"At Thanksgiving time we would have pound cake. That was fine. We would
take our hands and beat and beat our cake dough, put the dough in a
skillet, cover it with the lid and put it in the fireplace. (The covered
skillet would act our ovens of today.) It would take all day to bake,
but it sure would be good; not like the cakes you have today."

"When we cooked our regular meals, we would put our food in pots, slide
them on an iron rod that hooked into the fireplace. (They were called
pot hooks.) The pots hung right over the open fire and would boil until
the food was done."

"We often made ash cake. (That is made of biscuit dough.) When the dough
was ready, we swept a clean place on the floor of the fireplace,
smoothed the dough out with our hands, took some ashes, put them on top
of the dough, then put some hot coals on top of the ashes, and just left
it. When it was done, we brushed off the coals, took out the bread,
brushed off the ashes, child, that was bread."

"When we roasted a chicken, we got it all nice and clean, stuffed him
with dressing, greased him all over good, put a cabbage leaf on the
floor of the fireplace, put the chicken on the cabbage leaf, then
covered him good with another cabbage leaf, and put hot coals all over
and around him, and left him to roast. That is the best way to cook
chicken."

Mrs. Cheatam lives with a daughter, Mrs. Jones. She is a very small old
lady, pleasant to talk with, has a very happy disposition. Her eyes, as
she said, "have gotten very dim," and she can't piece her quilts
anymore. That was the way she spent her spare time.