Are you hungry? Because if you are, Mary Martha Greene will send you straight into the kitchen with her new book, The Cheese Biscuit Queen Kiss My Aspic!. You’re probably not going to get past the first couple of recipes in this book before you have to gather your ingredients and make one of them. If you’re not hungry now, then read another chapter until you find something that makes you hungry, because I promise, you will be.
In the introduction, Mary Martha tells us how, when she was a child, her grandmother started a “story making tradition” about people’s comings and goings and encouraged Mary Martha and her brother George to do the same. Her love of stories only grew as she did, and she has not only passed it down through her family but also attributes it to her success in government and politics: “Part of being a good lobbyist is being a good storyteller.”
In Mary Martha’s first book, The Cheese Biscuit Queen Tells All, the very first recipe is for her famous cheese biscuits. (Well, actually, she credits her Aunt Mimi as the one being famous for her cheese biscuits, but Mary Martha has inherited the title.) And fortunately for you, that recipe is also the first one in this book because they are the staple for every cocktail party in the Lowcountry.
The Cheese Biscuit Queen Kiss My Aspic! is a Whitman’s Sampler of recipes, and stories about family, friends and acquaintances in the legislative world, southern etiquette or lack thereof, and a host of others. You will find as many favorite stories as you will recipes!
One of my favorites is the story about men’s fashion in which, lamenting some of her father’s clothing choices, Mary Martha wishes there was a mix and match clothing line for men similar to the one for children:
“I thought there should have been several different lines of Garanimals for grown men – with things they’d understand, like ducks or fish. If you wanted to be very conservative in your dress, you just stayed in your lane – wear all the mallard ducks together. If you wanted to be a little flashy, you could wear a mallard duck suit with a wood duck shirt or tie, but you wouldn’t wear a mallard with a trout. Under no circumstances should you mix a fish with a fowl!”
Clearly Mary Martha’s happy place is in the kitchen. Notice that she didn’t try to make her men’s Garanimals from inedible species. One thing that makes her book perfect for cooks of all abilities is the care with which she gives you the directions for making each recipe. And every recipe has a story, or a history, of its own, like this one in the recipe for “Pecan Financiers”:
“Financiers get their names from the small rectangular cakes sold in the financial district near the Paris stock exchange. Some versions were made with almonds and were molded into small rectangular shapes, resembling gold bars. If someone was spotted eating one, it was assumed they worked in the financial district and was a ‘financier’.”
Mary Martha carries us through time trusted recipes as well as her own innovations. Lick your lips when you read about “Grilled Tequila Lime Shrimp,” “Miss Willa’s Cheese Tomato Aspic,” “Pride of the Pee Dee Chicken Bog,” “Possum Pie” (it isn’t what you think), and “Aunt Chattie’s Champagne Punch.” Better yet, start planning your next dinner party right now.
What also intrigues me are the cooking tips that have eluded me for decades. Who knew that pre-grated cheese contains a wax coating that keeps it from melting properly, and that you should never use it for baking? Or for those of us who have limited culinary skills, we find out that when making her Spicy Corn Muffins, “Do not use muffin liners, you want the nice crispy outside crust,” There are tips on peeling eggs and permission to use instant potatoes on occasion.
Mary Martha and I—and probably most of you too—love bacon. She says, “I love bacon more than just about anything else in the world – it is the duct tape of food, and much like duct tape, it can fix any recipe or situation and hold it together.” I love all her bacon recipes, especially the one for bourbon bacon fudge.
In the eight different sections of recipes, covering everything from appetizers through desserts, almost every one except “Libations” is about twenty-five pages long with roughly ten recipes per section. But Mary Martha has very cleverly divided “Cookies and Other Sweets” and “Desserts” into two different sections which total sixty-two pages and twenty-three recipes. I suspect her grandmother, who was renowned for liking sweets, wasn’t the only one with a sweet tooth!
In the foreword, Cassandra King writes, “Readers are invited to contemplate the importance of both recipe and story in our own lives.” And at the end, Mary Martha entreats us to do just that, “So gather your friends and family around your table, pull out the torn and tattered family recipes from the ancient recipe box or share your favorite recipe from this book, and get to cooking and storytelling – keeping memories alive for all those future generations to come.”
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