Coffee Milk

Being born and raised in Louisiana, I can honestly say that I definitely had a unique childhood. When I relay my memories to Tom (a Yankee) and my children, Jacob & Jessica, I often get strange looks and lots of laughter!

But I do have to say that food is often in my memories. I often think of the food that I used to eat as a child and I feel like I am right back in the Richard household in Cankton, La around the mid 70's! :)

This morning the food that I have on my mind is actually a drink....Coffee Milk!



And for those of you that are thinking café au lait. Coffee milk is not cafe' au lait! The difference in the two drinks is that one is served hot and the other is served warm.

My memory of coffee milk is always the same....breakfast before school. I am the fifth child of six children. So Mildred and Norward, my mom & dad, were always counting their pennies. When my friends were drinking Nestles chocolate milk with their toast, we had to settle for coffee milk. And that coffee milk was always served in a tall, Tupperware glass.



I just recently found out that Coffee Milk is also a favorite drink of Rhode Island natives. Coffee milk is actually considered the Rhode Island state drink. But there drink is actually created with a coffee extract.



Rhode Island may call it there state drink but I will always believe that a Cajun came up with recipe! :)

Coffee Milk
Hot Community Coffee (any brand of coffee with do)
Cold Milk
Sugar

Prepare a pot of strong coffee. Pour coffee half way into a tall glass. Fill up the remainder of the class with milk. Add sugar to taste. Your coffee milk should taste nice and warm!


Café au Lait
1 part Community Coffee (any brand of coffee will do)
1 part hot milk
sugar

Prepare a pot of strong coffee. To heat milk, scald over low heat in a sauce pan just until a thin film forms. Pour equal parts hot scalded milk and hot coffee into a large mug. Add sugar to taste!

The Louisiana Fig

There are many trees that you will find in the Louisiana landscape. Among those would be the Oak, Magnolia, Cypress, Pine, etc. but the tree that I think of most is this one:



The Fig Tree!

If you were a child in my family, summertime meant picking figs. While all of my friends were sleeping late, my mother would wake us up at 5:00AM to go and pick figs. My mother knew nothing of the child labor laws. She would scout out who had the best fig trees and would often get first dibs on the best figs around. We would go to Miss Labbe's (one of my mother's beauty shop customers) and Mr. Eddie Arceneaux (my mother's cousin). They both lived about 2 miles from our house in Bosco!

To prepare for an early morning of fig picking, the first thing that you had to do was dress properly which meant wearing a long, sleeved shirt and jeans. Imagine wearing a long, sleeved shirt in the hot, humid, summer weather of Louisiana. Even at 5:00AM, it was still hot, sticky and very uncomfortable. We would pack up my dad's Dodge pick-up truck with the ladder and buckets then away we went.

My brothers' job (I only remember my brother Troy coming with us) would be to climb the ladder and shake the tree branches so that we (the girls) could pick up the figs that fell to the ground.

If being up at 5:00AM dressed for winter in the middle of the Louisiana summer wasn't bad enough, imagine having to see these hanging in the tree:



The Banana Spider! They are huge and nasty and love to make their home in the fig tree! I would try my best to stay as far away from those creatures as possible.

Our fig picking adventure was usually over by 8:00AM! We would load our buckets and ladder back in the truck and head back home with tons of figs.



My mother would then begin the process of canning figs. This is the end product:



As a child, I didn't understand why it was so important for us to pick figs but now that I am an adult and live away from Louisiana, I understand the importance. I just can't go and buy fig preserves at my local Family Fare grocery store. And if they did sell it, I'm sure that it wouldn't taste like Mildred's (my moma)and would probably cost a fortune.

For those of you who have never heard of fig preserves, it's similar to the inside of a fig newton but better!

Fig preserves are great on biscuits or toast and nothing taste better than a fresh fig cake. My moma's friend Miss Barriel always made the best fig cake. Here is her recipe:

Miss Barriel's Fig Cake

1 Cup Vegetable Oil
2 Cups Sugar
2 Eggs
2 Cups Flour
1/2 t Salt
1 t Cinnamon
1 t Nutmeg
1 t Soda
2 Cups Figs
1 Cup Buttermilk
1 Cup Chopped Pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream vegetable oil and sugar. Add eggs. In another bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients. Add to the oil and sugar mixture alternately with buttermilk. Mix well. Add figs and pecans. Pour into a greased bundt or tube pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

Amish Peanut Butter Church Spread

Growing up in Louisiana, we would always have peanut butter & syrup (Steen's) on bread as a snack. Last year, while visiting Amish Country in Ohio with our friends Rob & Lisa, we had lunch at this Amish restaurant. As you waited for you food, they served fresh, home made bread. Along with butter, there was a container of a peanut butter spread that reminded me of the peanut butter & syrup that I had as a kid. There was a slight difference to it but it was still delicious. I came home, searched the Internet and this is what I found!

Amish Peanut Butter Church Spread
1/2 Cup Peanut Butter (Creamy works best)
1/4 Cup Marshmallow Creme
1 Cup White Karo Syrup

Mix all ingredients together. Store in refrigerator. Bring to room temperature to serve on bread or biscuits!