Today is bleak. The sky is gray. The temperature in central Mississippi feels colder than the thermometer reflects. Our nation has gone bananas. I am grieving the loss of my daddy. Bleak. In the midst of today’s bleakness, I feel the pull toward all things that bring comfort (I’m certain I’m not the only one). Tomato Soup ranks #1 on my internal list of comfort food, so I made it for myself for lunch today. Warm and savory, it did the job it needed to do. I thought I’d share it with you. Tomato Soup Onion – 1 cup , chopped Celery – 1 cup, chopped Carrot – 1/2 cup, grated Salt – about 1 tsp Gr ..read more

Thanksgiving has arrived. This year you may find yourself “in charge” of all the food by choice or by circumstance. You may feel completely prepared for this challenge, or you may be staring into space wondering how in the world food will magically land on your table. I’m here to help…with the dressing at least. Here’s a video to walk you through all the steps involved in making good cornbread dressing: Printable Recipe: cornbread dressingDownload Hope you enjoy! And, Happy Thanksgiving ..read more

So, here we are…8 weeks or so into this socially-distanced quarantine. My days have swung the pendulum from excessive productivity and positive to utterly lazy and grumpy – and every point in between. Lately, I feel like my family is gravitating toward needing comfort (specifically, comfort food). To that end, I made chocolate cookies. Is there anything more comforting that chocolate chip cookies straight from the oven? Here’s a video of the cookie process: [wpvideo ukkXLeoX ] And…the recipe: 3/4 cup butter, softened 3/4 cup granulated sugar 3/4 cup dark brown sugar 2 large eggs 1 1/2 tsp va ..read more

As we enter the second week of social distancing, I have no profound words to share, BUT I have a solution for you if you’ve had trouble consistently procuring sliced bread. Focaccia! If you have never baked bread, this is a perfect recipe for a novice – very little hands-on effort, fairly quick turn-around time, and no bread flour needed. The recipe I use is one I found a few years ago on the internets: https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/rosemary-focaccia.html I use her method almost exactly except that I don’t use rosemary, but instead top the dough with a little sprinkling of coarse sal ..read more

Because I couldn’t make Instagram video play nice, here’s the whole video. Enjoy For the recipe, follow this link: The One About Biscuits ..read more

Almost every morning of my childhood, my mom made biscuits. She made them from the Pioneer Brand boxed mix and put a pat of Country Crock in each one straight out of the oven. Mom ran a daycare in our house during the week, and all the children knew to expect biscuits at Aunt Sue’s house (every. single. morning.). I’ve never been big on breakfast, so I would have a biscuit after school when they were room temp, but butter had melted all through the inside while they were still warm – a little nugget of perfection. These days, I make biscuits on Saturday mornings whenever possib ..read more

The kitchen is my happy place. This has been true as long as I can remember. When my house is clean, I can’t wait to spread out all over the kitchen counters and cook something just for the fun of it. If I try a dish at a restaurant and fall in love, I have to research and play in my kitchen until I can replicate it. Rearranging my drawers and shelves until they function just like I want them centers me. Reading cookbooks like they are novels is a favorite past time. I love to feed people. Cancer took my kitchen away from me for a while. After surgery I couldn’t physically cook for my family ..read more