Coming down with "The Vapors!"

You might say, what in the world is "coming down with the vapors?"  Although a Southern Lady possesses an undeniable natural charm, when facing a crisis or trivial event, she is a delicate flower you know, and a stressful or excitable situation can cause an unladylike response. So the quick and effective response is to, fan yourself, a theatrical collapse and claim to have the "vapors". The "vapors" was a common term for female hysteria, usually associated with swooning or fainting. No worries, there is a cure, a good of dose of smelling salts, briskly used hand fan, and most of all, a tall mint julep, a severe case....might require all three.

I Love the Fall Season!

My favorite season is Fall. A wonderful time to explore the Southern states is in the Fall. The splendor of color splashing over winding mountains, rolling foothills, and beach side walks are all great ways to enjoy the Fall season. You have the Arkansas Ozark Mountains, the Tennessee Smoky Mountains, Georgia Chattahoochee National Forest, Alabama Natchez Trace Parkway, so much to see and explore.  Let me show you just a bit....
To the left, my home state, Arkansas.

We lived for a time in Tennessee.....I have shared with you on a previous post my love of the Smoky Mountains, but another spot very beautiful is the Shenandoah Valley.


Mississippi!


                                          Alabama!






North Carolina!!





This is only a small taste of what beauty you can see.  Now it's time for a rocking chair, a warm cup of coffee, a shoulder wrap and sit back and enjoy the Fall Season.

Sunday bonnets or Sunbonnets

Hats used to be THE FASHION statement in the South. Most ladies or girls would own what was called a Sunbonnet.
With the hot sun, and harsh weather conditions the sunbonnet was their do it all fashion accessory. Some of the early sunbonnet styles were made with casing in the brim of the sunbonnet, so that wooden slats could be inserted into it to hold the brim of the bonnet out to shield the face. These sunbonnets find their sweetness in their simplicity of style.  They are the most practical way to prevent sunburn on the cheeks and nose, shade eyes, and keep those "things" from getting in the hair while little girls play, explore, and help around the yard.  The bonnets are intended to play in, but many styles of the Sunbonnets were made, fancy versions for church and social occasions.

But a true picture of a Southern Belle was not just sunbonnets but the big floppy hats. It is said, women need occasions to wear hats and the confidence to wear them. When I was young, women wore a hat to church every Sunday. She had beautiful hats that matched her suits or dress. (And her "bag" always matched her shoes, too.) There were hats in any color and style you can imagine, and some that you can't.

Southern ladies don’t wear hats like they used too, but I love to sport one every now and then. I think they make a fashion statement.  Like I said earlier, you have to have confidence and true Southern gentleness to sport these beautiful hats. I can just see me wearing one of these beauties......

My Top Ten: Novels set in Great South (Top Five)

The Great Southern States has been the setting for many of great novels. 

Now for my final TOP FIVE.

5.  Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

Through the eyes of Henry Fleming, a young Civil War soldier, we see the fears of battle and the inexplicable courage that comes when soldiers unite in a wartime machine. he novel features a young recruit who overcomes initial fears and shame to become a hero on the battlefield.

4. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Taking place mostly in rural Georgia, the story focuses on black female, Celie’s life during the 1930s in the Southern United States, addressing the numerous issues including their exceedingly low position in American social culture.

3. Roots by Alex Haley

This outstanding novel tells the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent and sold into slavery in the United States, and follows his life and the lives of his descendants in the U.S. down to Haley.

2. Forrest Gump by Winston Groom

Forrest Gump experiences adventures ranging from shrimp boating and ping pong championships to thinking about his childhood love. The Vietnam War and college football are all part of the story. Throughout his life, Gump views the world simply and truthfully. Throughout the course of the book, he really doesn't know what he wants to do in life. Author and narrator Groom uses intonations that capture Gump's personality. Gump is full of wisdom, but is considered an "idiot" because of his low IQ and disability. According to him, he "can think things pretty good", but when he tries "sayin or writin them, it kinda come out like Jello". He is also physically strong and falls into amazing adventures.

AND NOW........DRUM ROLLL.......

MY ALL TIME FAVORITE NOVEL ABOUT THE "OLE SOUTH IS.....

1. NORTH AND THE SOUTH by John Jakes

The saga tells the story of the enduring friendship between Orry Main of South Carolina and George Hazard of Pennsylvania, who become best friends while attending the United States Military Academy at West Point but later find themselves and their families on opposite sides of the war. The slave-owning Mains are rural gentleman planters while the big-city Hazards live by manufacturing and industry, their differences reflecting the divisions between North and South that eventually led to the Civil War.

My Top Ten: Novels set in Great South

The Great Southern States has been the setting for many of great novels.

Here is my favorite Top Ten Countdown List:

10.  A Painted House by John Grisham

Until that September of 1952, Luke Chandler had never kept a secret or told a single lie. But in the long, hot summer of his seventh year, two groups of migrant workers — and two very dangerous men — came through the Arkansas Delta to work the Chandler cotton farm. And suddenly mysteries are flooding Luke’s world.

9.  Adventures of Huckaberry Finn by Mark Twain

This novel is widely known as one of the first true "American Novels". Justice and honor is are explored and celebrated in this story about Huck's great adventures on the Mississippi River.

8. Cold Mountain by Charles Fraizer

This story of W.P. Innam, a wounded deserter from the Confederate army near the end of the Civil War who walks for months to return to Ada Monroe, the love of his life.

7. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

      This is also listed among  "American Great Novels".  Based in a small town in Alabama in the 1930s, it is the setting for a 

outstanding novel of a child's brutal introduction to racial  prejudice and adult injustice.

6. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

 Set against the backdrop of Georgia during the Civil War, Mitchell’s massive  historical novel chronicles the tempestuous romance of Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara.

Sweet Vadalia Onions-America's Favorite Onion!!

I can remember one thing my Mom loved to eat more than anything else, it was a sweet Vadalia onion. She would eat them actually "RAW" yes, I said "RAW".  She would sliced them and eat it between two slices of bread like a sandwich and don't you know, as she sliced, a few bites where taken in the process. 
What is a Vadalia onion you ask?  It is a mild and sweet onion, sweet enough to eat like fruit. These onions were first grown in Vidalia, Georgia in the early 1930 by a farmer named Moses Coleman, that discovered by his surprise, the rich sulfur ground produced a rather sweet & mild onion instead of a hot ones.  So it being in Vidalia, Georgia, that is how this onion got it's name and they remains still to grow exclusively in Georgia. 

Along side many of the roads in some of the Southern states, you can see what we call, roadside stands. They are filled with fruit, peanuts, and bags of Vadalia onions. 30% 0f the distribution of Vadalia onions is done in these quaint roadside stands. A few times when my husband Rick would be driving in one of the great states, knowing my Mom loved these onions, he would buy a 10 bag and drive by the homeplace and surprise her with them.  If she wasn't at home, he would leave his special gift in the mailbox and "what a treat" for her. I have seen these stands as far south as Florida, Mississippi and Alabama.  

So these wonderful onions can be experienced many different ways, most common is of course, sliced and place on hamburgers or diced and placed on hot dogs. There are just awesome in potato salads, vegetable salads, or used to flavor many Southern dishes.  Let me share two of my favorites.


SIMPLY POTATO & VIDALIA SOUP
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
3 tablespoons flour
3 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 large Vidalia Onion (chopped)
3 cups cooked new potatoes (diced)
4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

Sauté Vidalia Onions in butter. Add flour and blend. Add milk and salt. Cook until slightly thickened, stirring constantly. Add cooked diced potatoes. Season with salt and pepper.


THE BEST FRIED VADALIA ONION RINGS

Several large sized Vidalia® Onions

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1.5 tsp baking flour

1 egg (separated)

3/4 cup of milk

1 tbsp of vegetable oil

Peanut oil for frying

Slice onions into rings. In 1 bowl, mix together flour, salt and baking powder. In another bowl, beat egg yolk, then

stir in milk and vegetable oil. Combine wet and dry ingredients, stir until smooth. In a third bowl, beat egg white until soft peaks form, then fold into egg-flour mixture, stirring until smooth. Dip onion rings into batter and deep fry.

Quiet Time and Porch Swings!

I am so glad you came by to sit a minute on the porch swing with me. Can I offer you a glass of lemonade or iced tea. Many of lovely Southern homes are build with wide open wrapping around porches with different varieties of porch swings. One of the South great mental painted pictures are gentle ladies and gents who courted, proposed then wed full of dreams of grand lives full of hope and wonder. 
At the end of day in the cool of the evening and all the chores are done, you could sit and swing on the porch swing. It was a special quiet time, listening to whippoorwills, smelling the sweets smell of the magnolia tree, or feeling the cool night breezes on your cheeks and blowing through your hair so gently. Oh the South has changed a bit, with new technology and busy lives. Yet, there are still today, several places in the South, that still have and cherish this bit of  Southern Charm. 
You know if I close my eyes I can just picture a sweet older couple, just sittin' in a front porch swing, swinging back and forth, still holding hands like they did when they were sixteen, talking and sharing the memories, of SITTING IN A PORCH SWING!

New Year's Black-eyed Peas Tradition

If you are planning to celebrate the New Year in the South, it is most likely that you will be offered black-eyed peas in some form, either just after midnight or on New Year's Day.  According to Southern folklore, the first food to be eaten on New Year's Day for luck and prosperity throughout the year ahead.  T
he practice of eating black-eyed peas for luck is generally believed to date back to the Civil War. At first planted as food for livestock, and later a food staple for slaves in the South, the fields of black-eyed peas were ignored as Sherman's troops destroyed or stole other crops, thereby giving the humble, but nourishing, black-eyed pea an important role as a major food source for surviving Confederates.

Traditionally black-eyed peas are served with greens (collards, mustard or turnip greens, which varies regionally) and sweet cornbread.

Now for the Allen House I alway cook my tradition....................uuummmm good...... 

Happy to share the recipe. You can also find this at: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Hearty-Black-Eyed-Pea-Soup

Hearty Black-Eyed Pea Soup 

Ingredients

• 1 pound bulk pork sausage
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 4 cups water
• 3 cans (15-1/2 ounces each) black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained
• 1 can (28 ounces) Hunt’s® Original Diced Tomatoes, undrained
• 1 can (10 ounces) diced tomatoes and green chilies, undrained
• 1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chilies
• 4 beef bouillon cubes
• 4 teaspoons molasses
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 3/4 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• Directions
• In a Dutch oven or soup kettle, cook sausage, beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Add remaining ingredients; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Yield: 12-16 servings (4 quarts).

A Bit of "Steel Magnolias"

I love the sweet comfortable lifestyle of a small Southern town. Its quiet and enduring qualities give a presence of comfort and acceptance. One of my favorite past times is watching great films. There are certain ones that I enjoy watching over and over. One of my favorites is “Steel Magnolias.” 

If anyone could better paint a picture of charm, humor & life of great Southern women and capturing that essence of a small Southern town, this film does, it is totally awesome. “Steel Magnolias” is a 1989 comedy-drama film about the close-knit group of women bonding in a small town of the Chiquapin Parish in northern Louisiana area. 

The title of this movie suggests that the main characters can be as delicate as magnolias, but are as tough as steel. Revolving around Truvy's Beauty Parlor gather each week to get their hair and nails done and gossip thorough out the year as holidays and other gatherings come and go. They share their lives which are filled with humor and heartbreak with one other. These ladies will make your laugh and cry as the realities of their lives unfold.

The Actors: Sally Fields, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah, Olympia Dukakis, & Julia Roberts captivate your hearts and imaginations.

These are some of my favorite quotes from the film:

Clairee Belcher: Ouiser could never stay mad at me; she worships the quicksand I walk on.

Truvy: Oh, honey, God don't care which church you go, long as you show up!

Ouiser Boudreaux: A dirty mind is a terrible thing to waste.

Ouiser Boudreaux: The only reason people are nice to me is because I have more money than God.

Ouiser Boudreaux: I'm not crazy, I've just been in a very bad mood 40 years!

Truvy: Smile! It increases your face value.

Truvy: There is no such thing as natural beauty.

Ouiser Boudreaux: Don't try to get on my good side, Truvy. I no longer have one!

And Sally Field’s funeral speech, is so moving and heart-retching….and just when you are in tears…..  Quiser interrupts and admits she prays…..totally cracks you up. 

So if you want a bit of Southern Joy & Charm…..this is a must watch film.  Enjoy!

"Soul Food"

I was eating with some friends the other day and I ordered a bowl of Collard Greens cooked with Hog Jowl, they looked at me strangely, I told them, I grew up eating this with Black-eyed peas and cornbread.  My grandmother would cook this often. This is what you call, "soul food".  It is a comfort food that nourishes the soul too. One of my friends tired it, wouldn't you know it....they liked it.

Traditional African-American Southern food is called "soul food", meaning the soul defined their culture. Although many of these dishes were birthed from a culture during the sad days of slavery in the South, it still remains main dishes among the predominantly rural and southern African American population.

Because it was illegal in many states for enslaved Africans to learn to read or write, "soul food" recipes and cooking techniques tended to be passed along orally, until after slavery. Dishes like chitterlings (called chit’lins) which are fried or boiled small intestines of hogs, livermush (a common dish in the Carolinas made from hog liver), and pork brains and eggs can offer to any a folk a “soul food experience” in small cafes around about the Southern states.  You can also find now a days, a variety of “soul food” cookbooks in your bookstores and libraries.

Probably the most familiar dishes are fried catfish and chicken with dashes of mustard or hot sauce.  Come to think of it, I think I will just have to have me a mess of fried chicken & bowl of white beans.  Hope Ya’ll will too.

A Fall Masterpiece – The Smokies!

While living in Tennessee for several years, I always looked forward to the Fall season. Each year we would enjoy our annual retreat at Gatlinburg, TN which is a small town nestled at the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountains. This little town is a great getaway with many things to do. Crafts, skiing, site-seeing, walking trails, Ober Gatlinburg aerial tramway, and many more treats. This town has a pandemic view of one of the wonders of the South, The Great Smoky Mountains.

I would have to say that The Great Smoky Mountains are a magnificence masterpiece of nature’s beauty.  This great mountain range rises along the Tennessee-North Carolina border in the South. The name "Smoky" comes from the natural fog that often hangs over the range and presents as large smoke plumes from a distance. The fog is seen best in the morning hours about dawn. 

The Fall color display usually reaches peak levels mid-October. The reason for the mountains’ spectacular display of color is its colorful diversity of trees like sugar maples, scarlet oaks, sweetgums, red maples, and hickories. Each in own right paints a colorful display but displayed upon nature’s canvas is a sight to behold.  You will want to bring a camera when you visit the Smokies.  The two very best drives for viewing fall color in the park is Cades Cove Loop Road and Newfound Gap Road.

My favorite spot is Cades Cove, a little valley cradle along side a small creek at the base of the mountains. It has a little historical community with a functioning farm and mill. It also, has a variety of small animals making their homes safely in the cove.

So if you want a Southern Fall Getaway I believe you would enjoy the Great Smoky Mountains. 

New Orleans Jazz (Dixieland Music)

Jazz...the sound that put New Orleans on the map, musically speaking!! The Big Easy!  New Orleans jazz has a swinging, stomping, syncopated beat that makes you want to dance! Bands usually consists of horns (cornet, clarinet & trombone) accompany with rhythm (drums, bass & banjo and/or piano). Every night for decades the streets of New Orleans fill the city of Dixieland Jazz.

There are a whole list of Jazz entertainers that have made their marks in history, but the one that first comes to mind is Louis Armstrong (born in New Orleans) is one of Jazz renowned foundational musician. Armstrong developed his cornet seriously playing in a band in New Orleans.

Sounds of Jazz Bands will line the streets in New Orleans during Mardi Gras street parades playing songs like “When the Saints Come Marching In.”  

And you haven’t seen anything yet until you experience a Jazz funeral procession, is like no other. This tradition arises from African spiritual practices, but over the years has gradually started being practiced across ethnic and religious boundaries. 

When a respected fellow musician or prominent member of the community dies, the organizers of the funeral will arrange for hiring a band as part of the services. A typical jazz funeral begins with a march by the family, friends, and a jazz band from the home, funeral home or church to the cemetery.

Right now my favorite Jazz singer is 2010 America Got Talent Winner, Michael Grimm.

Getting That Big Buck!

In the South many men and boys take part in a great activity during the fall and winter months by deer hunting, in hopes of getting THAT BIG BUCK!  This sport makes a great bonding experience for a father and son and/or daughter. They will take great pains in planning and gathering together their guns, orange vests, large knives, and all gear that they will need to enter the deep woods of many of our Southern States. Although deer hunting is done all over the world, the best places is in the southern states of Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. They will strap on their gear, grab those rifles and enter the wood waiting for a great white tail deer to step into view, it gets their adrenaline going. The anticipation that comes from waiting for that perfect shot can so exciting. It takes great discipline to be a skilled hunter.

You ask me how do I know about this, well, my Dad was one of those great hunters.  Just as soon as the leaves would start changing colors and the cool Fall weather settled in…..off to the woods. It was my Dad who took his nephews out for their first deer hunt. And when I was old enough to hold a shotgun, yes, girl or not…..I was with him. We would get up early before the sun would come up and be walking in woods where he had previously in the year, saw that big buck. My Dad, carrying a German rife with a scope that would seem…..like you could see forever… and me with my trusty Browning Sweet 16 shotgun would for hours walk and absolutely NO talking.  When I think about it….I had to be right on a deer to hit one.  I enjoyed those special bonding times I had with him. Those memories I would not trade for anything. It wasn't that we just loved deer meat, it was the trill of the hunt. The art of sneaking up on a 12 point (points of the antlers) and knowing you had him. We didn't always bring one home but the hours we spent together without saying a word were priceless.

There are two ways to hunt deer. Many build what is called deer stands where they wait patiently for the deer to come into view. But not my Dad, he was a walker. That is you walk until you saw one. There is an art to “stalking deer hunting”, with a wrong step a hunt can be over. A large crack of a misstep on a stick or the loud crunch of a pile of dry leaves and a hunter's position can be given away to his quarry. Many whitetail deer have been known to run off INSTANTLY.

Deer hunting is such a bit thing, that public school districts in the South will declare the first day of opening season a FREE day. It's Fall now, so happy hunting!

Cotton Pickin'

More than many occasions, friends have busted into laughter with my general slang term....cotton-pickin". You might ask, what in the world does that mean?  It is a term used among many Southern as something is troublesome or disapproval. This usually occurs when I am driving, "that cotton-pickin driver" or trying to open a jar, "I wish that cotton-pickin' jar would open." You can see how this might amuse someone from another region of the country. But I really do know about cotton-pickin'. 

Pickin' Cotton is hard work. Cotton still remains to be a key crop in Southern economy. If you travel in the Southern Delta states during late summer, you would be amazed at first glance what looks like a blanket of snow.  Actually it would be rows and rows of cotton ready to be pick and taken to the cotton gin for processing. Now cotton picking is done with huge machinery, that speed time and efficiency.  But I can still remember workers lining the fields to pick these puffy cotton boils. This job once done by black slaves in early American history, but evolved into what we Southern called "sharecropping" in which black farmers and landless white farmers worked the huge Southern Cotton plantations. Cotton plantations required a vast labor force to hand-pick cotton. 

Now to pick cotton you must have a cotton strap around your shoulder and it need to be at least 20 feet long. You process in in a bent over posture to pluck the cotton that has blossomed out, as many a each hand can carry, and you toss it into the cotton sack. You have to wear gloves so that the dried bristles off the plant do not cut your fingers and wrists. If you are good at it, you could pick up to 500 pounds of cotton in a twelve-hour workday, from sun-up to sun down, taking off only an hour for a big lunch. You then load these huge sacks onto a wagon that would take it to the gin to be processed. 

My family was one such family. My grandparents were sharecroppers in the Arkansas Delta. They would work a land in a certain area in the day and build and have church at night.  I remember listening to my grandmother tell stories how my dad as a kid with his cousins pickin' cotton, and also getting into trouble because they would get bored. Many of hard working fathers and mothers with children would move slowly down these cotton rows, spending long hours to earn a small living. But for the most part, happy and content for this was their way of life. 

When I was was 5 years old, my parents bought a farm on the river-bed land of the Arkansas River. Our house for many years sat right in the middle of cotton fields. I still in my heart see those rows and rows of cotton. 

O, I wish I was in the land of cotton
Old times there are not forgotten
Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

(lyrics, Dixie Land)