With Thanksgiving fast approaching, good Louisiana cooking slides once again to the forefront. Yes, good food
is a staple up here at the Old Place. Whether
it’s a homemade persimmon pie from the old wood-burning stove or steaks, cowboy style, over an open fire down by the lake, food at the Old Place was and
is always a special treat. My Grandmother,
MaMie, whose real name was Nora, did not always come up with the "Dean" back in the old days, but her old hand-stitched apron still hangs on a peg next to
the stove. Of course, I use the one I wore as Detective Sgt. Porterhouse in the Ray
Cooney play “Run for Your Wife.” I
don't think our children know what an apron is these days. Back in the day, the principal use of a lady’s apron was to protect the dress underneath because she only had a few. It was also
because, even back then, it was easier to wash aprons than dresses, and aprons required much less material. An apron also
served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven. It was wonderful for drying grandchildren’s
tears, and on occasion, for cleaning out dirty ears. From the chicken coop, the apron was used to carry eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to finish in
the warming oven. When company came, those aprons were also great hiding places for
shy children. I have a
picture of Hannah's big blue eye peeking out from behind her AnMama's apron.
When
the weather turned cold, MaMie would wrap it around her arms. Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring
brow as they bent over the hot wood stove. Chips
and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron. From the garden, it carried all sorts of
vegetables, and after the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls. In the fall, the apron was used to bring in
apples that had fallen from the trees.
And when an unexpected guest drove up the road, it was surprising how
much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds. When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out
onto the porch and waved her apron. The menfolk knew it was time to come in from the lake or the fields to dinner. It will be a long time before someone invents
something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes.
And ah, how things have changed: Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the windowsill to cool. Nowadays, her granddaughters set their pies on the countertop... to thaw. And sadly, it’s more likely to be a boy with that apron around his shoulders playing Batman than a girl playing Mom at
her “Easy Bake Oven.” Shoot, modern Moms
go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron and hoping
to goodness no one sees them actually wearing it!
