AmbrosiaFood

You are a lady after my own heart! I think we are twins!

Hmmmmm. I would buy a Pacojet, a Hobart 12 quart mixer, and I doubt there would be any money left. A new range would be out of the question due to space limitations in my kitchen.

I have a pair of matching copper tin lined saucepans I bought on E-bay. These are a complete mystery to me. I have not ever seen anything quite like them [i would post a picture, but I do not own a digital camera]. One is about 4 quarts, and the other is about 8 quarts. They are about 1/4 inch thick copper! The sides are straight, with a copper banding around the top. The handles are not like French saucepans, although they are wrought iron, they are straight. They appear to be quite old, and are in perfect shape, except they need cleaning and re-tinning. Can you tell me what these monsters are? Why would they be so thick and heavy a gauge? What could they have been used for? Thanks.

Santa baby, under the tree for me.... I would like a new kitchen! Been an awfully good girl, Santa baby......

Does keeping a dedicated laptop computer for recipes count as keeping a kitchen notebook? That is what I do. I had a notebook before, and for me, this works much better. It is an old old Compaq laptop, not fit for internet access, but perfect for storing and categorizing recipes. When I replace this laptop computer, [the one I am typing on now], it will become my recipe computer.

I am sorry. I must have misunderstood the thread topic. Apology accepted Maybelline. I was not trying to give offense either -- I was just stating facts as I knew them. My grandmother was a cook/maid for a blue collar middle class family family [not in the south] for many many years. So was several of my aunts. Affluence is indeed relative, since the families they worked for did not have much, but they had enough to pay my relatives a pittance salary. My grandmother often had those "late holiday meals", and was absent when her own children needed her. No, no matter how hard she tried, she could not even afford indoor plumbing until a grown child had it installed for her -- much less helping a child go to college. My grandmother raised a huge garden, canned and preserved, and kept a few chickens and a pig or two to keep food on the table for her children. Yes, they lived in town, not on a farm. She did not have a car or access to the money to pay for public transportation, so she walked about 3 miles to and from work. Grandma raised 13 children. Grandpa was no help, since he turned to alcohol when he could not get enough work to support his family. He died from alcoholism while there were still 7 children at home to support.

Maybelline, I was not talking about what is better/worse -- Soul Food which has evolved into Southern cooking. I was saying [maybe I was unclear] that after a gift is given, proper respect to the gift giver should be shown. That's all. The gift reciever should not say, "well we did it all by ourselves", why are you seeking thanks. Just acknowledge the very real contribution of blacks in what southern cooking has become. Just a little respect.

I would say the black cooks are not given their proper due in society today at all -- that is how the members of the black community I have spoken to, see it. The job they did and still do as cooks was and is tremendous, and overwhelming. They provided succulent meals, with no education, little in proper facilities, and little pay. Often, in larger homes they supervised a kitchen staff. In fact, what black cooks did then is parallel to what executive chefs do today. Now their efforts are trivialized, and chefs are being paid big bucks to do what they did for little. Black cooks created what is now known as Southern cooking by their mixture of African foods and techniques with what was available to them, and adapted their own style of cooking [low on the hog] to the tastes of the family they cooked for and they ate [high on the hog]. I have seen on many cooking sites, that the white members have expressed lack of recognition and appreciation for black cooks.

I hope my pbs station gets this show soon. I really like Jacque Pepin!

Thanks for the explanation. It is like mom's chicken and rice, but with less seasonings. I never knew it had another name.

I have never heard of "chicken bog" before, but from what you are describing, it sounds like the way my mother always made chicken and rice at home. Describe this dish further please.

A guesstimate count could be as low as in the 90's and as high as over 150. I lost count a long time ago.

Yes, I do deep frying at home. So did my grandparents who lived to their 90's. It is a part of the soul food culture, and I love it.

I think it could more rightly be said that Southern Food is escaping it's bonds rather than Soul Food. There are few "Soul Food" restaurants that are serving real soul food -- they serve food that is more palatable to the majority in order to meet their bottom line. Thus, the food is less authentic, and more Southern Cooking than soul food, as most african americans see it.