A Love Affair With Southern Cooking_ Recipes and Recollections - Jean Anderson [23]
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LITTLE DEBBIE SNACK CAKES
“Is there a real little Debbie?”
According to the Little Debbie website, that’s the number one frequently asked question. And the answer?
Yes, that curly-headed moppet in the broad-brimmed straw hat is indeed real. She’s the granddaughter of McKee Foods founder O. D. McKee of Collegedale, Tennessee.
Back in 1960 when McKee’s first snack cake—the Oatmeal Creme Pie—was ready for sale in family-pack cartons (an American first), he needed a catchy name. Packaging supplier Bob Mosher suggested using the name of a family member. And that got McKee to thinking. He loved the snapshot of his little granddaughter in her favorite straw hat. Exactly the image McKee wanted. So Little Debbie, then just four, became the company icon.
Those first Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies sailed off the shelves in 1960 at forty-nine cents a carton—more than fourteen million of them in less than a year. Since then, the variety of snack cakes has increased seventy-five-fold with Swiss Cake Rolls the current favorite, Nutty Bars Wafer Bars placing second, and the original Oatmeal Creme Pies not far behind. Prices are up, too, but not enough to dent sales wherever Little Debbies are sold: in all fifty states, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico plus U.S. military bases around the world.
Line up the 133 billion-plus Little Debbie Snack Cakes that have sold since 1960 and they’d stretch to the moon and back four times.
Talk about taking the cake!
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1. Line a mesh colander or large fine sieve with a clean, dry dish towel; add the cucumbers, onion, and salt; toss well; then let drain for about 1 hour. Bundle the cucumber mixture in the towel, then wring as dry as possible.
2. Place the cucumber mixture in a small bowl and blend in 1/3 cup of the mayonnaise along with the pepper.
3. Using the remaining 1/3 cup mayonnaise, lightly spread half of the bread slices. Spread the remaining slices with the cucumber mixture, then sandwich the two together, pressing down lightly.
4. With a sharp knife, halve each sandwich on the diagonal so that you have two small triangular sandwiches.
5. Arrange on a colorful plate and pass with cocktails.
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CHEERWINE
Salisbury, a small town in North Carolina’s rolling Piedmont, has a few claims to fame. George Washington passed through in 1791, Andrew Jackson came to study law, and a notorious Confederate prison was located here. But many would say that Salisbury’s greatest distinction is that it’s the birthplace of Cheerwine.
It all began in 1917 in the basement of a wholesale grocery store owned by L. D. Peeler near the railroad tracks. Peeler and a group of investors had bought out a Kentucky beverage company and founded the Carolina Beverage Corporation.
A salesman from St. Louis passed through town that year and sold Peeler the recipe for a wild cherry flavoring. He blended it with nine other flavors and presto: Cheerwine, a fizzy soft drink the color of Burgundy wine.
Although somewhat extravagantly called “the Nectar of the Tar Heels,” Cheerwine remained a Salisbury secret for many years. Drive a few miles in any direction and nobody had even heard of it. As late as the mid-1940s a young Salisburian traveled to Raleigh to join the Marines. Sitting down to lunch at a drugstore counter, he ordered a sandwich and a Cheerwine.
“Sir,” sniffed the counterman, “we don’t sell wine in drugstores.”
Fifty years later, a Salisburian whose brother lived in Birmingham, Alabama, was assured that he was welcome to visit as long as he brought a few six-packs of Cheerwine.
Today, Cheerwine’s website tells the story of an expanding empire. The drink is now available in thirteen states, mostly southern, but there are a few outposts as far west as Texas.
What’s more, two years ago Cheerwine announced an agreement with a Norwegian firm to bottle the drink in Oslo. And there have even been feelers from Russia and Africa.
The drink itself is not the only product offered by Cheerwine’s makers. There is Diet Cheerwine, of course, and a sherbet called