Fried Green Tomatoes.. I think.

I love baking and cooking, I am always making muffins or cookies for friends, family. I have a freezer stocked full of scrumptious muffins, cookies, or fritters. When anybody comes to my very tiny cramped apartment, they always leave with a goody bag stuffed to the gills with pastries, or pies. I am a self-taught baker and cook, I never went to a fancy cooking school. I have a binder stuffed full of recipes that I have collected from books, cooking magazines, or from family friends. Through a lot of trial and error.. lots of errors I became the amazing cook I am today. Not to brag, but I am a superstar baker. I can bake anything. I am most famous for my cookies. I also like to experiment with flavors and foods like lavender-blueberry cupcakes with a passion fruit icing . Have a friend who is gluten-free, and wants a birthday cake, no problem I have a recipe for that. A co-worker who is vegan, and really likes cupcakes, no problem. It is now the holiday season and I have a stack of recipes ready to go. I have already made vanilla cupcakes, and peanut butter muffins. I left them out this morning and already most of them are gone! (Yes, I am that good of a baker!)

The most legendary cook and baker in my family is my nana, my great-grandmother. My dad says that her and I are lot alike, we love to bake and cook. Dad also thinks, I inherited my "baker's gene" from her. I wish I could have met her, I would have loved to be in her kitchen chit-chatting away about this and that, and making cookies. I would of course exchange recipes, especially for her coveted fried green tomato batter.

My dad loves talking about and telling stories of his nana, my great-grandmother. When my dad was born, his mother was deemed an "unfit" mother, so nana raised him for the first few years of his life. Nana was the best cook and baker, the undoubted "queen of the kitchen". Everything she cooked was amazing and so good. She never wrote any of her recipes down, and most were passed down from mother to daughter.

He says that one of his fondest memories was when he was four-years-old and they were making her famous gingersnaps. Nana had to leave the kitchen to grab her shawl,(It was quite a cold kitchen) while she was gone my father went to the counter, went to the bowl and started eating the raw cookie dough. When nana came back, he was sitting in his chair looking very innocent, but his hands were all sticky from the dough. She said that the kitchen fairy must of stopped by her kitchen, and tasted the dough and really must of loved it since most of it was gone. My father of course got a really bad stomach ache. Nana was there of course, with a hot cup of homemade ginger tea, the perfect solution for a sick tummy.

When nana was a teenager, her family moved to the deep south. Dad said that a very nice elderly southern woman lived next door to her. The two went to the same church, and became friends. Dad said that he taught her all kinds of southern foods from hushpuppies to fried green tomatoes. Also how to properly cook collared greens.

Nana didn't have any daughters, and as soon as my father was old enough, he was in the kitchen with nana, learning her "trade secrets". Dad spent a lot of time in her kitchen as a teenager. Nana never wrote her recipes down, but taught my dad everything. Of course, eventually dad wrote them all down. Her baking and cooking is legendary. My mom has tried to duplicate her gingersnaps and mashed potatoes but nothing can come close to nana's. Nana was good at baking but her signature dish wasn't a baked good but homemade hushpuppies and fried green tomatoes.

One day, she taught my dad had to make hushpuppies and fried green tomatoes by scratch, none of the from the box junk. Which brings us to today, a humid summer day. We have a surplus of tomatoes. We originally planted one tomato plant in our front yard. We have this dry heat, but our tomatoes really like it, and really bloomed this year. I pluck a few green tomatoes and head inside. It is my first time making fried green tomatoes and hushpuppies, I am a bit nervous. Nana's fried green tomatoes and hushpuppies are legendary.

First up, the hush puppies. My dad like nana, doesn't used a recipe but still remembers her recipe even after so many years. I mix the spices, and try not to cry when I cut the onion. Then my favorite part, frying the dough. The smell is so wonderful, and I only burn a few... dozen. Luckily, we had extra batter. Then the fried green tomatoes. He tells me about the first time cooking these with his nana, and they were nicely burned and crispy.

So far so good, the tomatoes are perfectly sliced. I then fry then up, but I forgot to add the batter! So plain fried green tomatoes. I then dipped them in the batter to much. I figured that they would be perfectly fine. I left them on too long, and they became burned green tomatoes, instead of fried green tomatoes.

Luckily, we have lots of green tomatoes in our front yard. I have moved away, but I still call my dad up to ask him about the exact recipe for hushpuppies and fried green tomatoes. I am always tempted to use a box recipe, but I don't since nana's recipe is a million times better.

Guess what! I get to make her famous gingersnap cookies next week. I hope I resist eating the batter, of course I might sneak a few morsels when my dad isn't looking. I also plan to blame it on the kitchen fairy.