Mama could put a new dress on leftover food and make you think we had a banquet. Greens, beans, peas, collards. The vacant lot next door to us was fenced and we kept a cow there. We churned butter and Mama used to make extra money making butter from extra milk. There’s nothing any better than a six-week-old chicken fried. I still have her rolling pin and cookie cutter. Last Christmas, I cut out sugar cookies using Mama’s cutter and rolling pin. Granddaddy used to make syrup, Mama cooked grits with butter. She cut the congealed grits into strips and fried it as breakfast food. She poured milk on biscuits and mixed them with extra batter and made griddlecakes. She let me help when I was young but I was probably more trouble than help.
