New Favorite; Rural Arkansas

Well, I guess I can't technically say it's a new favorite because I've known about this magazine for about ten years now. The first place I saw this publication was at Christian's Grandparents house while we were dating. I'm guessing the qualification for receiving this is to live outside city limits because they did while they were living, and now, so do we. Besides the "Past-Time" photos, which are photos from people and events from 20 years ago, the articles telling you how to prune properly or about the arrival of the Purple Martin swallow, the best part about this magazine is the entire page devoted to recipes.

They call it, "Recipes from So&So's kitchen." Featured is some sweet cook's first name and a brief bio. After that there is almost a dozen tried and true, usually old and Southern, church pot-luck/family gathering/take-ya-back worthy recipes.

I started a binder of all the pages of these I have torn out. Here are some of my favorites so far:

Egg Custard Pie
Coconut Buttermilk Pie
Pudding Cake Dessert
Garlic Fried Chicken
Egg Salad
Strawberry Pie
Peach Delight
Hidden Valley Ranch Oyster Crackers
Coconut Sour Cream Cake
Party Tea
Chicken Soup
Creamy Squash Casserole
Zucchini Bread

There are also a few my mother's generation and older would probably savor, such as Prune Cake, Party Meringues, Curried Fruit, Chicken Dijonnaise, Cranberry Congealed Salad and Butter Chews. I'm sure these recipes are wonderful ladies (and gentleman!), however, you just don't see them on many table tops these days. Thanks for passing them down all the same.

After we started getting our copy here, I was thumbing through one and was reminded of sitting in the exam to clep(?) out of college Junior English. Starting as an English major, but switching after deciding I didn't think I would (or could) teach or write, I flailed a bit and eventually landed on science. Anyway, going into the exam I was nervous. I didn't have the money to fail this test more than once and when I showed up that mild Spring night, I didn't even have my favorite pen with me.

We received a sheet of topics from which we could choose to write about. We had to sit every other chair. I had my intimidating composition book full of empty pages staring back at me. I bit the inside of my lip a little. On the verge of being swallowed whole by the small auditorium, alas! One jumped off the list right at me. It was something about a kitchen or at least that's what I took from it. I can't even remember now, I just know that it sparked a memory of making homemade fried pies in my Grandmother's kitchen with her. And so that's what I wrote about.

Anyway, it is exactly these kinds of recipes above that take me to that same place of the low-sounding simmer of oil bubbling in a cast-iron skillet and the pop sound it makes when the intended finds its way to the pan. To me, these recipes are all about the thought and preparation involved when someone you love or loves you takes the time to make one. If You'd like one of the ones I mentioned, just let me know and I'll be more than happy to type it up and e-mail it to ya.

If you see a copy of Rural Arkansas around, pick it up, especially if you're a bit of an old soul like me. There's even a full-page crossword puzzle in back.