My first attempt (but not the last) at making Barbecue Sauce from scratch...

With my Mrs. Wilkes fascination and decision to cook my way thru her cookbook, I did a search for her on Amazon and found that there are quite a few cookbooks that have been published prior to the one that I am working out of.  Her original cookbook dates back to 1976.  I found one for sale on eBay and was the happy winner with a $35.00 bid.  Here's a photo of my prize and it is not the first edition (I shutter at what that would have cost) but the second edition.

I also ordered on Amazon the last cookbook that Mrs Wilkes was involved in prior to her death in 2002.  This cookbook was published in 2001 and includes an entire history of her boardinghouse and dining room days.  I spent $19.79 (discounted from $30.00) on this edition.  Here's a photo of that hard back book:

Isn't she a cute little old lady?  Finally, I wanted to share the cookbook that I purchased while I dined in her dining room.  This was published this year and Tom paid $15.95 for it and it resembles her original cookbook of the same recipes but the articles about the dining room have been updated so the story continues after Mrs. Wilkes passing.  Actually this year was huge for the Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room as the President of the United States Barack Obama dined at her place on a visit to Savannah.  That says a lot that the President would select her place over Paula Deen's.  Many folks give credit to Paula Deen for giving so much attention to Savannah and the tourists (including myself) show up to dine at her restaurant.  But I agreed with many others who had given a review of The Lady and Sons.  It was not worth the price or the hype.  Mrs Wilkes Dining Room food, experience and price blew Paula Deen away.  Here's a photo of the cookbook that I am working thru:

I posted yesterday an email to the great-grandson of Mrs. Willkes, Ryon to ask for help on the recipes as there seems to be typos and missing directions in the cookbook I am working through.  Well when I sat down yesterday and compared the cookbooks and the recipes in each of them my thoughts were validated.  The cookbook dated 2001 had different instructions and modified ingredients than the first and last book.  So I decided yesterday that I am going to use the recipe out of the 2001 book if it I have it there versus the 2010 version.  I think this book was proofed and edited and therefore there's more instruction and back story to the recipes itself.  So before this entry gets completely out of control.....Lets talk about what went down in my kitchen yesterday.

I decided to work on three recipes yesterday and they are:  Please note, that I forgot to take a photo of the corn pudding myself but Cheryl got a photo of it and is sending me later and I'll post when she does....

Brunswick Stew
Barbecue Sauce
Corn Pudding



Have you ever made Barbecue Sauce from scratch before?  Well I had my first (and not the last) experience making it yesterday.  It is really easy to make and you couple that with the taste and I sit and wonder why folks would go and buy it in a bottle?  It takes only 15 minutes to make from start to finish and the recipe makes 6 cups of sauce which of course will be used in other recipes in the book.  If you don't know how to make barbecue sauce, you cook it on the stove and this version is vinegar based.  I just had to pull out the ingredients and the only work was juicing my three lemons.  Really easy with the Pampered Chef juicer!

I had to make the barbecue sauce first because it is an ingredient in my next recipe, Brunswick Stew.  This stew is pretty famous in Georgia.  It is like barbecue vegetable soup with pork or chicken as the meat, and potatoes and corn as the veggies.  This is also an easy recipe to put together.  It called for the pork to be cooked and chopped and also the potatoes to be cooked and then everything assembled and cooked at low temperature.  That is what I did and I put it all in a crock pot and turned it on low to heat up.

Finally, I had to make Corn Pudding to complete my recipes for the day.  This recipe was the most modified from the 2010 cookbook.  Again, I used the recipe from the 2001 cookbook and it turned out great!  This is also really easy to make and it is a different spin on just opening a can of corn and serving it as a side.  I mixed the dry ingredients into the corn and then added beaten eggs and milk, pour into a butter greased pan and bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

Now for the taste testing and I had an entire group of folks able to sample the days work.  We had plans to have a Swiss Steak dinner at Tom's Mom's home because Greg and Cheryl were in town for the weekend.  Diane (Tom's Mom) asked me to make a Taffy Apple Pizza for dessert and bring.  I did that and I also took over the Corn Pudding and Brunswick Stew to share and get an opinon.

Once I set out the corn pudding and a serving was taken out, that is when I realized that I didn't have a photo of it.  So I went to get my phone and realized I left it at my house.  Cherly let me use her camera to capture the corn, but it will be a couple of days before I can post the photo.  The corn casserole was completely gobbled up.  It was delicious.  Not too sweet and the texture was nice.  It passed the Olivia test.  She's two years old and typical two year old picky.  She ate all her corn!  Proof positive in southern cooking with her approval!

The Brunswick Stew was loved by all who enjoy barbecue.  This stew wasn't for everyone.  I think a couple of the family members were surprised it had a barbecue flavor versus tomato based.  Tom loved it and said the only better version was the version he had at The Pink Pig on our trip.  He didn't want me to take it over to the family as he wanted to keep it all to himself.  Fortunately, there was leftovers for him to eat later.