Catherine is studying about Indian tribes in Alabama right now in social studies. I remember doing the same thing in fourth grade, and to this day I still get in my head the sing-songy set of names of the four major tribes that I had remembered back then so I could remember it on my test: "Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Creek."
Anyway, she had brought home some recipes the other day for some breads and fried corn meal type things, and the printouts were promptly buried under a mound of other stuff on the kitchen table and forgotten.
Until last night, five minutes before we had to leave to go to church.
"Where are my recipes, Daddy?"
"On the table somewhere, why?"
"Because I'm supposed to cook one of them and bring it to school with me tomorrow."
::sigh:: Sure would have been nice if she'd mentioned that when she brought the recipes home. ::yet another sigh:: Also would be nice if she could actually be trusted with a hot stove, seeing as how in the absence of that trust, it would fall to her parents to complete this assignment.
She had settled on Grape Dumplings, which is an obvious choice, in that we didn't have any grape juice in the house, which meant a stop at the grocery store on the way home to get some. You know, just like back in the olden days.
Anyway, to church, to the store, to home, Cat in the tub, and Mom turned loose to boil dough. While the fire was being stoked, I was tasked with finding for our little student some information about how the Cherokee got their food. Seems there was ANOTHER part of the assignment SOMEone had forgotten about. (By the way, it seems I was wrong about the part about them going to the grocery store--at least back in the 1800s, they actually had to grow food--in the GROUND!!)
BUT--at least this assignment did have a benefit. Those grape dumplings are pretty darned good! Miss Reba brought some upstairs while I was on the computer--they taste like biscuits with grape jelly. Interesting bit of family lore, too. Seems Reba's grandmother used to make the same things, saying it was just an old family recipe. It's possible it could have been from the Indian side of the family, or not (it's a simple dish, after all), but the memory of smelling and tasting them brought back some fond memories for her of visiting her grandparent's farm when she was young. (And yes, I'm think I'm sorta jealous that I didn't get any recipes or advice or wisdom handed down from my Cherokee g-g-grandmother, although I imagine she'd say to watch out for Washington politicians.)
Anyway, Catherine thought they were good, too, and was even more excited that she'd get to tell everyone in class that she--with her sparkly blue eyes and light brown hair--is a tiny part Cherokee herself.
Posted by Terry Oglesby at October 5, 2006 10:54 AM