A Jubilee Experience

April 9, 2021

Hallelujah! After spending most of a year locked down and masked up, the Cookbook Club is fully vaccinated, which means a celebration, or “Jubilee”. We chose Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cooking by Toni Tipton-Martin as we celebrated spring and our friendship.

Dee was the hostess, and we took advantage of great weather to have a cocktail in the back yard. She made the Planter’s Punch, which did actually pack quite a punch, but was very good!

I love Laura’s t-shirt from Reverie Apparel

While we were outside drinking, Dee was inside prepping the main dish.

We started with the Wilted Mixed Greens with Bacon complements of Laura – it is a salad you will dream of having over and over! The dressing, the bacon, the blue cheese – all of it together makes a scrumptious salad. You can find the recipe here: https://www.thekitchn.com/jubilees-wilted-mixed-greens-with-bacon-22995449

Our main dish was Pork Chops with Rich Caper-Lemon Sauce, which was made by Dee. It was so good. I’m not very good at cooking pork chops – I usually overcook them and they turn out very dry. These were perfectly cooked, which can be hard to do when you are cooking for a dinner party. The recipe can be found here: https://palatablepastime.com/2019/11/08/pork-chops-caper-lemon-sauce/

We had some delicious side dishes! Nancy made the Sweetened Potato Rolls (notice how she selected the “Sweet” recipe) and the Black-Eyed Peas and Rice; Laura made the Maque Choux (Fried Corn with Green Peppers). I could have made a meal on the sides alone! Recipes are here: Sweetened Potato Rolls – https://www.austin360.com/foodanddining/20191118/jubileersquo-writes-new-narrative-about-black-food-in-america; Black-Eyed Peas and Rice – https://www.shondaland.com/inspire/books/a30141244/toni-tipton-martin-interview/; Maque Choux – https://buzzfixtoday.com/maque-choux-for-corn-season/