Recipes for Kids

When I was a little, I used to visit my grandfather’s hometown in Edgecombe County, North Carolina. He filled my head with tales of how things were done when he was a boy. One of my favorites was his story of the making of Brunswick stew. As I nestled into the musty back seat of my aunt’s huge black Packard car, he would begin the tale. We would rove through the miles and miles of dusty tobacco fields, the tall yellowing plants surging up on either side of the road, and he would drone on. The more he talked, the hungrier I got.

When you think of how available most foods are to us today, it can sometimes lead you to wonder how our pioneer ancestors could have survived. With no refrigeration and few (or no) grocery stores close by, they had to rely on common sense, imagination, and the land around them for most of their daily menu. It might be fun sometime to pretend backward into history, and try the diets of several of our forefathers. Depending on the section of this country that you would like to visit, and the time in history, you could come up with meals ranging from the blandest to the most delicious. Why not plan a historic supper for your family? Have an adult help you build a campfire, and then follow the recipes below. Read the explanatory notes for each one. These notes will tell you the reasoning’s for the seasonings. (All of these recipes are adaptable to oven or stovetop cooking. You will need an adult to help you with them either way, but that’s a big part of the fun.)

Baked pocket yams

These were “handy” during the winter months, and not particular to any one area of the country.

Take several sweet potatoes, individually wrap them in foil, and surround them on all sides with mounded hot coals. Occasionally turn the potatoes. Cook till the sweet steam pipes out of the foil (about 45 minutes). Poke into the potato with a clean sharpened twig to check for doneness (the center will be soft).

When the potatoes are done, don’t eat them yet. Let them cool a bit, and then slip one into each pocket to be used as hand warmers. These will keep you comfortable while you chat around the campfire. Pioneer mothers used to send their children off with these in the winter months to keep their hands toasty on the long walk to school. Then the kids would eat them for lunch. When you eat yours, you might want to use a dish and slather them up with butter.

HOE cakes

Put a pot of water on the stove to boil. Mix corn meal and salt in a large bowl. Slowly add boiling water 'til the batter becomes mushy but not stiff. Let this sit while you heat up some shortening in a skillet. When the shortening is hot but not smoking, drop several heaping tablespoons of the corn meal mixture into the pan.

Keep the corn “cakes” separate so they don’t run together. Turn down the heat a little, then flip them over and cook the other side. They should be flat and crispy golden brown. That’s it.

These are called HOE cakes because they were originally cooked over a fire on the flat part of a garden hoe. They are basically an African-American invention and are like those potato chips . . . you can’t eat just one—especially if you drip butter on top. ENJOY.