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Grandma’s Dumplings
Do you have a favorite food that is so tightly wrapped up in your memories, that just to think about it makes your mouth water and your heart ache? Well, I do. That would be my Grandma’s chicken and dumplin’s (In the south the ‘g’ is silent!)
Growing up, my grandma (actually all of my grandparents on both sides) lived next door to me. It was a great arrangement because I got to grow up seeing my grandma everyday. Well, every Sunday my parents, my sisters, and I would come home from church to find a feast waiting for us on Grandma’s table.
We would gather around her tiny table, give thanks for the bountiful dinner, and gorge ourselves on Grandma’s soul food. My favorite dish that Grandma made was her chicken and dumplin’s. Grandma’s dumplin’s were like no other. She made them from scratch every time. Her hands holding raw dumplin’s like a clothesline holding damp towels, she would gingerly drop those precious squares of dough into chicken stock that still to this day I cannot duplicate.
Like I said Grandma’s dumplin’s were like no other, because most pots of chicken and dumplin’s are filled with puny, little excuses for dumplin’s that are more akin to a noodle than a true dumplin’. Grandma’s were big and fat and CHEWY. And that was the way I liked them. The rest of you can have Mary B’s. I want Mandy Louise’s!
It’s funny how food can touch us in such a deep way. You may wonder what I mean by this statement. Well, as I write these words, the memory of those meals floods through me, and I am transported back to my Grandma’s kitchen and tears fill my eyes. You see I haven’t been in Grandma’s kitchen in almost 5 years, and there will never be any going back.
Grandma passed away about 18 months ago, and even before that Alzheimer’s stole her ability to prepare a meal for the family she loved. So now I sit and remember those wonderful meals my family shared sitting around Grandma’s table eating heavenly chicken and dumpin’s. And though Grandma never wrote down a single recipe, and I never did grasp her explanation of a dash of this and a bit of that, one day, I will recreate her most amazing dish. And I will share it with the world, so that Grandma’s soul food can live on through me. I love you Grandma.
Posted by admin on August 19th, 2007 under The family table2 Responses to “Grandma’s Dumplings”
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August 24th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
My eyes are filling with tears too. My dear Momma makes me Chicken & Dumplin’s too, because that was always my favorite dish she made. I try also to reproduce buy can’t come close, as of yet. Thank you for helping me take my own walk down memory lane. May God Bless you. I love your site. I live in Florida too, Pensacola.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:46 am
My mother married at the tender age of 16, schooled in the art of cooking by her mother with recipes committed to memory. Grandma couldn’t read. Chicken and dumplin’s was their signature dish. Living in the country without telephones, a family of relatives often arrived unannounced for Sunday dinner. Quick as a flash, Mama would be in the chicken yard for a fat hen, wring it’s neck, cleaned and in a large cooking pot, mix and roll out dumplin’s, tender as a woman’s heart, all the while carrying on conversation with her guest! Sweet memories!