The Home Front
I can remember playing outside after church on Sundays with my many cousins and hearing my Nanny Swann come out on the porch and call us to the table, “Time to eat, y’all!” If you are one of the lucky ones who had the good fortune to grow up with lots of first cousins and Sunday dinners, then you had the treasured experience of learning all about your family and life in general with your feet under the children’s table. It’s a place where you learn who you are and who your kin are as you dine on delicious food made by many aunts and grandmothers. We cousins grew up together at that table.
For those with small families or those not blessed with the knowledge or experience of this phenomenon, the children’s table is where all little ones eat at their grandmother’s house for Sunday dinners- which are at lunchtime right after church- but we call it dinner to proclaim the importance of gathering to break bread as a family on God’s holy day. Now my most memorable children’s table experiences happened at Popa and Nanny (Coy and Lorene) Swann’s house. When I was born, I was named after my nanny, Danna Lorene Swann, and they lived right down the road from us. Popa and Dad farmed cattle together. Nanny and Popa had been married a long time and had raised a large family by the time I came along. They always had massive Sunday dinners at the little house they had built out of wood logged off their land back in the early 1900s.
With six children, their spouses, their combined eighteen grandchildren, and the extra people who managed to drop in, the house was very full at Sunday dinners. The children’s plates were filled first, and then we were situated in the dining room and living room. The older children in their teens got to sit on the piano bench and the living room sofa and chairs. We younger ones had to sit at the dining room table with admonitions to be good and not to spill anything. We tried to be good but inevitably someone usually spilled his or her tea after we got tickled about something, especially one of my younger cousins, who had a knack for it.
After everyone was served and before Nanny put a single morsel of food in her mouth, she made sure her whole clan was getting fed and fed well. Not one of her babies was allowed to be hungry on her watch. She would walk to every room and stand there quietly looking at every one of us and at our plate, and then she would say, “Do you have enough to eat?” After we assured her that we did, she would go to the kitchen, sit in her chair, and make her plate. What an amazing woman my Nanny was! To this day, I am in awe of her ability to take such good care of so many people. You know, you learn a lot of important stuff sitting at the children’s table. I hope you enjoy these family recipes perfect for the holiday season.
-Danna Standridge
Author of Happiness is Homemade Y’all! and 2024 Sweet Grown Alabama Ambassador
Read her faith story at www.birminghamchristian.com/issues.
Join her in the kitchen on Facebook and YouTube.
Nanny Swann’s Best Roasted Turkey
Ingredients:
- Turkey
- 1 stick butter
- Salt
Instructions:
Thaw turkey in the refrigerator for approximately 2 days. When the giblets easily come out, it is time to cook. Wash the turkey inside and out. Butter and salt it, then wrap it in foil and put it in your roasting pan. Check the package directions for the size turkey you have, then bake till done. Take the foil off for the last 30 minutes to ensure even browning. You can tell it is done when the skin of the thigh is pricked with a fork and the juice runs clear or if the drumstick joint feels loose.
Nanny Swann’s Chicken and Dressing
Ingredients:
- Chicken- cooked and pulled apart into bite size (Giblets are optional, but Nanny always used them. She chopped them and added them to the dressing but omitted the liver because of the strong flavor.)
- 2 cans of chicken broth, or broth used to poach chicken
- 2 pans cooked cornbread- let it sit out overnight to get stale
- 2 or 3 boiled eggs, chopped (optional)
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2-4 tablespoons of chopped, fresh sage according to your taste (add a little at a time and taste the batter as you go till it is to your liking)
- Sprinkle of paprika
Instructions:
Crumble cornbread into large mixing bowl. Roll sage between hands till it falls apart into bowl. Add chicken. Add hot broth one cup at a time till thin. Stir in beaten eggs. Gently stir in boiled eggs. Pour into greased pan and sprinkle with paprika. Cook at 350° till firm all over.
