IN SEASON: SEASONS A SOUTHERN STYLE FATHER'S DAY GATHERING

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

June 19th will be a time to get the whole family together for Father's Day 2016. We are blessed in that we will be spending the weekend with our daughter who lives in another state and bringing our grandson back home with us for a week of fun activities. That also means all of the other three kids will be seeing my husband all of the next week too! Large families are so much fun, the activities never end.

This year will be very different for me. My Father has a new residence in heaven; so I will not be able to physically to be with him. He is still such a part of who I am, so I know he will be with me in spirit. I will be cherishing all of the special memories I have of celebrating with him in the past, and I will be appreciating all of the wonderful fathers of relatives and friends that are still with us on planet earth.

There are lots of new and almost new Dad's in our family circle this year, so that happy thought counters the sadness of missing my own Dad.

It will be a great year to focus on honoring my own husband's great job of being an awesome father to our grown children, and a good time for honoring two of my favorite Dad's; the fathers of my two and one-half grand children! We are so proud of our grandchildren, and so very proud of their Dads! What a blessing it has been for us to have them in our family. Words cannot express how perfect it feels.

It is also a very significant day for my own husband, since he is looking around and realizing the positive proof of all of his hard work and efforts over the years in raising four of the most wonderful kids on earth. I want him to have a very special day full of blessings. No one could have ever imagined a better father than he has been to our children. I marvel at how they have all turned into great adults that care about God's Kingdom and the world around them. Most of the credit goes to the excellent guidance they have received from their father. I am grateful, and I know they are!

One of my favorite Father's Day memories is from a Sunday afternoon when my Dad was still living, when we celebrated a Southern Style Father's Day. Here are the notes I penned from that memory when it was happening several years back. I'll warn you, there is NOTHING healthy about this meal; but hey, we are celebrating, right?

I think it might have been Father's Day 2011:

If we get everyone together in one place, then we won't have to go to so many places and we will all enjoy each other's company together for a longer time, right? The more the merrier!

I've called the kids and the parents. I left out my red, white and blue decorations after Memorial Day because my Dad is a veteran, and he enjoys our country's colors, not to mention the fact that I won't have to redecorate for Independence Day! It was great to have these decorations around to celebrate Flag Day too. Somehow summer events just seem to coordinate without even trying hard. I like for the atmosphere at home to be a lot less formal and very laid-back for summer, and all of this works well together. I like to pretend we live in a beach cottage even though we are actually several hours from the sea; and I try to take full advantage of any outdoor activities I can make happen in the summer.

Now it is time to focus on Father's Day. I think we will go Southern Style.....

My husband likes to drink his coffee from these Christmas mugs all year - I've quit trying to change that!

I feel strongly that our fathers deserve a place of honor. They should have their own special day in which to be treated like kings.

I've included a few candid photos of our family's Father's. You will notice from most of these pics that they all have one great trait in common; they like to have fun and they like to make family memories! Many of these pics are not from Father's Day, but just from times that they were very busy BEING fathers.

This year I plan to express our sentiments to the Dads by having an "after-church -southern-style-luncheon."

I think "southern style" will definitely suit the mood and style of our Dads this year. I've found a few great tried and true old southern recipes and put together the menu. You will notice that many of the recipes use buttermilk. This is because my Dad LOVES buttermilk. He loves it so much that our kids have always teased him about it. One year for Christmas they wrapped up a quart of buttermilk and gave it to him for a present because they said "there is nothing you would like better than this quart of buttermilk!" They had to keep his gift in the refrigerator for a few days! We have laughed about that day a lot over the years, and that is why I always try to chose a few "buttermilk" recipes for Father's Day.

SOUTHERN STYLE FATHERS DAY MENU

Appetizers: Cheese Truffles with a Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Tray

Drinks: Tea/Water, Wine for the ladies and Elephant Beer for the guys. - (one of my husband's favorite flavors of beer), Sweet Tea, Lemonade and Cold Ice Water

Salads: Watermelon Surprise AND Old South Potato Salad

Bread: Homemade Southern Style Buttermilk Biscuits with Gravy

Main Course: Southern Fried Buttermilk Chicken

Side 1: Carrot Souffle

Side 2: Garden Fresh Baked Zucchini

Dessert: Strawberry Ice Box Cake AND Fig Cake With Buttermilk Glaze

CHEESE TRUFFLES

Apples, sliced

Pears, sliced

Grapes

1 cup bacon, cooked, cooled and crumbled

Pepper, to taste

1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce

4 teaspoons finely chopped onions

2 containers (4 oz.) Crumbled Gorgonzola Cheese

8 oz. Cream Cheese, softened

Combine cream cheese, crumbled Gorgonzola cheese, onion, Worcestershire sauce and pepper in a bowl and beat with a mixer until well blended. Cover and chill for several hours. Roll the cheese mixture into round balls. Roll the round balls in the crumbled bacon. Serve on a platter of apple and pear slices with grapes surrounding it all.

WATERMELON SURPRISE

1 pkg. baby lettuce, washed

6 cups watermelon, cubed without the seeds

1 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese

3/4 cup chopped pecans

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup pepper jelly

1 Tablespoon lime juice

2 Tablespoons grated onion

In a bowl whisk together the rice wine vinegar, pepper, salt, pepper jelly, lime juice and grated onion. Slowly pour the vegetable oil into this mixture. Stir well. Add the baby lettuce and cubed watermelon to the mix and saturate well. Cover and keep refrigerated until time to serve. Remove to a serving platter. After arranging on the platter, sprinkle with toasted pecans and crumbled Gorgonzola cheese. This is very tasty and makes a lovely and colorful presentation.

SOUTHERN STYLE BISCUITS

1/4 cup shortening
2 cups self-rising flour
1 cup buttermilk
melted butter
Cut shortening into flour with a pastry blender or fork until crumbly. Add buttermilk, stirring together until moistened. Roll out dough 1/2 inch thick. Cut with 2-inch round cutter. Place on greased baking sheet. Brush with melted butter. Bake at 425 degrees for 14 minutes. Serve with brown gravy if desired, as well as some homemade preserves.

SOUTHERN FRIED BUTTERMILK CHICKEN

(This takes 3 days if you do it right, and will feed about 10 people)

2-3 lb. fryers cut up into pieces

4 cups buttermilk

6 Tablespoons crushed garlic

6 Tablespoons onion flakes

1/3 cup parsley

1/3 cup thyme

1/3 cup tarragon

1 Teaspoon paprika

4 cups flour

1 Tablespoon pepper

6 cups vegetable shortening

Step 1 (first night) - Brine your chicken pieces in kosher salt and water overnight.

Step 2 (second night)- Soak the brinned chicken in mixture of buttermilk, garlic, onion flakes, parsley, thyme, tarragon and paprika overnight.

Step 3 (third night) - Drain chicken, leaving residue of spices on chicken. Fill a paper sack full of the flour with a little pepper mixed in. Put the chicken pieces in the large brown bag of flour and shake. Let sit for five minutes then shake again. Melt vegetable shortening into a large iron skillet. Fry chicken until crispy and brown on both sides (about 20 minutes for each side). Remove to a paper towel lined tray. Cover tray, cool and refrigerate until next day.

Step 4 - Wrap chicken in foil. Heat in the stove at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Remove, place in a decorative serving dish and serve while hot.

CARROT SOUFFLE

2 pounds carrots, chopped

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

ground cinnamon

Boil carrots in water until tender. Drain. Mash carrots and butter. Add sugar and eggs. Beat at medium speed with electric mixer 2 minutes. Stir in flour and baking powder. Pour into greased baking dish. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees for 1 hour .

OLD SOUTH POTATO SALAD

4 pounds potatoes (unpeeled)

8 ounces sour cream

1/4 cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons mustard

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 bunch chopped green onions

1/2 cup parsley

3 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled

Boil potatoes in large pot over medium high heat until tender. Drain. Cool. Cut potatoes into thin slices. Combine sour cream, Mayonnaise,mustard, salt and pepper. Layer in a clear baking dish, potatoes, sour cream mix, green onions and parsley, layer same again. Cover and chill 1 hour. Sprinkle with bacon before serving.

STRAWBERRY STACK CAKE

2 Small Crates of Fresh Strawberries (washed and sliced, except leave some pretty ones whole too)

3 1/2 cups Whipped Cream

1/2 cup Confectioners Sugar

1 teaspoon Vanilla

1 large box Graham Crackers

2 ounces Dark Chocolate (chopped fine)

Whip the whipping cream until it forms peaks. Slowly mix in the confectioners sugar and vanilla. Spread a thin layer of whipped cream in the bottom of a glass oblong baking dish. Lay six whole graham crackers over this. Spread a layer of strawberries over that. Repeat this process until you have four layers of graham crackers. Spread the last of one-half of the whipped topping over the top layer and swirl with a spoon for decorative purposes. You should have half of the whipped topping left over. Heat it until bubbles form around the edges. Remove from heat and drop in the chopped dark chocolate. Stir together until chocolate is melted and well blended into a gouache. Pour into a squeeze bottle and drizzle over cake. Cover and refrigerate for six hours. Garnish with fresh strawberries before serving.

FIG CAKE WITH BUTTERMILK GLAZE

Ingredients For Cake:

2 cups all purpose flour

1-1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup chopped fresh figs

1 cup chopped pecans

Ingredients for Glaze:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon light corn syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix together first 7 ingredients. Fold in eggs, oil and buttermilk. Stir in vanilla. Fold in figs and pecans. Pour into a greased 13 x 9 inch pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 35 minutes. While cake is baking make a glaze by boiling all of the above glaze ingredients in a small saucepan for 3 minutes. Pour over cake.

You can rest assured that there will be no need for entertainment. With this many fathers in one room, there will be lots of stories to share!