(sigh)
When I was growing up in southeastern Virginia -- "nine miles from Carolina" they used to say -- my grandmother would make the most beautiful wreaths and table arrangements from magnolia leaves and blooms. Those huge dark green leaves with the creamy white blossoms sitting atop a white lace cloth for Sunday dinner was the ultimate southern table. The beauty was in the simplicity of it. Add a couple of pitchers of sweet iced tea (which, of course, you sweeten when the tea is still hot so that all the sugar dissolves) and you have the beginnings of a southern sit-down that would always include fried chicken, creamed potatoes, butterbeans, corn, deviled eggs, homemade rolls or biscuits (there wasn't any such thing as biscuits in a can!), coconut cake and a couple of berry pies. FIXINS, as it were.
