My grandfather called it a, “Po Boy Lunch.”

That meant we were having leftovers in whatever creative way my grandmother came up with.

Recently, I took two biscuits from breakfast and loaded them with smoked brisket, and from the garden, purple onions and jalapeños.

A little Heinz 57 topped them. Also from the garden, Roma tomatoes with sea salt.

It got me to thinking about why Southern folks like simple foods.

It’s because it’s good.

A pot of pinto beans, some sliced onion, and cornbread was a staple of my Ashdown, Arkansas, childhood. It was served frequently because it was cheap to make. But the added bonus was that it was absolutely delicious.

Soak your beans overnight, add a ham hock in your pintos, cook them overnight and you have perfection.

Another dish that was always present was biscuits and gravy. I’ve discussed at length in this space the merits of good biscuits and gravy.

What hasn’t been discussed is the vast number of the unchurched. That includes some of my relatives who live up north in culinary isolation.

Their idea of good eatin’ is boiling meat, baking cod, putting clams in everything, and for dessert, something called shoofly pie.

We shooed flies back home, but not for long. The biscuits and gravy weren’t there enough time for the flies to find them.

If my northern kinfolk would’ve had my granny’s biscuits and gravy, they’d lose their broiler and leave those clams in the ocean.

It’s not too late for them, so please say a prayer that their taste buds will be freed to explore proper food.

Maybe next time I’m their way I can fix some weenies and kraut. That was another cast iron skillet staple of my youth. One that my mother learned to make from her mom.

My mother said she didn’t know how to cook much when she married. She made weenies and kraut often, as it was a simple skillet stir-fry. And I got my sister’s portion.

But even my sister liked chicken and dumplings. My grandmother made the best. She had mastered the consistency of the dumplings and the amount of time to cook it so that the maximum chicken flavor came out.

Anyone who had mastered biscuits could also master dumplings. My granny did both well.

Shur-Way Grocery was known for their meats. In addition to being sent on many a trip there for a pound of baloney and a bag of Frito’s, I was also sometimes sent for pork chops.

Mom would use the same cast iron skillet to fry pork chops for supper. It doesn’t get much simpler or better than fried pork chops. Those paired with some fresh, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden was hard to beat.

If purple hull peas and squash were in season, we’d have those too. And biscuits and gravy were served at every meal. Breakfast, dinner, and supper.

Also served at every meal were fried potatoes. I learned to peel and slice potatoes in my momma’s kitchen on Beech Street.

Dad used to say I was just learning how to be in the army. He said they peeled a lot of potatoes in the army.

Of course, no self-respecting Southern home of the 1960s would be caught without a fried chicken dinner being served at least once a week.

Today, you can pop into the grocery store deli and buy a box of fried chicken for about the same price as a whole, uncooked chicken. My mom bought a whole chicken, cut it up, and battered and fried it herself.

And it gave Colonel Sanders a run for his money.

Sadly, my grandparents are gone, but my mom’s still here. They all knew how to feed a large family. And they knew how to do it with food that stuck to your ribs, and to your memory banks.

My mom still has her recipes all written in her own handwriting. Next time my northern kinfolk are with me, I’ll whip up some biscuits and gravy or some fried chicken.

There’s still time for them to clam up and learn about good eatin’ from this po boy.

 

©2024 John Moore

John’s books, Puns for Groan People and Write of Passage: A Southerner’s View of Then and Now Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, are available on his website TheCountryWriter.com, where you can also send him a message.