All Southerners are natural-born storytellers. Sharing our lives with others, whether they like it or not, is part of our collective DNA. We love a good tale and are instinctive reciters, great memory retainers, diary keepers, letter exchangers, and superfluous talkers. Ask the typical Southerner a question about a favorite food, and he or she is likely to tell you the entire recipe or the restaurant that serves the dish plus directions for how to get there. Southerners are inherently more open and use these skills like a currency. We share our life narrative as a trade for yours. By sharing it brings people together and keeps an ancient art alive, one story at a time, and no one is better at it than Fannie Flagg
Fannie introduced the world to fried green tomatoes with her 1987 novel “At The Whistle Stop Café” and viewers fell in love with Ninny, Idgie, Ruth, and Holt (as if we needed another reason to love Morgan Freeman) when the movie adaptation hit the big screen. Fannie preserved a whole Southern community in a richly comic, poignant narrative that records the exuberance of their lives and the sadness of their departure. It is a story within a story of Southern female friendship and love. It weaves together the past and present of the blossoming friendship between Evelyn Couch and Ninny Threadgoode. These stories, along with her friendship, enable Evelyn to begin a new, satisfying life while allowing the people and stories of Ninny’s youth to live on. It explores themes of family, aging, and the dehumanizing effects of racism.
There’s something special about author Fannie Flagg. What she writes about, time and again, are the touching, terrifying, heartbreaking, hysterical, extraordinary, everyday things that make us human, the things that make us seek friendship and love and compassion and community. She captures a moment in time when people pulled together and took care of their families. Through her writing, she brings to life heartwarming characters who are such down-to-earth folks that you just can’t seem to get enough of them and inevitably come to think as dear friends. In a seemingly darkened world, thank goodness someone has continued to remind us that there are nice, normal and ordinary people living out there.
My personal favorite scene in the movie is when Kathy Bates is in the parking lot at Winn Dixie and two young girls shoot into her parking space and say, “Face it lady, we’re younger and faster.” So she crashes into their car and says, “Face it, girls, I’m older and I have more insurance."
Let’s do ourselves a favor and be a Ninny today. Commonality is the foundation of humanity, and it is hard to judge someone once you’ve been invited to hear their narrative. Sit for a spell, exercise your gift for gab and share your story, too.
Green Tomato Soup with Lump Crabmeat
INGREDIENTS
Soup
1 poblano pepper
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
4 celery ribs, chopped
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 ½ pounds firm green tomatoes, cored and coarsely chopped
6 cups chicken or vegetable broth
2 bay leaves
Kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper, to taste
3 cups loosely packed arugula
14 fresh basil leaves
½ bunch fresh cilantro, stems removed
2 2/1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1-2 tsp. hot sauce
Lump Crabmeat Salad
8 ounces fresh lump crabmeat (picked through to remove bits of shell)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and sliced
Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat broiler with oven rack 5 inches from heat. Cut poblano pepper in half lengthwise; remove seeds. Broil pepper halves, skin sides up, on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until blistered. Place pepper halves in a zip-top plastic freezer bag; seal and let stand 10 minutes to loosen skins. Peel pepper halves, and chop.
Melt butter with oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low; add onions, and cook, stirring often, 15 minutes. Add celery, jalapeño peppers, and chopped poblano pepper; cook, stirring often, 5 minutes. Add garlic; cook, stirring constantly, 2 minutes. Add tomatoes, broth, and bay leaves. Season with salt and pepper. Increase heat to medium-high, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, 15 to 20 minutes or until tomatoes are tender. Remove from heat, and discard bay leaves. Stir in arugula, basil, and cilantro. Let cool 30 minutes.
Process soup, in batches, in a food processor or blender until smooth. Stir in lemon juice and hot sauce; add salt and pepper to taste. Cover and chill 8 to 24 hours. Ladle the chilled soup into serving bowls; top each serving with about 2 Tbsp. Lump Crabmeat Salad.
Crabmeat Slaw: Stir together crabmeat, olive oil, lime juice, basil, cilantro, and jalapeño pepper. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Serve immediately or refrigerate up to 2 days.
