Food
Magical Southern Dressing Recipe
This recipe is so strange – almost like a science experiment, but it will be the easiest, and most delicious dressing you’ve ever made. Your guests will love you. I’ve had stuffing in a turkey — once. That was enough for me to add another reason why I love living in the South. There’s nothing…
Read MoreItalian Bolognese
“When you hear people speaking about Bolognese cuisine, be reverent, because it deserves it.” Pellegrino Artusi As I sit home with the rest of the world, wondering if we’ll ever be able to use our suitcases again, I’m thinking about the happier days when we could travel. This time last year, as I was freely…
Read MoreMercado Centrale in Florence
While in Firenze, Italy a visit to the Mercato Centrale is essential for food lovers.
Read MoreReal cheesecake is regional
My voice activated music system sometimes acts as if it doesn’t understand me unless I tone down my drawl, which gives me wrinkles around my mouth, because you have to pinch your mouth up in order to squelch a Southern accent. Try saying, “Hey Siri, play Guy Penrod” without a small twang in your tongue.…
Read MoreAn award winning sandwich at Turkey and the Wolf
My lunch was served on a melamine Ronald McDonald plate and I still thought, “Bon Appetit Magazine got it right.” Their award for Best Restaurant in America for 2017 went to an unassuming hole-in-the-wall sandwich shop that beat out fancier, older places with starched white tablecloths, fine china and hefty price tags. Before being handed…
Read MoreUse the good china
A version of this story can be found in my book, Exploding Hushpuppies— More Stories from Home. My brother and I were settled deep into the orange shag carpet watching The Brady Bunch, when we heard an enormous crash. My mother, who had fortunately stepped into the garage for a moment, thought an airplane had…
Read MoreGood Gravy
It was difficult to understand him, but through our tried and true method of hand signals, pantomime, clicking sounds and eye blinks, I finally understood that my northern born husband was trying to tell me his New Jersey Great-Grandmother Donatoni made something she called gravy, but it was actually spaghetti sauce. Now, doesn’t that beat…
Read MoreSavory fig – rosemary tart
After years of fighting birds, bugs, heat and leaving town on vacation just when the figs were getting ripe — I hit the jackpot this year. Now, I’m so sick of picking figs, I finally gave up and told the birds to help themselves. “Do you make fig preserves?” everyone wants to know. The answer…
Read MoreAtlanta bound? Home of the best greens ever!
Who would have thought the home of Scarlett O’Hara would give us the best-tasting collard greens ever . . . courtesy of a Mexican restaurant? I hate to admit it, but I haven’t always like collard greens. They were always too slimy or too bitter. I know, my Southern-ness is questionable now because I’ve also…
Read MoreThe True Joy of Cooking
My brother, Robert Harrison — not to be confused with my son, Harrison Robert, or my husband Robert, threw a party dedicated to the well loved church casserole. Robert (the brother) is single, and he’s always looking for a way to get women to bring him food without making any kind of commitment, so the…
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