Southern cooking

Homestyle Green Beans and Potatoes

July 18, 2011
Homestyle Green Beans and Potatoes

I know that after my recent talk about all the San Francisco restaurants where we dined on our vacation, some of you expected me to come back with ideas for fancy, cutting-edge dishes. Well, sorry to disappoint you, but here I am with something so un-trendy, so uncool, that most bloggers would be afraid to [...]

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Watermelon Rind Preserves

June 2, 2011
Watermelon Rind Preserves

Last weekend, E and I took a train down to Louisiana for a quick, two-night visit to my parents’ house in the country. We were eating a surprisingly sweet watermelon for lunch on Saturday when my father noticed it had something he hadn’t seen in a long time: a thick rind. It seems that watermelons [...]

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Five-Year Anniversary and New Southern Greens Recipe

January 9, 2011
5 Years and Counting

On this day in 2006, I decided to start a blog.  At the time, I barely new what a blog was, but it seemed like a way to personalize my website, so I decided to give it a try.  I had no idea that simply recording what I was cooking would very quickly evolve into [...]

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New Orleans’ Style White Beans

December 28, 2010
New Orleans' Style White Beans

Come on, tell me you’re tired of rich holiday food and are ready to settle down to some healthy–even homely–fare.  I know I am.  I never thought there could be such a thing as too much dessert, but after stuffing myself on pumpkin cheesecake, cherry-chocolate mousse pie, and the downright obscene rum- and margarine-soaked bread [...]

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Pumpkin, Squash, or Cushaw Bake

October 22, 2010
Pumpkin or Cushaw Bake

One Sunday a month throughout my childhood, my family would attend Family Night Supper at our church.  It was a time of community, of fellowship…and of competition.  Because Family Night Supper was a potluck dinner, the ladies of the church showed off their cooking skills by bringing their signature dishes–their congealed chicken salads, artichoke dips, [...]

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Collards Stuffed with Red Beans and Rice

April 1, 2010
Collards Stuffed with Red Beans and Rice

I have a real admiration for collards and other greens because they are survivors. Tomatoes, eggplants, and other warm-weather vegetables are delicious, of course, but they have it easy, basking in the sun all day and not being expected to withstand repeated freezes. And while Mississippi isn’t exactly known for its cold weather, this year, [...]

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Ridiculously Easy Southern Succotash Stew

March 22, 2010
Ridiculously Easy Southern Succotash Stew

From a nutrition standpoint, I’ve never felt bad about using frozen vegetables; I’ve always believed (and new studies back me up) that vegetables that are frozen just after harvest actually retain more nutrients than fresh vegetables that have been shipped long distances. In the winter months, when the only fresh, local produce I can get [...]

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Creamy Creole Eggplant Casserole

December 28, 2009
Creamy Creole Eggplant Casserole

There are certain recipes that fall into a category I call “Louisiana Church Potluck Dishes.” These are dishes that I grew up eating regularly because they were staples at the monthly “Family Night Suppers” at the church of my youth. I remember sampling delicacies like baked cushaw, mirliton supreme, and eggplant casserole without knowing what [...]

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Sweet Potato, Okra, and Chickpea Gumbo

September 29, 2009
Sweet Potato, Okra, and Chickpea Gumbo

With okra, as with most things in life, size does matter. When you’re talking okra pods, smaller is better—tender and tasty. Let them grow too big and they become tough and woody. However, when it comes to the plants themselves, bigger is definitely better. After a summer of more garden failures than I care to [...]

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Oven-Fried Green Tomatoes

August 14, 2009
Oven-Fried Green Tomatoes

Summer is the season when I feel the most Southern. Delicacies that I can find only at farm stands and farmers’ markets a few months out of the year–juicy peaches, ripe tomatoes, tender summer squash, sweet watermelon, and fresh lima beans and field peas–bring back memories of the “vegetable meals” my mother made when I [...]

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Ridiculously Easy Roasted Yellow Squash and Onions

August 10, 2009
Ridiculously Easy Roasted Yellow Squash and Onions

When I was growing up, my mother probably made some variant of this dish and I probably ate it, dutifully and without really tasting it. That all changed a couple of years ago when I sat down to eat the Southern-style meal my mom prepared during one of my brief visits. I took the first [...]

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Butter Bean Soup with Portabellas and Wild Rice

December 20, 2008
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In the depths of winter weather–or as deep as it gets in these parts–often the only thing standing between me and acute culinary boredom is the freezer. Sure, pumpkins and winter squash are exciting at first, but it doesn’t take long before summer produce envy sets in and I start pining for the juicy tomatoes [...]

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Apple-Pumpkin Delight

November 11, 2008
Apple-Pumpkin Delight

What if you love pie but don’t like crust? Strange as it sounds to me, I have a daughter who doesn’t like crust–on bread, on pizza, or on pie. Her aversion is not a big deal because she can always eat around it, but since I have my own reasons for avoiding pie crust, I [...]

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Spicy Collards and Black-eyed Pea Soup

May 15, 2008
Spicy Collards and Black-eyed Pea Soup

I’ve had a package of pre-washed, pre-chopped collard greens in the fridge for a few days, and I was hoping to do something different with them. But as time went on and no new recipes came to mind, I started to get afraid that they’d go bad; at the very least, they were losing nutrients [...]

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Creole Black-eyed Peas

January 8, 2008
Creole Black-eyed Peas

Last year, a cold made me feel so miserable that I didn’t even think of having my traditional New Year’s black-eyed peas until a few days into the new year. This year I was determined to have them on New Year’s Day, despite the fact that a sizzling, burning short in our breaker box had [...]

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Black-Eyed Pea Cakes

September 14, 2007

What can I say? Ever since I saw KathyF’s Black Bean and Rice Cakes with Chipotle Remoulade and Roasted Corn Salsa I’ve been craving that remoulade sauce, lusting after the whole gorgeous dish, really. At the same time, I’ve had it in mind to create a version of these black-eyed pea cakes that I once [...]

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Garden Gumbo

August 12, 2007

Even the best cooks can’t work their magic without good ingredients. I like to think I know my way around a kitchen, but I can say with certainty that without fresh ingredients, my cooking would be pretty blah. In the summer, cooking becomes very simple for me: walk outside, see what’s ripe, and combine it [...]

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Peach Upside-Down Cake

August 7, 2007
Peach Upside-Down Cake

No long introduction to this recipe, folks. I could talk about how it’s peach season and the sweetest, juiciest, not-quite-local peaches come from Chilton County, Alabama. Or I could travel down memory lane and plague you with childhood stories of how I used to gorge on peaches in my family’s orchard until the fuzz burned [...]

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Confetti Cornbread

July 26, 2007
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During the summer, one of my most frequent meals is “fresh from the farmers’ market”: fresh peas, some greens, and cornbread. By “peas” I mean one of the many varieties of field peas available here in the South in the spring and summer, such as blackeyed peas, lady cream peas, pink-eye purple hull peas, and [...]

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Southern-Style Banana Pudding

May 8, 2007
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A few weeks ago, E. and I had lunch together at a local restaurant that serves “Southern Style” food. At the end of the meal, E. spied the dessert cart, which contained, among other tempting dishes, banana pudding. E. had never seen banana pudding layered between vanilla wafers before, but I told her that my [...]

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Gumbo z’Herbes with Cajun Tempeh Bacon

February 28, 2007
Gumbo Z'herbes with Tempeh Bacon

Most people outside of my home state have never had this “Greens Gumbo,” but it’s an authentic Louisiana dish. Traditionally, it was made without meat to serve during Lent, but with Louisianians being the great seafood and meat lovers they are, ham and seafood eventually made their way into this naturally vegetarian soup. Well, now [...]

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Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Topping

December 11, 2006
Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan Topping

I’m going to be honest with you and admit that I’m not a big fan of holidays. Stressing over some arbitrary date on the calendar–to cook certain foods, travel long distances, buy token gifts, and so on–has never been my idea of fun. For a long time, I felt the same way about the traditional [...]

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Quick and Delicious Collards

November 28, 2006
Quick Collards

Over the holiday, we ate more unhealthy restaurant food than I care to admit, so when we got home, I was ready for a little good home-cooking. Since I didn’t have the energy to make anything fancy, I thought I’d keep it simple and unblogworthy. I had some organic collards that I’d bought before we [...]

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Fresh Peas and Corn Cakes

October 5, 2006

Pink-eye Purple-Hull Peas, Steamed Broccoli, and Corn Cakes It’s been a crazy, hectic week here. Our 9-year-old E. is in an opera! She and several of the students from her school are part of the children’s chorus in a local opera production, which will (finally) be performed this weekend. Between driving her to and from [...]

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South Carolina Golden Mustard Barbecue Sauce

August 22, 2006

When I moved to South Carolina, I was surprised to discover that the barbecue there was yellow instead of red. Tangy and sweet, mustard-based barbecue sauce was very popular, but I don’t think I ever got a chance to sample the barbecued pork that the natives raved about because I became vegetarian shortly after moving [...]

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Black-eyed Pea Gumbo

August 8, 2006
Blackeyed-Pea Gumbo

Yesterday was the first day of school, and I don’t know who was more excited, my daughter or I. She’s in a new school and riding the bus for the first time, and, best of all, her best friend is in her class. She was so eager to start that yesterday she woke up at [...]

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Stuffed Eggplants and Not-So-Dirty Rice

August 2, 2006
Stuffed Eggplants

I bought some baby eggplants last week and spent several days agonizing over what to do with them. I wanted to keep them whole because to me it totally defeats the point of having little eggplants if you chop them up into pieces that could be any old eggplant. If you’re not familiar with baby [...]

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Okara "Crab" Cakes

July 17, 2006

If you make your own soymilk, you know what okara is–it’s the soy pulp that’s left after all the “milk” is strained out. And if you’ve been throwing it out, you need to stop that right now because it’s very valuable stuff: It has almost as much protein as tofu but has 32 times as [...]

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Patty Pan Squash Stuffed with Cajun White Beans

July 13, 2006

You would have thought I’d never seen fresh vegetables. My husband wanted to shop as men do: Get in, get something, and get out. But I dragged him from stall to stall at the farmer’s market, comparing the quality of the tomatoes and zucchini, sighing in disappointment that I’d gotten there too late to get [...]

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Mirliton and White Bean Stew

March 22, 2006
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One of my favorite Louisiana ingredients is mirliton. If the name doesn’t sound familiar to you, perhaps you’ll recognize it as chayote, vegetable pear, chouchou, choko, vilati vanga, or one of the other many names it goes by. It’s a little hard to describe the flavor and texture because it really isn’t like anything else. [...]

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Stewed Okra and Tomatoes

March 12, 2006

A great okra dish starts with choosing okra that is fresh and young. Test it by bending the tip back. If it snaps off, the okra is fresh. If it doesn’t, don’t buy it. This is a fast, easy way to cook okra that preserves the fresh taste by not over-cooking it. The okra is [...]

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Tofu Jambalaya

March 11, 2006
Tofu Jambalaya

I’m going to be away from the computer for a few days, but before I go, I’d like to share with you a couple of recipes from my native state, Louisiana. First up is a somewhat non-traditional jambalaya, based on a recipe for Chicken Jambalaya that I used to love in my omnivore days. It [...]

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Real Louisiana Red Beans and Rice

February 25, 2006
Real Louisiana Red Beans and Rice

It’s Mardi Gras time again! I’ve been craving red beans and rice ever since last weekend, when my husband and daughter left me alone for some much needed quiet time while they went back to New Orleans for the first parades. They came home with loads of beads, doubloons, stuffed animals, and MORE beads, and [...]

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Cajun 15-Bean Soup

January 26, 2006
Cajun 15-Bean Soup

Last night, along with the collard greens, I served Cajun 15-Bean Soup. I made it a little differently than my usual recipe, so here’s my updated version. (The old version used Gimme Lean sausage, so if you’re into fake meats, you might want to check it out on the FFV website.

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Down-home Southern Food

January 16, 2006

Every now and then I get back to my Southern roots and prepare a meal of simple vegetables. This is the kind of meal I grew up eating regularly. Back then, my siblings and I were always dismayed when my mother prepared a “meal of vegetables,” but I now appreciate all the fresh produce my [...]

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