Friday, January 11, 2008

Country Supper

Not long ago Lib was talking about how she was going to cook up all sorts of good food and freeze it, then when she didn't have time to cook a big meal she could just take something out and thaw it for supper. Good idea, huh?

I have to point out here that in mine and Lib's neck of the wood, we have breakfast, dinner and supper. Up north they have breakfast, lunch and dinner. When I lived up north I always thought their dinner looked more like our lunch!! They ate a lot lighter than we do down here in the hills!!

One of the foods Lib was preparing to freeze was meatloaf. Then I kept hearing Karen talk about making her famous buttermilk cornbread and I would be drooling. Almost daily I visit Sandi over at the Whistlestop Cafe Cooking blog and what do I see staring me in the face every day when I go there? Check it out...fried green tomatoes...right there on her header!!

What's a hillbilly girl, with thoughts of all this good country cookin' dancing around in her head, going to do? As a general rule I don't like to cook, but sometimes there is only one place to get good foods like these girls made and that's to cook it yourself!!

Last night I could stand it no longer and had to have meatloaf so I made one and stuck it in the oven to bake. You know, don't you, that if you have meatloaf you have to have mashed potatoes (mashed taters) to go with that and I do make some pretty good mashed taters if I do say so myself! :)

mashed potatoes

It just so happened that this past summer we grew some tomatoes right here in our own back yard. We had to water them faithfully every day because we had no rain here but we had a good crop right up until cool weather was coming. I decided rather than let the frost get the green ones I would try putting some of them in the freezer. I had never tried this method before or any method for that matter but I remember my mother canning green tomatoes. She would open a can and fry them up when we had snow on the ground and it tasted like summertime heaven! Even though I knew the canning was a tried and true method I wasn't equipped for it so I put mine in the freezer.

What could possibly go any better with meatloaf and mashed potatoes than fried green tomatoes? So I took some out of the freezer and fried them up:

fried green tomatoes

Not bad at all. Not exactly the same as fresh ones but close. If you know anything at all about country cookin' then you know that no meal is complete without a pone of cornbread. So I dragged out my cast iron skillet, greased it up and made some cornbread!

Corn bread

Up north they say the presentation of food is the most important thing. Down here in the country, we say it's the taste. Since you only have my bad photography to go by and I'm not big on presentation, you'll just have to take my word that it was good. Can't you just feel your arteries clogging as you look at the picture??

Country Supper 1





18 comments:

Nora Lee said...

You are making me hungry! I live on a little south than you and had to laugh about "supper" being "dinner" for some. I have family in Virginia. Stop by and visit me sometime. One of my recent posts was about my grandmother, who my blog is named after, and her daddy. They are all from Virginia, and is where my mother was born and raised...notice I didn't say "reared"

Have a great day!

Sandra

Nora Lee said...

Me again...I hope you dont' mind but I am going to add you to my links list on my site..

Sandra

Anonymous said...

Pass me a plate would ya??

MMMM that looks good.

I'm gonna make fried salmon patties and soup beans on this snowy weekend coming up.

You know, I don't think even ol' Paula Deen makes such good grub as this! I think TV might be going to her head, or she is just not as used to "hill folk" cooking.

Shut up arteries, evabody knows you got to fry these maters! Ouwee...I got a right tang 'un! Yummy!

Lib said...

Hi Miz.Hope,
YUMMY ! Now thats a meal. Does your Dh want us to keep talking Country cookin, so you'll cook him a good meal?lol We will for a free duck show.lol
I like meatloaf the day after its made ,when all the flavors blend.
I love fried grene toms. cornbread too. At least Karen didn't show pics. of cornbread to torture me more.lol
We eat breakfast,dinner and supper. I even have a dinner bell to call the guys in for dinner if their out workin'.
Hope you have a great evening.Thanks for sharing the pics. YUMMY!!!!:o)
LHB,LIb

Nora Lee said...

Hi Hope, stop in and leave comments anytime, I love it! My family is from the Giles County, Narrows area. I'm so glad I got to your site also! I hope to share more family history and stories as the months go on.

Thanks!
Sandra aka Nora Lee

Talk..to..Grams said...

Oh Hope!!! I am so hurgry now!! I love cornbread!! Your mashed potato's YUM!! they look so good!!
In fact every thing looks good! Love and Hugs Grams

FarmHouse Style said...

Now that is one good looking meal, Hope!! This Southern girl could really sink her teeth into some of those good eats:) Funny, I was going to make meatloaf tonight myself, but hubby called and won't be in until late, so I think we'll just have left-over pizza.

BTW, I am reading all of Susan's past entries at Farmgirl Fare. I really enjoy reading all of her farm adventures.

I remember, Romper Room!! Oh, how I loved that show:)

Rhonda

Karla Cook @ Roads to Everywhere said...

Mmm... makes my mouth water just to look at it... so I'd say your photography is just fine! And I expect your cooking is, too. How many plates did you set for supper? I'll be right over!

Sandi @the WhistleStop Cafe said...

Look who is frying up green tomatoes! Those are beautiful, I can taste them from here. Just the right amount of crisp.
I am so sorry for flinging that craving on you =D LOL

Betty said...

I tell you, Hope, that plate of food looks good enough to eat, lol.

I love fried green tomatos and those look like they turned out perfect. Thanks for the tip about freezing them while green. I kept waiting for you to tell me that the green tomatos were ruined from the freezing, but they turned out great. I'll have to try that the next time I have green ones.

I couldn't help but notice the pretty plate you had the food served on.

Yellow Rose Arbor said...

That food makes me hungry! I'm from the South and that's my kind of "supper!!"

Katherine

Anonymous said...

Hi Hope!
Now that you've made me starved - I just added your blog to my blog candy list - hope that's okay!
xo,
Kim

Brandy said...

Allright my dear aunt Hopie,
I am not going to be nice like these other girls, I am flustered. Now a good 'ant' wouda called in the family for a meal like this one. Shucks, I coulda made us one of them there fresh apple cakes to go with meal. That would have been some good eatings. No I am not really mad but I think that you and Dave should come up for supper one night and I will make us some maws soup beans and fried taters, sour kraut and weenies, corn bread and later on we can have cake and coffee! Let me if you are interested.
loves ya
bran

Anonymous said...

Hope that looks like a Southern meal to me. I Love fried Tom. Yum Yum.

Karen H. said...

Good Morning Hope,
Okay now, get up out of that bed and heat me some of them thar leftovers up for breakfast. LOL. It all looks so yummy. My stomach is growling now. LOL. Here where we live, we have breakfast, lunch, and supper. I am still online, but I don't know for how long. I did do a post this morning. I bet those Fried Green Maters tasted so good. I can almost taste them now. LOL. I'm gonna have to find someone that might have some frozen green maters in their freezer and ask them to give them to me. LOL. "THANK YOU" for sharing your yummy supper with us. Take care my friend and have a great day. May God Bless You and Yours. "THANK YOU" also for the encouraging words you left on my comments yesterday.

Love you and lots of Hugs,
Karen H.

Anonymous said...

Lacey is his duet partner and Seargents daughter. They stayed ib Bristol.

Denise said...

Looks really yummy.

Anonymous said...

Yes, Mom. You have every right to say you make pretty good mashed potatoes. They've always been my favorite! I make meals sometimes, and I think, What a shame no one is here to see this. Next time I'll take a picture and you can share it with the world! Love you, Jen