Egg Sausage and Corn Scramble
OKAY, SO THE LADY WHO FIRST SERVED ME THIS wonderful dish was a Yankee living on Cape Cod. Her recipe came from a vintage cookbook that was as Southern as pecan pie. Curiously, since then, I’ve encountered similar renditions, on a luncheon buffet in Nashville and at a barbecue cook-off in Vienna, Georgia, so I […]
Brains and Eggs
NO, I WAS NOT REARED EATING BRAINS AND EGGS in North Carolina, but my mother was, as well as a friend who grew up outside Pine Bluff, Arkansas. My earliest memory of the dish is of the strong hog’s brains my grandmother Maw Maw used to scramble with eggs, and it was only later, when […]
Georgia Cheese and Eggs
AT DINERS, CAFETERIAS, AND SIMPLE ROADSIDE CAFÉS throughout Tennessee, Kentucky, and the Deep South, I’ve eaten all sorts of egg and cheese dishes—since, to tell the truth, breakfast is and always has been my favorite meal of the day (and I’m not talking about bread and coffee but eggs, bacon or sausage or country ham, […]
Okra Fritters with Thousand Island Dressing
THESE CRUNCHY FRITTERS (GUARANTEED TO CONVERT even the most squeamish non-Southern eater) were inspired by those included on the lazy Susan at a down home retreat in McComb, Mississippi, called The Dinner Bell. Sorry, but these fritters simply don’t work with frozen okra, so if you can’t find small, firm pods in the market, choose […]
Okra with Mustard Sauce
I CAN STILL SEE THE STUNNED EXPRESSION ON THE face of one dinner guest from Chicago when Sally was bold enough to serve this okra as a first course at a dinner in Columbia, Missouri. Born and raised in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, like me Sally had been thrust into an almost alien academic environment far from […]
Chicken Drumettes
SOUTHERNERS ARE ALWAYS COMING UP WITH CLEVER ways to prepare chicken wings, and my North Carolinian mother (who has always proclaimed the wings to be the tenderest and sweetest part of any bird) almost surpassed herself when she created these zesty drumettes to be served as an appetizer at informal meals as well as at […]
Vidalia Onion and Goat Cheese Pie
YES, INDEED, CHEESE MAKING HAS MADE IMPORTANT strides in the South over the past few years, and no sooner had I received a small supply of smooth, ripe “Georgia Pecan” goat cheese, produced at Sweet Grass Dairy in Thomasville, Georgia, than I tried the obvious: a savory pie made with sweet Vidalia onions and tangy […]
Deep Dish Apple and Cheddar Quiche
GREYFIELD INN, ON REMOTE CUMBERLAND ISLAND, Georgia, may not have the elegance and social cachet of the more fashionable hotels on Hilton Head, Kiawah, Jekyll, and other resort islands to the north, but I’d love to return there if only to sample more of the innovative Southern dishes served on a buffet in the slightly […]
Dilled Salmon Quiche
UNLIKE MOST OTHER AMERICANS, SOUTHERNERS HAVE never abandoned their passion for any style of quiche since the pie was first popularized back in the fifties, and some of today’s modern versions are truly remarkable. I don’t recommend substituting canned salmon for the fresh in this quiche; it lacks flavor and is just too soft for […]
Kentucky Hot Browns
ASK NATIVES OF MISSISSIPPI, SOUTH CAROLINA, OR Maryland what a hot brown is and you’ll be met with a blank stare. Ask a Kentuckian, and you’ll be told it’s a sandwich or a baked meat dish or a casserole. Even in Kentucky nobody knows exactly how to classify a hot brown (just as nobody can […]