So there was a lot of good-humored talk at Suzanne's wedding about the south. And there were quite a few delicious southern accents to be heard at the reception. Ever since Dad joked about how he was glad Suzanne was marrying a nice southern boy, I've been worried that Oliver might develop a complex. Okay, that's not a realistic fear. Oliver is way too sensible for that. I guess I've been worried that Oliver might think that our family is in fact southern. And we're not! Northern Virginia is not the south, and going to Georgia for thanksgiving once a year does not make one southern. Nor does saying "y'all" make one southern. "Y'all" fills a gaping void in the English language which yankees fill with the unfortunate "yous guys".
Anyways .. you may be wondering were this rant is going. Well, for the fourth of July, I had been planning on making a proper southern peach cobbler. But as the time approached, this began to seem like a pain in my rebel ass. So I decided to make a crisp instead. To take my laziness to a new level, I actually used crisp topping I had saved in the freezer (making a ton of crisp toping and saving it in the freezer is a great trick, by the way). I didn't even bother skinning the peaches. I just chopped them, tossed them with a little sugar, and threw them in a pan with the topping. I baked it at 350 for about 40 minutes, with the whole thing covered with aluminum foil for the first half of the baking time. Oliver loved it! I don't think it even occurred to him that I might have opted for the more labor intensive cobbler option.
I wonder if a southern boy would have been so easily pleased. Cooking southern food for Oliver is always a lot of fun, because he is very easy to impress. He thought my buttermilk biscuits were the best biscuits he had ever had. Same with my cornbread. Also, I think I impress his family by showing up at Thanksgiving with a pecan pie. In my blatant disregard for southern culture, this is the only time all year I use Karo syrup. Oliver has never been to the south, unless you count a national high school Latin tournament in Nashville, which I do not since they just got right out the bus and socialized only with other Latin champions. So I am really looking forward to our trip to Alabama, and showing him the validity of my hypothesis that you figure out what latitude you are on by the density of waffle houses.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Might southerners celebrate (or mourn) Fort Sumter day as a 4th of July alternative?
4 of July is pre-"War Between the States!" And, may I remind you that the Declaration of Independence was largely the brainchild of Southerners such as Mr. Jefferson.
Post a Comment