August 22, 2009

Tipsy Parson is an English dessert that was a staple in the Nineteenth Century South.  It is made by soaking sponge or pound cake in brandy or wine and topping it with a custard pudding.

“Soak a whole sponge-cake (or any pieces of dry cake will answer) in some sherry; when saturated with the wine, pour over it a rich boiled custard flavored with what you like and stick blanched almonds thick all over the top.”
—Mrs. Clement Carrington McPhail, F. F. V. Receipt Book. Richmond, Va.: West, Johnston & Co., 1894.
(FFV is the First Families of Virginia, a genealogical and historical group made up of descendants of Virginia’s original colonists).

August 5, 2009

“Thank God, who made the garden grow,
Who took upon himself to know
That we loved vegetables so.
I served his plan with rake and hoe,
And mother, boiling, baking, slow
To her favorite tune of Old Black Joe,
Predestined many an age ago.
Pearly corn still on the cob,
My teeth are aching for that job.
Tomatoes, one would fill a dish,
Potatoes, mealy as one could wish.
Cornfield beans and cucumbers,
And yellow yams for sweeteners.
Pickles between for stepping-stones,
And plenty of cornmeal bread in pones.”
— John Crowe Ransom, Poems About God (1919)