This is Joe Joe, my grandfather, my mother's father. This picture was taken on the 4th of July. How do I know this? There are a couple of clues:
1. Joe Joe is carrying around a blue solo cup which I'm sure is either filled with Grammy's ice tea or one of his famous bloody mary's. My senior year of college I brought a group of my girl friends to Grammy and Joe Joe's lake house for spring break. They still talk about those bloody mary's.
2. This picture was taken in the kitchen, where, this year on July 4th, I distinctly remember desperately trying to prove my worth as a cook among the women in my family.
3. The most telling clue: Joe Joe is wearing his red, white, and blue striped shorts from the 1970's, cleverly paired with his automobile patterend shirt in the same color scheme. Every year he wears those shorts on July 4th. Every. Single. Year. It's precious and we love it.
Now, let me tell you something about Joe Joe: he is pretty savvy with a computer, especially for his age. He knows how to use the internet, is fairly competent with email, and is a faithful follower of this blog. Of this I am proud.
(Hey, who's going to read your blog if not your family? Thanks for reading, y'all!)
Just like the rest of my family, Joe Joe was born and raised in East Texas, a part of the country with a very rich and very distinct cultural tradition. (I am currently the only urban dweller among us... but I have a grand master secret plan to convince everyone to move to Houston so that they can all be close to me. Do you think it will work?)
Today I received the sweetest email from Joe Joe sharing his infamous "couche couche" recipe. Now couche couche, (also spelled "kush kush" or "cush cush") is traditionally a cajun breakfast recipe that is, like, forever old. (Also, let me just say that it is pronounced "kooosh koooosh". No other way. End of discussion.) In fact, there is an LSU chant that goes:
"Hot boudain, cold couche couche, come on, Tigers, push push push!"
Google tells me that the below recipe isn't exactly authentic, but I suspect it's a Texas mutation. I don't know how this cornmeal-based cereal made it over to East Texas, but I'm sure it's an intersting story. Maybe if I took my undergraduate studies in Anthropology to the next level I could document the great Couche Couche Migration as part of an ethnography on the indigenous peoples of Gladewater, Texas. Maybe...
Here is the email Joe Joe sent me:
my kaka----you are great--no matter what you do----so is little meredith----have you all tried corn bread and butter milk--tips--add olive juice, not over 1 ounce, cut up one dill pickle, cut up and add a small carrot, results are better when you use yellow meal in preparing your corn bread. i recommend cooking the corn bread well done. first crumble up the corn bread in a goblet, add the buttermilk, next add the olive juice before mixing the other ingrediences. serve
Isn't that sweet???? I have the greatest family in the world.
Grammy never fails to make cornbread anytime we have a big family dinner, so couche couche usually ends up being a late night snack rather than a breakfast item. I, like my mother and my grandfather, enjoy leftover cornbread crumbled up in buttermilk. It's in my blood. However, I have not been able to make the jump to adding olive juice, dill pickle, and carrot.
Sound appealing? You be the judge.
No comments:
Post a Comment