"Get cooking and enjoy some old-time good foods and don't forget to share."
--Woodbury (TN) Cannon Courier
A warm and humorous look at the rural lifestyle of a Tennessee farm family in the 1930s and 1940s, Hill Country Cookin' and Memoirs is a treasury of Southern family recipes from a time and place where cooking was an essential part of home life.
Author Ibbie Ledford, born and raised in the Tennessee hills, offers her special recipes along with some cherished personal memories. Hill Country treats and staples, traditional fare, and modern favorites are all included here. Recipes for Hand-Squashed Biscuits, Corn Fritters, Chicken Pot Pie, Baked Cheese Grits, Shepherd's Pie, Flapjacks and Hot Blackberry Jam, Deer Steaks and Gravy, Squirrel Stew with Potato Dumplings, Fried Okra, Turnip Greens, Wilted Lettuce Salad, Buttermilk Pie, and Beef Jerky are accompanied by peculiar (to some) Hill Country customs, such as how to clean and pluck a chicken, kill a hog, boil a country ham, fry chitterlings, and make inexpensive Christmas tree ornaments.
Interspersed throughout the book are Ibbie's memoirs-deliciously funny and warmly touching tales of growing up poor but well provided for in rural Tennessee more than sixty years ago. Recall with Ibbie such scenes as porch sitting, Papa's monthly trek into town to buy supplies (and surprises for the children ), the excitement of a dance at the house, preaching all day and dinner on the grounds (with a recipe for Scripture Cake), and the arrival of May 1-time to take off the winter underwear and go barefoot-the first outhouse for the family, and many more stories that will bring back memories and touch your heart.
