Food, Fellowship & Brenda featuring Brenda Gantt
The Southern hostess-with-the-mostest and Facebook cooking sensation Brenda Gantt invites the fellas into her cozy home and famous Cottle House Bed & Breakfast in Andalusia, Alabama to teach us how to make some good old-fashioned Pecan and Buttermilk Pies worthy of her now-famous slogan, "It's gonna be good y'all!"
Transcript
Mark: Dinner Conversations is brought to you by Food for the Hungry, an incredible relief and community development organization serving those with physical and spiritual needs around the world for 50 years this year.
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What am I doing? You might ask. I'm driving a van with a crew 'cause we're going to meet Mark, King Mark, who drove in on his bus in south Alabama to see Mrs. Brenda Gantt, Cooking with Brenda. Everyone knows her, she's a Facebook, Instagram sensation. We've yet to reach that level here on Dinner Conversations, and that's why I'm in a charcoal minivan driving up now.
Mark: We are at the table of Brenda Gantt, that's Cooking with Brenda Gantt on Facebook. She's got 2.7 million followers.
Andrew: I'm just behind you.
Brenda: Are you?
Mark: And we are so excited to show you her kitchen, her life, and this is an exciting place. I've been here before just to go to the Cottle House.
Andrew: And she's teaching us how to cook.
Mark: She is.
Andrew: Us old bachelors.
Mark: Two pies, I cooked two pies today.
Andrew: You did.
Mark: There's one seat left at the table, and it's yours.
Andrew: So let's join the conversation.
Mark: We are in the internationally famous, miss Cooking with Brenda Gantt on Facebook, Cooking with Brenda Gantt, G-A-N-T-T.
Andrew: He's so good at that advertising.
Mark: And she is gonna teach me how to make a pecan pie with Priester's Pecans. These are very special Alabama pecans.
Brenda: That's right, that's right.
Andrew: And I'm just being a helper, so you just tell me what you do...
Brenda: Yeah, all my kids, all my grandkids, come here, Banks. Let 'em see. I only got one here tonight.
Andrew: Hey, Banks.
Brenda: This is my Banksy. We call her Banks. Anyway, this is what she calls me. What do you call me?
Banks: Big Mama.
Brenda: Big Mama.
Andrew: And then who says "it's gonna be good, y'all"?
Brenda: I say that.
Mark: That's right.
Brenda: And everybody in America.
Andrew: They know it.
Mark: I'll say it now.
Brenda: Thanks, darling.
Mark: If you're not following Cooking with Brenda Gantt on Facebook, let me just tell you, I don't even know how I discovered her, but you are...
Brenda: Well, I know, I remember. You got to craving a biscuit, and so he said, he told his friends, he said, "You know, we're fixing to go to Alabama." And they said, "What are we going for?" He said, "A biscuit." And I won't say exactly what they said, but they said it better be good.
Mark: We did. We came, a bunch of my friends from college came, and stayed at the Cottle House, which is across the street, that she and her husband who's passed away, they started how many years ago?
Brenda: The Cottle House? '96, '96.
Mark: You gotta come stay, it's a riot. And she still comes over and cooks breakfast for the people staying in the Cottle House.
Brenda: We do. We have scrambled eggs with bacon on top, and we have smoked link sausages, and we have a fried apple pie and biscuits.
Andrew: Good for weight loss?
Brenda: And cheese grits. Yeah, it's real good for weight loss.
Andrew: Well, what you got today? What are you gonna help us make?
Brenda: So we're gonna make a pecan pie. So the first thing I want you to do, Mark, is to crack these eggs and try not to get a shell in it.
Mark: Okay, I'll do that.
Brenda: And put that in there, and we're gonna stir that up.
Andrew: Such a tender touch.
Mark: Oh, I'm telling you.
Brenda: Y'all, I would like to say these are yard eggs, but they're not though. We bought 'em.
Mark: Did you get them at the Piggly?
Brenda: No, no, I didn't.
Andrew: But that is kind of part of your thing, making the kitchen more accessible for people, right? They don't have to have chickens in their yard.
Brenda: That's exactly right.
All right, so just kinda stir that around a little bit. You're supposed to tilt your bowl.
Andrew: I knew that.
Mark: I didn't know that.
Brenda: You knew that?
Andrew: I knew that, yeah.
Mark: Look at here, how's that?
Brenda: Actually, you're doing a great job.
Mark: Look how good I'm doing, y'all.
Brenda: Let me do it a time or two.
Mark: Okay, you do it. You show me how to do it.
Brenda: You've got to, the egg's gotta come up over like this.
Andrew: Oh, oh, that's called whipping them, right?
Brenda: That's whipping them. That puts more air in there, and it does better like that.
All right, so next you're gonna put in your sugar, and we need, well, y'all know that we had three eggs, but now we're gonna, so y'all will know, this is coming outta my recipe book right here.
Mark: Yes, show that.
Andrew: Here, I'll hold that while you...
Brenda: No, we can just let them see the pages, so they're gonna have to buy it to look in it.
Mark: But you wanna buy it, y'all. I've got one.
Brenda: So anyway, so they're putting in now, he's putting in a half a cup of sugar. Tilt your bowl.
Mark: Oh, tilt my bowl.
Brenda: Slow learner today.
Mark: Okay.
Brenda: There you go. You're doing good now. You got it going.
Mark: Is that right?
Brenda: Yeah.
Andrew: So even bachelors can cook, huh? You know, we're two old bachelors.
Brenda: You wouldn't believe how many happy men I have in America. I had a lot of men that came over to the Cottle House, and they said, "I am so happy." And I said, "What you happy for?" "'Cause my wife is finally cooking after 50 years, and she's learned how to make biscuits." So, and they'll rub their bellies and say, "This is a biscuit belly."
Andrew: Did you tell 'em they could cook too?
Brenda: Yeah, yeah.
Andrew: Cook for their wives?
Brenda: As a matter of fact, let me tell you this story. Have we got time to tell it?
Mark: Yeah, we got time.
Andrew: We got time.
Brenda: This man went into the kitchen, y'all, and his wife was trying so hard to make biscuits like this, like I do, and she said, "I just can't do it. My hand ain't working." And he said, she had to be on the video, she was watching me at the time. He said, "Just move over. I can do this." And so he moved over, and he made the biscuits. And they were delicious, so she said and he said that every Saturday he gets up and they have fresh biscuits every Saturday.
Andrew: Really?
Mark: Nice.
Andrew: You know my dad cooked breakfast every Saturday. My mom cooked all week long, Dad did it on Saturday. That's right.
Brenda: That's right.
All right, So this is your...
Mark: Corn syrup.
Brenda: Corn syrup. And we've got, how much we got in there? We've got a cup.
Mark: Right at a little bit over a cup, it looks like.
Brenda: Well, it shouldn't, my measure goes, just pour it in there.
Andrew: That's safe for diabetics, right?
Brenda: And yes, and yeah, rake it out good with that so we can get all of it.
Mark: All the goodies.
Brenda: All the goody, that's what I call it.
Mark: I know. I follow you.
Brenda: All right, he's doing a fine job here with that.
Mark: That makes me feel so good.
Brenda: All right, now whip a little bit.
Mark: Okay.
Andrew: Oh, that's kind of a sloppy whip, isn't it?
Brenda: All right, so you're gonna need a little vanilla flavoring, and we're going need a teaspoon. You wanna do this?
Andrew: I'll do it, sure.
Mark: Come on now.
Andrew: Now, just an even teaspoon, right?
Brenda: An even teaspoon.
Andrew: All right, don't pour the whole thing.
Mark: Can you believe Brenda Gantt is teaching us how to make a pie? Most people have to watch her.
Brenda: You know, a lot of people like pecan pie, but they think it's hard to do, and it's really one of the easiest pies.
Andrew: Can I see that?
Mark: She doesn't trust you.
Brenda: Right, so this is it. That is your filling right there.
Mark: Your base.
Brenda: The base. And so now you're going to pour out pecans, and it says to do a cup and a half, and these are the whole pecans right here, y'all. They're... Let me show 'em to you. You see what I'm saying?
Andrew: So don't get the haves or the...
Brenda: And you wanna make sure, well, you could get the ones that are already kind of cut up, but we're not gonna do that today. But anyway, what I want to tell you is this. This has to be mixed in here. You don't just lay 'em pretty on the top because if you do, your pecans will burn. It's got to have some of this goody on it.
Mark: Okay.
Brenda: So go ahead and pour about a cup and a half. That's good.
Mark: Just a little bit more.
Brenda: Well, let's do one for good measure.
Andrew: Okay.
Mark: All right. And dump 'em in?
Brenda: Put 'em in and stir it around.
Andrew: Now do measurements have to be exact? Like my mom always did exact measurements.
Brenda: They're... When you're making cakes, pies, and cookies, you want to get as close as you can on measurements, but now, that's the only time you need to be measuring something. You, everything else, you just dump a little mayonnaise in or dump a little squash.
Andrew: By taste?
Brenda: A handful of cheese, you know what I'm saying?
Andrew: Yeah, yeah.
Brenda: Because if you measure everything you cook in life, you're gonna hate the kitchen.
Mark: But when you put this together, you had to go in and measure.
Brenda: I had to measure for everybody, like it drove me crazy.
Mark: I bet it did.
Brenda: All right, so y'all, being that Mark is not a professional cook yet, we decided to buy a pie shell.
Mark: Don't tell them. They would never have known.
Andrew: Do you usually make yours?
Brenda: Yes.
Andrew: Okay.
Brenda: So anyways, so just pour that in there.
Mark: Okay.
Andrew: Oh, that's nice, Mark.
Mark: Wait, I'm gonna spread it out.
Brenda: And we're gonna cook this on a 350 degree oven. See how the... Let me hold that where he can see. See how the juice is over the pecans? So that's what makes it taste good, okay.
Mark: That's good.
Brenda: All right, I'm gonna pop this in the oven.
Andrew: Can we lick that?
Brenda: Some people do.
Andrew: Here you go.
Brenda: Oh my goodness, I got something else in there. I gotta get that out.
Andrew: Do you want us to grab that?
Brenda: I made a green bean casserole, y'all. Let me get that thing. They're gonna eat with me tonight.
Mark: We are.
Andrew: We are honored. This is like, this is the sacred kitchen.
Mark: It is.
Brenda: This is a green bean casserole we've got, and it's nice. It's gonna be delicious. We got us some cornbread over here, a ham. Come here and look at this, what else we gonna have. Those are candied yams. Is that, don't that look good? And our ham, my big old ham's, in here. We got turnip greens and cornbread and sourdough bread and pepper jelly.
Andrew: Can you do that without thinking about it? Do you just do that without like if I look at this and thought about having 11 people over or how many are here tonight?
Brenda: Oh, it's fine. It's all turned out good.
Mark: She can do it in her sleep.
Andrew: I don't get it.
Brenda: So y'all, we've got that, the pecan pie on. Did we turn? I had the oven already warm, but let me turn it back.
Mark: 350?
Brenda: Yeah, 350. All right, it's going.
Now, we're gonna make another pie. Since we've got 11 of us, we're gonna, we want another pie. So this time we're gonna make something that's real southern. This is called a buttermilk pie, and we're going turn the paper over, and it's in the recipe book too.
Andrew: That you can purchase.
Mark: That's right.
Brenda: Yes, you can, you gotta.
Mark: You can pre-order it.
Andrew: That's right.
Brenda: That's right.
Andrew: By the time this episode airs, there'll be more in stock.
Brenda: So what we're gonna need on that. Let's see, we're gonna need vanilla. Let me get it back over here.
Andrew: No, see that's what I like.
Brenda: Hey, we gonna need a bowl again.
Mark: Oh yeah.
Brenda: I wonder how it'd be just to use this. Let's just use the same bowl. It doesn't matter. I mean, little syrup in it, it'll be fine.
Mark: Absolutely.
Andrew: Smells so good.
Brenda: It does.
Mark: Okay, now what?
Brenda: All right, so here we go. Buttermilk pie, you ready to mix?
Mark: I'm ready.
Brenda: You ready to critique him?
Andrew: Okay, I'll critique, yeah. You think he's got it this time?
Mark: You want me to crack the eggs?
Brenda: So, I'll read the recipe.
Mark: Okay.
Brenda: We need one pie crust.
Mark: Yeah, we do. There it is.
Brenda: There's our homemade. No, it's not homemade. Okay, see, this is what y'all need to do in your kitchens with your babies so that they can come out and cook and do some stuff.
All right, so Mark, take your cup of sugar and put it in your bowl.
Mark: Okay.
Brenda: And ooh, must have been wet in there.
Mark: That'll make 'em good.
Brenda: All right, so then we're going take two tablespoons. Now this is White Lily all purpose flour.
Mark: Not self rising.
Brenda: No, all purpose. Y'all, I call it plain, that's what I call it.
Put that two tablespoons of that in.
Mark: All right.
Brenda: Here's you something to stir around a little bit.
Oh my goodness, let me go put this in the microwave real quick. Y'all just continue to stir. Melt that for us. Banks said she'd do it. Banksy's melting our butter.
We've got two tablespoons of butter in there. I tell you what you can do while she's doing that. You can go ahead and put your eggs in, and it said to beat 'em. So please beat it in here.
Mark: I beat 'em first.
Brenda: I had a lady up the road, she brought me some eggs. She said she had the prettiest chicken house in this country, and anyway, her eggs were green and blue and speckled and beautiful, beautiful eggs.
Andrew: You didn't wanna crack 'em did you?
Brenda: No, I didn't.
Mark: I mean, you had some double yolk eggs for a while.
Brenda: I did. I had...
Andrew: So how does that happen? Is that like twins?
Brenda: There you go, Mark.
Mark: Am I doing all right?
Brenda: Thank you, Banks.
Mark: Thank you, Banks.
Brenda: It's good to have a little helper, ain't it?
Okay, go ahead and put that in, and then you stir that.
Mark: Oh, sorry.
Brenda: Look at his finger y'all.
Andrew: Ooh, what is that?
Brenda: Butter.
Mark: Butter, all right.
Brenda: All right, let's see what else we got right here. All we got to put in now is the vanilla and the buttermilk.
Andrew: Oh, I got you. I'm your vanilla man. A teaspoon?
Mark: I've always wondered how to make this.
Andrew: All right, one teaspoon?
Brenda: Yes.
Andrew: Or what you got?
Brenda: No, they put tablespoon.
Andrew: What do you think?
Brenda: I think it's table.
Andrew: Okay. Yeah, that's my kind of pie. You got a tablespoon.
Brenda: I'm trying to read my writing.
Mark: Whoa, that's a tablespoon. Is that too much?
Brenda: You know, back in the olden days, women did this.
Mark: Oh, they did?
Brenda: Did you know that, Banks?
Banks: Yes, I did.
Brenda: Who told you?
Banks: I've done it before.
Brenda: You've done it before?
Andrew: You have? What for?
Brenda: So she'd smell good.
Banks: Big Mamma told me about it one time.
Brenda: I smell like a cookie.
Andrew: Did you meet any new boys at school that day?
Brenda: I smell like a cookie, don't I? I smell like a cookie.
Andrew: You do. You smell like Christmastime.
Brenda: All right, so we've got that. I think the last thing is the buttermilk. Go ahead and put that in. And that, tell 'em how much we got in there.
Mark: We have one half cup of buttermilk, and if you don't have buttermilk, you can take sweet milk and add…
Brenda: Vinegar, they say.
Mark: Vinegar.
Brenda: But I always have buttermilk.
Mark: But I wonder if they have it everywhere in the country, do you think?
Brenda: Now here's the good thing, y'all, about this pie. I bet y'all have every single bit of these items in your pantry, and if somebody pops in, you can always make a buttermilk pie.
Andrew: Yeah, there was nothing complicated about any of this.
Brenda: No, no.
Mark: I can do it.
Andrew: Now, Mark does make a pretty mean little chili.
Mark: Yeah, I make good chili.
Brenda: He makes a good taco too. He made those for me.
Mark: That was good but not as good as I'd hoped.
Brenda: They were good.
Mark: You're so sweet.
Brenda: All right, I guess that's ready. You got it. Let me do one good, just for good measure.
Mark: All right.
Brenda: I'm scared.
Mark: You're scared? She's scared, y'all.
Brenda: Well, I want it to taste good.
Mark: Oh, I do too.
Brenda: All right, so that's all it is now. So when we put these in the oven, y'all, when you take 'em out… Is that sugar that didn't dissolve? What are you...?
Andrew: I don't know, yeah, kinda
Mark: It'll dissolve in the heat.
Andrew: Can I lick that?
Brenda: You better not, raw eggs.
Andrew: Raw eggs.
Mark: I make ice cream with raw eggs. I eat 'em.
Brenda: All right, y'all listen. When we put this in, we're gonna leave it about 30, 40 minutes, but it's got to have a slight jiggle. When you look in there and it just barely jiggles, it's done cause if you cook it too long, it's not gonna be good. So let me put this in.
Andrew: You ready?
Brenda: The good thing about making this is both of these pies cook on the same temperature, 350.
Mark: Oh, that is good.
Brenda: So you could have a… And most pies do cook on that, so that's good. So we've gotten all this done. We're just going… After a while, I'm gonna let Mark wash dishes.
Andrew: Yeah, there we go.
Mark: We do need that, we need that.
Brenda: And that'll be a good thing.
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Andrew: Where did you first learn to cook? Who taught you to cook?
Brenda: My mama. And she married at 17-years-old, and she didn't know how to cook, so daddy's mother and his aunts taught my mother and my mother taught me.
And the way she taught me was this. She always made me be in the kitchen, even when I was little. She would put me in there, and she'd say, "Stir this or set the table or," and you see it happening. You see it like that.
Let me stir it a little bit.
Mark: And she also said you're the messiest cook, right?
Brenda: She did. She said, "Brenda, you're the messiest thing." Well, actually she told me I'd mess up a two car funeral, but she said it tastes good.
Mark: Yeah, that's all that matters.
I love the story of how this all happened. I want you to tell these sweet people watching how you got to from just being Big Mama to 2.7 million followers on Facebook.
Brenda: Okay.
Mark: Tell me.
Brenda: All right, so y'all, my husband had dementia. So I took care of him for probably a year or two, a long time. But anyway, after he passed away, some guys in my church, and they're millennials, they asked me to do a little cooking show for, not cooking show, cooking lessons.
Mark: A video.
Brenda: Yeah. No, just they were gonna pay me for their wives to come to my house to learn how to cook.
Andrew: Cool. Wait, they were gonna pay to have their wives learn how to cook?
Mark: He's gonna pay her to teach the wife.
Brenda: So anyway, and they know how to cook. It's just they wanted something fattening, I guess. The millennials eat healthy. So anyway, so I told them, I said, "I ain't got time, y'all. I ain't got time."
So one day I was cooking dinner or lunch for Banks and her sisters. I do that every Sunday. So I decided I'd cook some biscuits. I stuck my hand down in the bowl, and I thought, I'm just gonna video this. So I held my phone like that. Well, actually I'm right-handed. I did like this. This is my phone hand. I made the biscuits with one hand. I pat 'em out, cut 'em out, put 'em on the little thing. I said, "Y'all, this is simple. You can do it." And so we put it on my Facebook page, and I had about 500 followers, mostly church folks, and I guess everybody shared it.
And so, because of that, within two weeks, it hit a million views, and here's the thing, the Lord did that. I had no plans. I had no plans to have a cooking show. I had no plans to teach anybody how to cook, but I did that that day, and that's showing that God opens doors for people. If you walk in, you're blessed, but some people don't walk in. And one day, this door too will be closed, and he'll open another one for whatever.
Mark: But you did, you prayed a prayer, right? Tell that part.
Brenda: Yes, I prayed that the Lord would help me to be a good influence on people and to be helpful and show me what I needed to do because I had been tending to my husband and I felt kinda like in a daze, I guess you'd say. You didn't know what you're supposed to do with your life, and I wanted to be helpful.
Mark: And I think everybody watching, pray that prayer. "Lord, please let me be helpful. let me bless someone today." I think that is the most incredible prayer, and I tell people about you in my concerts sometimes.
Andrew: For any age.
Mark: Any age, that's right, especially if you're now a widow, which many of you watching probably are 'cause I have a lot of single women following me that are widows and never married and that type of thing.
Brenda: Well, they have to get out. You got to get out and see what doors are opened, and so my prayer is that we could be a light for those that need a light and...
Andrew: Do you feel like a lot of people in that kind of age range of whatever, 65-plus, who are finding themselves maybe at a retirement age or maybe they are widowed, like Mark was saying...
Brenda: And they've given up their jobs.
Andrew: Yeah, do you feel like a lot of them feel an aimlessness? Are you hearing that from people, that they're finding new motivations in your...
Brenda: Yes, I am, and a lot of the gifts that people have been sending me, great things. Some of them are painters, some of them are book writers, some of them sew or they knit and they crochet, and they make crafts and they do all this fine stuff, and some of 'em are cooks. They just watch me to be with me. They already know all this stuff. They're good cooks. And so I do find that, but we all have a purpose, everybody. Banks has got a purpose too.
Andrew: I've heard you talk about how, I saw this in the interview, which it was a great interview, and they were talking about people who don't really, like my generation and below, millennials and below, don't really know what to do with the kitchen. We're kind of intimidated by it because we've always had food at our fingertips going out. So you're kind of helping instill in us it doesn't have to be difficult, it doesn't have to be hard, but it is important.
Brenda: Yes, it is. It's important because during the pandemic, I had one lady that wrote in, and she said, "I have had to cook three meals today." Well, in the olden days, that wasn't anything. You cook breakfast, you cook dinner, and you cooked supper, and that was… But she was in shock 'cause you couldn't go out and get any chicken fingers.
Mark: Don't you think though living in Andalusia where there's really nowhere to eat out-
Andrew: There's a Subway.
Brenda: Well, we've got a few.
Mark: I mean, there's not as many.
Brenda: I know, as big towns, but listen, I will say this, our restaurants are good. And I will say this, they're always crowded because you don't have so many and everybody goes to...
Mark: Have you thought about starting one?
Brenda: Everybody's asked me to.
Mark: Miss Brenda's.
Brenda: But I'm not because you gotta be married to a restaurant.
Mark: Yeah, you do.
Brenda: You're married to it. I mean, it's full-time.
Mark: Well, where do you see all this going? Do you think you're gonna run outta recipes?
Brenda: Oh no.
Mark: Really?
Andrew: Why is that? Well, where do they come from?
Brenda: Well, I made one up the other day, and everybody loved it. I told 'em to name it.
Mark: What was it?
Brenda: Well, I hadn't named it yet.
Mark: Well, what was in it? What was in it?
Brenda: I tell you what, I went to the beach with all my girlfriends, and so when we got home, you know, when you go off and you look in your refrigerator, there's nothing there because you cleaned it out before you left. But I saw I had three apples, I had some bacon, and I had some butter. So I split my apple open, and I cored it out, and I put brown sugar in it. I put a pat of butter on top, some cinnamon and cheese. Then I got my bacon, and I wrapped it around the apple, put it in a casserole dish, and baked it. It was so good.
Mark: I bet.
Brenda: Bacon was real crispy and the apple was tender. So I mean...
Mark: What are we gonna name that? Let's have a contest.
Brenda: We already did.
Mark: Oh, what'd you name it?
Brenda: I hadn't picked it, but there must have been maybe 200 or 300 names. They were all good.
Mark: People called, wrote in.
Brenda: I told 'em, I said, "Y'all help me name it." So if I need a name for it, I'm gonna pick one of the names.
Mark: Well, you will need a name for it now.
Andrew: Why do you think it's important that we, like we're about to go eat, you've prepared this beautiful meal for us.
Mark: A banquet.
Andrew: Yeah, and there's 11 of us here, and we're gonna go sit down around that big table that your husband made from wood here in the area.
Brenda: Right.
Andrew: Why do you think it's important that we gather around the table and food as a motivator for that?
Brenda: Because we bond, we bond, that is how you bond. When Banks and them come over here on Sundays, we sit around the kitchen table 'cause we could all fit around it, and we sit there, we talk, we bond together.
Mark: And I love the way you pray before this, the meal. Y'all stand.
Brenda: We always hold hands.
Mark: Yeah, I was here once. Me and my fab five from college, we go on a trip about twice a year where we chose Cottle House 'cause we were hoping we'd meet Brenda, and she of course came over and then we sang together. She had never sung really in public.
Brenda: No.
Mark: But what a fun time that was around your table, and I loved how y'all got up, and every Sunday they stand up around the table, hold hands, and pray. I was in this circle, and I loved it.
Andrew: It's like the dinner table is kind of more like church in a lot of places.
Brenda: And you know, if I were talking to the people out in Facebook land, which I guess I am, here's what I would say. Don't bring your cell phone to the table. Turn them off, and at least sit there 10 minutes after you finish eating and discuss something and talk.
I know when my kids were little, we had those phones that went on your wall.
Andrew: The cord.
Brenda: Yeah, the cord. So you just took the phone, you took that part off, laid it down, and nobody could call. And we'd say, "Did y'all take the phone off the hook?"
Mark: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah.
Brenda: And we took the phone off the hook, and they would say, I said, "We're gonna sit here and talk," and they'd say, "Oh mama, what are we gonna talk about?" I said, "I don't know, but something will come up," and it always does.
So I know people out there today, they're so busy, but y'all need to find a time, and one of the stories that in my book is about my daddy working until 11 o'clock at night, but he always got up in the morning and ate breakfast with us because to him that was important because he wasn't there at supper because he was at work. But he would. We had breakfast. That was our meal to be together. So it doesn't matter what meal, just as long as you're eating together.
Mark: Now was your mother a talker like you? Have stories and stuff?
Brenda: Yes, yes.
Mark: And your daughter, Hannah, is your mini me. I mean, the smile is the same.
Brenda: Oh my goodness, well, anyway.
Mark: Well, I'll tell you what captured me with you is when I opened up my, and you're right in my face on Facebook, "Hello, Facebook friends!" I was hooked because you lure people, and God has given you a gift-
Brenda:Well, thank you.
Mark: To reach people, touch them, and they feel like they know you. I felt like I knew you before I got here. I mean, I literally am a fan of this lady.
Brenda: Well, I think that people, they have told me that they connect with me, and they said, "Who's filming you? Are you talking to them?" I said, "No, I'm not talking to them. I'm talking to you." I'm talking to my people that are watching.
Andrew: Yeah, it's just your phone on a tripod or whatever on a little...
Mark: You don't have your thing, right?
Brenda: No.
Mark: She has an oatmeal box that she sticks some sort of holder for her camera, and she moves it around. Y'all, this is low tech, I'm telling you, but it works.
Andrew: It does.
Mark: 2.7 million of y'all are watching her.
Brenda: Oh my goodness.
Andrew: Tell me this. Okay, you cooked for years for your kiddos. How many kids do you have?
Brenda: Two.
Andrew: Okay, for your two kids and then cooked for your husband for years. Do you find that cooking is a connection still even to your husband now that he's gone?
Brenda: Yes, cooking is. He loved my cooking, and the only difference is it's just me here, but I still cook. Like I'll just steam me a cabbage and cook a quick pan of cornbread or something, so I eat. I have to eat.
Mark: And you cook just for yourself too sometimes.
Brenda: Oh, I do.
Mark: See, that's what's hard for a lot of people, to cook for one.
Brenda: Well, some people are doing it now because I told them to.
Andrew: Yeah, that's right.
Brenda: Don't just get in there and fix some cereal. Cook you something.
Andrew: It's kind of like there's some self worth to that or something, you know what I mean? Like if I take the time.
Brenda: I mean, just to eat.
Andrew: We eat so fast though. I'll find myself standing up making something 'cause I like to eat healthier food, so I'll do it outta my fridge, but I'll sit here and just eat it.
Mark: Well, you're alone. What difference does that make? I mean, really, I mean.
Andrew: Because I'm of value and worth.
And my parents were visiting me these past couple weeks, and my mom said one time, 'cause I was getting ready to leave, she said, "Why don't you sit down and enjoy that meal?" And there is something to that. It kind of connects us even then.
Brenda: You need to always listen to your mama.
Mark: Yes, I wish I could listen to mine.
Brenda: That's a take out with that, that's right.
Mark: What I love about your program, I even watched the one that was like an hour long, your whole day from morning to night.
Brenda: They all like that.
Mark: And you ended up in bed having a Bible study. That's how it ended with her night devotions.
Andrew: That's cool.
Mark: I just followed that whole day, but you always end your shows with something about Jesus it seems like, and I love that.
Brenda: He's the reason, and that's all I can say. He is the reason for life itself.
Mark: Absolutely.
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Andrew: Yeah, it's taking an approach to the Bible from being just simply informational to really being invitational. So there's a lot of prompts in this Bible to journal alongside Scriptures. It gives you opportunity to pray certain Scriptures at different seasons of your life, to meditate on the Scripture. There's beautiful artwork in here that's really cool cause it's not just like some kind of Sunday school artwork. They're using like da Vinci and beautiful pieces of classic art to really just get us to imagine, to be able to use all of our senses as we enter into Scripture, so that we really step into the story of Scripture, not just see it as words on a page but as part of a living, breathing active part of our lives. And you know what? I asked my brother one time, who's a pastor, I said, "Why is the Bible so important?" And he said exactly what you said a second ago, because it is the greatest written revelation of who God is. And so it gives us the opportunity to know God but also to be a part of God's story. That's the Abide Bible.
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Brenda: Hey y'all, our pies are ready.
Andrew: Oh good.
Brenda: Now if they're not good, it's not my fault. It's these two men. Well, they look delicious.
Mark: They do.
Andrew: Mark, you did nice.
Brenda: There's our pecan pie.
Mark: Look at that pecan pie I made.
Brenda: And here's your buttermilk pie. I know it doesn't look as tempting, but it's going to be delicious, y'all. As I say, it's gonna be good, y'all.
Andrew: That's right.
Brenda: And any of y'all with nothing to do, you can come clean out my oven one day.
Mark: Is it filthy?
Brenda: Well, I don't know. I cook it all the time. It's kind of hard to keep it clean.
Andrew: We'll do it for you.
Brenda: Anyway, these look really good, and here's the thing about both of these pies. They do not need refrigerating. So you could make these the day before Thanksgiving, leave them out. I just put a cake dome on top of mine to kind of keep 'em...
Mark: Keep the flies off.
Brenda: We don't have flies in Andalusia.
Chris: You have gnats.
Brenda: No, we don't. We got gnats.
Andrew: Gnats, look at that, Chris. Wow, he's...
Brenda: So anyway, this is it. Hope y'all enjoy.
Andrew: Did you do this while mowing the lawn? Isn't that your favorite pastime?
Mark: She still mows the grass around here.
Brenda: Are they still videoing?
Mark: Oh, well, they'll go on and on. Why do you mow the grass?
Brenda: Because it's relaxing. You can get on the lawn mower and sing. George used to sing on the lawn mower. He sang on the tractor. Banks sings in the shower. We're a singing bunch.
Mark: All right, let's sing.
Sweet hour of prayer
Sweet hour of prayer
That calls me from a world of care
And bids me at my Father's throne
Make all my wants and wishes known
Mark: I've sang twice with Brenda Gantt.
Andrew: She's a good singer.
Brenda: All right, y'all. Here we go.
Andrew: All right.
Brenda: That's it now. Come on, let's go eat.
Mark: Greens, yams, green bean casserole, corn bread.
Andrew: You're cool.
Brenda: Come here, Banks, and be with me in the ending. I want you and you. She got her hair all curled up and pretty.
Andrew: Look at her.
Mark: You come here, this pretty thing.
Andrew: Are you gonna be doing this one day?
Brenda: Oh, she already cooks.
Andrew: Oh, you already cook, huh?
Mark: Do you think you can take over for Big Mama?
Andrew: Well, hang on now. Currently, I'm Big Mama.
Mark: Thank you for watching Dinner Conversations. Don't forget to subscribe, and then ring that bell and get all notifications.
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Mark: Mark Lowry.
Andrew: And Andrew Greer.
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