{"id":12687,"date":"2021-04-30T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-30T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/?p=12687"},"modified":"2021-05-06T20:13:38","modified_gmt":"2021-05-07T00:13:38","slug":"comfort-food-at-its-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/?p=12687","title":{"rendered":"Comfort Food at Its Best"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This column appeared in our local paper, and I couldn\u2019t resist sharing it with a wider audience!
<\/em>
Sometimes when recipe inspiration doesn\u2019t strike me, I call on friends (or friends of friends) who are good home cooks. Recently, I contacted writer and scholar Martha Ackmann<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I knew Martha would come up with something tasty. I also knew she would be fun to talk to. It didn\u2019t occur to me that she would offer me a recipe from Dolly Parton \u2026 but when she did I was thrilled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martha is working on a book about Parton. I asked her, \u201cWhy Dolly?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She replied, \u201cMy niche is women who\u2019ve changed America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her previous books have chronicled the lives of the Mercury 13, a group of women in the 1960s who were secretly tested as potential U.S. astronauts; Toni Stone, a pioneering player in baseball\u2019s Negro League; and Emily Dickinson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martha explained that she has been interested in Dolly Parton since the singer\u2019s early days performing on The Porter Wagoner Show<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to take her seriously,\u201d Martha said of Parton. \u201cI love her music. I think it\u2019s joyous and heartwarming, and it makes me feel better. Even the things she calls her \u2018sad-ass songs.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been spending a lot of the lockdown just doing the basic research, and boy is there a lot of it!\u201d Martha added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a former resident of East Tennessee (my friend Bill played in the Sevierville County High School Marching Band with Parton), I, too, am a long-time Dolly fan. I believe Martha is the perfect person to write about this complex public personality.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have always been impressed by her seriousness,\u201d Martha told me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She noted that Parton\u2019s history has been entwined with food from the start of the star\u2019s life. Martha cited Parton\u2019s origin story, which recounts that father Robert Lee Parton didn\u2019t have the funds to pay the doctor who brought the child into the world and ended up paying for the birth with a sack of cornmeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Food production was important throughout Parton\u2019s time growing up poor with a passel of brothers and sisters, Martha informed me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDolly’s family grew their own food not to sell but to sustain their large family,\u201d she explained. \u201cThey had a big kettle for cooking hominy and stews, a \u2018tater hole\u2019 for storing potatoes and turnips. The walls\u00a0of their kitchen were covered with nails for drying fruits, peppers, garlic, dill, onions, and beans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey grew asparagus behind the woodshed. Had both red and black raspberries. A smoke house for salted pork, ham, bacon. There were cardboard boxes in the cupboard for dried shellie beans, corn, black-eyed peas; and sacks of walnuts, hazelnuts, hickory nuts, chestnuts, beechnuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA large garden, of course (tomatoes, okra, lettuce). Chickens, hogs, cows. They also ate a lot of game,\u201d Martha concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She argued that in some ways food has also helped shape Parton\u2019s music. \u201cAs a child, Dolly always listened to the rhythm around her: birds chirping, the creak of a rocking chair. She also remembers hearing her mother snapping beans. The rhythm of those snaps sounded like music to her. Food equals music.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martha describes herself as \u201ca good, solid, not flashy, evolving Midwestern cook.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Parton, Martha\u2019s Missouri family had rural roots. She recalls her country-born grandparents butchering their own meat in their tiny backyard in St. Louis. Martha is the designated cook in her own household. She was eager to try one of Parton\u2019s signature recipes when I asked her for a dish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together, Martha and I selected Dolly Parton\u2019s Chicken and Dumplings, a perfect recipe for our recent cool weather. Like any good home cook, Martha adapted the recipe a bit \u2026 and she admitted that she might adapt it even more next time she makes it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She is considering more vegetables (leeks, beans) and perhaps some herbs (parsley, thyme, bay leaf) to the stock. She told me that the dish was satisfying as it was, however, and that it epitomized comfort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe dumplings were easy to make,\u201d she elaborated, \u201cand preparing them gave me an occasion to use my great aunt’s rolling pin! (Beulah Clementine Snook Erdel. Isn’t that a noble name?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll the time I was making the dumplings, I thought about Dolly’s mother feeding 11 hungry kids and the Missouri farm women in my own family rolling out countless pie crusts, biscuits, and dumplings. This is a good recipe for remembering hard-working women.\u201d Here is Martha\u2019s recipe. Listen to a little Dolly Parton music as you make and eat it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Martha with the Rolling Pin (courtesy of Ann Romberger)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dolly\u2019s Chicken \u2018n\u2019 Dumplin\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Adapted by Martha Ackmann)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ingredients:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

for the stock and the chicken:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 3-pound chicken, cut up, or 3 pounds of chicken parts
2 teaspoons salt
pepper to taste
1 onion, peeled but left whole
1\/4 cup chopped celery leaves
chopped carrots and celery to taste<\/p>\n\n\n\n

for the dumplings:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 cups flour, plus additional flour for kneading
1\/2 teaspoon salt
1\/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons shortening
3\/4 cup milk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

for assembly:
<\/em>a little parsley for garnish<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instructions:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a Dutch oven, combine the chicken and the salt with 2 quarts of water. Cover, and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium. Toss in the pepper, onion, and celery leaves. Simmer the chicken, covered, until the meat comes off the bones. (This took Martha about 45 minutes.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strain the mixture, discarding the vegetables but saving the broth and chicken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the chicken is cool enough to handle, remove it from the bones. Cut it into bite-size pieces. Set it aside. Turn the heat up to high, and bring the stock to a boil. Toss the carrots and celery into the liquid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the stock is boiling, begin to work on the dumplings. Combine the flour, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cut in the shortening with knives or a pastry blender. Stir in the milk, a little at a time, until the dough is moist. Turn it onto a floured board, and knead it for 5 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roll the dough out until it is 1\/2 inch thick. Cut it into 1-1\/2-inch squares. Drop the squares into the boiling stock. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring gently from time to time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Return the chicken to the pot. Stir it and heat it until it is thoroughly warm, about 8 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To serve, place 3 or so dumplings in a shallow soup dish, place chicken to taste on top, and ladle on some stock with carrots and celery. Serve warm, garnished with parsley. Serves 4 to 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Courtesy of Christina Barber-Just<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This column appeared in our local paper, and I couldn\u2019t resist sharing it with a wider audience!Sometimes when recipe inspiration doesn\u2019t strike me, I call on friends (or friends of friends) who are good home cooks. Recently, I contacted writer and scholar Martha Ackmann. I knew Martha would come up with something tasty. I also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[16,39],"tags":[2053,2054,2052,2055,2051],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12687"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12687"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12706,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12687\/revisions\/12706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ourgrandmotherskitchens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}