MamMaw’s Muscadine Jelly

My good friend Dana lives in Poetry, Texas where the muscadine grapes grow wild and plentiful. She picked a bushel last weekend and then hauled them over to her mother-in-law’s house on the 4th of July and then spent the afternoon making jelly with an 87 year woman who could preserve your right shoe if she set her mind to it.  The pictures of these two women standing side by side in MamMaw’s kitchen are priceless.  These are the moments that you simply can’t replace and why I love the soulfulness of cooking.

 Dana brought me a jar of this wonderful grape jelly yesterday and I remembered that I had some leftover cornbread in my fridge. A lot of people think that this is kind of strange, but I grew up on toasted cornbread for breakfast. My mom made cornbread for dinner all of the time and then she would split it in the morning, slather some butter on top and stick it under the broiler until it was toasty brown. It was unbelievably sweet and delicious all by itself but when you spread some homemade jelly on top you took it to a whole new level.

This is how I enjoyed my muscadine grape jelly this morning.

 It was simple and it was perfect. If you’ve never tried a slice of toasted cornbread with jelly and a hot cup of coffee on a summer morning you’re missing out on one of God’s greatest pleasures.  I promise.

Happy Friday!

MMD

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