By Michel McNeese
Before the first hymn is sung, before the football team runs onto the field, and before old friends begin catching up, someone is already carrying a casserole through the door.
A folding table slowly fills with dishes wrapped in towels to keep them warm. Cakes arrive beneath glass domes. Someone is arranging deviled eggs while another carefully sets down a bowl of potato salad. There is laughter in the kitchen, hugs at the entrance and the familiar question that seems to begin every gathering.
“What did you bring?”
September has always been a season of homecomings in Johnston County.
For some families, that means returning to a church where parents, grandparents and great-grandparents once worshipped. For others, it means school homecomings, neighborhood reunions or gathering with friends they haven’t seen since summer began. However we celebrate, one tradition rarely changes.
We gather around the table.
Long before modern kitchens and electric slow cookers, harvest season naturally brought communities together. Crops had been gathered, gardens were still producing and families had something to share. Rather than asking one household to feed everyone, each family contributed a favorite dish. The result was more than a meal. It was a celebration of generosity, gratitude and community.
That tradition continues today.
Walk through almost any Southern homecoming meal and you’ll find recipes that have been passed from one generation to the next. Fried chicken. Homemade biscuits. Fresh vegetables. Macaroni and cheese. Green beans seasoned with a bit of bacon.
And then there is the dessert table. Somehow, even after a generous meal, there is always room for dessert.
By late September, North Carolina’s peach season is beginning to wind down. The baskets at roadside stands may not be quite as full as they were in midsummer, but there are still enough beautiful peaches for one last celebration before apples and pumpkins take center stage.
Perhaps that is why peach cobbler feels so perfectly at home on a September table.
Simple to prepare and always welcome, warm peach cobbler has become one of those desserts that bridges generations. Children enjoy it with melting vanilla ice cream while grandparents compare it to the one their mothers used to make.
Food has a remarkable way of preserving memories.
Years from now, we may not remember every conversation from a homecoming gathering or every score from a football game. But we’ll remember who sat beside us, who insisted we take another helping and the familiar taste of a favorite family recipe shared around the table.
Perhaps that is the true meaning of homecoming. Returning to the people who make it feel like home.
Old-Fashioned Southern Peach Cobbler
Serves 8
Ingredients
- 6 cups fresh peaches, peeled and sliced
- 1 cup granulated sugar, divided
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Pour the melted butter into a 9 x 13-inch baking dish.
- Toss the peaches with 1/2 cup sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla.
- In another bowl, whisk together the flour, remaining sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the milk until just combined.
- Pour the batter over the melted butter. Do not stir.
- Spoon the peaches and their juices evenly over the batter. Again, do not stir.
- Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until golden brown and bubbling.
- Cool for 10 minutes before serving.
Serve warm, preferably with vanilla ice cream.
