Vegetables that are abundant and delicious in season are culinary treasures, provided by the sweat and care of farmers, whether large scale farmers or backyard farmers. The issue sometimes becomes finding enough ways to eat the bounty without letting any of it go to waste! Not wanting to be wasteful is a good thing; share… Continue reading Simply delicious: Mama Steph’s Parmesan vegetable skillet bake
I always think of my Uncle Jessie Hill when I hear the words “peaches and cream.” Whenever we’d visit his home in Laurenburg, N.C., he’d make sure to feed my little sister Sherrin and me a bowl of peaches and cream, which was, to me, an amazing food, as I had never had cream before.… Continue reading Peaches & Cream French Toast Casserole
Happy February, everybody! It’s American Heart Health month, and yesterday was “Wear Red for Women” day, to remind us that heart disease kills more American women than any form of cancer, and that we need to improve our eating, get a little more exercise, and take care of ourselves! This month is especially important to… Continue reading Heart-healthier Italian sausage-rigatoni bake
We have a good-natured joke down here in the South about a man from “up North” who visits a diner in a small Southern town and is asked by the waitress, “would you like grits with that?” and the man says, “sure, I’ll try one.” 🙂 Grits are one of the signature foods of the… Continue reading Grits with summer vegetable sauté
Any day, to me, is a great day to have grits. Monday. Sunday. All the days in between. I love them! I want to share a recipe that my friend Shea Bullard shared with me a year or so ago. It’s so full of flavor, so spicy with red pepper flakes and slightly smoky from… Continue reading Let’s Get Cheesy: Smoked Gouda & Cheddar Grits!
Do you remember this old cookbook? Maybe you or your mom had it around your house in the 1970’s. It was bound with metal rings, and it had nice color pictures on slick, thick paper: My mama had this book. Its cover is the color of Campbell’s Tomato Soup! I love that! I always admired… Continue reading What We Ate In the ’70s
I realize that calling macaroni and cheese “incredible” might seem like hyperbole, but I was really craving some of this cheesy pasta, and when I tasted this tonight, I was ecstatic! It was everything I was hoping for: creamy, cheesy, a bit crusty on top, with a nice zingy flavor, due to the dry mustard… Continue reading Creamy, incredible macaroni and cheese
“Feasting is also closely related to memory. We eat certain things in a particular way in order to remember who we are. Why else would you eat grits in Madison, New Jersey?” Jeff Smith, ‘The Frugal Gourmet Keeps the Feast’ (1995) If you have read my blog in past days, or if you really know… Continue reading More love for grits
I have been eating grits since I was a toddler. Grits were in regular rotation in my mom’s kitchen, usually for breakfast, but also with fish for dinner sometimes. Our typical ways of eating grits were with a sunny-side-up egg mixed in, topped with salt and pepper, or with American cheese mixed into a bowl… Continue reading Grits: The New “Cool” Food?
I recently attended an after-church brunch at my friend Yvette’s home. She has such a lovely home in Tyler, and she and Clay and their daughters make everyone feel very welcome there. They’re so nice and fun! I didn’t count how many people showed up with food for the meal, but there were more than… Continue reading German Potato Bake
In Mama Steph's Kitchen 