En.Citatepedia^®.ro

My Collard Green Romance

At one time...
One would have to beg grocers
To get collard greens in their stores.
Now the major food chains,
Have them propped up like kings and queens...
Among the lettuce, cabbage and corn!
They have obtained such notoriety today,
You have to have patience when someone
Grabs the last bundle.
And that person would not have admitted,
A leaf of a collard green bush in their neighborhood!
I saw these times coming.
'Cleo' didn't have the market on this!

When I finally can find Collard Greens...
Stocked like precious gems near the avacados.
I go to the suburbs.
Pig feet, chitlins', hamhocks, snouts and hoofs,
Are there!
Like it's a Negro Christmas going on!
Or...
Someone's been passing around my grandma's recipes!

When I cook my Collard Greens...
I season the water with dashes of salt, pepper
And garlic powder.
I slice one vadalia onion and a small potato.
I add three teaspoons of apple cider vinegar,
One teaspoon of lemon juice.
Two tablespoons of Olive Oil...virgin!
Cover and bring this crap to a boil.

Fill kitchen sink for the Collard Green bath.
This is where the true romance begins!
With baking powder, salt and celery seasoning...
Gently lift your Collard Greens and place them,
Stalk first into the warm and inviting water!
Rub each leaf between your hands under the water.
And while you are there...
Alone with your Collard Greens,
Glad you did not have to go to battle to get them.
You rinse them and begin to slice their leaves,
Grabbing them into a bunch...
And placing those cut leaves in a bowl.
When this task is done,
Put those greens in a pot that, hopefully...
Smells like an exotic preparation for royalty!

Turn down that boiled heat...under the pot!
To medium cook...
And let them do so for about 45mins to an hour.
Never rush cooking Collard Greens.

Oh...
When I want my Collard Greens,
To taste better than any on the scene!
I use baby smoked turkey butts.
In the boiled prepped water,
With the other sizzling seasons!
Any turkey butt will do...
But those baby butted turkeys,
Make gobbling up Collard Greens so delicious.

Enjoy!

poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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I'm good in the kitchen. I can cook seafood, collard greens, black-eyed peas.

quote by Monique Coleman
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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There Is A Rooster On The Roof

Someone said,
Chickens will come home to roost.
And there is a rooster on the roof,
With binoculars laughing.

'I want some scrambled eggs made,
With toast and marmalade.'

Someone said,
He was too young to fish.
But with them he went fishing,
And came back with all the fish.

'Clean it and fry it up with wild rice.
Cook some collard greens,
And that will be real nice.'

Someone said a failure will be seen.
But they are not the ones,
Eating fish and greens.

And there's a rooster on the roof,
Croaking for chickens to lay their eggs.
And the young fisherman,
Bathes in accolades!

poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Grateful for Traditions

Thick the gravy made did sit.
With turkey giblets tempting,
The licking of awaiting lips.

Dressing prepared,
Next to a glazed honeyed ham.
With collard greens smelling good,
As the potato salad nestled close
To chit'lins and delicious candied yams.

Pumpkin, apple and sweet potato pies...
Filled the air with anticipation,
As the black-eyed peas and rice
Were passed by!

Heads are bowed in prayer...
Giving thanks for blessings,
And grateful for traditions!
Feeding a heritage nurtured well,
When families gather...
For these feasting eating missions!

'Grandma...
Will you tell grandpa to stop talking,
And pass the fried chicken...please! '

poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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C5H8O4NaN

If you have not acquired a taste for Chinese food?
That's perfectly okay!
I haven't strayed too far away from a piece
of fried chicken with a side order of collard greens...
Every now and then!
It was almost a 'sin' not to when I was a kid growing up!
It was an 'accepted' tradition!
When my grandmother would 'make' us eat
Her delicious treats!
'I never understood that at all!
Weren't we suppose to hate,
What she would make
Us eat? ? '
Back then?

I will say this...
You may ying and yang all you wish,
To mock those Chinese dishes.
But a recommended taste for Chinese dialogue,
May boost your future's outlook...
As well as your diet!
With or without C5H8O4NaN...
Monosodium glutamate.
As well as an enhanced appreciation for the culture!
It always helps to be somewhat prepared!
And substitutions for salt...
To add flavor,
Is available!
No greasy fatback is used in their recipes!
Most of them are steamed.

poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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Suggestive Modifications

Suggestive modifications,
Seldom reflect a credible ability.
Selected suggestive modifications,
Has a lot to do with the picking and choosing...
That which best represents one's taste!
And one's identity to that frame of mind,
Others too find suitable with a limiting done...
To one's own comfort zone.

'What are you saying? '

Am I not the only one eating collard greens?

'Don't be silly.
Of course you are.
No one else brought them.
And the way you are eating them,
No one has a chance to taste...
How delicious they are.'

I know.
And I am not here to see them wasted.
Passed to me the hot sauce.

poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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Nutritious

That banana cake taste,
Grandma use to bake.
And was loved?
Is gone with the deep dish apple pie.

That smothered blade steak.
Served with black eye peas,
Collard greens and candied yams.
Sometimes with peach cobbler,
With rich vanilla icecream.
That too,
Locks in memories.

Those golden brown biscuits,
Fresh from the oven.
Buttered.
And topped with homemade,
Strawberry jam.
Or that cornbread no one can resist.
That too...
Is gone with the deep dish apple pie.

And today...
As grateful as I am,
To witness the arrival...
Of another Thanksgiving Day to celebrate.
I've never seen so many butts and thighs so wide.
And none of us who ate at grandma's,
Waddled from the table.
No matter what we ate.
Or nibbled all day...
On the honeyed ham,
Turkey sandwiches, potato salad...
Turnips.
Or just to sit to sip on eggnog.
None of us who ate at grandma's,
Waddled from the table.
Or stretched spandex!

Maybe fast food is fast!
But it sure is not nutritious.
Forget delicious.
It's just addictive and quick.
That's it!
And when we ate at grandma's...
We knew something whipped up with love,
Was coming out of the kitchen.
And not to sit too long,
Waiting for a decision made to eat.

And none of us,
Who came to eat to leave...
Did a waddle from the table.
Or stretched spandex!

'Why didn't you mention,
My fried chicken? '

I didn't even get a piece, grandma!

'Next time,
Eat!
And stop running your mouth so much.'

poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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If You Want to Keep Your Peace Secured

I've been in one spot for twenty one years.
Mended from several heartbreaks.
And dried my own tears.
I know I've lost my mind...
At least a few times or more.
And the few people I knew had little to say.
Or bothered to knock on my opened door.

And today! TODAY...I get visitors.
Who claim to be my friends.
But I also know this much too well...
Folks only come around,
When they are near a dead end...
With no money to spend!
So I sat listening to 'them' ask...
'How have you been? '
And when I said I was doing great...
I was given from them big fake grins!
And I offered to them my hand and said...
'I'm so glad ya'll came by!
I need a loaf of bread.'

They quickly got up and left!
And that is how I have managed,
To keep my peace of mind.
Especially in a place...
Like this hometown of mine!

I can't wait for that fresh gossip,
To go around a few times!
And...
If you,
Any of you
Want to keep your peace secured...
Tell folks you ain't got a dime!
That will do it!

Unless...
You just happen to be cooking,
Collard greens with fried chicken wings.
Potato salad and yams,
WITH ice tea?
Unexpectedly?
You 'then' have folks,
You can't get rid of fast enough!

poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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Green

Green leaves of summer
Shades of green in moss and
Lichens sticking to stones and tree
Barks and some greens on twigs
And branches, some greenish
Patches growing on pavements
And even on walls and fences,
Some greens in mangoes and
Rainbows, some greens in shirts
And eyeshades of a woman,

But what I want to really say
Is the green in your eyes,

So green with envy, and now
Turning red to unreasonable anger,

How can you ever change?

poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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The Greens Of These Trees These Leaves

THE GREENS OF THESE TREES THESE LEAVES

The greens of these trees these leaves
The many shades of green-
Olive green and deep dark green and yellow green
And greens I see but have no name for-
So many shades of light and beauty in green
And I with my eyes loving them all
And delighted and made happy by them all-

Wondering why and how God's world
Has so so much Beauty
Just in green alone -
And being deep in happiness
At being alive
And loving them more
In regretting why and how
I will not one day soon
be able to see them again.

poem by Shalom Freedman
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The Day America Died

i am the old farm house,
the iron skillet, and the well.
the mule and the plow,
and momma's family Bible.
i am the single shot.22,
squirrel dumplings,
and strawberry pie.
i am collard greens,
pintos, and cornbread.
i am the field plowed,
wood cut and stacked.
jars of green beans
stacked on the shelf.
i am the work hardened hand,
and the gentle touch.
i am the simple things,
that cant be bought.
i am generation after generation,
footstep after footstep.
the prayer of scrubbed faces,
and saturday night pickin'.
i am the day it all ended,
the day the bank came around...
the day America died!

poem by Eric Cockrell
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Without Getting Quick the 'Boot

You've got to love the one who attempts to mend,
And fix.
An addiction done that has folks totally transfixed.
To correct with an effort that slips in bits of truth...
Is a task no one has accomplished!
Without getting quick the 'boot'.

For generations realities have been based upon myths.
How can an honest person fight against this?
It takes more than brilliance with humor to get this done.
Especially when those affected,
Are humorless and stunned.

And yet it has to happen!
Since economically,
Values of one's life has to change.
Unlimited greed has been the tease of a dangling carrot.
Now that carrot has to be used...
And divided up in pots,
Between those who once 'had'...
And those who always 'had not'
To ease and feed pretensions and needs!

'Well...
That shouldn't be too difficult!
One group is accustomed to images.
While the other has never known what it's like to feed.
Add some collard greens in that cooked pot...
And see who rushes for it!
That should say 'something' about their appetities! '

poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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Cultural Exchange

In the Quarter of the Negroes
Where the doors are doors of paper
Dust of dingy atoms
Blows a scratchy sound.
Amorphous jack-o'-Lanterns caper
And the wind won't wait for midnight
For fun to blow doors down.
By the river and the railroad
With fluid far-off goind
Boundaries bind unbinding
A whirl of whisteles blowing.
No trains or steamboats going--
Yet Leontyne's unpacking.

In the Quarter of the Negroes
Where the doorknob lets in Lieder
More than German ever bore,
Her yesterday past grandpa--
Not of her own doing--
In a pot of collard greens
Is gently stewing.

Pushcarts fold and unfold
In a supermarket sea.
And we better find out, mama,
Where is the colored laundromat
Since we move dup to Mount Vernon.

In the pot begind the paper doors
on the old iron stove what's cooking?
What's smelling, Leontyne?
Lieder, lovely Lieder
And a leaf of collard green.
Lovely Lieder, Leontyne.

You know, right at Christmas
They asked me if my blackness,
Would it rub off?
I said, Ask your mama.

Dreams and nightmares!
Nightmares, dreams, oh!
Dreaming that the Negroes
Of the South have taken over--
Voted all the Dixiecrats
Right out of power--

Comes the COLORED HOUR:
Martin Luther King is Governor of Georgia,
Dr. Rufus Clement his Chief Adviser,
A. Philip Randolph the High Grand Worthy.
In white pillared mansions
Sitting on their wide verandas,
Wealthy Negroes have white servants,
White sharecroppers work the black plantations,
And colored children have white mammies:
Mammy Faubus
Mammy Eastland
Mammy Wallace
Dear, dear darling old white mammies--
Sometimes even buried with our family.
Dear old
Mammy Faubus!

Culture, they say, is a two-way street:
Hand me my mint julep, mammny.
Hurry up!
Make haste!

poem by Langston Hughes
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That Genuine Factor

Many lack that genuine factor.
And the ones who overcompensate,
With a masquerading...
Seem suspiciously to be protecting,
Insecurities they would rather erase...
Than to be placed in awkward positions.

We all have flaws some have evaluated.
And at times wished them not to be seen at all.
But eventually we can not fake them without facing,
A participating with others...
On some kind of regular basis.
Affording us an escape from ways that isolate.

Many lack that genuine factor.
And the ones who overcompensate,
With a masquerading...
Seem suspiciously to be protecting,
Insecurities they would rather erase...
Than to be placed in awkward positions.

'Some of my best friends were once 'Negroes'.
Now they are 'Black'.
Should I have said that?
Or do you prefer something much more updated?
I'm doing the best I can to accept diversity.
You may not believe this...
But just the other day I had my first taste,
Of chitterlings and collard greens.
And I must say...
They were quite delicious.'

~There's nothing like making that first impression.
Is this your first visit to the 21st century? ~

'Of course not.
You people are so...
Entertaining.'

poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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I enjoy Augusta. I enjoy its challenges. There's no other golf course like this anywhere. Its greens and its challenges on and around the greens are just super, super tough. So the greens are fun to play in sort of a morbid way.

quote by Ben Crenshaw
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Maiden Cook

A young pretty bride, very coy,
Entered her new house with joy;
She was highly educated, quite,
Bereft of the house-hold chores, right.
Next day her dear mother-in-law,
Beckoned her to the kitchen and saw
Her taking charge of the cooking.
The girl was aghast at the booking!
However, she made up her mind to cook,
And thought she'd take the cook book;
The menu for lunch was given,
As per the book she was driven.
Every often she ran to her mother-in-law,
And took her advice too, for she was raw.
On the dining table the fare was laid,
To partake, the other members she bade.
One by one, the items were tasted,
In appreciation, their heads nodded;
When they came to the greens to taste,
One, in a hurry got up and ran in haste,

One to the sink went to vomit,
The other took off his hands to wash it!
The girl was in a fix, with great worry,
As the mother-in-law tasted the greens curry!
‘My God'! she spit it out, and cried,
‘What is it you've done, my child'?
‘The greens, did you thoroughly wash, do tell'?
‘Yes, Ma, thrice, I did wash with ‘Surf Excel'!

.

poem by Chandra Thiagarajan
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Juniors Grill

Mashed potatos, lima beans,
Redeye gravy, collard greens,
Cutest waitress youve ever seen,
Down at juniors grill.
Sweet ginger brings your plate,
Always hot and never late;
Top it off with a chocolate cake,
Down at juniors grill.
Its heaven with a corner booth,
Thats the truth;
Chrome and naugahyde;
Its cool inside.
The jukebox never stops,
Theres coffee in the pot,
So come and get your fill
At juniors grill.
Ginger takes her break at 10,
Lays aside her pad and pen,
Punches up stand by your man
Down at juniors grill.
I seen her dancing, she seen me look;
Oh lord, what a chance I took,
Cause gingers soft on that big ole cook
Down at juniors grill.
Its heaven with a corner booth, thats the truth;
Chrome and naugahyde; its cool inside.
The jukebox never stops, theres coffee in the pot,
So come and get your fill at juniors grill.
So come and get your fill at juniors grill.

song performed by by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Dixie Diner

Dixie diner
By: larry raspberry
1978
-- spoken:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. wooo. were going to take you up that mississippi river
Now one time. yeah one time. up to an old favorite town of mine where i
Visit now and then just for one special reason, thats good eatin. cause
I know a place on tillman st. between ****** and ***** that cant be beat.
Emma mae been cookin there for forty-eight years and she aint missed a
Lick yet baby. shes got hot sweet potatoes and cracklin bread. ooh. and
Mulligan stew to turn jimmy buffetts head. woo, black-eyed peas and them
Good ol collard greens, wooo. you know...
You know what...
What?
That nothin could be finer than to sit down and eatn at the dixie diner.
Alright miami give it up. rock and roll on a monday night.
Help this skinny boy out. weve got two more days.
Good rockin tonight.
I hear you professor.
Thank you, thank you very much. God bless you. youre still the greatest.
We love ya.

song performed by by Jimmy Buffett
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Spreading Haddock

First pre-heat the oven at 350degrees.
Take approximately 3lbs of fresh haddock,
Season it..
With a compound seasoning of salt
Oregano, pepper/red pepper, garlic powder,
Onion powder, and celery salt.

Gently rub these ingredients into the awaiting haddock!

One baking dish is needed.
Pour one full cup of water/maybe more into dish.
Sprinkle Basil onto the water. YES...B-A-S-I-L.!
Lay that haddock down.
If you have bread crumbs...
Now is the opportunity to crumb this haddock!
Get a stick of butter.
Slice thin butter slices...
And place them on that haddock.
Final touch before slipping this into the oven...
Toss some parsley...on the haddock!
Cover with aluminum foil.
Place this dish into the over for about 30mins!

Next!

Romaine makes the beginnings of a good salad!
Get some fresh Romaine. Wash it.
Get a platter and chop this thing up!
Tomatoes? Fresh? Get 'em! Dice 'em if you wanna!
One large Vadalia Onion. One Green Pepper.
And one jar of Roasted Peppers.
Slice this mess up into a mix.
Yes...
Of course,
Put it on the platter. Remember? Presentation!

There's never been a time for haddock,
As it's time for haddock now!
It should be caressing the kitchen...
And your taste buds by now!
Take it out of the oven.
Let it cool for about 10-15 minutes!

Look at that platter!
Now look at that haddock!
Put that haddock on top of those lucious vegetables!
Take some virgin oil! Yes...make it 'virgin'.
At this point you just want a hint of oil.
NOW...
If you really are serious about your taste buds...
A mix of vinegar/white zinfandel/olive oil,
Is a nice topping!

When you want to do something for yourself...
Spreading Haddock is recommended!
There's nothing like it!

'How many does it feed? '

Why? You're not getting none of this!
That's why I went through the trouble
Of telling you how to make it!
How many does it feed?
One!
Me...Sorry 'bout that!
But this is a meal for the 'survivors! '

LOL...just joking! Have some!

Note: This is my own creation! 'Yes. You have my permission
to use it and treat yourself. You're gonna love it! '
Spreading Haddock...LOL

poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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I Hold These Random Thoughts

For quite some times…my beloved seems
to misunderstand things we've done
and what to do about those things.
I've grown weary sitting in that tempest pot
filled with 'vengeance is mine' instead of
'love your neighbor as yourself.'
Some so -called Christ-children speak
divinely, yet not journey with [H]im as
LOUDLY proclaimed!

Imagining neighbors in different regions
can apportion memories of unshared
youths digging potatoes in separate fields;
chopping worthless weeds that surround
my momma's lush collard greens. Still I
envision lying in a hammock made of lovely
fabric and suspended between those infected
with love and those infected by satan virus.

Thinking still of growing up in different locales.
How the midday sand burns feet and the
cold snow you rolled into a big heap
you sang hymns; I counted sheep to sleep

By hand, cotton-picking was back breaking; and with
evolution, souls triumphantly cotton up to changes..

poem by Almedia Knight Oliver
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Before' The Beans

Take one turkey butt,
And put it in boiling water.
Make sure you had put in olive oil first.
With a little butter, oregano and basil leaves.

Then add two tablespoons of soy sauce.
A pinch or two of brown sugar, salt and red pepper.
20 minutes!
That's all you want to give it 'before' the beans!

Speckled Butter Beans.
With kidney and black eye peas.
Add them with sliced carrots and celery.

Turn down the heat,
To medium for approximately 45minutes.
And serve this with brown rice.
If you are into chicken...
Fried wings would be delicious.

For the better of the best tastes,
The 'smoked' turkey butt is great for that!

NOTE: 'Yes' this is my own original recipe.
Enjoy!

poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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