Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2007 - January 2008 i Taste of the South

One Wednesday night at church, my friend Cecile Lovvorn just couldn’t stop raving about her experience at Meals in the Making, an assembly kitchen in Hoover, Alabama. She said the food was great and the people were so incredibly nice and helpful. The concept intrigued my staff and me, so we checked it out for ourselves. As you can tell by the smile on my face, the experience was just as Cecile said it would be—delightful and delicious. On page 44, staff writer Karen Callaway tells the story of the brother-and-sister team responsible for the success of Meals in the Making. Success usually results from hard work. And while it means more work for us, we know you’ll be pleased that Taste of the South will now publish six recipe-packed…

WITH LIMITS ON OUR TIME AND ENERGY, WE ARE often forced to grab meals on the run or settle for a sandwich because it’s quick and easy. Folks in Birmingham, Alabama, have an innovative alternative to last-minute suppers that makes meal planning and preparation two more things you can check off your list. Meals in the Making is, quite simply, the answer to the collective cries for help from busy professionals, moms on the go, and singles who find it hard to cook for just one. Owners Amy and Ted Wyrick and Neil Ellis are more than happy to fill a long-needed niche. Three years ago, Amy, who calls herself “an entrepreneur at heart,” was searching for a business to buy. She wanted something she could be totally involved with…

JOHN LOVETT HAS ALWAYS HAD A PASSION FOR OLD MACHINERY. So when the Arkansas native moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee, to accept a teaching position in the University of Tennessee’s Engineering Department, he was thrilled to discover an old grist mill, still in operation, just 70 miles away in Franklin County. He knew it was a special place. “He used to bring his old girlfriends here on dates,” says his wife, Jane, with a note of amusement in her voice. Then around the time John met Jane, he discovered that the mill was for sale. “John was ready for a change, and he had always been interested in antique machinery,” Jane recalls. After four years of negotiating, the couple was finally able to close the deal. They purchased Falls Mill in…

DEBBIE’S GRANDFATHER JOE LANG WAS A nurseryman in “old Florida,” back before Disney and before the interstate banished the winding back-road routes that took visitors past fresh-fruit stands and curious roadside attractions. He vigilantly tended the trees he grew. And when the time came to dig them to sell, he chose carefully, leaving a few behind for his personal harvest. Those extra trees were the beginnings of Lang Sun Country Groves. In 1951, Joe bought a little roadside basket stand for his wife, Mary, to “give her something to do.” Blessed with both boundless energy and business smarts, Mary began selling the surplus citrus, as well as marmalade, which brought customers back again and again. It wasn’t long before the Northern “snowbirds” who wintered in Florida yearned for Mary’s delicious…

“I’M A WORKING WOMAN,” SAYS Angela Atherton, “so I don’t cook every night. But the nights I cook, we blow it out!” Angela, a native of Huntsville, Alabama, enjoys preparing a variety of dishes for her family. “The kids love sloppy joes, meatloaf, Mexican food, and even chicken casserole, ” she says and then confesses, “I never do anything exactly by the recipe. I add a little of this and a little of that.” Her daughter, Emma, and her stepdaughters, Madalyn and Cassie, are especially fond of the Italian food Angela prepares, such as spaghetti and lasagna. Angela attributes her affinity for Italian cuisine largely to her ancestry—her great-grandfather owned an olive orchard in Sicily before immigrating to the United States. Now Angela is learning the Italian language in preparation…

PASSING THROUGH WINCHESTER, Virginia, the smell of apples is sometimes so thick you can almost taste it. The closer you are to National Fruit Product Company, Inc., the umbrella company to the South’s favorite applesauce—White House—the more intense it becomes. The spicy aroma of apples cooking evokes images of home and the delicious American mainstay of apple pie—or sauce, as the case may be. The story of White House Apple Sauce is as American as it gets. True grit, determination, family pride, business acumen, and secret “proprietary” processes and recipes are all key elements to its success. Frank Armstrong, the founder of the almost-100-year-old company, was the oldest of four children whose father died unexpectedly and early. He quit school to help his mother support the family, at first running…

EATING GRITS ALWAYS REMINDS ME OF MY FATHER. Not the older man I called “Sir,” but the younger man with the laughing blue eyes who was always “Daddy.” Almost every morning of his life, he sat down to a traditional Southern breakfast of eggs (over easy), biscuits, bacon, coffee, and grits. Always grits. On most mornings, when I would stumble into the kitchen, wiping the sleep from my eyes, he would just be finishing his breakfast. But before he walked out the door and drove off to work in his ’55 Ford station wagon, he’d take a few minutes to talk with his brown-haired daughter (the only dark-haired one among his gaggle of five girls). I think that’s why I started eating grits. I adored my dad, so I wanted…

CASSEROLES ARE A MAINSTAY OF SOUTHERN cooking, perfect for a one-dish supper or for feeding a crowd at a church picnic. Choosing the right dish in which to bake and serve your casserole can make cooking and cleanup easier, and your table more attractive. Look for a casserole dish that’s made of nonporous materials, such as glass, ceramic, or porcelain (so it won’t absorb stains or odors), with a durable surface that won’t scratch or crack. If your recipe includes acidic ingredients, such as tomato sauce, lemon juice, or vinegar, avoid aluminum or tin-lined pans that could react with these. A good casserole dish will also be resistant to thermal shock (extreme changes in temperature). Ideally it should be able to go from the freezer to the oven to the…

Cheers to the Cajun New Year Pages 14–19: All serving pieces are from a private collection. Location courtesy of Margaret and Patrick Caffery. The Rhythm of Old-World Tradition in the Deep South Pages 20 –26: Green bowls with pasta and shrimp from Pottery Barn; casserole dish by Deruta Ceramiche (available at T.J. Maxx); dinner plate by Tuscan (available at HomeGoods®). One Dish Wonders Pages 28–33: Blue French onion soup bowls from Le Creuset®; green bowl and plate by Vietri (available at Bromberg’s); skillet and red Dutch oven by Lodge Manufacturing Company. Gourmet To Go Pages 44–50: Round tray and glasses with Chicken Skewers from World Market ®. Location courtesy of Carol and David Kazan. Carrying on a Tradition of Excellence Pages 52–59: Tray with Applesauce Oat Crunch from Target®; green…

HERITAGE IS AN IMPORTANT WORD IN THE SWEET Auburn district of Atlanta, Georgia. The history of the area is tightly entwined with the civil-rights struggles of the twentieth century and is a great source of pride for its inhabitants. And for Chef Sonya Jones, it’s the very place she dreamed of opening her business, Sweet Auburn Bread Company. Chef Sonya, as she likes to be called, was born and raised in Atlanta, not too far from the present location of her bakery. She learned to bake at a young age and was whipping up her famous Lemon-Cheese Layer Cake by the time she was twelve, thanks to the help and instruction of one of her aunts. By the time she finished high school, Sonya knew that she had to make…

AFTER MANY YEARS OF LIVING AND working in New York City, writer and cookbook author Jean Anderson has lost her Southern accent. But the North Carolina native never lost her love for Southern cooking. For Jean, that is a deep and abiding love that has stayed with her throughout her life, one she has chronicled in her latest book, A Love Affair with Southern Cooking. Jean’s appreciation for Southern cooking began in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she was born. Her parents were both Midwesterners— her mother from Illinois, her father from Ohio. They moved to North Carolina when Jean’s father accepted a teaching position at North Carolina State College. “I am the first person on either side of my family to be born south of the Mason-Dixon Line,” Jean says,…

BORN AND RAISED IN ST. MARTINSVILLE, LOUISIANA, Marcelle Bienvenu is a well-known authority on Creole and Cajun cooking and has penned several cookbooks on the subject, among them Who’s Your Mama, Are You Catholic, and Can You Make a Roux? and Cajun Cooking for Beginners. She has worked with some of the most celebrated names in Louisiana food, including Ella Brennan of Commander’s Palace, Paul Prudhomme, and Emeril Lagasse. Although Marcelle stays busy writing cookbooks, along with a weekly Creole-food column for The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, she readily agreed to create a menu for the Cajun New Year’s Day celebration in this issue. We also wanted to know a little more about Marcelle, and she graciously allowed us a glimpse into her kitchen. Marcelle’s kitchen is small, just 100…