CHRISTMAS DINNER

THANKSGIVING DINNER

FAVORITE SOUTHERN DISHES

CREOLE SAUCE

• 2 tablespoons chopped onion
• 4 tablespoons green pepper, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons oleomargarine
• 2 tomatoes
• ¼ cup sliced mushrooms
• 6 olives, stoned
• 1? cups brown sauce
• Salt and pepper

Cook onion and pepper with oleomargarine five minutes; add tomatoes, mushrooms, and olives and cook two minutes, then add brown sauce. Bring to boiling point and serve hot. This can accompany fish, meat or vegetables.

SMOTHERED CHICKEN

• 1 chicken
• Seasonings
• Water
• Flour
• Parsley

This is a most delicate and palatable way of cooking chicken. After cleaning the young chicken, split down the back and dredge with salt and pepper. Put a tablespoonful of lard into the frying pan, and, when it is hot, add the chicken. Cook over slow fire fifteen minutes, then add a half cup of water, and set back on the stove, and let it simmer gently and steadily for about an hour. Serve with a garnish of chopped parsley. Some smother the chicken in butter, but this is according to taste.

CORN FRITTERS

• 1 can of corn
• 2 eggs
• 1 cupful of flour
• 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder
• 1 teaspoonful of salt
• ½ teaspoonful of pepper

Put the corn through a food chopper; add the well-beaten eggs, flour, seasoning and baking powder. Mix well and fry on a well-greased hot griddle or in deep fat.

BEATEN BISCUIT

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup milk or water
• 2 tablespoons lard
• ½ teaspoonful salt

Stir the flour and add the salt, mixing thoroughly; then add the lard, and blend by rubbing through the hands till not a lump remains in the flour. Now add gradually the water or milk, or the milk and water combined, using half and half of each, and knead all together till the dough, which must not be too soft, but rather stiff, is formed. Then lay the dough on a biscuit board on a block, and beat for a half hour with a rolling pin. Knead lightly, and beat again for a full ten minutes, till from every portion of the surface and sides the air bubbles or “blisters” form. A special biscuit beater simplifies this process. Roll to quarter of an inch thick and cut round with round cutter, or square with a knife, and stick here and there with a fork. Bake in a moderate oven for about ten or fifteen minutes, till a delicate brown above and below.

SOUTHERN EGG BREAD

• 1 quart cornmeal
• 1 cup of milk (buttermilk if possible)
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoonful of salt
• 2 tablespoonfuls of butter

Scald the cornmeal with boiling water, add butter, and stir. Beat the yolks of the eggs very, very light. Add the cornmeal and melted butter and the salt, and beat until very light, moistening with the milk. Then add the whites of the eggs, beaten to a stiff froth. Beat all well together. Pour into shallow tins and bake quickly. This is the real creole corn bread, so highly praised by all tourists through Louisiana. The secret of the exquisite flavor depends upon the proper beating of the eggs, as well as on the rising of the corn bread itself. If the eggs are well beaten, the corn bread will need neither soda nor baking powder to make it rise properly. Some add a tablespoonful of sugar when they wish to have sweetened corn bread. Corn bread, to be delicious, should always be served hot and generously buttered.