“True grits, more grits, fish, grits and collards. Life is good where grits are swallered.”  —Roy Blount, Jr. One of the many great things about attending the annual Southern Foodways Alliance symposium is that I get to go down to Oxford, Mississippi, and see some of my favorite people on the planet. I often stay with friends […]

Funny what we take for granted. I never really thought about our cooling rack until I decided to put a number of cookie sheets through their paces. The (gotta love it) Nifty brand “EZ Expanding Cooling Rack” more or less lived on the dining table for several days, and, even when cookie-less, it became an […]

Admittedly, the bases are loaded. The refrigerator contains small amounts of all sorts of things. Leftover kale that had been cooked with red-pepper flakes and lots of garlic. Cooked chickpeas, ditto garlic. Tomato sauce. Parsley. A hunk of sheep’s-milk cheese. A crumbly wedge of Parmigiano-Reggiano, picked up on the fly while dodging the San Gennaro […]

I am waiting for a UPS shipment of a friend’s homemade fig preserves, and maybe today’s the day. The preserves are delicious on toast at breakfast, but I tend to use them more like a chutney. They embellish roast chicken, served with a judiciously thin slice of Benton’s country ham and biscuits or crumbly corn bread. […]