Category: Recipes

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Meals Are Important

I made one of my absolute favorite recipes for supper this evening. Many of my friends know it as my Mexican Chicken recipe, because I make it often. In truth, it’s really my Mam-ma’s. It was one of my favorite meals when I was a child – and it still is one of my favorites today. Even though I know it by heart, almost every time I prepare it I drag out my copy of the Morrilton Assembly of God cookbook and turn to page 58, middle of the page. The recipe, just as Mam-ma wrote it years ago, is there for me to follow. I always smile when I get to the sixth ingredient listed – “½ of a 43 cent package of Taco Flavored Dorito”. In case you ever stumble onto this cookbook (which is not likely!) and want to prepare Mam-ma’s Mexican Chicken – let me translate that for you… The “43-cent” means the 9¾ ounce package – and it will cost you around $3.00 today.

I was only a toddler when this old cookbook was published and sold. To have one of my own, I had to run photocopies of my Mother’s cookbook – and I’m so glad I did. The recipes are treasures – and so are the names listed inside and faces they cause me to recall. Preparing this old casserole recipe brings so many precious people and wonderful memories to my mind. It connects me to people and places that I enjoy thinking about.

Cooking is like that for me. It connects me to others in a lot of different ways. Recipes that have been passed down, meals that have been enjoyed…..they all link back to people. When I make Mexican Chicken, I think of my Mam-ma. She was a driving force in my life, and I was so blessed to have her with me for my first 21 years on this earth. Mam-ma’s recipe originally required boiling and deboning a chicken – a task I’ve never really enjoyed. This past year, I purchased the Magnolia Table cookbook. Now, I follow the “Poached Chicken Breasts” recipe on page 85 – and I am grateful to Joanna Gaines and her team for the wonderful shortcut. What a great time-saver – and another connection. I also think of many great evenings when I served this dish to different guests and we spent time around the table laughing and talking.

Several weeks ago my pastor, Billy Burris, shared a brief devotional before our communion service that has really stuck with me. He talked about the significance and the intimacy of sharing a meal with others. When we eat together, bonds of friendship and/or family ties are strengthened. He talked about the importance of making meals special – of setting the table nicely, of preparing things well, of setting aside time to listen and connect. At mealtime, he said, we become vulnerable. We serve one another. We desire to share with others that which nurtures us. Bro. Burris’ message was a good one, and I have thought of it often since. Meal time is important!

Having a meal with someone is often a game changer. Acquaintances become friends. Friendships grow closer. Family ties are strengthened. Memories are made.

I remember seeing a T.V. interview with Dr. Maya Angelou many, many years ago. Oprah Winfrey was conducting the interview and she started enthusiastically talking about the fabulous meals she had eaten at Dr. Angelou’s table. Maya Angelou smiled and stated that preparing a meal for others is a very important task – because sharing a meal is a most intimate experience. She talked about the importance of every ingredient – and how she thinks carefully about her guests and what they would like. She talked about the opportunity you have to make others feel special by preparing a meal for them. I have remembered it until this day. Meals can be important events – with joy, strengthened bonds, and treasured memories as a result. People will remember the good experience!

Here’s an example. My Mother is almost famous for her tacos. (Its because they are incredible!) She has made thousands of them through the years – and people still (routinely!) ask her to prepare them. They are really, really good! In fact, several years after my Mam-ma passed away, her husband Harry (my mother’s stepfather) called to ask a favor. Would Mother be willing to drive down to North Little Rock and make tacos for him? He was getting older, he said, and he would just love to have her tacos one more time. He mentioned that he had tried to explain to his new wife how to prepare them, but they just weren’t the same.

That next weekend, I rode with Mother down to Harry’s. We carried in all the groceries and she settled in and went to work. When she got ready to fry the tacos, Harry (who usually always sat in the den watching T.V. until the food was ready) was this time sitting at the table waiting eagerly for the delicious meal he was anticipating. Mother heated the grease and dropped the first taco in to fry. The hot grease sputtered and began to sizzle loudly. I saw Harry’s face just light up. He looked at his wife beaming and said, “There! That’s it! That’s the way they always sounded!” It makes me smile now thinking about it. Those tacos brought Harry a lot of joy that day – and we all had such fun sitting at the table eating and sharing.

Meals are important.

If you would like to try Mam-ma’s Mexican Chicken, click here for the recipe:  Mam-ma’s Mexican Chicken

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My Pap-pa

Clifford Quinton “Joe” Clark
My Pap-Pa

When I was a little girl, it seemed like my Pap-pa was almost always working. From the stories I’ve heard all my life, it started when he was just a little boy…

His father, Ike, became sick, and eventually died young. I’ve never been certain what my great-grandfather’s illness was – but I do know that he suffered tremendously for many years. Pap-pa had to drop out of school to work the farm, care for his father, and support the family. He was young – but he was the oldest son. His sister Floy was four years older, but his brothers Woodrow and Dude were younger….so Pap-pa shouldered the responsibility. He grew up early.

He was only able to finish a third grade education at a little one-room school in rural Arkansas – but he had learned how to read and write, and thankfully he had a good mind for arithmetic. Those skills served him very well throughout his life.

I’m sure working the farm was hard enough, but Pap-pa had to carry even more responsibility. I heard stories as a child about how he alone was the one who cared for his father. From stories my grandmother would tell, it was gruesome work. Whatever the malady, Ike had dressings that had to be painfully changed and infections that had to be tended. His son, my Pap-pa, took care of it all. He was responsible for the family. I just can’t imagine.

He married my grandmother when he was only 17 and she was 14. They moved into a little house (more of a shed) behind his parents’ home. His father, almost completely disabled, required constant care – and Pap-pa continued to provide it. Working hard every day to support seven people would be grueling. Even more difficult, I think, was being responsible for so much at such a young age. In my entire life, I never once heard him complain about any of it. In fact, I don’t remember ever hearing him even talk about it. I heard the stories from others.

He got his first calf from a neighbor. He fed it, cared for it, and raised it to sell. That young calf became the first of many. Pap-pa found that he enjoyed tending cattle. He was good at it. For the rest of his life, Pap-pa earned a good living buying, tending, and trading cattle. He built and ran sale barns, he owned packing houses (a southerner’s term for a meat processing plant), and he raised cattle. When I spent time with him as a little girl, it was out in the pastures tagging along when he fed the cows, or hanging out at the sale barn he owned. He was happy to take me and my cousin Amy along when he tended his cattle. We would ride in the back of the truck (usually up on the sideboards) while he drove through the pastures to feed. It was fun – especially when he was out in the bottom land near the river. When he would drive over the levees, we would laugh and giggle – and hang on for dear life! Sometimes, Mother and I would ride with him to a sale. I loved the excitement of that! I would listen and try to understand what the auctioneer was saying……and sometimes Pap-pa might let me bid. It was big fun!

Those are good memories – but the best memories I have of Pap-pa are meals I have eaten at his table. You see, my Pap-pa also loved to cook. He mostly cooked at breakfast time – frying sausage, ham, and bacon. It was wonderful! He was very particular about the meat that he bought. He liked to get sausage from Atkins, Arkansas, because the recipe they used there to mix it is so very good. The ham had to be Petit Jean – because it is simply just the best there is. He bought slab bacon and hand sliced it himself with a sharp butcher knife. Since I grew up watching this, I never thought anything about it……until one day when I was in my 30’s I decided to try it. I bought a slab of bacon and nearly cut my fingers off trying to slice it. I finally admitted defeat – it was just too hard. Who knew???

The only recipe of Pap-pa’s I have today in my recipe box is his “Taco Dinner”. It’s really good! A couple of years ago, I made this recipe for guests at my home. My cousin Betty recognized it – and it thrilled me. She remembered an evening when she and her husband Billy ate supper at Pap-pa’s house many years ago – and he served his Taco Dinner. I love adding that memory to the files in my brain.

Pap-pa would have turned 101 last month. He left us in 1999.

Fairly often, I pull out his recipe and have his simple but delicious Taco Dinner for supper. Every time I prepare it, I think of Pap-pa……and I smile. In case you’re interested, I thought I would share the recipe with you. It’s a good one. I really hope you enjoy.

Click here for recipe