I love a good eggs benedict and #nationaleggsbenedictday is April 16, 2021. Traditional eggs benedict is made with an English muffin, Canadian bacon, poached eggs, and hollandaise sauce. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that delectable combination, but you know I had to jazz things up a bit. There’s a bit of mystery as to where eggs benedict originated. Some say it came from Delmonico’s Restaurant in Lower Manhattan. Back in 1860, Mrs. LeGrand Benedict was bored with their menu and wanted something new. Chef Charles Ranhofer came up with Eggs Benedict. Leave it to a woman to speak her m ..read more

My holiday shopping plan for 2020 is to focus on shopping black, shopping small, shopping local, and shopping female as much as possible. I’m reducing how much I purchase on Amazon and being very intentional about sourcing gifts from businesses that could possibly not survive 2020 due to the pandemic.   Shirt by Curvy Girl Official   Determining what to buy for friends and family is still a process for me, even while trying to be intentional about how I shop. It doesn’t change the fact that I keep a list of things they talk about, and I try to shop from there. I am still mindful of ..read more

I used to be a peacemaker. I accepted the phrase, “I don’t see color.” I suited up in my pencil skirt and heels and walked the walk of corporate conformity. I used to be a peacemaker, watching my friends in high school befriend and date people who proudly refer to my people as nig**rs. I kept the peace by smiling and nodding. I kept the peace by giving white people the power to dictate what I said, how I looked, and what I did. I used to be a peacemaker. I made space for question upon question from people who said, “I had no idea” or “I’m so shocked” about the injustices that black people face ..read more

Wanna know what I love about biscuits? You can take kitchen staple ingredients like butter and flour and salt and mix them with buttermilk and create warm fluffy cloud layers of goodness. It is the ultimate “nothing into something” that tastes so dang good! Social Distancing in light of Covid-19 gave me a chance to do some recipe testing that I have been wanting to do for a very long time. There is no doubt that fat is flavor. I love using bacon fat, duck fat, and of course butter. I consider butter essential for biscuits, but I have been really curious to see how other fats stand up in biscui ..read more

I don’t consider myself a baker, at all, but I LOVE to bake. It is relaxing to me. I get in the kitchen and channel my grandmother and quickly become at ease. Baking is satisfying because you don’t truly get to see the end result until it’s completely finished. A ball of sourdough bread puffs and bakes into a chewy and slightly crispy masterpiece. A cream pie just looks like pudding in a crust until you add fresh whipped cream. Baking is fun and imaginative. I don’t consider myself a baker because most things I bake require research and study. I can’t whip up most baked goods easily like I can ..read more

Have you jumped on the sourdough bandwagon? I think I jumped on it well before it was all over social media as the #rona thing to do. I was about two days in when I texted my friends to see if they had any sourdough starter. Unfortunately, they did not; but that didn’t stop me and I decided to make my own! A lot of sourdough starter recipes require multiple flours. I had to work to find one that only required all-purpose (AP) flour. Of course, Big Brother is always listening, and shortly after a conversation with one of my friends, The Kitchn’s recipe popped up in my Instagram feed. I was supe ..read more

My sweet friend Tasha Jun and I have shared quite a few meals while sitting at Unity Tables. She has shared the good, bad, and ugly about being a Korean American woman here in the Midwest. That same vulnerability has been beautifully spoken within her blog posts, her Instagram posts, and just between the two of us as friends.     When Tasha reached out to me about the Asian American Christian Collaborative, I knew it was important. After reading through the Statement on Anti-Racism in the time of COVID-19 I was left with no other choice but to sign it. It was a simple decision for m ..read more

I recently posted a picture of chitterlings on social media and got a lot of questions about what exactly they are. When I responded that they were the intestines of a pig, someone, asked: “Why in the world would someone eat that?!” It was at that moment that I realized how little people know how much black history contributes to the food we eat today. You see, during slavery, slaves were given minimal parts and options to eat as food. One of the things they were given was parts of the pig that were not suitable for their master and his family. Plenty of times they ate the same thing every sin ..read more

February is Black History Month, and I’m being real extra about it this year! It’s just so great seeing my culture celebrated and admired. I can’t get enough of it! Most of you know how passionate I am about Diversity & Inclusion (D&I), but Black History Month is more than just a D&I effort for me, especially this year. I used to be the person who tried to merge Black History with all history as a way to keep the peace. I relied on the little history that I learned in grade school and felt like as long as everyone knew that little bit, it was enough. Boy was I wrong! Black culture ..read more

While I grew up and currently live in Indiana, y’all know I’m a southern girl at heart. The south is where I got my cooking roots. There’s a dash of the south in every single thing I cook. That’s why I’m so excited to celebrate National Southern Food Day every January 22nd. And it just so happens to be my dad’s birthday, too! My family is primarily from Tennessee and Alabama and has migrated to Georgia as well. I can vividly remember my great aunt’s kitchen table filled with fried okra, squash casserole, creamed corn, cornbread, possum (yep, you read that right–and NO! I didn’t eat it.), frie ..read more