Hushpuppies & Chattanooga Cornbread Salad
Press photo for Mom and Dad, 2008. Backyard Barbecue Pit. Photo by Derek Anderson for The Independent.
Mom reading from my parents’ book 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About The South. 1996?
Press photo for Dad & Mom. I forget which newspaper. Taken in our old kitchen on Mallette St.
Mom and Dad at the Southern Festival of Books (where I embarrassed myself in the 90s!) promoting Holy Smoke. 2007.
Profile on Mom and Dad from the South Writ Large website.
Mom looking cute. Promoting something? Wearing a nametag.
Mom and Dad promoting 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About The South. Assuming this is in Kingsport, TN since my sister, Reed Grandparents, and Volberg Grandma (Nonnie) are all preening behind them!
Mom demonstrates how to use a smoker for her book Holy Smoke!
I found this in Mom’s files and it made me laugh. Tennessee Rib flavoured chips from M&S in England. No notes on how they tasted.
Spotted in Mom and Dad’s pantry in NC. Feels like home.
Mom’s desk. There were always beautiful notecards, embossed stationery, and - of course - Emily Post! The flame stitch desk blotter and pen holder were embroidered by my Nonnie, I think.
The cover of one of my Dad’s books, The Enduring South. I’ve always thought the design was super clever. Looks like him! With black eyed pea eyes.
Mom and Dad dancing at the infamous Crook’s Corner where they DEFINITELY serve hushpuppies. Yum.
Facebook post of mine from right after Mom’s death in 2018.
I don’t know if Mom was even aware of the actor Leslie Jordan but here’s a compilation of his Covid Instagrams which certainly cheered ME up!
I was sad to hear that the actor Leslie Jordan died a few weeks ago. You might know him as Karen’s nemesis, Beverley Leslie, on the TV show Will & Grace. I really became aware of him during Covid lockdown when he entertained me with daily posts from his hometown of Chattanooga on Instagram. He’d start off each post with, “What are y’all doin’?” and refer to as his “fellow hunker downers”. He would talk about his mama and muse about sweet tea and mashed potatoes. It was fun to see a celebrity just shooting the shit during lockdown, just like the rest of us.
I guessed that Leslie was Southern (duh) but I didn’t know he was from Chattanooga specifically until Covid. I actually wrote him a note via Instagram (which he ignored, oh well) offering him use of a slogan for Chattanooga that I cooked up FREE OF CHARGE! You see, many, many years ago my husband and I drove from Houston, TX to Chapel Hill, NC for Christmas. We had waited too long to get plane tickets and they were crazy expensive. So, we figured we would drive and see the country. Oh man, that’s a lot of country. I think we made it to Mississippi the first night and then Chattanooga the second. By the time we rolled into C-town we were pretty feral. It had been a long drive through the deep South with only library-loaned books on tape and FM radio to keep us entertained. We found a place to stay, unloaded our crap, and hightailed it to the little main street in town where we found a – wait for it – fab gourmet restaurant with delicious food and a good wine list! I said to Chris, “Who knew-ga?!”. (Until this moment I only knew of Chattanooga as the home to McCallie, the boarding school where my camp friend got sent after misbehaving in Kingsport!). So, it was then and there that we hatched our great plan for the rebranding of Chattanooga. Judging by current real estate prices (I’m a housing junkie and can’t keep off the listings) Chattanooga doesn’t need my help attracting people. But, I thought if anyone could sell “WHO KNEW-GA?!” it would be Leslie Jordan. And, now I’ve lost my imaginary biz partner. Also, to circle back, never think you will save money by driving. Between hotels, meals, gas, convenience store impulse purchases and the like I think we spent maybe triple the price of those damn plane tickets.
That visit was my only time in Chattanooga but my parents went there for ages to attend the biennial meeting of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. My father is a member but not my mother. To be fair, he has written many more books than she has. However, Mom wrote at least half of 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About The South and the same with Holy Smoke and she edited my Dad’s books for years. I remember being at the beach with my family in the mid 90s and Mom plopping the HUGE manuscript for 1001 Things down on my lap for some “light beach reading”. ha ha. My dad would be the first to credit Mom, he was always trying to move the spotlight a little more in her direction, but people seem to only want to credit the more famous person, so Mom’s contributions were consistently overlooked by many.
When I was in my mid-twenties and had just moved to Houston from New York, I took a quick weekend trip to Nashville to meet Mom and Dad at the Southern Festival of Books. I guess they were presenting something, although I don’t really remember that part. What I DO remember is sitting around a Days Inn bar swapping dirty jokes with Barry Hannah and George Garrett. I had no idea who these dudes were (come to find out they were both super famous writers) but the gin & tonics were flowing and so was the filth from my mouth! Mom and Dad were rolling with it but they had never really seen me in this light before and they had kind of frozen smiles on their faces. When I sobered up I had one of those “uh oh” feelings. Did I actually tell that West Virginia joke?! Yes. Yes, I did. Well, guess who liked young girls telling dirty jokes? Yup, old George and Barry! Apparently they asked about me for years whenever they ran into Mom and Dad. Ha ha.
I follow the musician Nick Cave and his wife, fashion designer, Susie, who helms the label “The Vampire’s Wife”. They lost one of their twin sons several years ago in a drug related accident. Being such a good storyteller, Nick has written some of the best stuff I’ve read on loss and grieving. In a recent Red Hand Files Newsletter, a reader asked Nick how his surviving twin son is doing. Nick wrote:
It seems to me that our existence itself is kept aloft on an infinity of absences. All our lives are lived on the boundless tide of sorrow of those who have passed before. We lurch around the world in all our desperate and splendid humanity and, whether we realise it or not, our lived condition is forever saying “Whatever happens now is for them.” This is how we honour humanity itself, as the living testimony of those no longer with us. We who remain, continue.
I would imagine that continuing without your twin would be more intense and unimaginable than continuing without a parent who is, by nature, more likely to die due to being older. However, I find a lot of beauty in these words. We who remain, continue, indeed. In a Guardian article about Susie’s fashion line someone described the Caves as “Theirs was a family formed out of poems and rubies.” I love that so much! How would the Reeds be similarly described? “Theirs was a family formed out of words and hushpuppies.”
For today’s recipe I was looking for something Chattanooga related in Mom’s files. She didn’t have anything specific, but I did find an interesting looking Chattanooga Cornbread Salad recipe online which seems like something Mom would have been into. This prompted me to re-examine her cornbread recipes, something I wrote about here. In the process I realized that I haven’t touched on hushpuppies in this blog. So, below is the recipe for my favorite hushpuppies from OT’s BBQ in Apex, NC (they’re a little bit sweet!) as well as a recipe for Eastern NC Hushpuppies, Deep Fried Corn Sticks, and Fried Cornbread. Fire up your fryer! (Or if you’re like me and don’t have one, get out that pan!)
OT’S HUSHPUPPIES
(When my parents took their friend Tim Breen to OT’s Tim fell in love with the hushpuppies and asked to buy some to take home to Chicago. OT was “appalled” (according to Mom’s notes) because hushpuppies don’t travel and he offered up the recipe for Tim to make his own.)
2 c. cornmeal
1 c. self-rising flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
(Mom speculates that OT probably used buttermilk and an egg as his wet ingredients)
This recipe comes with no instructions nor does it mention the wet ingredients. It assumes you are a good Southerner who knows how to make hushpuppies! See below for a more comprehensive Eastern NC Hushpuppies recipe.
EASTERN NC HUSHPUPPIES
1 c Corn meal
¼ tsp Soda
1 Tbsp Flour
¼ tsp Salt
1 tsp Sugar
½ c Buttermilk; *note
¼ c Water
1 Egg; beaten
Mix all dry ingredients together. Then add egg, buttermilk, and water. Drop by spoonful into hot deep fat. Fry to a golden brown. (If a deep pot is used, the hushpuppy will float to the top when done). *NOTE: If you don't want to buy buttermilk, substitute 1/2 c. milk with 1 T. lemon juice added. Stir and let it sit for 5 minutes. It works just as well. Please note: You can make variations of this recipe in several ways: i.e., 1/4 c. finely chopped onion, less sugar, etc. But, at the coast of NC the above type recipe is usually served.
DEEP FRIED CORN STICKS
(You need a corn baking mold - here’s a link to one)
1 cup white cornmeal
1 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
½ tsp soda
½ tsp baking powder
2 tbsp bacon grease
Heat oven to 400 degrees.
Put bacon fat in each section of pan, put the pan in the oven to heat.
Mix ingredients in order given: salt and cornmeal, then buttermilk and egg.
Beat. Add soda and baking powder. Then pour in the hot grease from the pan.
Stir. Fill molds to about 2/3 full.. Bake about 15 minutes.
FRIED CORNBREAD
(sounds pretty much like hushpuppies to me)
1 c Yellow cornmeal
1 c Flour
4 t Baking powder
1/2 t Salt
1 c Milk
1 Egg, beaten
1/4 c Melted shortening or oil
Mix dry ingredients thoroughly. Combine milk and egg. Stir in fat. Add liquid to dry ingredients. Stir only enough to mix. Drop from a spoon into a hot, greased skillet and brown.
CHATTANOOGA CORNBREAD SALAD
SALAD
1 8-inch skillet of cornbread, cooled and crumbled
1/2 lb bacon, fried crisp and crumbled
2 medium bell peppers, chopped
4 medium tomatoes, chopped
1/2 c sweet pickles, chopped
1 sm bunch green onions, sliced (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
DRESSING
1 c mayonnaise
1/4 c pickle juice
1 Tbsp sugar
Layer the ingredients in a large glass bowl, beginning with the crumbled cornbread, bacon, peppers, tomatoes, pickles, and green onions if used. Lightly add salt and pepper between the layers - but don't overdo the salt.
Mix the mayonnaise, pickle juice, and sugar and drizzle over top of cornbread mixture when ready to serve. May be refrigerated overnight if desired.
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