Innholdsfortegnelse for Winter 2006 i Taste of the South

foods that evoke fond memories. Pizza, however, may not be the first word that pops into your mind when you think of Southern food. But we Southerners definitely consume our fair share of this “pie” that rose in popularity when our soldiers returned after World War II. Now-adays, pizza is often something we order by phone when our cupboards and refrigerators are bare, or when family and friends are coming over to watch a football game and we need to feed a crowd. During my teenage years, however, my mom made pizza from scratch virtually every weekend. My friends would drop by around mealtime so they would be invited to enjoy her homemade pizza—this soon became an Ables’ family tradition. Art Director Tracy Wood-Franklin recently shared with me that she…

italian spaghetti sauce Yield: 8 to 10 servings Preparation: 15 minutes Cook: 15 minutes on stovetop, 8 hours in slow cooker 1 (1.25-pound) package sweet Italian sausage 1 pound ground chuck 1 (8-ounce) package fresh sliced mushrooms 1 onion, chopped 1 small green bell pepper, chopped 3 cloves garlic, minced 2 (14.5-ounce) cans Italian diced tomatoes 1 (29-ounce) can tomato sauce 1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce 3 teaspoons Italian seasoning Hot cooked pasta • Remove sausages from casings; discard casings. • In a large saucepan*, cook sausage, ground chuck, mushrooms, onion, bell pepper, and garlic over medium heat on stovetop, for 15 minutes, stirring until meat crumbles and is no longer pink; drain well. Spoon meat mixture into a 5-quart slow cooker. • Add diced tomatoes and remaining ingredients to…

Culinard, the Culinary Institute at Virginia College Birmingham, Alabama Price range: $150 to $200 (205)802-1200 Have you ever daydreamed about being a chef in a restaurant kitchen, dazzling your friends with your display of culinary skill? Step inside Culinard, the Culinary Institute of Virginia College, for one of its Weekends at Culinard classes. The Birmingham, Alabama-based culinary school, which offers two- and four-year degree programs in the culinary arts, has earned quite a reputation since it opened five years ago. Culinard was recently ranked among the Top 40 Best Culinary Schools in the United States and Canada, based on a survey of 150 food journalists and industry leaders. Culinard’s weekend classes are designed for home cooks who have a passion for food. With names like “A Taste of Tuscany” and…

chocolate macaroons Yield: 3 dozen Preparation: 20 minutes Bake: 23 minutes per batch 4 egg whites 1 cup sugar 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour 2 tablespoons unsweetened natural cocoa powder 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 (14-ounce) package sweetened flaked coconut 6 (1-ounce) squares white chocolate, coarsely chopped 1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts • Preheat oven to 325°. • In a large mixing bowl, beat egg whites at high speed with an electric mixer until foamy. With mixer on, add sugar 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. • In a separate bowl, combine flour and cocoa powder. Add to beaten eggs, stirring gently • Fold in remaining ingredients. Drop mixture by rounded tablespoons onto greased baking sheets. • Bake for 20 to 23 minutes, or until edges begin…

Making good biscuits reminds us of that old joke where someone asks, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” The answer, of course, is, “Practice!” Here the White Lily Test Kitchen offers some tips to help you get started. START WITH THE RIGHT INGREDIENTS For the most flavorful biscuits, use butter and buttermilk. For flakier biscuits, use lard or shortening. If a recipe calls for self-rising flour, but all you have on hand is the all-purpose variety, you can make your own. For 1 cup self-rising flour, place 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a 1-cup measuring cup. Then spoon all-purpose flour into the cup to fill to the rim. MEASURE CORRECTLY Spoon flour lightly into a dry-ingredient measuring cup (the kind that nest together), rather…

traditional pizza crust Yield: 1 (15-inch) pizza crust Preparation: 20 minutes Rise: 1 hour Bake: 20 minutes 1 (1/4-ounce) envelope active dry yeast 2 teaspoons sugar 1 1/4 cups warm water (105° to 115°) 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1 tablespoon olive oil Cornmeal • Combine yeast, sugar, and water in a 2-cup liquidmeasuring cup; let stand for 5 minutes. • In work bowl of a food processor, combine flour and salt. Pulse several times to combine. With processor running, slowly add yeast mixture and oil. Continue running processor until mixture is combined and forms a ball • On a lightly floured surface, turn dough out and knead for 5 minutes. Place in a bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let…

It’s not often that a kitchen appliance can claim a place in American history. But that’s not such a bizarre notion when you’re talking about Rival’s Crock-Pot® Slow Cooker. The homely countertop appliance, which revolutionized the way people made dinner in the 1970s, marks its 35th anniversary this year. The Crock-Pot story began in 1970 when appliance manufacturer Rival acquired the Naxon Utilities Corporation. Among the company’s assets was an old-fashioned appliance called the Beanery—a glazed brown crockery liner surrounded by a white steel housing with an aluminum lid. Rival began to experiment with the appliance, discovering that it was great for braising, or slowcooking with moist heat, less-expensive cuts of meats and vegetables. The company reinforced the appliance’s metal housing with additional wire, gave it a fun name; and…

Mia Cucina Chattanooga, Tennessee Price range: $20 to $40 www.theplaceforcooks.com (423)265-4474 or (423)648-4208 For Heidi Swartz, owner of Mia Cucina, a gourmet cookware store and cooking school in Chattanooga, teaching people how to cook is all about making them comfortable. “You have to establish a rapport and get them involved,” she says. “For the people who attend our classes, it’s all about interaction,” says Mia Cucina Chef Andrew Brogdon. People are looking for the “chef experience” they’ve seen on television, Heidi explains. “The Food Network makes our job easier.” In land-locked Chattanooga, located hundreds of miles from the coast, the emphasis is on using locally available ingredients. “I don’t let my instructors teach recipes that include anything that is not reasonably available in our area,” she explains. “Why get people…

Few foods evoke as passionate a response as does chocolate. The delicious flavor so many of us crave is tucked away in the nib of the seed of the cacao tree, which only grows in tropical rainforests. It takes approximately 400 cacao seeds to yield 1 pound of chocolate. After being removed from the hand-picked cacao pods, the seeds are cleaned, fermented, dried, roasted, and then cracked open to remove the nib, where the true essence of chocolate is stored. The nib is ground into chocolate liquor, a dark liquid, which, despite its name, contains no alcohol. Unsweetened chocolate, often called “baking chocolate,” is chocolate liquor that has been cooled and molded into bars—it is chocolate in its purest form. Government standards dictate that unsweetened chocolate contain at least 50…

Hot, buttered biscuits were the breakfast of champions during my childhood. On cold winter mornings, the smell of biscuits baking in the oven was one of the few things that could persuade the five Terry sisters to leave our warm beds. One by one, we would stumble into my mother’s kitchen, wiping the sleep from our eyes as we slid into the red vinyl chairs around her black formica kitchen table. Two flaky, golden biscuits, oozing with melted butter, would appear magically on a plate in front of each of us. It only remained for us to choose our favorite accompaniment—blackberry jam for me, grape jelly for my sisters Susie and Nancy, strawberry preserves for Mary and Marjie. As I grew older and developed an interest in cooking, I began…

But once you taste Rio Star® grapefruit, the ruby-red variety from Texas, you’ll change your mind. Grown in the southern Rio Grande Valley, Rio Star grapefruit is one of the reddest—and sweetest-tasting—citrus fruit around. Grapefruit originated in the 1750s on the Caribbean island of Barbados as a hybrid of the sweet orange and the pomelo, a giant thick-skinned citrus fruit native to Malaysia. Years later, a Jamaican farmer gave the tart fruit its current name when he noticed how it clustered together on the tree like a bunch of grapes. Spanish missionaries brought the grapefruit to southern Texas; and in 1893, the first grapefruit grove was planted in the Rio Grande Valley, along the border between the United States and Mexico. The subtropical climate, fertile soil, and sunny weather in…

Lorraine Stevenski is known as “The Muffin Lady” in Clearwater, Florida, her home for nearly 20 years, and for good reason, too. Her enthusiasm for baking has led her to create and develop countless recipes for muffins and other baked goods for more than a decade. The transplanted New Yorker, who considers herself “Southern now,” decided to combine her baking passion and new Southern roots and bake with what she refers to as a “Southern flair” with “interesting twists and combinations.” Her Florida Orange & Lemon Muffins were inspired by the abundance of citrus fruits in Florida’s winter time—fruits so plentiful that it looks like the “streets are paved with citrus at this time of year.” According to Lorraine, you must love to bake and cook because it’s the “love…

If you’ve ever listened to Hank Williams, Sr., croon “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” or sang along with the radio as Tammy Wynette belted out “Stand by Your Man,” you know that country music singers know heartache. And it seems they also know good country cooking. That’s why the Loveless Cafe in the home of country music, Nashville, Tennessee, has been a favorite of theirs for more than 54 years. From the moment you drive up to the Loveless Cafe, you experience its down-home feel. The aroma of country ham greets you in the parking lot, and the restaurant’s old-fashioned front porch beckons. Inside, the hardwood floors creak as a smiling hostess shows you to your table. Homey touches such as red- and blue-checkered tablecloths and bear-shaped honey bottles…

There’s nothing more comforting when it’s cold outside than a pot pie, hot from the oven. “ company chicken pot pie Yield: 8 to 12 servings Preparation: 15 minutes Cook: 35 minutes Bake: 45 minutes 1 pound new potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch chunks 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 1 medium yellow onion, chopped 2 stalks celery, chopped 2 large carrots, cut into julienne strips 4 tablespoons butter 1/4 cup all-purpose flour 1 1/2 cups milk 1 1/2 cups chicken broth 1 teaspoon dried thyme 2 tablespoons dry sherry 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper 2 cups cooked chicken 1 cup frozen green peas, thawed 1 recipe Buttery Piecrust (Recipe follows.) • Place new potatoes in a 2-quart saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to…

Ten days before Christmas is a crazy time to open a retail store, admits Danielle Wecksler, general manager and culinary director of Charleston Cooks!. But Maverick Southern Kitchens owner Dick Elliott had seen a similar concept—a cooking school within a retail kitchen store—during a trip to New Orleans and thought it was a good time to introduce it to the Charleston market. As Charleston Cooks! prepares to celebrate its first anniversary, it seems that Dick was right. Against the backdrop of wire whisks and gourmet cookware, Charleston Cooks! offers a variety of classes to suit every taste and schedule. You can drop in for a lunch break, or sign up for an evening class with guest chefs such as Bob Waggoner of the fourstar Charleston Grill or Mike Lata of…

Publix Apron’s Cooking School Sarasota and Tampa, Florida Price range: $35 to $100 www.publix.com When Publix Super Markets opened its first Apron’s Cooking School in Tampa in 2001, the Florida-based grocerystore chain was responding to consumers’ needs. “Our customers told us they were tired of making the same thing for dinner,” explains Publix Director of Consumer Relations Leslie Spencer. “They wanted new ideas. Some of them said they didn’t know how to cook.” The solution was Apron’s Cooking School. These popular cooking classes include all kinds of cuisines and are designed for people of all ages and all skill levels. There are even special classes for kids ages eight to twelve and teens ages thirteen to sixteen. Each location has its own resident chef, but the Apron’s Cooking School also…

Well, winter is finally making its way to the South again; and we can use a break from the heat! What a hot summer and fall we had down here in Savannah. For the first time in our new home, we are able to light the fireplaces and snuggle up next to one another. There is nothing better than sitting by the fire on a cold winter night. The only thing better is a good bowl of hot soup, and that’s just what I got for y’all this winter. Chef Jack’s Corn Chowder will really warm you up this winter. Jack is a friend of mine from Hilton Head, South Carolina; and he gave me this recipe several years ago. But, you know me: I had to add a little…

Cover: Plate and napkin from Anthropologie. Make It Your Own: Pizza Party Pages 11–17: White plate, green Moroccan plates and bowls, and bottle from World Market®. Napkins, blue and green bowls, and green platter from Anthropologie. White bowls and ladle from Williams-Sonoma®. Pizza stone from The Pampered Chef®. Location courtesy of Sharon Collins. Cook It Slowly Page 26–34: White platters, flatware, linens, napkin rings, and dishware from Williams-Sonoma®. Location courtesy of Dee and Nathan Park. What a Tasty Dish Pages 35–40: Large baking dishes from HomeGoods. Individual green baking dishes from World Market®. Brown ramekins and burgundy linens from Pottery Barn. Wooden plates from Table Matters. All other flatware, dishes, and linens from Williams-Sonoma®. Location courtesy of Donna Massey. Cooking with Class Pages 45–53: Wine glass and white plates from…