NOSTALGIC COOKBOOKS
THE BLACK FAMILY REUNION COOKBOOK-1993
The other evening, after a fine home-cooked dinner, I poured myself a cup of coffee and pulled one of my favorite cookbooks from the shelf. Feeling full and mellow…and rather nostalgic…I started again to thumb through the pages of this great cookbook.
I wasn’t looking for recipes…I suppose that’s blasphemous for a cookbook writer to say, but rather I was in need of some good memories from a time past. A simpler time. A time to relax and not worry about the day’s bills and world problems.
Well my friend, this book in my hands was just what I needed. Even the book’s subtitle tells me that it’s “Recipes and Food Memories”.
A couple paragraphs from the back cover tells of the origin of this book:
“The Black Family Reunion Celebrations, organized by the National Council of Negro Women and held in seven cities across America every summer, celebrate and preserve the values, traditions, and strengths of the African-American family. Inspired by these festivals, ‘The Black Family Reunion Cookbook’ contains more than 250 recipes from home kitchens across America, seasoned with warm memories and “homemade love.”
“Including personal reminiscences from celebrities such as Natalie Cole, Wilma Rudolph, Pattie LaBelle, and Spelman College President Johnetta Cole, this unique collection reflects the local, national, and international heritage of the Black community. It offers dishes for every occasion and every taste, from African-inspired Mustard Greens with Peanut Sauce to down-home Family Famous Chicken and Dumplings, from a traditional gumbo to sophisticated Sweet Potato Smoked Turkey Bisque, and, in honor of the council’s founder, Mary McLeod Bethune, her own recipe forher celebrated Sweet Potato Pie.”
What I especially love about this cookbook are the personal sidebars written by its members. This wonderful quote is only one of many that I find so great:
“The Goodie“
“Every spoonful of those baked beans tasted so indescribably good that I closed my eyes to savor the flavor. Oh, but no clever phrase could capture the rapture that was mine as I let my tongue press against each bean; one-by-one, and extract the tastes of pungent garlic, scorched, diced onions, rich brown sugar and smoked, thick and meaty bacon. They blended on my palate like the smooth inseparable sound of the MJQ.
“Reluctantly, I drifted out of Modern Jazz Quartet trance to scheme with my sister about how we could repeat our pleasure before mother shooed us away like annoying house flies from her “company only” baked beans deluxe. It was that Saturday night that we learned what to look for in life.
“Edging her spoon along the baking dish, Janet whispered, “Here, Sonia, do you want some more of the goodie?”
“I answered with my traditional first child belligerence, “No, I want another serving. What’s the goodie anyhow?”
“Taste it”, she offered with patient coaxing.
“UHM! UHM!” Why would anyone ever want to eat the baked beans again if you could just have that rim of the blended flavors bordering the cooking vessel?
“Needless to say, we trimmed that rim with spoons and fingers until we were caught. But that was only the beginning, because once we discovered “the goodie” we kept an eye or two open for it in kitchens everywhere. We found it in the syrup-soaked, flaky crust tucked in the corner of cobbler pans. We found it in the crusty, cheesy, buttered corners of pans hold macaroni and cheese. We found it where the grill takes over when the Bar-B-Que sauce stops. We found it around the edges of legs of lamb bathed with garlic, rosemary, lemon slices and lamb flavor.
“Here are some helpful hints for goodie seekers. Look at “marginal stuff”…just on the edge of being no good…that’s where you’ll really find “the goodie”.
Sonia Walker
I hope that the authors and publishers of this fantastic book will look favorable upon me for this review of their copyrighted material. It’s a great book and one that belongs in everyone’s collection.
This is a 212- page, “Fireside” book, published by Simon & Schuster in 1993.
That’s all for now folks…be sure to sign-up with your name and email so I can keep in touch with you.
Tim
Tags: Add new tag, African-Americans, Blacks, book review, cook books, cookbooks, Mary McLeod Bethune, NCNW, nostalgia
