Farm cooking 101... for us city girls

My dear Aunt Lorene is 97 years young, and despite being on oxygen and having to use a walker to get around, she is still determined to make her pies and dumplings and to fry her chicken for her family's reunion every year.  Last year she was recovering from a fall and was living in a rehabilitation center so she was unable to make her food and she whined about that the entire reunion.  That was when I decided to get her recipe just in case.

This year she was home and quite able bodied (her words) to bake her pies, cut her noodles, and fry her chicken.  As I stated in a previous blog, I sent in Madison for the pies and the noodles.  She was Aunt Lorene's helper and she came away from the experience with wider eyes then she had going into the kitchen.

Me:  "What did you learn from your experience in the kitchen with Aunt Lorene?"

Madison:  "That eating expired food obviously builds up a great immune system --so much so that you can live to be almost a hundred years old."

Me:  "Okay, but what did you learn about pie making?"

Madison:  "Nothing really.  We were only making the filling because she made the crusts earlier in the day.  (Those she burnt because her Shaklee lady showed up and distracted her from remembering the pies were in the oven).  I was more concerned with keeping Aunt Lorene on her feet and wondering if we would survive if we ate the finished product."

Me:  "What exactly do you mean about all this expired stuff?"

Madison:  "She put in some expired flavored pie filling from like the 1990's.  The can was rusted and she couldn't get the lid open.  I helped get it open and when we dumped the stuff into the pot it came out really lumpy.  It looked like spoiled milk."

Me:  "Was that a concern to the cook?"

Madison:  "No.  She was boiling all the ingredients in a pot on the stove and it was burning so that when she stirred the mixture the black, charred stuff from the pot would come to the top and she was more worried about those black things and how it would make her pie look.  She kept snatching them up with a spoon and chucking them into the trash can."

Me:  "But I saw the finished product and it looked really good."

Madison:  "That's because she plopped a bunch of meringue and handfuls of coconut flakes on top of it."

Me:  "Something tells me there is a story in the making of the meringue."

Madison:  "Well, I told her I would crack the eggs for her, but when I did the first egg I broke the yolk and she seemed annoyed by this.  She took over cracking the eggs and I got the feeling she would have just liked to have been in the kitchen by herself cooking.  But then she broke the yolk and the white stuff got mixed in and I felt better."

Me:  "How did she handle her cracked yolk?"

Madison:  "She sighed, but then we got a paper plate and worked together.  I cracked the egg and she would dig with her hands (the ones she used to pull apart the chicken with) to get out the whites while I used a spoon to get the yolks."

Me:  "Wait a minute!  What?  Chicken parts?  I thought you were making pies."

Madison:  "Yes, we were, but she was also deboning chicken and pulling out unidentifiable organs and putting chicken pieces into a crockpot to cook overnight for her dumplings.  Oh, and when she got out the sugar canister a whole trail of ants followed the canister.  So Aunt Lorene whacked the ants with her hands and wiped them on to the floor."

Me:  "Yes, I saw some ants around the finished product while the pies were cooling on the counter."

Madison:  "Let's just say those pies had a lot of protein in them."

Me:  "But the meringue ended up well?"

Madison:  "Well, it didn't whip up like she wanted it to and she blamed that on the pieces of yolk that had fallen in it.  She was very worried about how the pies were going to look."

Me:  "They looked very professional even with the ants circling them."

Madison:  "You didn't eat them did you?"

Me:  "No.  I'm not a pie person.  I like cake!"

***

Madison:  "So how did the making of the dumplings and the frying of the chicken go?  You did that with Aunt Lorene.  Did you learn anything?"

Me:  "Actually I did.  I've never fried chicken before which horrified Aunt Lorene.  She kept telling everyone that "a married woman like her...with two kids...has never fried chicken.  Imagine that."  But first I woke up on Sunday at 7:25 AM to the smell of the chicken in the crockpot.  Aunt Lorene was already up and dressed for church and had already put the dumplings into the crockpot."

Madison:  "No frying of chicken?"

Me:  "We did that after church.  In our church clothes."

Madison:  "And you actually fried chicken?"

Me:  "Well, not in the beginning.  She didn't want my help when she found out I had never done it before.  So I cleaned up the mess from the previous night.  I took everything off her counters too to wipe them down with soap and water to get rid of anything that might attract ants."

Madison:  "Did you see ants?"

Me:  "No, I didn't see any ants.  They must have been in the pies.  I cleaned and Aunt Lorene fried chicken and napped a little."

Madison:  "I thought you fried chicken."

Me:  "That came later after we had put all the fried chicken into the oven to keep warm before the reunion.  As she looked over my cleaning job she saw that her container of flour still had chicken in it."

Madison:  "Yep.  She just threw the chicken into the flour container instead of putting the flour into a bowl and then putting the chicken in that mixture."

Me:  "Yeah, and she said, "Oh, I forgot to fry those pieces."  She made like she was going to get up from the table where I had just warmed up her coffee so I offered to do it.  I got on her about the chicken in the flour container, but she waved that off and told me she was 97 years old and had been doing it that way all these years without a problem.  So I took out the pieces and fried up 3 wings all by myself with her giving instructions on when to turn them."

Madison:  "You were very proud of yourself."

Me:  "I was.  Then Darrell came into the kitchen and ate all three.  He said they were "alright".  Of course, then Lorene had to tell him I had never fried chicken before and so I came back with, "I bake my chicken Aunt Lorene, it's healthier."  But both of them pooh poohed that.  Then I went back to finishing up the cleaning.  I had everything washed, but there was this pan in the sink with leftover chicken parts."

Madison:  "That was from the night before.  The unidentifiable organs and such."

Me:  "Yes.  So I asked Aunt Lorene what she wanted me to do with them and she said, "Oh, go feed that to the chickens outside."

Madison:  "Feed the chicken to the chickens?"

Me:  "That's what I said.  I thought she was messing with me, but she and Darrell assured me it was for real.  So I went outside where the chickens immediately surrounded me.  I had a little talk with them about how this was their kin and how in a show of solidarity they should walk away.  I said surely they weren't really going to eat their ancestors.  Things like that.  And then I threw the plate of chicken into the grass, and I'm not kidding, before I could blink those chickens had eaten it all up."

Madison: (laughing)

Me:  "It was the weirdest thing.  I mean, I knew pigs would eat anything, but I sure didn't know about chickens.  We certainly learned a lot this weekend didn't we?"

Madison:  "I learned I shouldn't worry about expired food.  What did you learn?"

Me:  "That I don't like cooking anymore now then I did before.  Oh, and that I need some chickens."