Aunt Bill Rambles about cooking

Well, Billie ast me to cook today and I wondered what in the world it would be.  Then with all this cooler weather — I decided to make an old-timey dish what ladies of old used to do.  Back then folks raised their own pork and put hit away to use the whole year.  Big families would kill more’n one hog and what a job that was. On hog killing day everythang was greasy — e’em the door knob.

Well, I aim to try to tell you how I make pork roast and dressin’.  First off I boil a small roast (or you can use pork chops).  While this is  a-boiling I cook a pan uv cornbread.   Now when I cook bread fer the dressin’ I add a extra egg (use two eggs or I use one double-yoke egg).  When the roast is ready and the cornbread done, I crumble the bread in a big bowl.

Dressing ingredients crumbled

Then I add two pieces of loaf bread and a hand full of sody crackers. Of course, an onion has to be cut up and added.  Now I pull off some meat — use just how much you want to put in the dressing — and I save the rest.  A body can put barbecue sauce on hit – er they can jist make a sandwich outta that saved part.  I add the pulled off meat to the other mixture and then pour the broth from the meat-boiling over the whole thing.  Here’s where I add a little sage — be careful not to put in too much — hit’ll make the dressing bitter and you don’t want that.  Besides the sage, you’ll need a little salt and some ground red pepper (I also use a little  chili powder,too).  My Ma used to grow her red pepper and she would crumble some of that dried in her dressin’.  Now comes the mixin’ — some mix hit with a tater masher,

Mix with hands

but I lather up and wash my hands good and git in there and mix– they ain’t nothin’ that will beat that kind a mixin.  You might haf to add a little sweet milk to make  hit thin enough to spread in yore pan.  At this point you might want to taste and see if’n you need to add more salt or pepper.

I pour all this is a greased pan — Ma used a iron skillet, but I use sumpin’ I can put in the frigerator (without having to wash up) to save left overs in.  If’n you wanted to you could add some pulled-off meat to the top of this, but I don’t do that.  Hit dries out too much to suit me.  I bake hit at 400 til it starts to show a little brown.  Put this on the table with a few vegetables and a plate of cranberry sauce and you’ve got a good meal. Hit shore is country living.

Ready for the oven