Making homemade crackers is one of the little culinary secrets I love so much.  It never occurs to most people that making your own is something that can or would be done.  But it is easy to do and pretty impressive when you serve homemade crackers.  It took me awhile to get where I wanted [...]

Pimento Cheese is often called the paté of the South.  Country classic and city chic. We serve it out of a tub on saltines, or incorporated into elegant hors d’ouevres.   Meat-and-threes and mom-and-pops sell it between slices of white bread, and upmarket restaurants serve it on platters with house made charcuterie.  It is ubiquitous, and [...]

It has already snowed here in Memphis twice this year, but too early and too inconvenient.  I am hoping for a few more snow days, when I have no need to leave the house and am prepared with a good book, with enough warning for a trip to the grocery.  It doesn’t get cold enough, [...]

I am not an overly suspicious person.  Sure, I have my little quirks, but I don’t worry about black cats, walking under ladders, throwing spilled salt over my left shoulder.   But there are a few traditions that I adhere to because, well, it can’t hurt.  Particularly if that tradition involves delicious food.  So on New Year’s Day, I always [...]

Vichysquash, or Squashyssoise? Yep, this all started because of the name.  I saw a recipe for Vichysquash years ago, and loved the silly name, but it called for canned creamed soup, which has never appealed to me.  The idea stuck though, and when I see the glut of yellow crookneck squash piling up at the [...]

I was a latecomer to the joy of peas.  And I think that may be because, like many people, my first introduction to peas was the canned variety.  Mushy, salty, gray-green and generally unappetizing.  And so time consuming to pick out of a casserole or pot pie, segregating them on one side of the plate, [...]

There is magic in soup.  A beautiful kitchen alchemy in which a few simple ingredients are magically transformed into culinary precious treasure.  There is nothing to me more satisfying than hefting the weight of my good enameled cast-iron Dutch oven from its special nook and placing it on the burner, ready to start my experiments, [...]

This may well be my favorite meal.  At least, it has all the components of a few of my favorite things.  A creamy, rich tomato soup and a biscuit, packed with the flavors of pimento cheese.  A match made in heaven, a pairing perfect for the gloomy cold of January. First off, the combination of [...]

Italian egg-drop soup.  That’s how I have heard versions of this soup described.  And there appear to be many versions, with light chicken broth, or added spinach or chicken. In fact, the first time I concocted this soup, I didn’t know stracciatella was an actual thing.  It was pure kitchen happenstance, and one little discovery [...]

French Onion Soup is such a classic.  It’s what you eat on your first trip to France, and even if you eat it at the restaurant down the street at home all the time, it is still special and memorable.  Soupe à L’oignon Gratinée. The rich onion-y broth, the crispy bread soaking up the flavor, [...]