Blogging from A to Z: April ~ 2016 – A
Southern Food and Memories
The Blogging from A to Z challenge is to post everyday during the month of April 2016, except Sunday. I will start with the letter A and hopefully make it all the way to Z. I hope you enjoy the read!
Come sit a spell with me and learn about the foods and memories of my Southern heritage, and enjoy a little Southern talk along the way… I grew up in the heart of Georgia, married a Yankee in Connecticut and suddenly became displaced from my roots. But one thing is true – You can take the girl out of the South – But you can’t take the South out of the girl! I’ve learned to eat differently over the years, but I’ve never given up the foods I grew up on. When I left Georgia, at the young age of nineteen, I knew how to cook nothing! I pretty much learned to cook by asking mama over the phone, how do you do make this, and how do you make that; thank heavens for my Southern mama! Even though mama doesn’t cook too much today, she still remembers the recipes and she’s been my go-to person every night in chatting about my Southern foods and many of her memories.
Coffee is out on the porch, so grab a cup and come on in…
Southern Foods and Memories
Let’s begin with A for apple pie – and what’s better than a apple pie, a Southern fried apple pie! My mother never forgets just how good her mother made them – my grandmother. I really didn’t know my grandmother as a person before the onset of Alzheimer’s set in – in the late 50’s; at that time it was just called losing your mind. After the death of her son during WWII, my grandmother was never the same – slowly slipping into her own world to deal with her loss. I learned to know my grandmother through the foods she loved and cooked. If only I could have just eaten one of those fried apple pies I heard so much about, but I have the memories from mama to remind me.
Have you ever had a fried apple pie? If not you are surely missing out on a Southern treat! Grandmama made hers using biscuit dough – she used biscuit dough for everything. To make the fried pies – roll out a small ball of dough, add the apple pie mixture on one side or even just a few apples mixed with brown sugar, cinnamon and butter, fold the dough over and crimp edges – add a small layer of oil in your pan and fry them on both sides. They’re so good – makes you wanna slap ya mama!
Granddaddy’s field was where the horse apple trees were, as my mother calls them; I’m thinking they were more just green apples, as you don’t really eat “horse apples.” Did I tell you that mama learned to park in between those apple trees – granddaddy said that’s what killed them – by all the backing into and scraping the bark off. She learned to drive in an old truck – out in the field – putting me in a box on the front floorboard – imagine!
Mama remembers the best way to eat those green apples were to pick you a few and find a good hiding place – and wait for them to mellow. The problem with that, was keeping your brother from finding them, and that happened often; it was always fun to steal away the mellow apples you found, especially if they had been hid by your sister!
Eating from that apple tree wasn’t always without consequences, one day mama spied a pretty mellow apple all the way at the tippy top. Her father warned her against climbing up that high, but did she listen – No! She made it all the way up, but no sooner than she grabbed that apple – down she fell – but still with apple in hand; she ended up straddling the barb wire fence below the tree. Needless to say she cried all the way home, but still sat on the back stoop eating that apple – and crying.
Photo released through: Creative Commons CC0 via Pixabay
Mama still says – “that apple was just so pretty hanging up on the top of that tree!”
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Ya’ll come back now – ya hear!
Need More A to Z -then you know what to do…2016: Blogging from A to Z Challenge
© 2016 Jeanne Bryan Insalaco
nice read. i l lived in the south for 40 years…i love the food and the accents. Nancy Thornton
Lightheaded
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Thanks for staying awhile, do come again!
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I can never decide which I like better – apple pie or cherry pie. I’ve never had a fried apple pie but how bad could it be? I enjoyed your apple stories so much but how much better they would have been had I had a slice of pie while reading.
Wendy from Jollett Etc.
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My mama is surely going to ask me where’s my manners – having no fried pies when you stopped by. Hope you poured yourself a cup of coffee in one of grandmama’s tea cups? Hope to see ya again!
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I’ve never had a fried apple pie, sounds yummy! Apple pies are the only ones I like. We lived in apple country and my Mom won first prize at the apple pie contest every fall with her secret crust recipe. Our friends owned an apple orchard behind our house – beautiful to wake up to the view of apple blossoms out my window in the spring – and she would send my kids to pick a couple of apples for her. When she was moving away first thing all the ladies were scrambling to see who could get Mom’s recipe. My Granny didn’t cook, but my Grampa did and I have some of his recipes. I look forward to reading your a-z posts!
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Oh what a sight, I’m visualizing those apple blossoms and drooling at the thought of that apple pie! Thanks for sharing those memories, do come again!
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Never heard of fried apple pie but a useful way of cooking if you don’t have a oven. The apple orchards of my youth were cider apples, definitely not for eating. Our local recipe is Dorset apple cake. Looking forward to more of your A to Z
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Thanks for stopping by, looking forward to seeing you again. Do you have a blog?
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Nice story, I am the opposite, born in Massachusetts and now living in the south. I have not tried fried apples though they sound good.
Anita Wells from
The Small Stuff
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Oh, your so lucky to be in the South, my hubby wants to move everyday, but I have granddaughters that tug at my heart now. Let me know when you have a fried apple pie. I’ll be sure and visit your blog – thanks for posting it to me. Do come again…
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Oh, I so envy you – hubby wants to move me back, but I have 5 little granddaughters that tug at my heart, so I guess I’m stuck in the land of the snow and cold.
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I have never had a fried apple pie, but would appreciate the recipe!
Also love the Southern accent in your blog!
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Sharon, hey thanks for stopping by. Ya know, I’ve lost my Southern accent after living in the North for 45 years, but when I write – I can bring it right out. LOL As much as I love those fried pies, I’ve never made them either – someone else always did for me. But I found this recipe: http://parade.com/7150/parade/grandma-lelas-fried-fruit-pies/
There’s no right or wrong method I’m told and while I’m in Ga. I’m going to hunt down some good recipes from whoever makes them. My mama says you can just take can biscuits, the bigger ones and flatten them out as much as you can, put some filling on half and fold over and crimp together – she says they fry them in a small amount of oil till both sides are brown. Hey girl, if you dare to make, drop me a line and let me know how they were. I was hoping to include more recipes, but this darn challenge snuck up on me. I’ll be more prepared next year and already making plans on what to write. Bye, Bye
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Fried apple pies are good and easy to make. Helen is right about using can biscuits. I’m amazed I would say that but in a pinch, they will do the trick. I do have to turn to one of my recipe books for the filling, just so I don’t make them too sweet.
My husband, from West Virginia, loves fried apples. He’s just eating the filling minus the dough but I prefer our fried pie. I also enjoy the way you mix your southern roots into your writings. I was thinking just this morning about whether or not you still had your Southern accent.
I laugh at the thought of you being in a box in the floor of that truck, while your mother learned to drive.
Another good story, Cousin.
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Well I never did get my fried pie while in Georgia, guess Ill be trying my hand one day with those can biscuits! You’ll have to give me some pointers!!! I didn’t know your hubby was from West Virginia – it’s a beautiful state! Catch y’all later!
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Apple pie is always a good place to start
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Stopping over from the A-Z road trip.
Love this theme. Sorry I missed it this year. I will have to check out a few more posts. Wow! I really want a fried apple pie now.
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Thanks for stopping by – sorry I didn’t have any ready this morning. Mighty hot for frying!
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