Our little country church, Goshen Baptist Church, had Homecoming Day today. Homecoming days used to be a tradition for every church, but now it seems to be mostly the country churches that keep the tradition going. It’s certainly one that we’ve kept going at Goshen. I know for sure we’ve had over fifty in a row without missing a year, because I haven’t missed a year of being there on Homecoming Day, but our church’s history goes back 207 years. And I know from reading some of the church’s history that they had basket lunches and dinner on the grounds long before I was sitting in the pews there.
When I first experienced Homecoming Day at our church, it was an all day event. Usually a former pastor would give the morning’s message. Then we’d have dinner on the grounds. In those days it really was on the grounds as people would load up their plates and carry them outside to eat. Before the church added Sunday school rooms and a basement with a kitchen prior to me being part of the church, I’m sure the food was set out on a farm wagon brought to the church by a member and pulled up into the yard. I’ve been to other church homecomings where that was how things were done. I used that kind of scene in one of my Rosey Corner book, Small Town Girl.
Then after everyone ate, people would head back to the church sanctuary for an afternoon service of gospel music. That’s why I’m very well acquainted with church homecomings. My husband has been singing in gospel quartets for over forty years and therefore I’ve gone with him to many, many homecomings over the years. Back then a different church would be having Homecoming nearly every Sunday in the summertime. That’s why I can testify that country church cooks are the very best cooks in the world. My husband can testify that it’s not really a good idea to sample all those wonderful dishes before you start singing, but somehow he always managed. He used to say the worst thing to eat before he sang was banana pudding. Banana pudding is one of his very favorite things to eat and that’s something usually found on dessert tables at a Homecoming dinner. That along with many other things landed on our dessert table at Goshen today. I tried the jam cake with caramel icing and the lemon pie. Yum. Darrell could have eaten the banana pudding today and not had to worry about his singing voice because these days we have the singers in the morning service and pack up and got home after dinner.
Another staple on most homecoming dinner tables used to be banana croquettes. Chances are if you’re not from Kentucky, you may have never heard of that particular dish. I tried to find out why they are called croquettes tonight, but with no luck. Here’s the definition of a croquette – a small roll of chopped vegetables, meat, or fish, fried in breadcrumbs.
Banana croquettes are sections of bananas slathered with salad dressing and coated with chopped peanuts, but there’s nothing fried about them. They are one of my very favorite things to eat. They used to show up on my family dinner table on Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I haven’t made them for years. They are messy to make and my grandkids give me funny looks when I try to get them to try them whenever they are on our church homecoming table. They dip into the macaroni and cheese instead. But you don’t have to tell me twice to dip a peanut covered banana out on my plate. I was very happy to see that someone had brought a dish of them to our dinner today and that there were still some to dip out when I went through the line.
At a country church dinner, sometimes the food makes you remember the people who used to bring it that have gone on to heaven. Back when I first began carrying covered dishes to our Homecoming dinners, I learned how it was done from the older women in the church. Each had their specialties – dishes they made every year and that you couldn’t wait to dip out on your plate. Besides banana croquettes, my homecoming food memories seem to circle around the dessert table. I do have a sweet tooth. Mrs. Riley used to make a raisin pie. Mrs. Cheak made the best old fashioned chess pies and Emma Mae made hickory nut pies that some of us were ready to fight over. 🙂 Maybe someday my grandkids will have some good memories of those delicious brownies or that creamy macaroni and cheese they found on Goshen’s Homecoming dinner table.
Have you ever made or eaten banana croquettes? Been to a country church dinner? If so, what was the dish you liked best?
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Never had or even heard of banana croquettes. What kind of salad dressing is used? I enjoy a banana with chunky peanut butter spread on it. Not the same but close to. 😊
I’ve not been to a country church dinner on the grounds I’m sorry to say. Sounds delightful and delicious!
Thanks for sharing. I felt like I was right there with you. Wish I could hear your hubby sing. Gospel music is one of my all time favorites.
My childhood church had dinner on the grounds a lot. We’d picnic and then play a few innings of baseball before heading back inside for evening church and singing. I don’t think I could play ball these days, though after eating a big dinner!
I’ve never had banana croquettes, but I’ve read about them in your books and on here. They sound yummy. I read a story years ago where a character made banana pops…bananas on a stick, dipped in chocolate and rolled in nuts, then frozen. Anything banana is good, but especially homemade banana pudding or banana cream pie! Yum!
Someone on Facebook said, “I’d love to go on a diet, but I belong to a Baptist church.” I agree!
I’m glad your Homecoming was a great day, Ann. Thanks for sharing. Now I’m going to go have a banana for a snack. 😉
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I did those bananas dipped in chocolate and then frozen with my Bible school kids one year, Lavon. They had a good time making them, but none of them were too crazy about eating them. I thought they were good. We also did grapes, I think. We used to have so many “eating meetings” that dieting and faithful church attendance clashed a bit, but now we only have one dinner a quarter. Homecoming is the biggest in so far as attendance goes.
If you want to give banana croquettes a try, it’s easy. Just get a plate and put a spoon of salad dressing on it. Then pile some peanuts on the other side. Peel your banana, dip it in the salad dressing and then press the end of it down in the peanuts. You’ll have a banana croquette bite. I do that sometimes without bothering with the salad dressing. The peanuts stick to the banana.
My family on my dad’s side always had a banana dish similar to your croquettes. My grandma, dad’s mother, always made a huge amount of them f family gatherings. Ours were quartered bananas with a homemade sauce of water, sugar, vinegar and egg yolks that was a sort of sweet and sour concoction. The bananas were put on huge platters and then liberally covered with peanuts. There were never leftovers. I still make them occasionally and one of my grandsons calls it the family banana. I never went to a church that had All day Singing and Dinner on the Grounds but would have loved it! I love some early Bill Gaither taped where they did that. I loved your Homecoming story.
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Thanks, Carol. Glad you enjoyed reading about Homecoming. I wish you were close enough to us. You could come on over to our church next year on the first Sunday in October and have some banana croquettes. But they would probably have salad dressing and not your homemade sauce. That sounds good too and for sure, however they are fixed there are never leftovers if I’m around.
My husband’s gospel group, The Patriot Quartet, does those old Southern gospel songs like Bill Gaither,
i remember this so well! funny you wrote about it because they have been on my mind. so great in service inside and outside the church. so many good memories. thank you for taking me back. by the way, i am from Alabama and have never had banana croquets! my favorite was fried chicken. Still is.
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You can nearly always find fried chicken at a church dinner, Judy. But nowadays the ladies don’t have to dress out their own fryers and fry them for the dinner. They don’t even buy the chickens at the store and fry it up. We just let one of the restaurants or stores do it for us. Much easier that way. But if one of the cooks does happen to home fry some chicken, that’s the first to go.
I used to think banana croquettes was a southern thing, but now I’m beginning to think it’s a Kentucky thing. I don’t know why everybody doesn’t like them everywhere. 🙂
Mom’s “dressed” bananas, as we call them, are made with a custard like dressing and peanuts. Much better than salad dressing.
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I’ve heard people say so, Janice. I like them anyway they are “dressed.”
Yesterday, October 6th, was our church’s homecoming, too–Banner Church Homecoming–87 years. It was a wonderful day! I love church dinners for many reasons but the variety of food is right up there at the top! Yes, we looked forward to the ladies’ offerings…such as my husband’s Aunt Edna’s coconut pies. She is 94, now, and has pretty much stopped making pies…however, yesterday she brought her chocolate cake with her famous chocolate icing!! I made chicken and noodles again as some people have now begun looking for it. I’ve realized that my generation is fast becoming the older generation. :o)
The best part about church homecomings, though, is getting to see friends and family that have moved away but come back for the church homecomings.
Thankful for those who have gone before us…may we be faithful to do our part to show the love of God to the world around us.
May God bless you,
Connie
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Sounds as though you have a church something like mine, Connie. Family and friends make it the best. We used to have a member who brought chicken and dumplings. She changed churches. I miss her and her dumplings. 🙂 She wasn’t one of the older members, but she was a good cook. Anything she brought was good. People look forward to my homemade bread and the green beans from our garden. Not very exciting, but I guess I vary the other dishes I bring too much. It’s hard to think about being the older generation but I guess when you have nine grandkids, it’s time to admit it. I’m thinking those I thought of as the older generation a few years back probably felt the same way.
Oh yes! I’ve been to many homecomings. At my Grandma Sadie Sweet’s church and at the Mt. Zion Methodist church where I attended until we moved to Somerset. My favorite foods was my Grandma Sadie’s fried chicken and my Mom’s butterscotch pie. So many sweet memories tied up in those wonderful homecomings.
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I love your grandmother’s name, Linda. Sadie Sweet. If I hadn’t just had a Sadie in a recent story, I’d have a Sadie Sweet in the one I’m working on now. Guess I’ll have to settle for a Sarie Sweet or… Well, I’ll have to give that some consideration. I went to another church supper tonight. This church does homecoming a bit differently. The men of the church cook burgoo in big iron kettles over a fire all day and then serve it up to all who show up with their own bowl and spoon. And the ladies make pies. I had a piece of homemade butterscotch pie tonight. It was excellent.
never heard of banana croquettes. Yes, I’ve been to a dinner on the grounds, but it was something called a Fifth Sunday meeting that was held on a month that had a fifth Sunday in it, not homecoming. My favorite dish was my mother’s homemade Angel Food cake with pink frosting. I think the frosting was 7 minute frosting with a few drops of food coloring to make it pink.
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Yum, Peggy. That’s my favorite dessert too, but nobody at our church makes it anymore. I make one from a mix now and again, but I’m too lazy to make that 7 minute frosting that is so delicious and so right for an angel food cake. I have tried making it in the past and had some interesting failures with the icing not turning out right. You should try the bananas and peanuts. Sometimes for a snack, I just eat the bananas and peanuts together without worrying about the salad dressing. It goes together as deliciously as candy corn and peanuts this time of the year.
My family enjoys church “get togethers”. Lots of great food and fellowship. From cakes to casseroles, love is found in the preparation, serving and sharing of food and fellowship.
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I agree, Melissa. At our church we call them “eating meetings.” We don’t do as many as we used to. I guess everybody got tired of cooking so much. And we have had members that accused us of having too many of those meetings. Especially when they were on a diet. LOL.
While I’ve never been to a country church dinner, nor have I ever had banana croquettes as you described them, Mother used to serve a salad with a banana half topped with a dollop of mayonnaise/honey/fruit juice dressing with chopped peanuts sprinkled over the top. I always loved that salad.
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Sounds like mostly the same thing as my banana croquettes, Suzanne. I think the last time I made them some years ago, I just did the bananas and peanuts in layers. Easier that way.
I remember those wagons filled with food! We always had afternoon singing after lunch. I don’t know how we stayed awake after all that food! Back in my early childhood, the church wasn’t air conditioned, so the windows were opened and everyone had those funeral home fans going in time to the music.
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I’ve waved a lot of funeral home fans too, Tammy, and at other times tried to keep my kids from smacking the tops of the wooden pews with them. We just put in a new air conditioning unit a year or so ago and I guess we didn’t get a big enough one because now when we have several in the church, it can’t keep it cool. Somebody wanted to open windows yesterday and wished for some of those fans. We do have bulletins we can use for fans. Sounds as though you had the same kind of old fashioned homecomings as I remember from years ago.
Yes, I’ve always heard the bananas dipped in peanuts called “dressed bananas”. Sometimes I get funny looks when I say that.😊 I have the recipe my mother gave me for the dipping sauce—1 egg, pinch salt, 1T flour (heaped up), milk (try a cup), vinegar, 1T sugar. Cook it until it thickens.
Pretty simple, but good!
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I think someone told me they called them dressed bananas before. Maybe you. 🙂 I’ve never heard that around my way. I guess they can be dressed like eggs, but I don’t know why anybody would have ever called them croquettes. Maybe they thought they looked fried after peanuts were on them. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten any that had the cooked sauce. But my mother used to make salad dressing for salads and it could have had similar ingredients. I always just used salad dressing.
ANN I love reading anything you write. I also came from a small country church in South Amherst, Ohio. We use to have dinners that were to die for with my mother in law being one of the best cooks. As a child I didn’t care about the food but let me have a piece of her pies. They were wonderful! Thanks for the wonderful memories.
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I’m a pie lover too, Fran. But I’d probably pass up the pies for one of Peggy’s mother’s angel food cakes. 🙂 But I have eaten a lot of pies at church dinners. It’s hard to go wrong with a pecan pie. I started to make one of those for the dinner yesterday but instead made a diabetic friendly pie instead. I knew there would be a lot of yummy desserts that were far from diabetic friendly. Several of our members have to watch their sugar, including my husband.