Cookbook Club Sunday Dinner – Let Your Soul Look Back & Forward

Yesterday, we came together virtually from Maryland and Virginia and from Mississippi in-person for our second Cookbook Club Sunday Dinner 2024. Although the group was small, it didn’t diminish the lively conversation about current events, the selected book, and food.

My Soul Looks Back by Jessica B. Harris is a small book, but as Dianna said "Once you start reading, you don’t want to put it down."  The book captures her early twenties and friendships with an amazing cast of African American 20th century authors, including James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor, Rosa Guy, Louise Merriwether, and Paule Marshall.  For me, reading the book brought back memories of a college literature course on Black female authors so much so that I had to bring some of the books out and lay them alongside Dr. Harris’ memoir and the selected cookbook, Beyond Gumbo.  That picture, also, includes liquor for the libation to softly christen my new bridgeway later on.

In Maryland, food presented for the occasion included oxtails, rice and black beans (instead of the usual rice and peas), and string beans. According to Deirdra, the black beans turned out to be a delicious substitute.  In Virginia, Dianna saluted us with hot tea because she was on the mend. In Mississippi, there was smoked pork sliced with barbeque sauce, roasted okra from the garden, and green salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, a hint of jalapeno, and bell pepper all from the garden. Garden vegetables had been set with a homemade vinaigrette in mason jars 3 weeks earlier and the last jar was combined with a can of corn and lettuce for the salad.  This was an ideal way to preserve my bumper crop of cucumbers because they were still crispy and so handy for salad fixings.

After sharing what we’d prepared, Essie and I along with Emi went out to christen the new bridgeway.  I took the laptop out with us and Deirdra was able to quickly screenshot everything for posterity’s sake because it was hot as hell; 101 degrees but felt like 110!

Back in the house, Debbie joined the tail end of conversation, and we bid each other a happy Sunday and good rest of the week.