Lewis Grizzard shared an absolute truth, as far as I’m concerned, when he said, “It’s difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts when eating a homegrown tomato.” I can enjoy a store-bought tomato, of course. I find the grape tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, especially, are quite sweet and easy to use. But the larger, slicing… Continue reading Tomato ecstasy: Kicked-up panzanella
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
Peaches are a favorite fruit for many people, and this time of year, they are so perfectly juicy and flavorful. Here are a few ways you can enjoy baking with peaches … if you can stop eating them cold and perfect from the fridge, that is. 🙂 Blueberry-peach shortbread bars 3 cups plain flour… Continue reading Some peachy ideas for you to enjoy all summer long
A few years back when my three boys were little and we lived down in Anderson County on an acre of beautiful, chicken-poop fortified black dirt, I grew tomatoes. Not just a few tomatoes. My husband put in 40 or more tomato plants, along with corn, various varieties of peppers, purple hull peas, and butterbeans.… Continue reading Save a little summer sun in your freezer: Freezing fresh tomatoes
Berries, berries everywhere! That’s one of the very best things about this time of year. Blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, and more are available in abundance. They’re all so wonderful. Here’s a cake that I made on In the Kitchen with Mama Steph on KLTV last week, Â using strawberries and blueberries, but which could obviously be made… Continue reading Mama Steph’s Summerberry Sheetcake
I always think of my Uncle Jessie Hill when I hear the words “peaches and cream.” Â 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
In the summertime, when we are all blessedly swimming in fresh tomatoes, whether homegrown or from the farmers market, we eat our fair share of tomato sandwiches, salads, and the like. But what else can you do with fresh-off-the-vine tomatoes? This year, we have something new to do with those gorgeous, juicy orbs. It’s my… Continue reading Simple pasta alla checca
A simple recipe for a drink I call a Purple Cow has always  made my boys very happy. It makes me happy, too, because the PC packs a healthy dose of fruit, and is loaded with potassium, vitamin C, calcium, and fiber for their growing bodies. I’ve made these for years…it’s a healthy drink (unlike… Continue reading Have you ever drunk a Purple Cow?
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 sautĂ©
There’s a lot to love about peaches. They have their unique, velvet-y skin, Â soft, juicy flesh, and the fragrant aroma that gets even sweeter when the flesh is warmed by the sun to perfect ripeness. Â Remember how it feels when you bite into a warm peach, and the juice dribbles down your chin as soon… Continue reading Rustic blueberry-peach galette
In Mama Steph's Kitchen 