The Home Front
Our Southern grannies are such jewels. We love, honor, and cherish them for their wisdom, wit, and knowledge. We eat delicious food when our shoes are under their table, too. And they sure do love their grandchildren with a mighty big heart. But just because they love us doesn’t mean they don’t give us a good lesson now and again in amongst all the feedings.
Granny Dera was one of the best cooks around. We always loved eating her good Southern cooking. Some of my best memories of my husband’s grandmother, Dera Standridge, are her sweet potato pies, candied yams, divinity, and fried apple pies. On Christmas Day every year, David and I would load up our three children and see Granny Dera around midday. We would take her a Christmas present, and she would pull out all of her homemade treats. She spent a lot of time making delicious goodies for her numerous children and grandchildren to enjoy throughout the holidays. It was a joy to visit with her at Christmas time, and we always devoured her goodies. Now, our Christmas routine for years was very scheduled. David and I were both blessed with large families on all sides and lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins to love. When we first got married, we had nine Christmas stops to make! Many of our great-grandparents were still living at the time, and we visited them all at Christmastime with lots of hugs, kisses, and presents to open, surrounded by big families loving on all the babies. And if you disappointed them and didn’t appear at their Christmas event, you heard about it later, too, for the rest of the year. Major guilt trip, just saying. Yes, we were truly blessed to have many generations to visit. It was a scheduling feat to drive to all of these family get-togethers over the course of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We would spend both days taking them their gifts and enjoying their cooking. And you couldn’t miss one. Heavens no! It was frowned upon and considered disrespectful toward our grandparents if we didn’t grace them with our presence at the allotted time at Christmas. How they would fuss over us and love on us. Oh, how I miss those days!
One year, things took a turn. Our plans were unexpectedly altered. On Christmas Eve, we found that Granny Dera was at our Christmas Eve breakfast at David’s parents’ house. Well, we scurried home and got her gift so she could enjoy it as we opened our gifts. She loved the gift, and we enjoyed her delectable treats after the commotion of the gifts being given and received. One less place to visit on Christmas Day… or so we thought. We thought we were in good standing with Granny Dera until March of that year on her birthday visit. We had visited with her at David’s parents’ house on several occasions since the holidays, and we thought everything was just fine and dandy. But on her birthday when we went to her house to visit, she lowered the boom on us. Granny Dera said that on Christmas Day, she missed us so bad and waited all day for us to visit. When we didn’t show up, she told herself she would just save the homemade goodies for us to eat when we finally came for a visit. So, she took those three-month-old goodies out of the pantry and served them to us. And let me tell you, we ate with as much gusto as we could manage considering that they were made three months ago. A little stale, yes indeed. We didn’t know if we would ever get on her good side again, so we ate that stale candy for all we were worth. But, after a few bites, we knew all was forgiven when she pulled out one of her wonderful, freshly made, delectable sweet potato pies and sent it home with us with lots of hugs and kisses. Granny Dera was famous for her sweet potato pies.
It’s funny how our Southern grannies can teach us a lesson. They have the knack for delivering lessons that you won’t forget. We left there that day with a yummy sweet potato pie and a sincere vow that we would never, ever miss another Christmas Day visit with Granny Dera no matter how many other events she showed up at during the holiday festivities. And we never did. I hope you enjoy her delicious sweet potato pie.
-Danna Standridge
Author of Happiness is Homemade Y’all! and 2024 Sweet Grown Alabama Ambassador
Join her in the kitchen on Facebook and YouTube.
Granny Dera’s Sweet Potato Pie
Ingredients:
- 3 cups sweet potatoes
- 3 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Dash nutmeg
- 1 stick butter
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 6 ½ oz evaporated milk
- 2 uncooked regular pie shells
Instructions:
Boil the sweet potatoes in their jackets until done. Peel and mash. Add butter, sugar, vanilla, and nutmeg. Combine eggs and milk. Mix with sweet potatoes until well blended. Pour into pie crust. Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes till set.
