Dolly Parton Wrote A Cookbook With Her Sister…And They Used to Eat Groundhog?!
Dolly Parton truly does it all. The award-winning country music star has had more than just hit songs: Parton has starred in her own movies and TV shows, released her own books and fragrances, and even been the figurehead of a whole amusement park called Dollywood. And now, she’s cookin’ up another item to sell: a cookbook featuring her sister Rachel Parton George and their beloved family recipes. Good Lookin’ Cookin’: A Year of Meals – A Lifetime of Family, Friends, and Food is available now, and the sisters swung by GMA to share a few recipes from the book, including some delicious-looking ribs.
Dolly grew up with 11 siblings, so there was always something to cook, bake or clean for the clan. As one of the oldest, she developed a love of cooking from a young age, helping out her mama. “We’d have to climb up on the chairs to peel potatoes, turnips or whatever,” she explained. “We were really helping out when Mama was not well, or in bed with a kid or having a new baby or whatever… so my first [lesson] came out of just really being a necessity of us helping Mom as the older girls.”
There are over 80 recipes in the cookbook. One that didn’t make it in? Groundhog. Yes, the Parton family ate groundhogs — or as they called them, “whistle pigs” — as well squirrels and rabbits, because they had to put food on the table and those animals were easy to catch. What did make it into the cookbook were more recipes for other popular foods, including meatloaf, spare ribs, macaroni and cheese, strawberry shortcake and more Southern-style favorites.
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Another recipe that didn’t make it into the book? Chicken and dumplings, because Dolly, Rachel and some of their other siblings make such different versions. Rachel joked, “Our family, we all have a different recipe, and sometimes if we’re having a get together, someone will say, ‘Well I’m going to bring chicken and dumplings.’ And I’ll say, ‘Well, I might bring chicken and dumplings.’ So we might have five versions of chicken and dumplings.”
Tell us, what’s your favorite meal to cook?
Queens of Country
November 2019
Get your toes-tapping as we give a nod to the queens of classic country music.
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