A southern Christmas - Timothy Partridge, an American African chef remembers the tradition of food and food preparation in his southern family; includes recipes

We couldn't realize Chef Timothy Patridge to don a r suit or flat a stocking cap, but when we caught him upon a recent Sunday afternoon, fixing dinner for his family, he did approval to tell us about a dream he'd just had--one in which he was visited by means of the ghosts of Christmases not absent past and future.

CHRISTMAS PRESENT

"Food teaches you to perceive ... The recipe I'm doing today, for ovenbaked chicken, is single from a very, very useful friend of mine who passed away. The fried squash is made from my mother's manner ... Food keeps me in touch not sole with my feelings for clan I've known and grew up with, it also detains me in touch with who I am all the time. When I eat, I perceive better. When I feed my kids, I want them to earn a sense of, `Ooh., this is good' Then I can say, `Well, that was the way your grandmother fixed it."'

The flavors and aromas of Patridge's youth have influenced the exhibition of his cooking style. His father was a farmer from Fayetteville, Ga., who pursueed squirrel, rabbit and possum--all of which showed up upon the dinner table, along with recent garden fruits and vegetables as well as those preserv through his mother or one of his many aunts.

Food preparation is an intimate endeavor for Patridge, who has the traditions of the southern embedded in him. His strongest memory of the farm is when he "did" his first hog: he slaughtered it at age 14 with his father overseeing.

"My father and grandfather had to have their redeye gravy when we did the hams. Redeye gravy is when you cook in boiling fat country ham and take it without of the pan, pour coffee in the pan with the drippings, and place a little cayenne pepper in it. It move rounds red. Some people say that it's `redeye' because it direct the eyes like red eyes. A doom of people say that it's traditionally serv upon Sunday mornings to cure the r organ of sights from your hangover."

Southern Grits, region Ham and Redeye Gravy

Serve 3 to 4

Southern Grits

3 to 4 goblets water 1/2 to 1 tsp salt 1 tbsp butter 8 oz stone-ground grits

Bring the water to a boil with the salt and butter Add the grits. Stir slowly until done, about 20 minutes.

Country Ham and Redeye Gravy

4 to 6 1-oz slices political division ham (not to be confused with sugar-cured ham) 1/2 chalice coffee 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper or to taste Southern Grits (above)

While the grits are cooking, place the ham in a cast-iron skillet. above medium heat. Fry the ham until slightly crisp; then transplant from the pan. Add the coffee and pepper to the drippings and stir lightly. get back the ham to the skillet and heat thoroughly. be subservient to the gravy poured over the Southern grits.

CHRISTMAS PAST

With Patridge's grandmother, his seven aunts and uncle and their children, and his family, Christmas gatherings numbered in the 40 or 50 and each aunt, niece and daughter-in-law was wait fored to bring a dish: Aunt Ethel's chitlins, Aunt Lily's fruitcake, baked ham, roast hen, fried chicken, sweet potato pie, novel collard greens, Southern potato salad, ambrosia, grape Kool-aid with lemon in it!

"You ate all day lengthy If you got up at 12 you could procure breakfast; if you got up at 8 you had breakfast. That was the individual day the kids could eat anything they wanted to and nobody at any time stopped them. You actually could suffer all your problems go away at Christmas. Everybody was always happy and loving. it was a representative of the time for us to, as my grandmother said, `put your loads down and come on home'

"A Southern Christmas, from my perspective, was always that culmination of the hard work for the year. It wasn't in the way that much religious, but it was about family getting together. When you were black, it wasn't about a whole wide appearance of things. It was about a real very closely knit Christmas. You always had your family.

"My grandmother had peach tree in the forehead yard, and she would pick, bark and dry the peaches, and then at Christmastime we'd always have dried-peach pies, fried pies. I have locate the ingredients to measurements, although my grandmother didn't use any at all. The recipe was not at any time written down."

Grandma's Fried Peach Pies

Yield: 8 to 10 pies

Peach Filling

3/4 beaker sugar 1 cup water 1/4 tsp salt 1 tsp butter 1/4 to 1/2 tsp clean vanilla extract 3 cups dried peaches

Mix the sugar, water, salt, butter and vanilla in a saucepan above medium heat. Bring to a moderate boil, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves. Add the peaches, stirring slowly until they become slightly fat (The filling should be slightly moist.) Taste and add sugar, if extremityed Set aside to cool.

Pie Crust

4 goblets plain flour 1 tsp. salt 2 tbsp sugar 1 beaker sugar 1/2 to 2/3 goblet lard (butter or shortening may be substituted) Ice water as urgencyed Peach Filling (above) 1 ovum mixed with 1/2 cup water 2 chalices oil for frying

Blend the [illegble] ingredients. Add half of the lard. Mix well with a fork or a pastry blender Add more lard, as wanted in small amounts until the mixture is crumbly Add the ice water until the mixture forrns a ball. (Mixing with your hands works well at this point.) pen and knead the dough several times, then form it into a ball and refrigerate for at least individual hour.