Goodbye Lie Diaries - Miss Ella's Cheese Toes

Fernandina, Florida
1880s

Miss Ella writes:



Miss Ella

   Mrs. Jane Kalem copied down this delight for me after I told her  how much I enjoyed it Tuesday last at our monthly bunco gathering.  Roll dice, eat, roll dice, eat.  Eating is way more than half the reason we play that game.  Anyway, her Cheese Toes recipe will be perfect for Sunday dinners and holidays. It’s rich and will be so popular with the family since we all love cheese. (Michael actually gives cheese up for Lent!)

 

   I got to thinking how so many of my recipes come from friends and relatives who have tried them and are proud to put their name behind their ingredients.  Oh, and potluck suppers, too.  At church, the orchid society, Aqua Verdi office parties, it is literally a treat to discover new recipes. Some I am able to have our chefs recreate to serve our guests on the passenger line.  I’ve never been one to keep my recipes a secret.  If it’s good, I want to share.  I can hear Peeper saying, “You might be awillin’ ta share, Miss Ella, but Aunt Noreena sure ain’t.  Why, she’s so selfish, she’d rather take it ta her grave than be generous with it.  Acourse, ya won’t find me awantin’ her recipes nor eatin’ anything she’s prepared.  I want ta live ta be one hundred years and it won’t be occourin’ ifn I ingest her rotten chow.”  Or something like that.   All I know is those two rarely miss an opportunity to speak ill of one another.  Hmm. I’m wondering if, unbeknownst to them, they deep down jab at one another because they find it entertaining .  I know we often do, when we can ignore the ugliness of their confrontations and just listen to their silly jousting.
 

Cheese Toes

Potatoes with skins left on, cut in one inch pieces, the size of a big toe, boiled until tender

1/2 cup melted butter  

Salt and pepper

1 cup sour cream

2 -3 cups sharp cheddar cheese

4 strips of  cooked and crumbled bacon

Large baking pan
 

Grease bottom of your pan. Drain boiled potatoes. Spread evenly in pan. Pour butter over potatoes. Lightly salt and pepper. Spread sour cream and sprinkle cheese and bacon evenly.  Bake for 20 minutes in a medium oven until cheese melts. 
 

(Miss Ella is the matriarch of the Dunnigan family in Amelia Island's Goodbye Lie Trilogy.  She is responsible for determining what is served on the ships of the family owned Aqua Verdi passenger line which runs up and down the east coast of the United States in this historical romance series.)

  

Goodbye Lie Diaries - A New One to Peeper

2012
Fernandina Beach, Florida

Jane Marie writes:  I was asked, "What can I do to keep my new kitty from running away from my house?"

Cricket, from Virginia, wrote to me with an old wives' tale that just might work. Put a little bacon grease on the bottom of the kitty's feet. Let the cat out the door and walk down the sidewalk to clean his paws. After you've bandaged where he's clawed you, he'll be ready to follow the scent of the bacon and return home!

***
1880s
Fernandina, Florida    

*Grandmother Pepper writes: Woo-howdie!  That's a new one on me.  Don't think I'll be atryin' that trick any time soon though.  I got me enuf cats. Fact is, I got too many cats.  Hmm. Let me give that some more thinkin'. Yup.  I'll fry me up some bacon tomorra, dip a couple a cats in it and set 'um on Aunt Noreen's doorstep.  I'll be alistenin' for her hollerin' across the yard.  Won't take long! 

*Grandmother Peeper and Aunt Noreen are featured players in my Amelia Island's Goodbye Lie Trilogy. As you might guess, they don't get along- at all!