Can You Hear This?

I’m from the South (South Carolina, to be exact), I speak with a drawl and I think ya’ll is perfectly acceptable English grammar! Yes, we speak slowly compared to the average New Yorker and are amused that this is interpreted by other folks as being slow witted. We wave to folks going down the street, whether we know them or not, speak to complete strangers in public as if we’ve known them all our lives.

We believe everybody is welcome, when you’re with friends or family, you’re at home and it’s pretty much what you see is what you get. That means if you show up unexpected, but perfectly welcomed, and there are dishes in the sink or dust on the tabletops, you overlook it.

There are certain aspects of behavior that I have grown up with and become accustomed to in the South. Girls were taught to be ladies and appropriately groomed for the occasion. Being polite is a way of life. Boys are taught to stand when a lady enters the room, hold doors open, carry the bags in from the car and the trash out. Both are bred to have an innate understanding of true hospitality and to offer it, no matter what.

I grew up with friends, relatives and neighbors dropping by the house, sticking their heads in the screen door (we didn’t have air conditioning) and saying “anybody home” or “yoo hoo”! If it was hot, they got offered some ice tea and to “have a seat on the porch”, if it was cold they got offered some ice tea and to come in and “sit a spell”.

If we were sitting down to supper, (in the South dinner is at noon and supper is in the evening) they were invited to “pull up a chair”. No one thought a thing about droppin’ by to visit without callin’ ahead.

I know what it’s like for it to be 95 degrees in the shade and so humid you have to cut the air and chew to get a breath. And I know the incredible excitement of seeing those first few flakes of snow falling, guaranteeing, since it only took one or two, that we’d have a “snow” day off from school.

I love the smell of freshly cut grass and gasoline from the mower. I love watching the sky turn purple during the twilight and seeing the lightening bugs under the canopy of trees in the backyard. I played hide n’ seek, red light/green light, and roll the bat during summer evenings.

I know there’s nothing worse than long Sunday afternoons after church with nothing to do and I know there’s nothing better than long Sunday afternoons after church with nothing to do.

And I grew up with women and men that knew how to prepare and appreciate a home cooked meal. One that didn’t come out of box (although it may contain some type of Campbell’s condensed soup) and could often be made up of nothing more than the fresh vegetables just picked that day from the garden.

When a meal was put on the table, it didn’t matter if you had two or twenty there was always enough to go around somehow. It was worth cleaning your plate in order to have dessert, especially if it was ice cream made in a hand-cranked churn.

Good food was a constant. It was always there. You never wondered if what you were going to find on the table was good, just whether or not it was going to be one of your special favorites. The result of all these culinary blessings as I was growing up is my love of cooking……………….especially cooking for those I love. I realize that in today’s world of instant gratification, I’m in the minority when I say I would rather come home after work and cook a huge meal, from scratch (save those Campbell’s condensed soups) and serve it to my family, than to go out to a fancy restaurant.

All I need to wind down from a stressful day is my family on stools at the island counter, plenty of fresh ingredients, particularly vegetables, a glass of wine and an idea for a good meal. Whether it’s 2o minutes or 2 hours, we enjoy each other, the process, and, of course, the results! I think nothing of making biscuits from scratch to go with the fried steak and gravy or creating a tangy marinara to go with the pasta, grilled salmon and steamed asparagas. Cooking is one of the most relaxing things I do and it feeds both the body and the soul.

We all need nurturing of some kind on a regular basis and with life being as hectic as it is today, this is one of the ways I nurture both myself and my family.

I highly recommend, even to those of you that can’t handle making a box of Kraft macaroni and cheese, you try to start some self nurturing with some simple recipes and fresh ingredients. Make yourself a salad, cutting up the vegetables yourself rather than going to the grocery store salad bar. You might be surprised how many hungry parts of you get fed!