Here's a way to make Southern foods taste like they have pork in them, but no way Jose do they!

September 17, 2005

I got this trick from ... I think it was Crescent Dragonwagon's magnificent tome, " The Passionate Vegetarian " --which is the first veg book I bought. YUMMY things in there, and Crescent's life with her husband Ned--tragically killed in a bike accident--is heartrending and passionate as well. You will love everything about the book, I am sure!

Now where was I?

Oh yeah.

Buy you some Liquid Smoke. Carnivorous Southerners use this anyway, routinely, and I don't know why I didn't think of using it " out of the box " so to speak. But I'm sure doin' it now! Use a few drops in with your cookin' water that you're cookin' collards, turnip greens, kale or mustard greens with. Keep on cookin' and stirrin', you know the way you cook greens anyway. Keep tastin' every now and then...if you need a few more drops of Liquid Smoke, shake 'em in there. When they're finished cookin', you will have you some greens par excellence, believe you me!

Slice up some fresh maters, cukes and onions, maybe cook some corn on the cob while you're at it; have some pintos cooked up with fresh onion rings on top of each servin'; make a lettuce salad; make homemade biscuits or cornbread and serve hot with butter and honey or jam (preferably homemade jam). Put your greens and pot likker in a bowl to the side and dunk your cornbread in that, MMMMM good! Pour some icetea over lots of ice and say the blessin'...and enjoy!

:>)

That's how Southerners (the old ones like me, anyway) ate for many meals out of the week anyway...it shouldn't be real hard for Southerners to convert to veg all the way, we eat that way half the time anyway...did it cause we loooove vegies, AND our grandparents did it also cause it was a lot cheaper.

Both, still real good reasons, and now we have the health reason as well, to go totally veg!

Hope you enjoy--

Bron-- Just thought I'd drop you a vine...strawberry, watermelon, blackberry, pumpkin...