I honed my squash cooking techniques years ago when I first started planning events for a living. I had two wonderful clients planning a big, beautiful outdoor wedding for their daughter on their sprawling, picturesque property. The father of the bride had an elaborate garden, raised, tiered beds all surrounded by a critter-proof cage. Every time I came out to meet with my … [Read more...] about Summer Squash Casserole
Southern Specialties
Fire and Ice Tomatoes
I love community cookbooks. The great and broad recipe collections gathered together by Junior Leagues, Junior Auxiliaries, symphony groups, historic homes, garden clubs. I have a large and ever-growing collection of these treasures. Some of them are quite professional nowadays, with editors and trained photographers. But I particularly love the old-school … [Read more...] about Fire and Ice Tomatoes
Peaches Poached with Basil
Peaches are to me the great herald that summer has well and truly begun. Just when you start to feel the weather change from warm to downright hot and the air from breezy to thick with humidity, peaches make their appearance at markets and roadside stands. At summer camp, you could always get your hands on a peach, and biting into that juicy, fuzzy flesh, the juice dripping … [Read more...] about Peaches Poached with Basil
Succotash Salad
I know. Frankly, it’s just fun to say. Succotash. I could go here with Sweet Summer Succotash Salad. Sunny Season Succotash Salad. Or the trite but amusing Sufferin’ Succotash Salad. But more than being a pleasure to say, it’s a pleasure to eat. Crispy corn, creamy limas, crunchy bell pepper in a sweet-tart Vidalia dressing. It screams summer. And it looks like a big bowl … [Read more...] about Succotash Salad
Pink-Eyed Pea Pepper Pot
I love Southern field peas or of all kinds. Crowders, lady, purple hulls, cream peas, black-eyed, pink-eyed, you name it. And at the beginning of summer, when they show up at the farmer’s market in abundance, I grab them up. I stand around with all the kids, watching them shoot out of the big shelling machine, ready to scoop into paper bags to carry home. This recipe, in … [Read more...] about Pink-Eyed Pea Pepper Pot
