Hoppin’ John

Despite saying that I wasn’t going to eat black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day this year, I broke down and made the traditional Southern dish of hoppin’ john. (I skipped the collards, though.) And I have to say, it was fantastic. As a bonus, I’ll have good luck this year due to eating black-eyed peas.
I [...]

Skillet Cornbread: A Better Way to Make Cornbread

I am a big fan of cornbread. This is a bread that’s hard for even anti-bakers like me to mess up. It comes together quickly, it can usually be made with whatever’s on hand (as long as you have cornmeal, and why don’t you?), and it’s appropriate for any meal or even a snack.
I usually [...]

Greens Cooked with Bacon

In the South, it is a New Year’s Day tradition to eat black-eyed peas and collard greens. When I was a kid, I was convinced that this “tradition” was a trick to get me to eat things like black-eyed peas and collard greens. Now, of course, I realize this is one of many New Year’s [...]

Quick and Easy but Elegant Party Food

Yes, the party season is winding down, but here’s a dilemma that can come up at any time: What do you do if you want to be social and have people over, but you don’t want to spend a lot of time cooking beforehand? I know that as I have gotten more and more pregnant, [...]

Variations on a Theme: Chicken Salad

One thing I’ve noticed, as I have cooked more and more, is that very few recipes are truly original. Most are just variations on a simple theme. Once I have learned the core recipe or technique, it then becomes a simple matter to vary the recipe to suit my tastes, the ingredients I have on [...]

Southern-style Cornbread & Sausage Stuffing

Thanksgiving is upon us. It just snuck up on me this year. I guess I have been preoccupied with other things and haven’t really given a lot of thought to the holidays.
One thing that hasn’t escaped my attention is the rampant consumerism going on all around me. Every year, I get depressed about this, but [...]

How to Make Cornbread

I think every Southern cook must have their own recipe for cornbread. I recently acquired a book of recipes by writers, and one of my favorite Southern writers, Fred Chappell (who lives just up the road in Greensboro), contributed a cornbread recipe. It goes like this:
Meanwhile, be making your batter — some buttermilk, about a [...]

Anniversary Flowers & Church Lady Cooking

It was my second wedding anniversary this week. My husband, who does many things right, remembered to send me irises, my wedding flower. We took the day off from work to spend together, finishing with a memorable dinner and a fantabulous crème brulée at what has been dubbed, even in its first year, the [...]

Best Buttermilk Biscuits

These are truly the best biscuits I have ever made. They epitomize what I look for in a good Southern-style biscuit. They are buttery, fluffy, golden in color and definitely not wimpy — equally able to pair with fried chicken for dinner or form the foundation of a scrambled egg sandwich for breakfast. I tell [...]

Roasted Vegetable Salsa

When it’s wintertime and you’re missing fresh salsa, this can be a more-than-acceptable substitute. The seasonings I give here provide a Mediterranean flavor, and I like to serve this salsa as part of a mezze with pita chips. If you want a more Latin-style salsa, use hotter chilies and substitute seasonings like lime juice, vegetable [...]