Low country supper

Hey y'all!

    Boy am I hungry! I like to try to fix at least one authentic low country supper a month, sometimes more if I have the time. Tonight we were craving my grandma Betty's stewed tomatoes and grits, so we fixed grits, stewed tomatoes we had canned from our garden last summer, biscuits, and I had so many cucumbers coming in from our garden, I decided to fix cucumber salad, and I am soooo ready to eat!!

Now, I know a lot of you are probably saying, but wait, stewed tomatoes have been around forever, your grandma didn't come up with that! But in my book she did! Ever since I can remember, my mama has fixed stewed tomatoes, and usually rice, but tonight we wanted grits, and talked about how grandma used to always make it, and it was so good, and so comforting, it was like a great big hug at the end of a hard day!
It's kind of a poor mans supper I guess. Most of the time we either have crab cakes or salmon patties with it, which is what my grandma fixed.
  Let me tell ya a little about my grandma. Her name was Betty , and she was one of 11 other children. They were all born and raised in Savannah, GA. Their daddy was a shrimper and had his own shrimp boat ( which he also made moonshine on, shhh). The Jackson women ( my grandma and her sisters) are a dying breed, as my uncle was said. And my grandma was force of nature! When she threw a fit, they called a B.C. short for  a Betty Catherine. She once pushed a refrigerator,  food and all across the kitchen and out the back door, because my grandpa told her she couldn't have a new one! And my mama always talks about what a great cook she was, and stewed tomatoes was one her specialties.
   So, I thought of an idea today while we were cooking. I am going to fix one low country meal a month, I mean  a real, authentic low country meal, and I will share it on my blog. I am still learning from my mama, and we come from a long line of southern, low country cooks. Every person in my family on both sides, settled in either, GA, or SC, in the 16 and 1700's and raised their families. So we have very deep roots there. Oh, and I am gonna try to make some Benne waffers, so if they turn out, I will share which recipe I used, because there are so many! The one I am gonna try is from a cook book my mama has, it's called Charleston Receipts, so we shall see! I hope they turn out, because I LOVE some benne waffers!

   I don't really have a real recipe, since my mama learned from her mama, and we just kinda eye ball everything. To fix stewed tomatoes, you chop half an onion, a green pepper if you want one, a clove of garlic and some bacon, and let them saute in a skillet. You don't have to use bacon, ham would be fine. When that gets brown, you add a can of crushed tomatoes, juice and all and cook it on medium heat, and add salt, pepper, any kind of seasoning you want, and after that you just cook it until it thickens. And you could fix rice, mashed potatoes, or grits to go with it.
 And for the cucumber salad, slice a couple of cucumbers, add 1/2 cup of mayo, 1/4 cup of sour cream, or butter milk, 1 teaspoon of  vinegar, and how ever much salt and pepper you prefer, like I said we kind of eye balled it, sorry!

  So if you make it, I hope you enjoy it, it's really good on a rainy day!! God Bless!

 Most people lick cake batter off of spoons, I lick the grits!!