Lillah Nicole Boyd's 27th Birthday

When Freddy and I got married on November 27, 1981 I immediately made an appointment with the fertility doctor in Birmingham. I was finally covered by insurance and back then, insurance covered fertility treatments. I began my trek back and forth that 100 miles often.

Over the course of nearly three years, I had six surgeries, countless tests, and fertility drugs which have a special circle in Hell all their own I'm sure. I had hot flashes, night sweats, and MOOD swings. Then we moved to Rome in December of 1983 and I took a break. I called Dr. Younger's office at UAB and they said I deserved one. Then, in January...I was pregnant! It took, and on October 30, 1984 we had the prettiest little baby girl you ever saw.

Nicole was 5lbs-4oz. Such a tiny little thing. By the time she got here after 19 hours of hard labor, I was so glad to see her. Freddy had tears in his eyes and under the delivery room lights, they looked like diamonds. I was shaking so hard from the epidural, I couldn't hold Nicole. Between my shoulder blades, it felt like someone had hit me with a baseball bat! So...they handed her to her daddy and she quit crying immediately.

Nicole never cried the five days (Yes, five days! They didn't send you home then like they do now.) we were in the hospital. I was nursing and every time we would fall asleep, together. The nurse would come and get her and say that I was going to drop my baby. I never did. I would never do that! In Fort Payne at Baptist Medical Center DeKalb, they didn't have rooming in then. They would bring her to see us and then come and whisk her away.

When my cousin, Tim, came to see her, she was in the nursery with two other babies. He said, "Look, fun size, regular size, and field hand size!" Nicole was tiny, a little baby boy was about 7-8 lbs, and the next baby was around 12 pounds! It really was funny.

Freddy's mother and sister brought Freddy's boys to see their little sister. He took them to the Spook House at the fairgrounds. Scotty was a little skinny 13 year old and Wayne was a good sized 15 year old. Scotty was behind Freddy and somebody came after them with a chain saw. He climbed right up Freddy's back and over his shoulders! They came back laughing and laughing! Oh how birthdays bring back memories.

Nicole was a crier when we got home on Friday. We were lost. We went to the emergency room at Floyd on Sunday morning because she cried all the time. I was nursing every three hours. Dr. Ruel McMillian came to the hospital and he gave her a bottle of formula. Then he called the hospital in Fort Payne. They had been giving her supplemental feedings because she was so small! You'd think that would be sort of important to a new mom and dad.

Happy Birthday, my love! You were a beautiful baby and you are beautiful now. I always wanted a little girl. You are my dream come true.

My Kitchen and Me

I wrote this essay for Inviting Writing in the Smithsonian Magazine food blog. It was rejected because there were so many submissions. I also received the nicest rejection letter I've ever received:

"Thanks very much for this essay for Food & Think. It's delightful


-- very thoughtful and full of inviting details. Unfortunately, we

had so many submissions that closely fit the "kitchen" theme that we

weren't able to publish this one. We hope you'll consider sending a

version of this story or a new essay in for a future Inviting Writing

series. You have a great voice."



Best,

Laura




I love my kitchen, well sort of. It’s a 1939 kitchen and not glitzy by today’s standards. I don’t have enough cabinets or pantry space to keep all the things that I feel are required to turn out some of my amazing meals. I keep cake plates, big casserole dishes and my salad spinner on the glassed-in back porch. My big stand mixer is kept in the spare bedroom. I move things around on my one kitchen counter when I bake bread.




I dream of a kitchen with miles of counter space and cabinets with little crooks and crannies to store all my equipment. Those things are wonderful, but they are not what turns out good meals and sometimes even great ones.



After the tornado ripped through Rainsville, Alabama (my home town), I stayed in my grandmother’s house for several weeks. Her kitchen had a sink, a stove and a refrigerator. She raised the last four of her 11 children in that house. She cooked meals in it until she broke her leg in her 80’s.



Up on the hill, my mother built a house when I was 12. It had a little U-Shaped kitchen that only had room for two people at the most in it. The last thing she cooked when I was 19 was an apple cobbler for one of my cousins. Her little kitchen became mine and I cooked in it happily until my husband and I moved to a new town in 1983. Our house that my brother still lived in was destroyed by the tornado. I can still close my eyes though and remember my mother cooking chicken and dumplings at that old stove.



I didn’t really know how to cook. I could read what was on the back of the box and cook that and then I ordered the two-volume set of The Doubleday Cookbook by Jean Anderson and Elaine Hanna© 1975. I learned to cook anything and everything from those two books. They still hold pride of place in my kitchen and they look every one of their years. They are yellowed and stained and well used. They told me how and sometimes, more importantly, why one needs to follow an order when cooking.



When we moved to Rome, Georgia, I spent weeks looking for a house that we could live in and be happy, one that wasn’t too close to its neighbors, one we would feel content in. We were only leasing a house, we wouldn’t be there forever. The kitchen is a large room and it didn’t seem like it would be that important. I learned to really cook in this house. We also bought this house, paid for it, and it will be our home for the rest of our lives.



All that’s really required to be able to be an excellent cook, is a stove, a refrigerator, and little bit of counter space. All the glitz in the world won’t do any good if you don’t have the skills to turn out the meals. The other thing that is required for great meals and wonderful food is love. I love my old house and I love to cook in it. I learned to cook well enough to begin the Community Kitchen here in Rome. I was the director of the kitchen for 7 years. It still continues to operate to this day. My philosophy for the kitchen was to cook only meals for our clients that I would serve my family. Everyone who came received a “meat and two” from the kitchen and became like family over the years. They also received a plate of love that I and my volunteers prepared for them.



Someday, maybe, I’ll have a glitzy kitchen. If I don’t, it won’t really matter though, because… I will be cooking in my kitchen. I’ll cook sometimes just to put food in our bodies, sometimes grand meals for big crowds, but all of the time I’ll be cooking with love.

Fried Peach Pies

I put this in my notes on Facebook last year. There are pictures on that side, but this site didn't post them with the note. Oh well! I was reading Gourmet Magazine's blog this morning and a lady from Philadelphia came to Georgia to learn to make Fried Pies. It's wonderful to share our food heritage with others!

Monday, April 26, 2010 at 7:21am.This is at least a two day project. I keep all my peach peelings from all the peaches that I cut through the year...You could use fresh peaches and just chunk them up with the peelings on. The peach peeling is what has all the flavor in it. If you use only peelings these pies will have the most concentrated peach flavor you have ever tasted. Of course, it takes me over a year to get that many peelings. I just keep them in a zipper style freezer bag and add to them through the year.



1/2 Gallon of peach peelings or fresh peaches with their skins left on

3 cups Sugar

2 Tablespoons White Vinegar

2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice

1 teaspoon Vanilla



Place everything in a heavy bottomed pot. Bring to a boil then reduce to very low and simmer until peaches are a deep golden brown and thickens up. This will take quite some time, maybe an hour or so. Low and slow is the way to go. After peaches thicken up, cool slightly, place in storage bowl or zipper bag and put in the refrigerator at least over night. You cannot place hot filling in the dough or you will have a mess on your hands and no pies in the end!



Bisquits



2 1/2 cup self-rising flour or plain flour with 1 tsp. salt and 1 Tablespoon baking soda added to it.

2/3 cup of Butter

1 cup Buttermilk (If you don't have buttermilk, clabber your own milk by putting either 1 teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice in the bottom of the measuring cup and wait just a few minutes, the milk will thicken up and have the same taste of buttermilk.)



Put flour in a bowl and cut the butter in with a pastry blender until it resembles English Pea size. Add milk all at once and mix with a fork until dough forms a ball. Dust counter with flour an kneed until dough becomes a nice round ball. Pat out until dough is about 1/2" thick. Cut with a two inch biscuit cutter. Take scraps and roll into a log, pat out and you can get two or three more biscuits. At this point you could put the biscuits on a pan and bake at 450 degrees until golden and have biscuits!



Place biscuits, one at a time into the flour cannister, take out and roll out to about 1/8" thick on the counter. Place 1-1/2 Tablespoons of the chilled peach filling in the center of the dough. Wet around half the circle of dough with water. Fold dough over and seal shut with your fingers. Then take a fork and go back around the edges. With a sharp paring knife, trip excess edges off. A 1/2 inch edge is enough.

Place pies on a plate covered with parchment paper. If you have more than one layer, place parchment paper between the layers to prevent sticking. Put finished pies in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.



Heat a heavy bottomed skillet over medium heat for at least 5 minutes, spray with Pam and add just a little butter. Put two or three pies in the skillet and cook until you can see that the bottom of the pies is golden brown. Turn and cook the other side. Place on a platter and keep in a warm oven while the others cook. Enjoy! This recipe makes about 12-14 pies. Check out the photos below!Multimedia messageMultimedia messageMultimedia messageMultimedia messageMultimedia messageMultimedia message

Best Ever Potato Salad

I love potato salad, but just not any potato salad. I want some kick to it. I want some bite! I have this love, love relationship with vinegar...I love the bite it give most anything. The secret to this potato salad is the vinegar and the order it's put in it. Don't mess this up!  You have to use russet potatoes. New red potatoes are too waxy to take up the vinegar and gold potatoes don't get soft enough either.

Best Ever Potato Salad

2 pounds russet potatoess, peeled and cut into 3/4" cubes
Table Salt
4 TBL. Vinegar

Place the potatoes in a large pan and cover with water by 1". Bring to boil over medium-high heat. Add 1 TBL. salt, reduce heat to medium and simmer until potatoes are tender, just about 8 minutes.

Drain potatoes and transfer to a large bowl. AND HERE'S THE SECRET! ADD THE VINEGAR TO THE HOT POTATOES. Use a spatula and toss potatoes and vinegar. Let stand until the potatoes are just warm.

Dressing

2 ribs of celery chopped into 1/8" pieces
1/2 red onion, but if I'm out, I use a whole small yellow onion
4 TBL. sweet pickle relish
1/2 cup mayonnaise (you can add more to the salad if it's too dry for you.)
1 tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. celery seed
2 TBL. minced fresh parsley
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
2 large hard-cooked eggs, peeled and cut into cubes (optional)
1 large apple, cut in cubes (optional and I like Gala, Fuji, or Granny Smith apples)

Mix all the dressing ingredients in a medium bowl, stirring well. Using a spatula, fold dressing into warm potatoes. I love my potato salad warm, but it really tastes better the next day! Enjoy!

A Southern Girl Cooking

In 2004, Freddy and I moved to Canandaigua, New York for nearly a year. He worked in a Fleischer's Bagels in Macedon and we lived in our brand new motor home in the Canandaigua KOA. I was the office manager. We both loved the area and the people. We were embraced by the community there. We went to Canandaigua UMC. It looked like one of my Snow Village churches from Department 56.

There were a few things that we missed eating when we lived there from home, but not much. I missed Bojangle's Biscuits on Saturday mornings and would have given my eye teeth for a Zero Candy Bar sometimes! The growing season there is much shorter than ours here in NW Georgia and NE Alabama, but they had some of the most beautiful farms you've ever seen there. There were more than 100 barns in Ontario County over 100 years old that were so beautiful.

Almost every farm had a farmstand. You could pull up to the stand, and there was rarely ever anyone there. They would lay out their fruits and vegetables with a metal box locked and bolted to the stand. They would have a price list and you dropped your money into the box. Every now and then you would catch the farmer or their wife or children there replacing the stock. I loved to talk with them and talk about the difference in the varieties they grew than what we grew down here in the South. They were always friendly. Sometimes, they had a hard time understanding my deep Southern accent.

One of our favorite things to eat that we discovered in New York was Salt Potatoes. Since we moved back home, I learned through research that Salt Potatoes is a regional recipe from Syracuse. Syracuse is at the "foot" of one of the most Eastern Finger Lakes scooped out by the ice age. If you look at a map of the Finger Lakes, it looks like a bear claw. It is also home of Cornell University. Freddy and I always drove through Syracuse on our way South and back North.

Salt Potatoes sounds really strange. You put two quarts of water in a big pot and bring the water to a boil. Then, you add 1 1/2 cups of SALT to the pot. Then you add 1-2 pounds of new potatoes to the pot and boil them until the potatoes are tender. You pour the potatoes into a colander and let them dry and a crust of salt will form on the potatoes. Melt butter in a bowl, add a lot of pepper and fresh chives. You put the potatoes on your plate and either cut them in two or smash them with your fork and drizzle the butter mixture on top.

Another regional dish we loved was Spiedies. Spiedies is a marinated chicken that you grilled on a stick and then put in a sub roll. I like the really soft ones. It is a regional dish from Binghamton, New York. People cooked different versions of it in the campground all summer long. The smell of spiedies cooking on the grill would make my mouth water. I was invited to eat with many of the friends I made in the campground throughout the summer.

Spiedie Chicken Sandwiches

2-3 chicken breasts
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice (fresh is best)
1/4 cup white vinegar
2 garlic cloves (finely chopped or pressed)
1 TBL dried parsley
1 TBL dried basil
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cracked black pepper
3-4 sub rolls

Cut chicken into 1" cubes. Whisk all other ingredients together to form a marinade. Set some aside for basting or sauce. Add marinade to chicken in a large zipper style bag and refrigerate overnight, turning occasionally.  Thread 5 or so cubes onto metal or soaked bamboo skewers. Grill or broil in oven until chiken is lightly browned. It has already partially cooked from the marinade. Place the skewer in the roll and pull off the meat. Add reduced sauce if you wish.

Peach Cobbler

I've made cobblers for years. The last thing my mother ever made before she passed away when I was 19 was an apple cobbler. I don't make my cobblers anything like she did. She used the old fashioned pie crust layers. She would put in one layer of fruit/sugar mixture and then a layer of the dough. Then she would take the hot cobbler out of the oven and do another layer. It was good! It was also labor intensive.

My Aunt Bill, says that this is called a Lazy Day Cobbler, Cook's Country says it's Texas-Style Cobbler. I think it's just a melding of all my experiences with cobbler throughout the years. The batter rises up beautifully over the fruit and it's all mixed together. It takes a little while to make, but nothing like the time my mother's did. If I had one wish today, it would be that my mother could still cook with me. Because there are only three of us at home, I usually divide this from a 9x13 dish to two 9 inch baking dishes. One we have at home and one I can carry to someone or take to church for lunches. One of these will go to church tomorrow with me as we celebrate a successful Vacation Bible School and make our pastor into a Sundae! He's going to let the kids pour Sundae ingredients all over him. He's a really good sport and members of the church are sponsoring him to raise money. :)


For the filling:

2 pounds of ripe peaches, peeled.
2 packages dried peaches, chopped into quarter inch pieces.
1 cup sugar divided
1 whole lemon, grated for zest
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. grated nutmeg

Place dried peaches in a small saucepan and add 1/2 cup sugar and just enough water to cover the peaches over high heat until it comes to a boil. Reduce heat and cook until peaches are tender.

Cut up ripe, fresh peaches into a bowl and mix with remaining cup of sugar. Drain cooked peaches and add peaches to fresh peaches. Add lemon zest, cinnamon, and nutmeg and stir well. Set aside.

Batter:

2 sticks unsalted butter, melted in pan or pans in a 350 degree oven.
2 cups flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 cup milk

Mix dry ingredients in medium bowl. Add butter to pans and heat in oven until the butter is melting and starting to just brown. Remove pans from the oven. Add the milk and stir well. Pour the melted butter into the batter and whisk until everything is combined and batter is very smooth. Pour the batter into the pan or equally into two pans if dividing. With a large spoon dollop peach mixture on top of the batter. Place pan in center of oven on the middle rack or divide between two racks and rotate half way through baking.

Bake for 45-60 minute when the batter rises and is golden brown. Enjoy! This cobbler is best served warm with vanilla ice cream.

Cowboy Strip Steaks

Cowboy Strip Steaks


.by Christie Hufstedler Boyd on Saturday, July 16, 2011 at 9:00pm.This is the simplest steak recipe ever! The recipe is for four 1 - 1 1/2" steaks. I only made two and so I cut the rub ingredients in half. I used Choice steaks that I got at the meat market just around the corner from my house. You could use strip steaks from the grocery store or you could use Rib Eyes.



Rub:



1/4 cup wood chips, soaked in water for 15 minutes and drained



2 TBLS. Paprika



1 TBL. packed light brown sugar



1 TBL. chili powder



1 tsp. garlic powder



1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper



4 (8-ounce) boneless strip steaks



Pat steaks as dry as you can get them on all surfaces with paper towels and rub with spice mixture. Place wood chip packet on coals and cover until chips begin to smoke. Grill steaks over hot fire until well browned and meat registers 120-125 degrees (for medium rare), about 4 minutes a side. Transfer to platter, tent loosely with foil, and let rest 5- 10 minutes.



To pan sear steaks (I had to do this this time, because I lent someone my grill!) Heat skillet on high heat for at least 3 minutes. Add just a touch of olive oil to skillet and immediately add steaks. Cook 4 minutes on first side without moving steaks, turn and cook 4 more minutes for medium rare, 5 minutes for medium. Tent with foil on platter. Make your favorite pan sauce and add juices back to skillet and mix well. These were great and only take a few minutes.



This is adapted from two different America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Country recipies. I often adapt their recipies or take a seed of an idea from here and there and adapt them. Many are similar to cooking my mother used to do and now I add it all into the mix!



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