Best Screen Doors and Sweet Tea: Recipes and Tales from a Southern Cook

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Any time of the year that I pick up this lovely book, I am transported to a place and time. It looks like this: I'm wearing a pastel-colored cotton dress, my hair is newly washed and hanging down my back, the rocking chair I am sitting in, on Great Aunt Sallie's screened-in back porch, is slowly creeping across its gray-painted wooden floor. I hear her dog (sleeping at my feet) chasing a rabbit in his dreams and I (impatiently) wait for Aunt Sallie to bring me the latest confections that will soon be coming out of her oven, judging by the intoxicating smell of sugar and butter that fill the air. This book takes me back to this time as an 8-year old Southern girl.

As a typical Boomer, I went through lots of changes during the 60's. Now, looking over the cubicle wall at retirement, this charming book takes me back to a time when I can see my mother's white gloves saved for Sunday church or a funeral. I hear my dad poking holes in the lid of a mayo jar so my brother and I can catch fire-flies on a summer evening. I remember entering my aunts' homes (had lots of aunts!) and not understanding when they said, "Oh, my house is such a mess today," and everything seemed to be in perfect order to me. I remember the first bridal shower tea to which my mother took me, thinking I might finally be mature enough to attend. I watched the rites and formalities of things like silver punch bowls, how the punch cups must be set out in a line, the pastel beauty of fragrant round mints in a cut-glass bowl, and wondering if I would ever fit into this dignified, orderly lady-like world when I felt such a tomboy at the time.

Now, thanks to Martha's book, I can re-enter that clean, polite tucked-in-with-a-kiss-at-night world where almost everyone was called Miss Flossie or Miss Rowena or Miss Callie once their hair turned white, no matter how many grandchildren they had. The final truth came to me at the age of 13 one Thanksgiving. My father entered the kitchen peopled by my mother, two of her sisters (all over 50) and a non-relative everyone just called Aunt Mac (60 or 70+ years old.) Daddy said, "How are you girls coming? Will we be eating soon?" I broke out laughing and questioned, "Girls???" The women all silently turned and glared at me while my father explained, "No matter how many birthdays a lady has, she is always a girl." Having become A Lady of a Certain Age, I can testify to the fact that I am still a girl and this book helps me re-enter, re-call and re-live that time. Thank you, Martha, for your breath of fresh air and making me wish I had paid more attention now during those teas, showers and dinners.

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Catalog Screen Doors and Sweet Tea: Recipes and Tales from a Southern Cook

Over All Rating Reviews :

Written from the perspective of a cook living in the Mississippi Delta, this book aims to depict tasty meals and a laid back lifestyle. Texas born and raised in the big city, I envy such a lifestyle even with knowing that it isn't always what it is purported to be. Pictures never capture the oppressive heat and humidity or the sheer joy of a cloud of gnats descending upon you.

The cookbook opens with a section titled "Mailbox Happy hour and Pick-up Party Food." Or, as I would call it, "appetizers and booze." Drinks made with alcohol and small finger foods guide these recipes and occasional color pictures. Little sections of commentary or background lead into these easy to make recipes along with notes (tips) on how to make items. And of course, there is the obligatory "Deviled Egg" recipe complete with paprika along with some more complicated recipes such as "Red Drum Starter" and "Inland Prawn Toast."

"Luncheons, Salads and Dressings" is the next section. Along with recipes for tasty "Chicken Salad, Frozen Cucumber Salad," and "Three Bean Salad," there are ones for "Homemade Mayonnaise" and "Pimento Cheese" spread. There are many others in this section and certainly something here is going to work for somebody.

The next section is "Gumbos, Soups, Dumplings and a Bisque." Pretty much obvious by the name what is covered in this chapter. Lots of good things here like "Seafood Gumbo, Curried Sweet Potato Soup, Monday Red Beans and Rice" and many others. The bisque is a recipe for "Belzoni Crawfish Rice and Corn" and is found on pages 84 and 85. There is even a recipe for "Turtle Soup" using the large alligator snapping turtles along with a warning about checking with your state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries regarding trapping regulations.

"Dishes From the Backyard and Kitchen" come next and involve chicken, turkey, poultry, pork in a variety of ways, steak, ribs, etc. The recipes include "Proper Fried Chicken, Double Cut Pork Chops, Blue Cheese Porterhouse" and many others. If it were me, I'd save the blue cheese for the dressing on my salad, the sour cream for my potato, and eat the steak well done without anything on it. That is after cooking it over a wood fire under a blue Texas sky next to a lake. But, that is just me.

The book then moves on to sides and these aren't simple mashed potatoes, or string beans with a dollop of butter. In "Field Peas, Greens, Sides and the Like" the recipes are for things like "Crumb Cauliflower " (which just might make the stuff edible) "Green Chile Rice, Succotash, Corn and Red Pepper Pudding" along with many more. And yes, there is the obligatory sweet potato recipe.

"Hot From the Oven" should have been titled "Biscuits and More" or something straight forward along that line. The recipes cover various items such as "Apron String Biscuits" (with Red-Eye Gravy or Tomato Gravy) Sweet Potato Biscuits, Blue Cheese Pecan Bread, Delta Cream Doughnuts" and many others. Just looking at the pictures of these items can cause your waistband to spontaneously expand.

The next chapter "The Sweetest Things" doesn't help that at all. Deserts such as "Banana Pudding, Lemon Icebox Pie" (my grandmother recipe was and is better), "Silent Shade Cobbler" and numerous others are covered and include recipes for sherbet and ice cream.

This 284 page delectable cookbook closes with an index and author acknowledgement. It is a book filled with numerous color photographs, many of the area and not of the food, good recipes, plenty of tips and information and a liberal dash of humor.

My only quibble with this book is the lack of dietary information. There is nothing in this book about salt content, fat grams, or any of the rest of it. I suspect the numbers are quite high, per serving, in many cases but the book doesn't address that in any way. Considering the increasing obesity epidemic and growing media attention to health issues, this very good book would have been markedly better if that information had been included.



Kevin R. Tipple (copyright) 2009

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