"Though our roots are in the Colonial South, we Crackers are
essentially just another American fusion culture, and our table and
our stories are constantly expanding -- nearly as fast as our
waistlines. We aren't ashamed of either, and we're always delighted
with the prospect of company: someone to feed and make laugh, to
listen to our hundred thousand stories of food and family and our
long American past."
Crackers, rednecks, hillbillies, and country boys have long been
the brunt of many jokes, yet this old Southern culture is a rich
and vibrant part of Amer-ican history. In "The Cracker Kitchen,"
Janis Owens traces the root of the word "Cracker" back to its
origins in Shakespeare's Elizabethan England -- when it meant
braggart or big shot -- through its proliferation in America, where
it became a derogatory term to describe poor and working-class
Southerners. This compelling anthropological exploration peels back
the historic misconceptions connected with the word to reveal a
breed of proud, fiercely independent Americans with a deep love of
their families, their country, their stories, and, most important,
their food.
With 150 recipes from over twenty different seasonal menus, "The
Cracker Kitchen" offers a full year's worth of eating and
rejoicing: from spring's Easter Dinner -- which includes recipes
for Easter Ham, Green Bean Bundles, and, of course, Cracklin'
Cornbread -- to summer's Fish Frys, fall's Tailgate Parties, and
winter's In Celebration of Soul, honoring Martin Luther King,
Jr.
Recounted in Owens's delightful and hilarious voice, the family
legends accompanying each of these menus leap off the page. We meet
Uncle Kelly, the Prince of the Funny Funeral Story, who has family
and friends howling with laughter at otherwise solemn occasions. We
spend a morning with Janis and her friends at a Christmas Cookie
Brunch as they bake delectable gifts for everyone on their holiday
lists. And Janis's own father donates his famous fundamentalist
biscuit recipe; truly a foretaste of glory divine.
"The Cracker Kitchen" is a charming, irresistible celebration of
family, storytelling, and good old-fashioned eating sure to appeal
to anyone with an appreciation of Americana.
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