Haven was wonderful, just beyond words!
We thought last year was great, well but this one was over the top fantastic. Everyone was happy and smiling the whole time and I can’t wait to share it with you. Right now, I’m crashed on my bed trying to recover from it all. Maybe I’ll be back to normal in a couple of days. Sleep, I need sleep!
In the meantime, our family doesn’t need a big occasion to get together for a meal. We eat together every chance we get. My niece, Lauren, and her hubby, Philip were home last weekend for a whirlwind trip from New Orleans. They just bought their first house down there and have already closed, but haven’t moved in. Lauren takes after her mom and does a lot of Craigslist wheeling and dealing, so they found some great things to fill their house with and came up to rent a truck to get their treasures back home. I didn’t take pics of all of that (forgot!), but I did take a pic of the family meal we had at my parents house.
We ate a big meal, then we all helped Lauren and Philip load the truck for the trip back to New Orleans. I’ll be going down there Labor Day with my sister, mom, and brother-in-law and we are going to help Lauren get some things done at their house, like painting and a few projects. So, of course I’ll be sharing all of that with you. They bought a really pretty house with a backyard pool, ready to grow into it for the future. She’ll have fun decorating her first house too and I can’t wait to help her!
So, let’s see how my mom puts together one of those famous Southern meals of hers. She’s a pro at it, even at 85. I did a video too of frying all of that stuff, so you will not want to miss that. We had a family friend here too, helping mom and I want you to hear Miss Sue’s Southern accent.
Mom is right at home in her kitchen and even though it’s small, she can turn out some fabulous meals in this kitchen. I wish she had a bigger kitchen, with all the cooking she does. It definitely is not big enough.
Mom and Miss Sue getting the eggplant and okra ready to fry.
Fried Eggplant is cut in strips (after peeling and salting), then dredged in flour, egg, and panko breadcrumbs, which I’ve shared before (see link). Then, deep fried in a big pan with Canola oil.
After flour and egg, then Panko breadcrumbs are added.
Frying in the pan.
Golden brown and ready to take out.
Don’t those look yummy? They are, believe me!
Fresh okra from the garden.
She mixes equal parts flour and corn meal, then adds buttermilk for a batter for the okra. Then it is dropped in one at a time.
Potatoes cooking for mashed potatoes.
Aunt Fannie’s Squash casserole, which you can find the recipe in that link.
Mom scurrying around the kitchen.
Making gravy from the roast beef drippings. She cooked the roast in the crock pot, then added juice to her black iron skillet. Then she mixes water and flour in a glass shaker and slowly adds that to the juice, thickening it up and adding a little salt and pepper. Yummy over mashed potatoes!
Does every Southern family have Tervis tumblers? Ours does!
Roast beef from the crockpot.
I set the table, getting us ready to eat. And I helped make the tomato, onion, cucumber, and avocado salad, while they were frying.
Here’s the spread of food, doesn’t that look fabulous?  I know, we are totally spoiled with this food my mom makes.
Everyone has always loved sitting down at her table.
My plate of yumminess. I have grown up on this food and never tire of it.
Peach cobbler for dessert, of course! It’s that time of year. Lauren was loving being home and eating at her Nana’s table. She misses real Southern food in Louisiana, ain’t nothing like your family’s home cooking!
So delicious looking! Your mom has such patience/love to touch each piece of okra like that, i could never be that patient!
I could just sit down and eat. Everything looks so good and the things your mother cooked is what my mom and grandmother used to cook as well. Your sweet mother reminds me so much of my own dear mother. She has been gone now for 9 years and I still miss her so much. Enjoy your parents to the fullest, time goes by so fast.
Can you please tell me how to make those southern green beans? My Granny in Georgia used to make them, but I never learned how… they were delicious…
Celeste
Celeste, I’ll try to get a post up on green beans the way my mama makes them!
Everything looks delicious! Fried okra is a favorite of mine, and thankfully, here in FL we can get it pretty easily. I remember reading you spend some time in Lakeland. Have you ever eaten at Fred’s in Plant City? That’s where we go to get good Southern cooking when we don’t want to cook it ourselves. Your Southern accent is wonderful!
Christy, YES, my family goes there all the time. Great place to eat!
I love Sue’s accent, but I love yours too. I’m a Texan so I happen to have an accent myself 😉 The spread on that table made my mouth water. I love southern cooking. We went to Paula Deens restaurant a couple of yrs ago and it was amazing!
Hope you are rested up from your conference.
Looks so good. I sure wish I could have just one more meal in my mother’s kitchen. How blessed you are to still have your parents. I miss mine so!
Please give me your Mom’s green bean recipe. Folks up North don’t know how to cook green beans. I love the southern ones and know your Mama’s is the best.
What A Treat!! Loved your video!! Up here in Michigan….I do not have the wonderful experience of being with women in my family cooking in the kitchen!! This truly was a treat to watch!! Hope you video more in the future!!
Thanks for sharing your family with us!!
What a blessed memory to have and hold on to!
That looks sooooo yummy! I want to be friends with your mom and dad!
Can you share your recipe for the salad? It looks yummy also.
Hi, Mary, see my comment above. It’s just a mixture of avocado, Vidalia onion, tomatoes, cucumbers with oil & red wine vinegar, salt & pepper. Not much to the recipe!
That is how my grandmother used to cook. Makes me miss her so much! Thank you so much for sharing. Made me feel like I was back in my “Mamaw’s” kitchen all those years ago.
That meal looks so good. Tervis Tumblers? Oh yes we are a house of tervis’s. Love them.
What wonderful memories you have evoked! I made your fried green tomatoes and now I don’t think I can let any ripen for wanting to turn them into fried green tomatoes. Your momma is just as precious as your daddy! I know that you know how blessed you are.
Makes me hungry looking at all that good Southern food, there is nothing in this world that compares.
Love the videos Rhoda, thanks for sharing your sweet family with us.
Mary L
I just love it when you do videos. And, you know what, you have a lovely southern accent yourself. lol We only had 1 of 4 houses with a small kitchen. I really liked it, when no one else was in it with me. I could reach everything in it within 2 steps. Can’t wait to hear about Haven. Blessings to all Paula Lusk
This looks amazing! I have southern roots and really miss my grandma’s fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, creamed corn, black eyed peas and biscuits. She made this for us every summer when we visited!
Rhoda, I laughed outloud when I read that your niece could not get southern cooking in Louisiana! True, the southern part of the state is famous for its Creole food and I know that is what you were referring to, but the majority of the Louisiana population was raised on peas and cornbread, fried okra, mashed ‘taters and gravy, with double crust peach cobbler with homemade ice cream for dessert.
Love your blog and have felt that we live a very similar life, same age, recent divorce, a mamma who nurtures me with good old fashion southern food, and a daddy in his 80’s who helps me to create my nest.
HI, Jody, I know that must sound strange, but she really hasn’t found any restaurants right in New Orleans that rivals her Nana’s Southern cooking. The bar is raised high, as you can imagine! She is not that crazy about Cajun and Creole cooking, but that certainly is the norm there. I love that food too, but she just likes her down-home Southern style food.
Everything looks great — especially when shared with family.
Please tell your Mama I’d be proud to sit at her table any time! It all looked SO WONDERFUL!!!!