While my parents are away visiting Mr and Mrs Baby Brother, I'm in charge of watering the flowers and plants that will die in the Tennessee heat if they don't get a drink every day. Wandering through that house void of their presence allowed me to hear a bit of their spirits whispering to me.

The kitchen has always been the center of activity in their home. As I walked through there today sans AC, the first memory that popped into my mind was what we like to call the "Red Faced Supper". Mom always cooked them and as an adult I did as well. Here's the scene: It's late June or July, and the produce has started coming in from the garden. There's a meat, like sliced pork tenderloin or chicken, fried up first and covered appropriately with a dishtowel as it sits on the stovetop awaiting the rest of the feast.

The oven is pre-heated to 450 for the homemade cornbread and every eye on that stove is topped with a skillet of oil to FRY FRY FRY. Choices vary. Sometimes it's okra, other times green tomatoes or yellow squash. As I've mentioned before.....eggplant doesn't fry well :) There's usually a pot of purple hull peas or green beans already cooked and waitin' to be nuked at the last minute. The peaches'n cream corn can be microwaved as well, or cut off the cob and slathered with butter and a pinch of sugar that will cook down just right. NOTE: ( To the health conscious and Yankees among you. Take your Prevacid daily during this season. Olive or canola oils fry just as well as the bad stuff and you only live once, so give it up already. Have some baked fish for lunch or somethin')

It's so dang hot in that kitchen that the gallon jug of sweet tea is sweating! And also the cook. This is not a good time to come across with capricious demands on the cook. Tempers tend to flare under these conditions so unruly children or smartass husbands should lay low. Do not attempt to "Kiss the Cook" until after she's had a shower.

The ripe homegrown tomatoes are sliced, at room temp. The butter for the cornbread is already melted on the dish from the heat of the room and the cook has a fan blowing over the whole deal to be able to breathe. Damn flies! *whack*


It's hard to get anything done with kids circling the stove eatin' the hot treats off of the paper towels, but eventually it's all done and it's over in about 15 minutes. Then the cook gets to clean up all those skillets.

No wonder Cracker Barrel is so popular.