My first thoughts when getting ready to write this post were “They’re gonna think I am weird”.
But honestly, if you are just now figuring that out about me, we got us one Jim Dandy of a learning curve here. Just about all Southerners are weird (the good ones at least). Where else do folks call every carbonated beverage a “coke” or “co-cola” despite flavor, brand, or location? Where else are you considered unfit to drive if you forget to wave at a car going down the road (I was once forced to pull over and relinquish the wheel during a driving lesson when I didn’t wave back at someone). And where else is a delivery man considered rude if he refuses to sit down and have a glass of tea before going? This is just the tip of the iceberg but you get my point.
Now outside of the south, folks might call our weird behavior “eccentric” but everybody knows eccentric is just weirdness puttin’ on airs and Southerners don’t put on no airs. See that? Here I am a bona fide member of Sigma Tau Delta and I just used a double negative without blinking.
My Mama must be so proud!
So here we go, a weird food post. Now you know I’m not going to bring you something unless I absolutely love it. This wins bonus points with me also because it uses up food that might otherwise have gone bad or wasted and that’s another tender spot of mine.
People that come from my kind of people don’t like to waste food.
It seems like if you’ve had a single generation in your family tree that has gone without, you have an natural horror at throwing away anything that is still fit to eat. You know all those studies coming out every five minutes about how the South has the highest obesity rate? Newsflash folks, its coz we used to be hungry and we’re still a partyin’ over being able to walk into the Piggly Wiggly and leave with the makings of a Thanksgiving dinner in the middle of August.
Oh I know, I know, we could all use a little less partyin’ but today I’m showing you how not to waste fruit and even though it has some brown sugar and a bit of margarine in it, it is still a whole heap healthier than some of the things they serve in fancy restaurants so get off m’tractor and lets get cookin’!
This is a great last minute dessert to have while you’re grilling out.
Just put them on when you put your hamburgers on and wait til they turn good and black.
Don’t you just love it when you make food that is SUPPOSED to turn black? Me too.
You’re gonna need: Bananas, Margarine (or butter if you prefer), and Brown Sugar.
Use light or dark brown sugar, whatever you have on hand is fine.
We also found that a little cinnamon is DIVINE mixed in as well.
Moosh up your margarine and brown sugar really good.
Until you have a nice pasty mixture like this.
If you don’t get you a pinch of that I’m going to be very disappointed in you.
Anytime you are making something with brown sugar, it’s very bad luck not to taste it.
This is according to the ancient wisdom of Christydom.
Lay your banana on its side and cut a slit in it but don’t go through the bottom of the peel.
Stuff it with your brown sugar mixture.
Set it on the grill. It doesn’t have to be any special temperature, just whatever you have it set on for what you are cooking is fine.
Watch it ….
Your banana is cooking to ooey gooey goodness.
Almost done but not quite. Lets let it get nice and black.
NOW we’re talkin’!
This is delicious served alongside ice cream. You can eat it out of the peel or…
Take it out and chop it up a bit to use as a topping for your ice cream. The ice cream featured here is my sister in law, Tina’s recipe for homemade custard that she got from her Mama Dove. Anything from a Southern Woman named Mama Dove is good – especially with grilled bananas!
Grilled Bananas Ingredients- 1 Cup brown sugar (light or dark)
- ½ C Margarine or butter
- 5-6 bananas
- 1 tsp of cinnamon (optional but delicious)
Instructions- With a fork, mash together brown sugar and margarine until well blended (add cinnamon if desired). Lay each banana on its side and cut a slit along the length, being careful not to go through the bottom peel. Stuff with mixture. Place on grill along with other food and cook until blackened. Serve warm with ice cream or eat on it's own!
- 1 Cup brown sugar (light or dark)
- ½ C Margarine or butter
- 5-6 bananas
- 1 tsp of cinnamon (optional but delicious)
- With a fork, mash together brown sugar and margarine until well blended (add cinnamon if desired). Lay each banana on its side and cut a slit along the length, being careful not to go through the bottom peel. Stuff with mixture. Place on grill along with other food and cook until blackened. Serve warm with ice cream or eat on it's own!
There are countless other ways Southerners are weird but I’m having a hard time coming up with them because – well, weirdness is so very normal to us. This is where you come in.
How are we weird? What are some of the strange things Southerners do that only make sense below the Mason Dixon Line? Don’t worry about chiming in if you are of the Northern Persuasion, we’re really good at laughing at ourselves and would love your take on us. Just remember to be gentle coz we love y’all and we hope to drag you down here and feed you one day and get you to tell us how your Mawmaw did things back in her kitchen.
Gratefully,
Christy 🙂
If you’re not using your smile, you’re like someone with a million dollars in the bank and no check book.
~Les Giblin To submit your quote, click here.
Yum 
Southern weirdness. How ’bout mayonnaise sandwiches? I ate a lot of those when I was little and it was just before payday and we were out of lunch meat or cheese. Or one of Mama’s favorites- banana sandwiches made with mayonnaise?
I have to agree with ya- what other people may call weirdness is the common behavior around these parts.
Forgot to comment at all on the recipe. I know a little boy who would love this and next time I cook out I’ll have to toss a couple on the grill for him.
OMG! I thought is was just my weird Mama who ate mayonnaise and banana sandwiches. We ate mayonnaise sandwiches growing up too! Maybe we got the same Mama!
My daddy ate mayo and banana sandwiches. I learned it from him and I thought I was the only person besides him that ate them!
I grew up eating banana sandwhiches and I still love them on some fresh Sunbeam bread. The best thing to eat for lunch in the summer.
this makes me sad I am allergic to bananas 🙁
oh honey, I’m so sorry!
~smiles sheepishly~
“Does this mean I can have yours?”
~batts lashes~
Don’t worry, I’ll come up with somethin’ you can eat on m’next post!
Gratefully,
Christy
“Bless your heart” comes in handy here also!
Ooooh.. bananaieeee goodness.
*drools into his keyboard and fries all the breadcrumbs that have fallen into it…
Good stuff lady!
My whole family salts sliced cheese, watermelon, cantalope, grapefruit and apples! I’ve heard others comment that this is wierd. Also, pineapple slices with mayo. 🙂
Angie –
With all the negative things people say about salt, we call it watermelon seasoning, squash seasoning, pinto bean seasoning, etc.. It’s all good. – Richard
I’ll have to remember that!
~snickers~
Richard, You’re the best! LOL
I salt my watermelon and cantaloupe,too! Now I gotta try grapefruit and apples….
I’m SO glad there are “others” out there!!
Thank you for being weird like me 🙂
Gratefully,
Christy )
My Poppaw Brown always put salt and pepper on his cantelope. Can’t say if it was good or not, I never tried it.
As for “Southern Wierdness” my family had quiet a few dealing with food. (If you knew my family and me you would roll your eyes and say, “I would have never guessed it has to do with food!”) My Poppaw Cecil always liked Fried green onions (of course with bacon grease) with cornbread–mighty good! He also put butter in his coffee. I had many butter (dripping) and sugar biscuits at his knee. Both sides of the family had red-eye gravy. Of course there is the Chocolate Syrup (gravy) that everyone in the South eats. It’s a wonder we all didn’t die of high cholestrol by the age of 10!
Just an aside: My roommate from college was from St. Louis, MO. She always said she knew when my family had called because my accent got deeper and longer when I answered the phone! Still happens to this day when my Daddy and Momma call!!!
I’m passing this along to her so she can join in with her own thoughts on Southern Wierdness. She married a guy from Chatt. and now lives in South Alabama. One day she may understand all the wierdness and think nothing of it!
Hope
My dad used to salt the whole watermelon.. and I hated it. I finally whined enough to where he stopped doing it lol.
Also a salter … I was in college before I knew that people actually put sugar on grapefruit. My roommates did – I was shocked. I got out my salt shaker – they were shocked, too.
Every try black pepper on cantalope? Yummy, with salt too. I also eat salt on grapefruit and apples, and grapes!
What on earth would cantalope be WITHOUTH BLACK PEPPER??? How about some good milk gravy (full of black pepper) over that cantalope?? MMM – i gotta quit reading these posts – i had to change my pants yesterday cause they were a little snug in the bug (if ya know what i mean)).
I could go for this. Don’t think I could go for Pineapple slices with mayo like Angie above me there..
I might have to make these for my banana loving family..
and…when do we get the homemade custard recipe??? I’m thinking the bananas might get a little lonely without it.. 🙂
You are absolutely right. I promise it is coming up. It was so delicious I can’t even describe it!
Those look yummy! Bet peanut butter added to them would be good too!!! Mmmm….
I bet this would be good with southern churned homemade ice cream. I was invited to a party last week and was told to bring my own homemade ice cream. I thought, “I’m from the north— I have NO CLUE how to do that!” So I brought some toppings instead and watched about 15 true Alabamians bring their homemade ice cream concoctions. It’s 2nd nature to them!
LOL!
We always had peach homemade ice cream at summer gatherings. It was so good! I don’t think we were ever able to wait until it was really done before digging in!
When I used to work at a credit union in Huntsville we used to make this ice cream in the kitchen there that had strawberry coke in it. my goodness that was good!
Yeah, we weren’t really work oriented…
hehe
CJ
One more thing–my sis-in-law makes the best Grapico Ice Cream. Bet you find that North of the Mason Dixion!!
Hope
My mother’s baby brother always wanted home made biscuits with home meade Ice Cream. The first biscuits I every made was for him. I used up 5 pounds of flour making those biscuts before I got them right. Uncle Charles is gone now, but I still get the urge to make him some now and again. He was a true southerner as I and my whole family are.
Yum yum yum. I love bananas when they’re cooked. In fact I have some bananas I have taken to work with me this week, the intention was to eat them during the day as a snack while I work. But the days have passed and I think I’m gonna let them get over ripe in my office drawers so that I can batter them up and deep fry them. This happens a lot. My colleague always say it smells like banana when I open my desk drawers.
LOL!
My husband used to keep a jar of peanut butter and a jar of jelly along with a loaf of bread in his desk drawer. That is how he ate as a single guy. You’d think he’d appreciate me more! lol
Anniversary is in three days so I guess we’ll see…..
Gratefully,
Christy 🙂
P.S.So excited about October!
You’re telling me! It’s exactly 50 days until I fly away!
I will let you know all the details once I have it all sorted out.
Oh my goodness!! You know how to make a girl cry….and salivate heavily!
You are too good to me! lol
Not that I want to make you cry but…
I have many memories from childhood of sitting under a big old shade tree in the summer with some friends and shaking peanuts into our cokes.
And after reading some other post, I also remember eating cheese and mayo sandwiches and also peanut butter and mayo sandwiches. It have been years since I ate a peanut butter and mayo sandwichs.
You know, I’ve always heard a lot of “weird sandwich”stories. I reckon they come from simple lack of anything better to put on it “back in the day”. I used to eat potato chip sandwiches all the time.
In fact…still do.:)
Gratefully,
Christy 🙂
(holding a screaming baby as i type…) i always went to summer camp with a baloney/kraft mayo/yellow mustard sandwich and put my fritos on it. HEAVENLY. good ole days.
Oh, I also remember eating Slaw and mayo sandwiches. That even grossed out my brother! Mission achieved!
Hope
My husband loves to eat peanut butter and bologna sandwiches. I know of another man that eats this too.
I used to eat chip sandwiches too!!
Weird…? Not at all! Try GENIUS!!! These look so good, I have to try them tonight. My kids and husband will want to thank you, I’m sure. Love your recipes!
Thank you SO MUCH, Jacci!!!!
I know I’m awful, but I absolutely thrive on your comments! Y’all talking back to me is what keeps me going!!!!
LOVE you READING My recipes!!!!!
Gratefully,
Christy 🙂
Doesn’t seem so weird to me! It reminds me of fried plantains which are a staple of Latin American cooking! I never heard about cooking ordinary bananas, though.
Southern Weirdness…Here in Texas you do not need to call a friend to visit. Just show up and also you can just let yourself in if the door is unlocked. Also Fried Bolonge???spelling ssndwiches are great.
My spelling is awful but what the heck that is also a Southern Weirdness.
I have to sing the song in my head to spell is.
My bologna has a first name…..
Heck I say throw some chocolate and marshmallows in there to melt…now that is SINFUL hehe
I’m with Lindsay, I want that custard recipe soon! 🙂
These grilled bananas look scrumpdilious!
Southern weirdness: You have commented about this- every story has food at the very least mentioned, many times it is a focal point. Our love of mayo. A deep fryer is our friend. Everything is better with either butter or bacon- however, I think this is becoming universal! lol 🙂
My aunt got me hooked on peanut butter & bacon sandwiches! Yum, pork fat rules!!!!
Another good one we had a lot when we were little was sugar & butter sandwiches. I never thought it was strange, just what we had at the time!!
Get those crinkle cuts (or even better – home cut) fries outta that deep fryer, salt em and season salt em, then add some paprika, suqeeze a dab of lemon juice and dip em in some Hellman’s!!! oooh-whatchyou talkin about!! My son, like me, has a glob of mayo on his plate right beside the glob of Heinz ketchup. We alternate our fries in each one. My hubby doesn’t enjoy the mayo on fries, but he does like a mayo, peanut butter, nanner and bologny san’wich!!
BTW, obesity is more prominent in the South cause we’re just better cooks!!!
If you’re not allergic to nuts add about 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans to the brown sugar/butter mixture before stuffing the banana! YUM YUM
Sooo, I am told that I am “weird” for eating good ‘ol Dukes on my collard greens. Yep, that’s right!! Don’t knock it til ya try it!!
Yummy!
Just last week I was reading a Q&A page in one of my favorite cooking magazines. A reader actually had to ask for suggestions on how to use up a quart jar of mayo before it went bad!! Can you even imagine such a thing?!?
I made these a long time ago in girl scouts but wrapped ’em up in tin foil and put them in the campfire until they were good and mushy. We used chocolate squares and marshmallows and crushed graham crackers and they were called “banana boats.”
It seems Pimento Cheese spread (Minner-cheese) is also a “Southern Thang”. I was in Wisconsin and I assumed that their’s would be amazing. Could not find it anywhere. I was a little heartbroken.
Plus it ties into the Mayo theme quite well.
You should have just made a little for them so they would KNOW how good it is!! I never buy pimiento cheese when I can make my own – and put wierd things in it!!
And, speaking of weird, my Mom fed us pork and bean sandwiches – which I STILL love. I introduced my hubby to them and he likes tem almost as much as I do!!
Pimento cheese and peanut butter oh yum!
Can’t find it make your own
shredd sharp cheddar
a jar of diced pimentos
mayo to mix.
Hi you all from Texas! I love your blog! I used to love to eat mayo and onion and mayo and pickle sandwiches. Oh my goodness that was when I was pregnant with my youngest son, I have not craved those combinations since then! LOL
Christy,
In my country baked and fried bananas are a popular thing to eat, although we do it a bit differently. We actually slide the banana, lenghwise or in small circular pieces. If it’s lenghtwise, it just goes directly to fry in some oil or butter (real butter), then remove the excess with some paper towels and serve with cream or ice cream. You can also add some rum to the mix while frying to flambe and it tastes even better. If you cut them in circular chunks, then fry both sides for a bit, just enough to brown the ends a bit and soften the banana, then take the pieces off the oil and flatten them like you would a tortilla, soak them for only a second or two in salty water and return them to the oil to finish frying. Those are called tostones and are so good with cream and refried beans. The best bananas for this are the plantain (platano macho).
My mom used to bake bananas in their peel and eat them with butter and sweet condensed milk (La Lechera).
This brings back memories…
Just so happens I”m grilling ribs tonight and just bought bananas so guess I will have to try this! Thanks!
Along the lines of the mayo thread here… That Kraft sandwich spread, bologna (baloney as it’s properly pronounced down here) and white bread. Now that’s good eatin’. Of course it don’t taste quite as good as it did those summers 40 years ago sittin’ on Granny’s back porch eatin’ those with blackberry cobbler and sweet tea. I never could eat the mayo and onion sandwiches my Daddy loved though.
and fry that bologna,too!!! MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
Man, its great to be so easily thrilled. 🙂 I just love us!
Gooooooooooooo bananas, go go bananas! Is my little girl the only one who does that cheer? Anyway, these look awesome.
~does her best cheerleader stance and commences with the pacing clap~
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Bananas! Go,go bananas!!!!
You lean to the left, and you lean to the right, and you peel your banana and Unh! Take a bite!
I can remember being a little girl and in the Summertime my Daddy would put a big ol slice of Grainger County (TN) juicy tomato, slice of Vidalia onion, fried bologna, and LOTS of mayo on some fresh Sunbeam bread…it was a favorite of his. In fact, I think it still is!
And I’ll never forget my uncle who used to put Blue Plate mayo in his mashed potatoes!!!
Speaking mayo in the mashed potatoes. It not only goes in all my mashed potatoes but also my cornbread instead of grease. My Daddy taught me that. It comes out so nice and almost cake like–yum yum. Only difference is our mayo is always Bama although I used Blue Plate while living in SC and TX because we couldn’t buy Bama at the store. I usually bought a number of jars while on visits home!
Hope
My girls go to a church camp every summer and make these and I live in the Western States. They wrap them in foil and add almost everything but the kitchen sink it seems. Chocolate, carmel, marshmellows, nuts anything that would go on ice cream, then they throw them on the campfire coals till there done. Great for those of you who love to camp and have a sweet tooth.
Janice,
That’s how I make grill bananas. Girl scout camp.. made banana boats. We put marshmellows and chocolate in the banana, wrapped them in foil and throw them on the fire. YUM YUM! Still eat them to this day.
Yello from Southeast Texas!!!
I have a couple friends, from up North, that thought I was positively out of my mind when I said I liked Coke. When they begin talking about classic Coca-Cola, I stopped them and said, “No, I like Dr. Pepper!”
We are always gettin’ teased about the “Coke” thing.
Also, when it comes to weird, I’ve been told that we are all ‘lazy speakers’. That we leave the “g” off of all our words.
Especially ” ’em ” Like go get ’em.
We didn’t do the wave when driving, you do the one finger up off the steerin’ wheel.
It really is hard to think up more “weird” things about us, but like you said……it’s NORMAL to us.
Oh, and so much of my family does the “yell-oh” when they answer the phone or greet someone! LOL And “helluva”.
One lady in my women’s church group said that when she went to Chicago about 2 months ago, she had people asking she and her husband what their horse’s names were and what does their horse and wagon look like. LOL They seriously thought that in Texas, we still use horse and buggy to get around on an everyday basis. My grandmother did for most of her child and teen life, but still….that’s funny! And they all think we have oil wells in our backyard. Oh, and how big our cowboy hats are! LOL Too funny!
That just makes me think they are out of touch and a little odd, NOT US!
Speaking of sandwiches, just last week I was eating a miracle whip and lettuce sandwich! LOL I used to eat those all the time as a kid. And one of my friends from elem school would eat canned mushrooms on mayo/bread. Hmmm….Don’t know about that one!
We do the same thing with coke.
Can I get you something to drink?
Sure, I’ll take a coke.
What kind?
7 Up, thanks.
Unfortunately I think manners are seen as weird southern things. I called a store in Ohio and said yes ma’am to the lady on the line and she started laughing at me and asked if other people down here really say that. I’m just glad her momma didn’t hear her!
Speaking of the horse and buggy thing…when I was about 10 yrs old, my family went to Michigan where I was competing in a baton twirling competition. I nearly fell out when some girls asked if my twirling shoes were the only pair of shoes I owned and if I had bought them just for the competition!!! They seriously thought that we only got “1 pair of shoes a year”!!!! And the call us weird….
Pork fat rules!!! My aunt turned me on to peanut butter & bacon sandwiches and I love ’em.
Also, when we were younger we’d have sugar & butter sandwiches. It was born out of what you had on hand!!!….Tammy
What about peanut butter and pickle sandwiches. Anyone ever do that? Or eating an onion straight from the garden?
My grandpa (PawPaw) would eat onions as though they were apples. And pop cloves of garlic in his mouth, like candy. Also, eating tomatoes whole, also like apples.
I LOVE peanut butter and pickle sandwiches! I grew up eating them and so did my dad. Now our youngest son requests them. DON’T KNOCK IT UNTIL YOU TRY IT. =)
Hugs,
Jamie