An Intricate Process
Photo essay in progress
I had intended for today’s story to be an illustration of what I was trying to get at on Tuesday by dissecting the legacy of Cleora Butler. A noted cook and caterer from 1920 to her death in 1985 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, her book, Cleora’s Kitchens, The Memoir of A Cook and Eight Decades of Great American Food, has been signaled out by cooks and scholars, alike, for how it illustrates the continuing influence of African-American cooking beyond its Southern roots.
But it’s Friday, 10:48 P.M. I’ve missed my deadline. More to the point, I haven’t finished the Google Doc full of recipes demonstrates how Butler’s cooking progressed from her great-grandmother, a slave who was the ‘big house’ cook on a Waco, Texas plantation, through the years of her working in the mansions of oil rich socialites, to her successful transition into being a much sought-after caterer.
And so, I ask patience. I’m going to work through the weekend to have it ready for you on Tuesday.
Oh, and in between I’m also trying my hand at baking with cannabis butter. Yes, no big deal—I know there’s a lot of you out there who do it all the time. But this will be good because you haven’t heard the story about walking down to the corner to buy the necessary ingredient. The kid got so flustered with a customer who was probably his grandmother's age he sat down on a nearby house stoop to figure out the best amount to sell for my recipe’s two sticks of butter. This incident is one of the reasons I didn’t finish Cleora’s story today.
In the meantime, have a great weekend. Check in on Tuesday to see the photo essay and receive a bunch of Cleora’s wonderful recipes.
