A Mom's Year

Well, we’re still in the South, figuratively speaking. We love it so much it’s hard to leave. The history, the literature, the geography, the food. Oh, the food! Has any other region of the United States produced so much soul-satisfying, nap-inducing food as the South? Pecan pies, biscuits, cornbread, shrimp and grits, hush puppies, fried chicken, the list goes on and on.

It’s hard to choose just one or two things to cook this week, but when I narrow the list down to food that has meaning, or is at least something I’ve always wanted to try, it gets a little easier. The Philadelphia Cheese Steak Sandwiches were the former because they remind me of visits to Tim’s Pennsylvania relatives, while the Maine Whoopie Pies were the latter—something I’ve always wanted to make.

I happily scoured through websites and cookbooks (including the one sent by my Georgia hermana for my birthday one year called Cookin’ Yankees Ain’t Et, Ol’ Plantation and Mountain Recipes) for ideas. And then I saw it: Benne Seed Wafers.

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The next stop on our USA tour is the mid-Atlantic region. This area is close to our hearts because it’s where Tim’s dad (“Papaw”) and many of our friends and family live. I fell in love with D.C. while visiting a friend during spring break my junior year. I remember walking down Embassy Row and deciding then and there that this is where I needed to be. So I got an internship, followed by a job, at Special Olympics International and enjoyed four of the best years of my life. And I got Tim as a bonus.

There’s far too much to cover in one day, of course, but we talked about some basics (see below) and took a vote on what regional delicacy we wanted to make. We narrowed it down to crab cakes, shoo-fly pie, New York cheesecake, or Philly cheese steak sandwiches. The winner was Philly cheese steak sandwiches, so I did a little research to find an authentic version I could try to replicate at home.

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This week we’re exploring the USA and our first stop is New England. Since I always like to start with food, a quick search revealed that the region is known for brown bread, baked beans, clam chowder, lobster, and apple pie. These all seemed promising, but then I read that whoopie pies are the official state treat of Maine and that was that.

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