Little Chase and Big Fat Aunt May

About the Book

When the Little Chase stories were first published, there was a great outcry for the recipes for the tempting treats which make life worth living for Chase and Aunt May as they explore the lessons of life, and so in this volume those recipes are included at the conclusion of each story. Like children's tea parties and some of the other old-fashioned entertainments in the Little Chase stories, these recipes shouldn't be allowed to die out. Sadly lacking is the child nourished on the immediate gratification of frozen Sara Lee (however tasty) rather than the mouth-watering anticipation of slowly cranking the ice cream freezer, or following with wide eyes the progress of the flaming Plum Pudding to the Christmas dinner table, or marveling at the tiny red spots of currant jelly topping dollops of meringue adrift in a sea of custard in the Thanksgiving Floating Island. They are a compendium of old Louisiana dishes dating from those several generations when every lady's most prized possession was her family recipe file, and when no problem was so serious that it wouldn't look better over a heaping bowl of Paradise Pudding…a time when the accepted way to a man's heart was through his stomach, and when control was exercised over mischievous children through edible rewards or threats of no supper before bed. These generations of southern ladies are ably and amply represented by Big Fat Aunt May, each of whose 345 pounds is carried proudly as the reminder of some superbly delicious Bourbon Pie or some other equally delectable Rum Cake or heavenly batch of Divinity Fudge. As age on a tree is reckoned by the number of circles in a cross-section of its trunk, so those of us raised by these generations of mothers and grandmothers reveal how well-behaved and oft-rewarded we were by the number of our fat rolls. But oh, how simple it all was then, and oh, how happy we all were, back when a visit to the dreaded dentist was unfailingly followed by a trip to the Dairy Queen, even if it did start the vicious cycle all over again. HOG HEAVEN!

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