After she finished eating Grandmas chicken and dumplings, she crawled around on the floor and played with her toys, satisfied and comforted by the warm food. I was satisfied and comforted as well. Yes, the dumplings were good. But most of all I was comforted by using my friends recipe and my mothers rolling pin. It was so lovely to remember all the good times shared in those kitchens. And it was lovely to share a good time in my kitchen with my own little granddaughter.

Thats what comfort food really doesit nourishes your heart and soul. And my heart and soul are very full.