Suwanee Music Barn Has Southern Recipe Cookbook

It has often been said that there is more to Everett's Music Barn in Suwanee than bluegrass music.

An example -- chocolate syrup.

A recipe for chocolate syrup from "Ma" Everett, the family matriarch, is one of many recipes included in a new cookbook, "Sweets & Treats -- Everett's Music Barn Cookbook."

The compilation was chiefly done by Diane Everett Dunaway, and it includes recipes that were submitted by family members and patrons of the music barn, which has hosted bluegrass gigs since the 1970s. (Bluegrass performances originated at the Everett property in 1964, before the barn was built.)

-- Did you submit a recipe for Everett's Music Barn cookbook? Do you have a favorite Southern recipe to share? Tell us in the comments below.

The cookbook was rolled out Saturday (Oct. 20), in conjunction with the barn's all-day fund raiser -- the first time the facility has hosted two all-day events in the same year.

Some of the recipes are:

• Soda cracker candy
• 7-UP cake
• Aunt Sadie's Southern Pecan-Cheese Wafers
• Bobby's Peanut Brittle
• Ice Box Fruit Cake

Anecdotes accompany some of the recipes. On the Chocolate Syrup dish from "Ma" Everett, Rena Everett McDaniel -- "Ma" Everett's granddaughter -- recalls:

"As a child growing up with Mama Everett, chocolate syrup could turn a cloudy sky blue. Memories flood my mind of standing in a chair in front of the stove top and stirring the pot, making sure not to let it boil over, while (Ma) made a fresh pan of biscuits."

Rena Everett McDaniel recalled during the benefit Saturday that pouring the syrup over a biscuit is the "best way" to use it. Also, it works on cornbread, another time-honored use. "They were poor back then," she recalled of the recipe's origin.

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"Sweets & Treats -- Everett's Music Barn Cookbook" soon will be available on the barn's website, and can be obtained for $10 at the regular Saturday night performances.

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You might also enjoy reading:

• A New Tune for Suwanee Music History

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