Soon after I arrived home from the hospital Friday afternoon my mom, my sister Regina, and my niece Danille arrived after their long drive from Missouri to stay with me a few days. They'd been planning to come down and help take care of me as I recovered from my surgery. I spoke to Mom a few days before my surgery and she was in the middle of canning jellies, pickles, and was hoping to get some apple butter made before the trip so she could bring me some treats. Yum! My mom is the BEST cook!!! She specializes in southern foods, especially those foods which we like to call "comfort foods." Her homemade chicken and noodles is to die for!!!
I have never liked pickes. Can't. Stand. Them. She makes a version of pickles that even I like. They're called cinnamon pickles. They're made from the cucumbers that are too large really and have too many seeds to make good pickles from. I'm not sure how they're made except that lots of red hots are used. They are so sweet, cinnamon-tasting and so good!
Cinnamon Pickles:
She brought me 3 jars of elderberry jelly. I don't even know what an elderberry is. She and Grandma always made elderberry jelly and it's my favorite jelly. I've never seen it in stores and people from places other than the Ozarks have seldom even heard of the stuff. I'm not a huge fan of jelly anyway unless it's grape...or of course elderberry.
She also found the time to make apple butter from apples off my grandpa's farm. I knew she was bringing me the jelly and pickles but the apple butter was a surprise. She wasn't sure she'd get it made before time to leave for Texas.
Now I'm hoping I'll feel up to making some biscuits very soon!!!
