Chicken Baked with Sage and Bacon
Posted by: dolcedebbie in MyBlog on Dec 10, 2009
Chicken Baked with Sage and Bacon
While recording some of our family favorites for my upcoming cookbook, I’m reminded of the most important ingredients found in all my dishes, love and passion.
I’ve been blessed to have grown up in a generation that experienced true family dinners. As a girl growing up in the south, it never occurred to me that everyone didn’t go to their grandmother’s home on Sunday to have dinner with the entire family, which always meant eating with a minimum of 15 people. Not that it was always a pie in the sky kind of experience…come on people it was real, June Cleaver wasn’t there. OK, so I’m going to date myself here, but it was a time without cell phones, game boys, or computers, so there was actually interaction with real people at the table with you!
Oh the smells that would greet you as you pulled into the driveway, a chicken that had been roasting for hours, okra or green tomatoes being fried, green beans that have been cooking in bacon. As soon as you walked in you were assigned a job and it was anybody’s guess as to what it would be for that day. Maybe it was going out to the garden to pick the fresh vegetables for the salad, peeling potatoes for the mashed potatoes, or maybe turning the crank on the machine for homemade ice cream.
As everyone gathered around the table (all 15 of us - and yes there were tables to accommodate this), the “games” began. Of course everyone talked at the same time, so you had a choice of topics. There were as many conversations as there were people but the one thing in common was their love and passion for the food served and the time spent together.
Family dinners are an art which seem to have been dropped along the wayside with the ever evolving hectic techno savvy world. Don’t get me wrong, I think that there are amazing advancements that help keep our world connected…But perhaps we should try one day a week, I prefer Sundays, where television, computers, game boys, cellular phones, PDA’s, are not allowed. Try it - it’s amazing what you will discover about yourself and your family. Here is one of our favorite recipes from those family dinners that has been handed down for three generations. Click here to see my Chicken Baked with Sage and Bacon.