in praise of the South

[TxRad]

Oh yeah...

Indeed.

I'll have to snag a quart or two the next time I come north or east.

 

[TxRad]

"Beaten" biscuits are made with the blunt end of an axe and a tree stump. The mere thought of them combined with Smithfield ham makes me start to salivate.

HP, our "biscuits" are not your biscuits. The American biscuit is a small cake of shortened bread raised with baking powder or soda.

My mothers or grandmothers biscuits were called cathead biscuits because they were that big and fluffy as a cloud.

Now I've made myself hungry *Drool*

 

[cloudy]

My mothers or grandmothers biscuits were called cathead biscuits because they were that big and fluffy as a cloud.

Now I've made myself hungry *Drool*

Yep, nothing "small" about southern biscuits. I always used to fight with my siblings over the one in the middle of the pan...it didn't have any crust around the sides.

 

[TxRad]

Yep, nothing "small" about southern biscuits. I always used to fight with my siblings over the one in the middle of the pan...it didn't have any crust around the sides.

Sometimes the crust is the best part.

 

[fieryjen]

http://www.blissflavors.com/buttermilk-biscuits-sl-1673191-l.jpg

We like 'em best with sausage gravy, maybe a slice of tomato, but they're good with butter and jelly/jam or honey, too. Yummy.

You're making me hungry.

The first time we had biscuits and sausage gravy at boy scout camp (we had a fantastic cook with southern roots) I was rather skeptical and I think I ate salad and cottage cheese instead. I wasn't quite sure what the appeal was of getting a biscuit all soggy with some suspect-looking sauce and then eating that mess. The next week when we had it again, the husband convinced me to try it. Ohgodsohgods it was good!

 

[Austin8]

Yep, nothing "small" about southern biscuits. I always used to fight with my siblings over the one in the middle of the pan...it didn't have any crust around the sides.

Hahaha! *whacks at cloudys hand*, That ones mine!

And all this time I thought it was just me who did that!

 

[cloudy]

You're making me hungry.

The first time we had biscuits and sausage gravy at boy scout camp (we had a fantastic cook with southern roots) I was rather skeptical and I think I ate salad and cottage cheese instead. I wasn't quite sure what the appeal was of getting a biscuit all soggy with some suspect-looking sauce and then eating that mess. The next week when we had it again, the husband convinced me to try it. Ohgodsohgods it was good!

yeah, it's not the most appetizing looking breakfast, but who cares what it looks like when it tastes that good. Try putting a slice of really ripe tomato on top of the biscuit before you pour on the gravy - heaven.

 

[glynndah]

The difference between you'ns and y'all.

 

[TxRad]

yeah, it's not the most appetizing looking breakfast, but who cares what it looks like when it tastes that good. Try putting a slice of really ripe tomato on top of the biscuit before you pour on the gravy - heaven.

Funny, no ones mentioned tomato grave.

 

[TxRad]

The difference between you'ns and y'all.

Hills

 

[glynndah]

Hills

When I first moved here, I was treated to a long lecture about "the South". As much as I can remember, "you'ns" referred to a specific part of a larger group and "y'all" was more or less the entire group. "You'ns can go to lunch now, but the rest of y'all will have to wait until later." However, it's been a while since I've actually heard "you'ns" used so I could be wrong and bow to superior knowledge.

 

[TxRad]

When I first moved here, I was treated to a long lecture about "the South". As much as I can remember, "you'ns" referred to a specific part of a larger group and "y'all" was more or less the entire group. "You'ns can go to lunch now, but the rest of y'all will have to wait until later." However, it's been a while since I've actually heard "you'ns" used so I could be wrong and bow to superior knowledge.

You are correct, I'm pretty sure as I haven't heard you'ns used in quite a while.

I'll bet your sparkly bubble raised a few eyebrows.

 

[glynndah]

You are correct, I'm pretty sure as I haven't heard you'ns used in quite a while.

I'll bet your sparkly bubble raised a few eyebrows.

Oh, I was much more wicked in my younger days and kept my bubble well-hidden.

And she was definitely from the "hills".

 

[TxRad]

Oh, I was much more wicked in my younger days and kept my bubble well-hidden.

And she was definitely from the "hills".

It may have been the lack of underwear under that full skirt that raised the eyebrows.

The hills of Tennessee and West Virginia have a dialect all their own in places.

 

[Thequiet]

In my school career, we had snow days, but the Hurricane days were far more common. Snow you drive over, fallen trees you drive through.

People say "I Love You" in many different ways. One of the most common is with a bowl of potato salad.

There is music outside: crickets, bullfrogs, the neighbor's banjo you can hear through the woods, church bells tolling.

Lightning bugs....some call them fireflies.

June bugs....made into helicopters.

Tomatoes and corn, both raw and warm from the garden.

Toughening your feet in the summertime on the hot asphalt.

Church league softball, watching middle aged men become heroes again.

Brain freeze from homemade ice cream.

We'll pickle almost anything: eggs, sausages, pig's feet, watermelon rind, okra, squash, cabbage, beets.

Ceiling fans and front porches.

Sounds great. I'm moving South, and a few thousand miles west.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Honey talkin'.

Man, the first time I ran into that, the hair stood up on the back of my neck. The woman doin' the talking was a light-skinned African American with a voice about half-way between alto and tenor. I swallowed real hard and kept my head down and my eyes focused on the task at hand. If I'd looked her in the eyes for too long, I'd have been lost. God alone knows how many helpless males have found themselves doing things they couldn't explain just because some Southern lady talked honey at them. Dangerous? Lordy!

 

[driphoney]

Hills

Heels

And windowseels

And I still sometimes pronounce it that way and get laughed at.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Sitting down to the supper table with a platter of fried chicken, mashed potatoes & gravy, with green beans, they had been cooked all day on the back burner of the stove, corn three kinds - on the cob, not on the cob and creamed, hominy, black eyed peas, summer squash - cooked in butter, elbow macaroni and fresh stewed tomatoes, collard greens, mustard greens and turnip greens.

You took one piece of chicken but as much of the other stuff as you wanted.


That was good eats!

 

[Edward Teach]

Odd though as it may be, I'm extremely uncomfortable knowing so many people have guns in their homes in the south. It's rather irrational, I know, and I hope nobody will take offense to it, but it just really freaks me out.

And I have a terrible time understanding Southerners, accent-wise. That's not really scary though, just inconvenient. (And I really hate iced tea. )

Those Yankees spread all sorts of malicious propaganda, Jen, bless their little hearts, but don't be too put off by it.

Gun ownership is about the same here as in the rest of the country. I just checked a chart for percent of the population who own guns by state and it runs from Hawaii at 8.7 to Wyoming at 59.7. NC is about in the middle of the chart at 41.3 between Maine at 40.5 and Minnesota at 41.7. Guns are everywhere. Regardless, people down here don't drive around with loaded guns in their pick up trucks, that's against the law, and they don't shoot everything in sight like in the movies, that's yankee propaganda, bless their little hearts.

The accent is changing rapidly here, I think kids growing up watching TV is mainly the cause, and most people don't have any trouble understanding us. I'm guessing you've had problems understanding a southerner on the phone. I know I have trouble with some northern accents on the phone, especially when they speak in an unfamiliar cadence and run words together. In person, I don't have a problem.

And we won't force you to drink iced tea, the stuff causes kidney stones. Besides, believe it or not, we have pop and imported beer. Harris Teeter even has celery tonic and cream soda.

Come visit and stay a spell, y’hear.

 

[Edward Teach]

Yes indeedy do. Born and reared. Is there a problem there, Ed?

Sorry, TE, some of your post just struck me as stereotype, kinda in the Foxworthy vein.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Oh yeah! Red cream soda. I haven't had any of that since I left Active Duty. Of course, it is improved by a stout shot of sourmash along with the ice . . .

 

[cloudy]

When I first moved here, I was treated to a long lecture about "the South". As much as I can remember, "you'ns" referred to a specific part of a larger group and "y'all" was more or less the entire group. "You'ns can go to lunch now, but the rest of y'all will have to wait until later." However, it's been a while since I've actually heard "you'ns" used so I could be wrong and bow to superior knowledge.

"You'ns" is heard more around Appalachia...I've never heard it from about the midline of Tennessee on down.

Mississippi has some really odd colloquialisms. Any type of convenience store is a "curb store," and that pack of six cheese and peanut butter crackers that you get from a vending machine is a "pack of nabs" (yeah, that threw me off for a bit until I realized that the major company that makes those is Nabisco).

Around here, some people don't ask to be taken to the store (or wherever), they ask is you can carry them there, as in, "Can you carry me to the store before you leave?" And some people don't carry their purchases in a bag, but in a "tote."

In Louisiana, a lagniappe is some small, almost inconsequential gift given to maybe a coworker or a customer...also known as a "little happy."

 

[SeaCat]

LOLOLOL

I'm what's called a Damn Yankee, (No it's not a Damned Yankee.) because I came down here and stayed. That was nine almost ten years ago. It seems I have been assimilated a might since then as my brother in New Jersey has a hard time understanding me. (That isn't a bad thing really.)

The food I eat is an interesting mix of southern and international. (I still don't like Grits, but then again I don't like Cream of Wheat either.)

Country Fried Steak is served in our place roughly once a week. BBQ is a common food here as well. Once a month or so I make a large batch of Gravy and freeze it in portions. (When I say a large batch I'm talking roughly a gallon or so.)

Other foods in my place that are common are Boudain and Anduillie. Chorizo is also used quite often when I can find the Portugeuse Version from Fall River or New Bedford.

I open doors for people all the time no matter if they want me to or not. (My wife never has to open a door when I'm around, then again this is how I was raised.)

All of that being said Southern Florida isn't really the south. It's a mix of New York, Cuba and Haiti with a salting of pretentions.

Cat

 

[cloudy]

Those Yankees spread all sorts of malicious propaganda, Jen, bless their little hearts, but don't be too put off by it.

I've noticed that most of the gleeful stereotyping is done by people who've never set foot south of the Mason-Dixon line, and believe everything they see in movies (no, when you go down a river, you won't see some squinty-eyed, inbred kid playing a banjo, I promise). It makes them feel better about themselves, I suppose, but like I said earlier: we're not laughing with them; we're laughing at them.

The accent is changing rapidly here

It may be changing up your way, since I think your area is populated a little more densely than ours is, but here? I only hear that nice, smooth, whiskey Alabama drawl...unless, of course, the person speaking is one of those that only comes to town every six months for copper tubing and yeast.

Besides, believe it or not, we have pop and imported beer. Harris Teeter even has celery tonic and cream soda.

"Pop"????? What the hell is pop?

We only have coke here, in any flavor you want.

 

[Edward Teach]

I've noticed that most of the gleeful stereotyping is done by people who've never set foot south of the Mason-Dixon line, and believe everything they see in movies (no, when you go down a river, you won't see some squinty-eyed, inbred kid playing a banjo, I promise). It makes them feel better about themselves, I suppose, but like I said earlier: we're not laughing with them; we're laughing at them.

It may be changing up your way, since I think your area is populated a little more densely than ours is, but here? I only hear that nice, smooth, whiskey Alabama drawl...unless, of course, the person speaking is one of those that only comes to town every six months for copper tubing and yeast.

"Pop"????? What the hell is pop?

We only have coke here, in any flavor you want.

Copper tubing and yeast? Must be a plumber who bakes a lot of biscuits.

Pop? I was just trying to put Jen's mind at ease...let her know we can speak nowthun if need be.