Dear Diary(The reason why I use this opening is because of my older sister Lucy. She thinks blog writing is a peculiar pastime. She can't understand why someone would want to share their hopes, dreams, and personal angst with the world wide web. For her benefit, I try to start each tale off with dear diary . But like most other things - Sometimes I forget. Here's to you Lucy!)
I was looking through some old pictures and found these of the lovely Sweet Potato Queen. She came out to Arizona in January 2008, all the way from Madison, Mississippi. She was on her book tour. I'm sure you have all heard of her books! My favorite is The Sweet Potato Queen's Big-Ass Cookbook and Financial Planner. (I know this is supposed to be underlined because it is a book title but I don't know how to do it!)
I made Ian's birthday cake using one of the recipe's and it was so good! I almost went into a diabetic seizure.
The first picture is of me giving the Sweet Potato Queen a Palo Verde Gal with a sweet potato on her dress. I had heard she (Jill Conner Browne) liked to get suck up gifts and as I was in the mood a week before she came I decided to make one.
The second picture was a gift I gave her as conversation fodder. I had been to the local Fry's grocery store the day before. Pushing my cart and humming to my self when I spied a side stack of Instant Sweet Potatoes! I let out an audible gasp and touched my right hand to my fore head. (If canned sweet potatoes aren't bad enough!) Since I knew I was going to see the Queen that week I thought I'd buy those for her. I was sure they were not sold east of the Mississippi.
As I suspected, It was a shock to her too. She said her Daddy was probably rolling over in his grave! I totally agreed with her.
Thinking back, I bet Arizona was a test market for those because I haven't seen them since. I do know that no self respecting southerner would ever seriously buy those to bake.
www.sweetpotatoqueens.com is Jill Conner Browne's official website. My sisters have been to the parade and parties in Jackson but I never have been. They had a lot of fun stories to tell when they got back. It's on my list. I'll make it one of these years.
5 comments:
Hi Its nice to read your diary/ blog hehehe ... I enjoyed the sweet potato queen one. I will check out the link as dont know it but then i am English lol. Thanks so much for posting a comment on my blog. I mostly have art blogs but like to share my personal stuff on that one. The building you asked about is directly behind my flat/ apartment and its quite an old building but i dont know how old unfortunately. We live in the grounds of what used to be land that belonged to the nunnery. Nowadays some monks live there but they have only been there two years since the nuns moved out and they donated the land to the monks who were poor. Its a lovely building and in some parts it has stained glass windows. In the photograph i posted on my blog you can see the bell above the roof ? that is rung manually about 6 times each day for prayer meetings. Its lovely.
Anyway i shall go as have rambled on enough :)
Have a lovely day
Hugs June
hey they sell them here in Illinois, but what do yankees know about sweet potatoes!
To S. Belle,
I have some fabulous recipes for fresh sweet potatoes! I fixed some for thanksgiving dinner. They had a stick of butter and a cup of brown sugar and a little milk blended with the fresh cooked sweet potatoes then on top I melted butter and stirred in white sugar and vanilla and pecans to use as the topping. Baked that till warm and bubbly and serve
Just this last summer while visiting my dad in Missouri, in the Ozark mountains, we visited my mom's old one room school house/church which is still a church and now a camp. Below the camp is a bluff over a beautiful clear Ozark creek and in the bluff is a cave we ventured a few feet into - it has been known as Sweet Potato Cave for over a hundred years as the land stayed in the same family for that long and they stored their potatoes and canned goods and other things in the cave to keep cool. The family allowed people to fish from that area so it is a well known spot to the locals. I loved the name so much I almost named my studio after it.
Love the Sweet Potato Gal!
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