“My MeMaw was the textbook definition of a Southern grandmother—sweet and hospitable. I was incredibly close with her and spent a significant portion of my childhood with her, due to the fact that my parents were young and divorced when I was a baby. She was a very interesting lady—obsessed with square dancing and round dancing, and taught classes. I spent an absurd amount of time at dance halls when I was young. I have vivid memories of petticoats scratching me on the face when I was only a few feet tall. She was also an amateur pilot and used to pick me up in her and my grandfather’s Cessna and fly me around to wherever I needed to be.
When she passed away in 2005, following a long battle with Alzheimer’s, I asked to keep her cookbook, because I remember helping her prep meals when I was a kid, and it was something tangible that reminded me so much of her. Her most popular dish was fried crappie, cheese grits, and liver and onions. Country cooking! Many of the recipes she came up with herself, and most all are handwritten. I don’t cook that often, but it’s fun as a family to sit down and look through the book and come up with recipes to cook together. Every once in a while, we will make something from her recipe book for a holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas. It brings back special memories for sure.”
