Saturday, April 18, 2009

Sunday Dinner, April 19, 2009

I fully intended to have my Sunday Dinner post written and published much earlier this evening, but the weather hasn't been cooperating with my intentions at all.

We've had some thunder and lightning and quite a bit of rain this evening so I unplugged my laptop. Since it's the only functioning computer I've got right now I don't want to take any chances with it getting fried by a lightning strike even though it's plugged into not one, but TWO circuit protector strips.

Just call me paranoid. Or whatever. I know how my luck usually runs.

Anyway, it's quit lightning for the moment and I'm going to try to get this post up before it starts in again.

My Sunday Dinner this week will consist of white beans, (which are simmering on the stove right now) corn on the cob, poke salad with scrambled eggs and a skillet of my HOMEMADE BUTTERMILK CORNBREAD.

I'll refrigerate the beans overnight and warm them up when we get home from church on Sunday afternoon. I'll also scramble the eggs and poke salad and cook the cornbread and corn on the cob while the beans are reheating.

That's the menu here at my place, so what's on the menu for your Sunday Dinner? Share your plans/menu in the comments if you'd like.I've blogged about poke salad HERE and HERE but it was quite a while back so I'm sure many of you may not be familiar with it. Poke is a Spring leafy green that grows wild all over the U.S. but it's mostly gathered and eaten by Southerners in my experience. I and many others like to scramble eggs with their poke salad, as in the photo to the left.

Poke has a mild flavor that many people compare to spinach, but unlike spinach it should always be cooked before eating. It can be toxic if not prepared properly, though it's mostly the more mature stalks, roots and berries that are toxic.

If it's gathered and prepared properly it's delicious and very good for you, and it's also free for the taking from the roadsides and ditch banks and other wild areas. I grew up gathering and eating poke salad and I look forward to at least one good mess of poke every Spring.

My sister Sue's hubby, Charles, gathered the poke I'm cooking for Sunday Dinner, and Sue was kind enough to even wash it for me, so all I had to do was cook it. I wonder if I could bribe them to bring me some more poke? I'd like to put some in the freezer to enjoy later.Continuing with the subject of food but on a different tangent, my church is supposed to have an early breakfast before Sunday School in the morning. I'm planning to make a huge pan of HOMEMADE BUTTERMILK BISCUITS to take, which means I'll have to get up really early to get them made, baked and ready to tote on the church van because we're supposed to eat at 8:30 am.It's now 10 pm so I need to get this posted and finish my preparations for tonight, tomorrow morning's biscuits AND Sunday Dinner. I need to be up by 6 am at the latest, and although I'm looking forward to the breakfast, I'm definitely NOT looking forward to the earlier than usual wake up call in the morning.

Y'all have a delightful Sunday. May God meet your needs and may you have enough to share.

27 comments:

Jess said...

I think I'm first! Wow...don't think we will be there for lunch but should see you at church...Hope you have a good night and a good breakfast in the morning.

love you,
Jessica

Mary said...

Diane,

Your Sunday dinner sounds delicious. I have a friend who lives near Paris, Arkansas who also loves Poke Salad. I'm not sure what it is but am hoping to taste it one day. She raves about it.

The Buttermilk biscuits look mouthwatering. I'm sure the people at your church will love them.

Not sure what we are having for Sunday dinner yet. I had planned on a roast, but the element burned out of the oven yesterday, so that is out until we can get it replaced. Maybe just something simple.

Well, it's off to bed for me. Enjoy your Sunday, my friend.
Blessings,
Mary

Susie said...

Hi Diane,
I can well understand your protectiveness toward your laptop given the unsettling weather!
It's just now cooling off a bit, so hopefully the house will cool off enough to sleep.
We'll probably grill tomorrow as it's too hot to cook inside.
Enjoy your church breakfast and I'm so intrigued by the poke salad.
I love spinach salad, so would probably enjoy this too!
xo

kkryno said...

Well; I think that I want to live next door to Susie, since it's too warm already to cook inside! ;)

I don't know what low-cal entre we'll be having with our very LARGE salad. Once again we are on a waist-reduction program. I just wish we could out-source the calories so we could have some of those wonderful biscuits of yours!

Have a beautiful week-end.

Love, Vikki.

Mother Mayhem said...

Cornbread and biscuits. Two of my favorite food groups. LOL.

I've never heard of poke and scrambled eggs. Hm. ;o)

HUGS.

Dawn said...

Well, if that isn't a southern meal, I don't know what is! Sounds very intriguing!

I started feeling really lousy yesterday afternoon - woke up with yet another cold and got achy as the day went by. We're supposed to have chicken and rice for lunch, but Kristen doesn't feel well either. So I'm not sure what's going to happen with them. She needs us to pick up the kiddoes for church, but I don't even know if I'm going. I hate to miss the first service of the revival. I need to be revived!

If you've been by to visit lately, you'll see that we've had very bipolar weather!

Jeanette said...

Gday Diane, Just read your Dinner menu on Facebook. Thought I pop over here and say Hello and let you know your dinner sounds lovely...

Hootin' Anni said...

I never heard of Poke salad. I'm wondering what it looks like in the 'wild' now....will have to Google for it.

Happy Sunday Diane.

Linda said...

I think you were wise to shut down your computer Diane. I learned the hard way that lightning can indeed cause problems!
Your dinner looks and sounds delicious. I could probably make a meal of the cornbread alone!
Have a blessed sunday Diane.

Lib said...

Hi Miz. Diane,
I'll be right there for dinner, and bring my "Kilt Lettuce & Onions" I made.lol Yours sounds ymmy! We had salmon patties, pinto beans, mac& cheese, lettuce & onions, and cornbread.
Hope ya'll have a great week!
Love,Hugs,Blessins',Lib

violetlady said...

I wonder if poke grows in the North. Sometimes I see picking picking something on the sides of roads (not flowers)- could be some other kind of greens, though.

Gigi said...

Yum! Any dinner involving veggies is a good dinner to me!

I hope you enjoyed your breakfast at church this morning...it's so wonderful to break bread with friends!

Aunt Jenny said...

I love poke salad..haven't had it in years though. I love any kind of greens. I have never seen anyone scramble eggs with it. That looks wonderful!!!
I made a big old crockpot full of beef stew today and homemade bisquits and applesauce for dinner. The weather was SO pretty today!

Lucy Stern said...

Hi Diane, Your white beans and cornbread sound wonderful....I'm not so sure about the polk salad with scrambled eggs in it....I like spinach and collards, so the polk might be just fine....

I was supposed to cook a big dinner for Bonnie's birthday today but she wasn't feeling good and decided not to come home form shool...So we had chicken nuggest, mac and cheese and green beans for dinner.

You biscuits sounded so good this morning that I made biscuits for breakfast too....They went with eggs and grits..

Have a great week.

nancy said...

That bean soup looks wonderful! Now they used to call me "Poke Salad Nancy" (there was a song called 'Poke Salad Annie') because when we lived in Kentucky we were surrounded by pasture, woods and fencerows where the pokeweed grew. I gathered and cooked it all through the spring. We were told in those days that you had to "boil it off" once and drain the liquid, then bring it to a simmer in fresh water and cook it for as long as you wanted to. I think this was just an extra precaution, but I always did it that way. I'd love to have me some right now!
Nancy

Carole Burant said...

The closest I've been to poke salad is the song "Poke Salad Annie"! lol I had never even seen what it looked like until you had put pictures of it on a previous post so obviously it's not something we eat around here! Your dinners always sound so delicious and it's no wonder everyone wants to go eat there:-) xoxo

joyce said...

Hello, I am a blog friend with Karen of Karem's Korner. I agree with you when it storms I unplug everything. Your Sunday dinner sounds yummy. Have a great week.

Love and Hugs,
Joyce from Creation In Progress

kansasrose said...

Poke salad sounds yummy. I have never tasted poke. I'm wondering if we have a different word here for the same greens tho. I know some still gather greens here for eating. It looks delicious hon with the eggs tossed in. Hon I have made your biscuits and NOTHIN' I have ever tried compares to YOURS. Commercial, homemade, gourmet, frozen, restaraunts anywhere hon...Diane's are the best homemade biscuits there is. Thanks again dear friend for sharing your wealth of southern hospitality and food with bloggers. You is the real deal hon!

Loveya,
Jen

RennyBA said...

Home made is always best made I think and thanks for sharing yours - my mouth is watering!

I had my dinner in Russia this Sunday - at their Easter Celebration :-)

Barb said...

I wonder how on earth I grew up in the south and never heard of poke salad before you mentioned it here.

I just printed your buttermilk biscuit recipe - I plan to make them soon. Rob will be so surprised! :-)

Nancy said...

Hmmmm....I never had poke salad before, but I do remember my mom fixing leftover boiled potatoes, cubed, with scrambled eggs. We kids loved that!!! I still do! We never grew up with cornbread in the North but I hear of it so much down here. I enjoy it once in awhile but not for every meal. We use dinner rolls instead, I guess. Strange how different areas of the country prepare different foods for meals.

I always unplug my computer and TV whenever a storm blows in, so I don't blame you for unplugging your laptop.

I just burned up a whole sheet of sandwich rolls while I was in here blogging! ha-ha I totally forgot all about them! I can't hear the timer go off in this room with the door shut and the TV on in here. They are a mess and now cooling for the trash! LOL

To be low 80's here this weekend. Imagine you'll have the same there. A great weekend, anyhow!

((( HUGS )))

Dick said...

I remember the song, "Polk Salad Annie" and was aware that there is a real plant by that name but you've given a lot more info than I knew before.

I can't remember what we had for dinner Sunday although I think we ate at home. I know we had pizza at Round Table Pizza for lunch. We are trying to eat at home at least once a day to save a little money.

MightyMom said...

shame on you taking biscuits without taking a big old bowl of sausage gravy to put on em!!

Staci said...

Hi Diane! Come on over to my place; I'm having a giveaway and I'd love for you to sign up!

I get so hungry when I visit you. :)

Dawn said...

Thanks for coming over for a visit today. When I took the big girls home last night after church, Kristen told me that Katie had forgotten herself and took off running to her - I can't wait to see that. I haven't even seen her walk yet - Emma stood up alone last night. They're just taking their time in this milestone - each has 12 teeth, so I think their bodies are working on that instead!

Do you know what the flowers are that I asked about a couple of posts ago?

It's a beautiful day again, so I'm hoping to catch some Vitamin D outside as I try to conquer this ridiculous cold.

Pyjama Diva said...

I had never heard of poke salad until you mentioned it, but I grew up eating some wild stuff, too. I don't know if it grows there, but here we have a weed called lamb's quarters, or sometimes redroot pigweed. You pick it when relatively young and treat it just like spinach. It's actually better than spinach, in my opinion and I love spinach something fierce! It grows here in the city, too, but I won't use it for all of the obvious reasons. Things are a tad cleaner in the country than on vacant lots and in back lanes in the city!!

Hard to believe that this week is almost gone already. Hope you've had a good one and I'll look forward to your new post tomorrow.

xxoo

Minx's Den said...

I like your new profile picture, you look so beautiful and so wise! sorry I haven't written in a while, I have been so busy lately, but I never forget about you and your family...I hope your spring is fragrant and treats you well! Love ya!

love,
Lauren