On Friday, I had the good fortune to have lunch with my grandmother and cousin in Winston-Salem, NC. We ate at a delicious little restaurant called Bernardin’s where the highlight of the meal was dessert: a wonderful strawberry shortcake. With a crumbly biscuit, expertly whipped cream, and, of course, ripe strawberries, it was plate-scraping good.
As food has the power to do, this shortcake also brought back memories. My grandmother told about how she and my grandfather would tell their four children that strawberry shortcake wasn’t very good, so they could have more of the cake for themselves. I know this story is true, because my father, one of the four victims, can’t see strawberry shortcake without lamenting those lost years without shortcake thanks to his parents deception. My grandmother then told us about our great great grandmother Ivey’s strawberry biscuit roll. She claimed it was delicious and backed that statement up by telling about one guest who was so absorbed in eating a piece of this dessert that he did not notice that the family dog was eating his pants under the table. Having never tasted, let alone heard about this family recipe, I realized that my grandmother had made a lifetime habit of keeping shortcake recipes secrets.
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