Kathryn Tucker Windham
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Mushroom Soup and Other Indispensable Ingredients

3/20/2017

10 Comments

 
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(Unless otherwise noted, the Kathryn Tucker Windham blog is written by her children, Ben Windham and Dilcy Windham Hilley.)

Though Mother was the author of several cookbooks, she never taught any of us to cook. She had her hands full as a widowed working mother raising three children, so there just wasn’t time.


Like many of our mothers during that era of convenience cooking, my mother liked to use condensed mushroom soup to fancy up a recipe. Lowly chicken thighs---which, in my grandmother’s house, were politely called “second joints” ----were miraculously converted into fine cuisine with the simple addition of a can of mushroom soup.


When I graduated from college, I needed to know how to cook something, anything, that was guest-worthy. Visiting Mother in Selma one weekend, I told her I needed a simple recipe that was failproof. She reached for her reporter’s notebook and wrote detailed instructions for Butterbean Casserole.


My favorite part of the recipe, besides the fact that it’s in her handwriting, is the encouraging little note at the end.


Maybe I’ll make some tonight….




10 Comments
Mike
3/20/2017 02:29:21 pm

Can't wait to try this! Thanks for sharing this with us Dilcy!

Reply
Dilcy
3/20/2017 09:07:45 pm

Good luck, Mike!

Reply
Carol Adams Ralph
3/20/2017 04:16:52 pm

I have many recipes so similar to this one in my mother's handwriting! She used the term "oleo" also, and relied on mushroom soup like a crutch. One day, maybe I'll let David have them.

Reply
Dilcy
3/20/2017 09:07:36 pm

Oh, share them with David, Carol!

Reply
Kim Graham Smith
3/20/2017 07:47:42 pm

... garnish with onion rings (canned). Always a staple in our cupboard growing up. Adding this butterbean recipe to my mother's collection!

Reply
Dilcy
3/20/2017 09:09:12 pm

Canned everything, Kim! Kind of like someone's Dump Cake....

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Peg Farmer
3/21/2017 03:25:19 pm

Love anything shared about Ms Windom. Went to the first celebration at the college. It was great. Thank you for all you do to keep her name out there so that we will never forget.

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Dilcy
3/22/2017 02:56:28 pm

Thank YOU for coming along for the ride, Peg, and for your sweet words about Mother.

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Amy Hudson
3/21/2017 08:56:24 pm

Oleo. My mother used that word. I miss that woman.... Ila Haddock May!

Reply
Dilcy
3/22/2017 02:57:05 pm

Mamma are the most missed people in the universe....

Reply



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"Some people are important to intellectuals, journalists, or politicians, but Kathryn Tucker Windham is probably the only person I know in Alabama who is important to everybody."      

​–
Wayne Flynt, Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at Auburn University. 
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​Dilcy Windham Hilley
Email:
dilcywindham@gmail.com

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  • Home
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