Several years ago, I posed a question to readers on my Facebook page, asking their recollections of how teas, receptions, showers, and parties were handled in their corner of the South. This would have been during the days when our mothers and grandmothers and their friends - the small-town cake ladies and other designated experts from within the community - catered everything themselves.
To my surprise, women from all across the South came forth with very similar memories. From Texas to upper Virginia, they spoke fondly of homemade cheese straws, butter mints, pecan tassies, diminutive tomato or cucumber sandwiches, a properly-made chicken salad - and the little beauties pictured above, known in these parts as Nutty Fingers.
I’m offering the recipe today, along with the thought that throughout the month of December, I’ll try to feature as many of the throwback party recipes as possible. And why not? Just in time for Christmas seems as good a time as any to pay homage to the hardworking women of the 1950’s, 1960’s, and 1970’s, who managed to lay superb tables with ease and Southern flair.