Boiled custard is one of my great childhood Christmas memories. We spent a lot of Christmases at my grandparents house in Columbia, Tennessee and my grandmother always served boiled custard in Santa Claus mugs and caramel cake for dessert at Christmas lunch. Boiled Custard was something you bought. I never really thought of it as something people make. I assumed it was some … [Read more...] about Southern Boiled Custard
Breakfast And Brunch
Tennessee Hot Browns
My mother used to make a dish she called Hot Browns on cold nights when we were kids. I loved hot brown nights. I didn’t know that Hot Browns were a real dish, something with a history and many fanatical supporters and traditionalists, I just thought it was something yummy my mom invented, specific to our house. I have to admit that my mom’s version was not … [Read more...] about Tennessee Hot Browns
Shrimp and Corn Cobbler
Shrimp and corn pie recipes appear in a number of Southern community cookbooks, and I’ve tried a few. But I have always thought they lacked a little oomph. But the delicious combination of shrimp and corn deserves attention, so I put my mind to it and decided on a tangy filling and an old-fashioned biscuit top to make perfect transitional comfort food. When summer has wound … [Read more...] about Shrimp and Corn Cobbler
Apple Gruyere Spread
Here’s a fun fall snack that features beautiful green apples and nutty gruyere cheese. A great spread on hearty wheat crackers, this also makes a wonderful sandwich filling that’s particularly suited to rye bread. In fact, those little square slices of party rye are great for an appetizer or little tea sandwiches. This is a basic blueprint that is fabulous on its on, but … [Read more...] about Apple Gruyere Spread
Wallis’s Southern Sorghum Loaf
My house is slowly being taken over by my collection of cookbooks. There are parts of the house that are not open to the public because of it. And in one of those piles of community cookbooks, I dug out this little piece of Southern ephemera: Some Favorite Southern Recipes of the Duchess of Windsor. It’s been awhile since I looked through it, but I immediately sat down to … [Read more...] about Wallis’s Southern Sorghum Loaf






