http://www.ajc.com The latest headlines from AJC en-us Copyright 2009, Cox Newspapers Inc., AJC Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:52:28 EST Newspapers COXnet RSS Generator v1.0 http://img.coxnewsweb.com/C/08/17/52/image_1352178.jpg http://www.ajc.com 5 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2009/04/23/southern0423fd.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2009/04/23/southern0423fd.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Wed, 22 Apr 2009 21:44:26 EDT Sometimes there's nothing that soothes the soul like a creamy classic like chicken divan —- a chicken and broccoli casserole that was the signature dish at the 1950s New York restaurant the Divan Parisienne. Over the years, that recipe has undergone a thousand incarnations in the name of convenience: frozen broccoli replaced fresh, soup instead of cream, the crunchy topping made with anything from bread crumbs to crushed crackers. One young couple had a sentimental attachment to a chicken divan recipe but longed for a way to make it healthier and more sophisticated. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/eveningedge/stories/2009/03/19/southern_food_lugo.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=69 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/eveningedge/stories/2009/03/19/southern_food_lugo.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=69 Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:46:38 EDT There are certain foods, says Kelley Lugo, that will always make her feel "like a 10-year-old girl running free and chasing fireflies in the hot summer evenings in Franklin, Tenn." Especially the corn light bread her grandmother Marion Herd used to make to go with her glorious farm-fresh feasts. Sweet and tender and baked in a loaf pan instead of a skillet, it is so simple and versatile, there is no reason to wait for an excuse to bake a loaf. The contributor: Kelley Herd Lugo, who was born in Biloxi, Miss., and raised in Duluth. Now a business development manager for a law firm, she and her husband, Carlos Lugo, live in Decatur with their two children, Daniel, 4, and Victoria, 2. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2009/03/19/southern0319fd.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2009/03/19/southern0319fd.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:17:26 EDT There are certain foods, says Kelley Lugo, that will always make her feel "like a 10-year-old girl running free and chasing fireflies in the hot summer evenings in Franklin, Tenn." Especially the corn light bread her grandmother Marion Herd used to make to go with her glorious farm-fresh feasts. Sweet and tender and baked in a loaf pan instead of a skillet, it is so simple and versatile, there is no reason to wait for an excuse to bake a loaf. The contributor: Kelley Herd Lugo, who was born in Biloxi, Miss., and raised in Duluth. Now a business development manager for a law firm, she and her husband, Carlos Lugo, live in Decatur with their two children, Daniel, 4, and Victoria, 2. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/eveningedge/stories/2009/03/12/southern_food_leckey.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=69 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/eveningedge/stories/2009/03/12/southern_food_leckey.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=69 Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:02:36 EDT Ashley Leckey and her late grandmother Cele Marcoux had a lot in common. They both loved to cook, sew and throw parties for friends. They had a passion for preserving heirlooms and family history. And they shared a vision for channeling those interests into a family business venture. In 2006, Leckey, who works for an Atlanta marketing agency, began brainstorming a line of designer aprons with her grandmother, who taught her how to cross-stitch when she was growing up in Tallahassee. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2009/03/12/southern0312fd.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2009/03/12/southern0312fd.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Wed, 11 Mar 2009 13:45:40 EDT Ashley Leckey and her late grandmother Cele Marcoux had a lot in common. They both loved to cook, sew and throw parties for friends. They had a passion for preserving heirlooms and family history. And they shared a vision for channeling those interests into a family business venture. In 2006, Leckey, who works for an Atlanta marketing agency, began brainstorming a line of designer aprons with her grandmother, who taught her how to cross-stitch when she was growing up in Tallahassee. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2009/02/26/southern0226fd.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2009/02/26/southern0226fd.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:33:35 EST For a stay-at-home mom, chicken and dumplings is a "beige meal" that her children love —- one that rekindles warm memories of their grandmother whenever she makes it. The contributor: Andra Brown, the daughter of a retired Coast Guard pilot, who says she "moved a lot" growing up, but spent most of her childhood in Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina. A University of Georgia graduate, Brown lives in Buckhead with her husband, David, and three children: Emma, 11, Lucy, 9, and Ben, 7. The story: "My mom, Sandra Ballew Middleton, was born and raised in Jasper. Her parents were business owners, one [of those businesses] being a restaurant, so she spent a lot of time around food growing up. She was a very healthy eater and wouldn't even let us eat sweetened cereal or peanut butter and jelly for lunch. She said that was dessert. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2009/02/12/southern0212fd.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2009/02/12/southern0212fd.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:24:45 EST The reader who submitted this old-fashioned ice cream recipe recalls it as strictly a summertime treat. But modern ice cream makers make it possible to whip up a batch any time of year. The maple flavor would make a delicious partner for a slice of warm apple pie or poached pears. But Leila Case can't imagine it with anything but a simple wafer cookie. "Anything else," she says, "would be gilding the lily." The contributor: Leila Larendon Sisson Barrett Case, a native Atlantan now living in Americus with her husband, Bruce, where she is a writer/copy editor for Habitat for Humanity International. She has three children and four grandchildren. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2009/02/05/southern0205fd.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2009/02/05/southern0205fd.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Wed, 4 Feb 2009 21:06:18 EST Since reader Sue Landa sent us the following story about her 83-year-old mother's famous cheese straws last fall, her mother took a fall that caused a severe brain injury. Her mother "is doing remarkably well" with her recovery and is knitting, doing jigsaw puzzles and entertaining friends at the rehabilitation center —- often by serving the cheese straws Landa keeps stashed in her freezer. The contributor: Sue Landa, a mother of three and grandmother of one who is raising her ninth puppy for La Grange Canine Companions for Independence. She and her three retrievers —- Susan, Glade and Lazio —- also volunteer with Delta Society, a national pet therapy group. Landa and her husband, Scott have been married since 1971. The story: "My mama is Claire Rowe Newman, the epitome of a Southern hostess, with charm and graciousness from whom we can take lessons. There was never a gathering without Mama's cheese straws. She made them for birthdays, Christmas festivities, family Sunday night suppers, ladies' luncheons, wine parties, church potluck suppers, bridge clubs, baby and bridal showers, christenings and funerals. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2009/01/22/southern0122fd.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2009/01/22/southern0122fd.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:21:57 EST For about a decade, readers Tom and Sheri Lynch have been pursuing their mutual interest in genealogy, little by little tracing their ancestry back to its European beginnings. "The trouble with most genealogy research is that the only information you find is names, dates and locations," Sheri Lynch says. "It's difficult to learn much about the temperament and lifestyle of people by looking at census or vital records." Far more revealing, they say, is their copy of a cookbook they discovered online that was published in 1867 by Tom Lynch's great-great grandmother. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2009/01/15/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2009/01/15/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:13:58 EST The recipe for chess pie is so simple —- eggs, butter, a little buttermilk, a little cornmeal —- it almost makes you wonder why it's remained so popular for so long in the South. But don't let the humble ingredients or ultra-quick cooking method deceive you. Doug Poucher, husband of this week's contributor and a native of Indianapolis, says as far as desserts go, "This one deserves a triple-X rating. It's hard-core stuff!" The contributor: Deidra Poucher, a clinical research consultant and mother of three who grew up in East Point and now lives in Duluth with her husband, Doug. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2009/01/08/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2009/01/08/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Wed, 7 Jan 2009 17:42:28 EST A reader who was trying to re-create her grandmother's recipe for pear preserves had only a vague idea of how they were made. Fortunately, Atlanta cookbook author Virginia Willis of our Saving Southern Food chefs panel was able to help fill in the blanks. She also grew up with pear trees in her yard, and has a similar recipe in her cookbook, "Bon Appetit, Y'all" (Ten Speed Press, $32.50). She suspects that, in both cases, the pears used were some very aromatic, thick-skinned heirloom variety similar to an Anjou or a Bartlett. The contributor: Belinda Gullatt, an Atlanta marketing coordinator who hails from Salem, Ala., where her parents own a 300-acre farm down the road from where her grandparents Sybil Ruth and Stewart Hillyer once lived. A frequent participant in local cooking classes, Gullatt says she plans to retire to the farm and raise organic produce, pork, beef, chicken and eggs. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2009/01/01/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2009/01/01/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:42:08 EST Today's contributor admits that her first lesson in biscuit-making came not from a family member, but a flour bag. As a Georgia transplant, however, she infused that basic recipe with her own twists, and it is now a well-loved trademark of her version of Southern hospitality —- during the holidays and other occasions that involve good food and socializing. The contributor: Kathy Perdue of Thomaston, a chemistry teacher at Upson-Lee High School who says she has always had a love for cooking. The story: "My daddy was an Army pilot and we moved all around the world. Since I was not raised in the South, biscuits were not something I grew up knowing how to make," Perdue said. "I would usually use the recipe on the White Lily flour bag when I did. But that wasn't very often, as my husband and I are big fanatics about diet and exercise." http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/12/23/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/12/23/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Mon, 22 Dec 2008 12:44:58 EST During World War II, when sugar was among the rationed commodities, creative cooks sought other ways to sweeten their dishes. That's how the following recipe, which calls for orange marmalade and a much smaller amount of sugar, came about. For this Floridian who now lives in Georgia, it continues to bring back memories of the woman who made it a holiday tradition for her family. The contributor: Nelle Walker, a native of Jacksonville, who likes to read, bead, knit and crochet. She and her husband, George, lived in Orlando and New Jersey before building a home on Lake Hartwell, where they now live with their soft-coated Wheaton terrier, Brighton, and cat, Shadow. Her son, Cooper Pierce, is an Atlanta architect, and has two children, Myers and Fairlie, with wife Robbie. The story: My mother, Nelle Bell, was born in Atlanta, graduated from Girls High and attended Brenau [University]. While at Brenau, her widowed mother moved to Sarasota, Fla., and remarried. Mother followed her to Florida where she met my father, Cooper M. Cubbedge. They married in the spring of 1925. My brother was born there in the fall of 1926. I came along in 1937 after they'd moved to Jacksonville. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/12/18/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/12/18/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Wed, 17 Dec 2008 20:58:48 EST For reader Rhonda Cottrell and her extended family, Christmas dinner wouldn't be the same without Cuban pork as the entree. The recipe she shares today —- and the story behind it —- explain why. The contributor: Cottrell is a retired administrator for the Medicaid program who works occasionally as a consultant. She lives in Ellijay with her husband, Jim, with whom she has a blended family of four children and six grandchildren. Four of those babies, she notes, were born within the last year. The story: "I grew up in Tampa, and come from quite a mixed family. My great-grandfather was from Majorca, Spain, and came to Cuba on a ship, working his way toward the U.S. He married my great-grandmother in Cuba and they moved to Tampa, where he got a job in a cigar factory. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/12/11/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/12/11/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:17:06 EST This contribution to our ongoing series came with a bonus: a spiral-bound, handwritten cookbook filled with tried-and-true cookie recipes and the stories behind them, compiled by reader Libba Wilson. The recipes came from her own files as well as those of her sister, mother and longtime friends Molly Brown, Pat Molpus and Caroline Woodall, with whom she shares a multitude of sweet memories that involve cookie dough. In her letter, Wilson told us about her mother's signature Surprise Kisses —- and the variation she devised using them as a meringue base and filling them with lemon curd. Tester Deborah Geering tried them both and pronounced them winners. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/11/24/southernb.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/11/24/southernb.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Mon, 24 Nov 2008 02:26:15 EST For nearly 50 years, the extended family of Betty Harrison has kept her parents' Thanksgiving tradition thriving with a menu that has now been enjoyed by five generations. Harrison has seen to it that the cooks in each generation are supplied with the recipes for each dish, as well as the story of the feast behind it. Harrison contributed the entire menu and recipes to our ongoing project, noting that most were derived from the proprietor of the Purefoy Hotel, a gourmet destination from the 1930s until the 1950s in her native Talladega, Ala. We opted to try the dressing recipe and the intriguing single-serving variation created by the family cook. "Since my mother passed the 'turkey platter' to me, we have had as many as 22 guests at our house for Thanksgiving," Harrison wrote. "The feast lives on!" http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/11/20/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/11/20/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:13:21 EST Sweet potatoes come in many forms this time of year, but traditionally as a pie or marshmallow-covered casserole. Becky Matheny's family enjoyed the way her mother made them, in cobbler. Matheny also sent another of her mother's specialties —- for a bygone dish called Butter Roll. We have had several other submissions for it and thought it worthy of a future story. In the meantime, we are curious about the origin of Butter Roll and what readers remember about it. If you have information, please e-mail me at savingsouthernfood@gmail.com. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/11/13/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/11/13/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:00:41 EST The fruitcake one Newnan family associates with Thanksgiving and Christmas doesn't contain candied fruit but rather dried apples, nuts and a hefty dose of sorghum. The contributor: Lucy Holloway, a retired cake decorator from Newnan. Her son Lee is a Marine with the presidential helicopter squadron and younger son Alan is an Atlanta architect. Her daughter Beth is a mother of four living in Topeka, Kan. The story: "I was named after my grandmother, Lucy Irene Robertson Harris. I was always my grandparents' favorite child, as any of my family will tell you. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/10/16/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/10/16/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:58:47 EDT The first time Carole Bond of Monroe tried to make the apple butter she so fondly recalled from childhood, it took her and a friend the better part of a day and left blobs of her grandmother's special formula on the ceiling. Still, it tasted delicious. So when she contributed the recipe to our ongoing Southern Recipe Restoration Project, she asked if we might come up with a version just as tasty, but easier. Food columnist and recipe tester Deborah Geering was up to the task, reducing the quantity and employing her chinois —- a fine-mesh, cone-shaped sieve available in cookware stores and online. (She also offers instructions for making it without one.) http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/10/02/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/10/02/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Wed, 1 Oct 2008 19:43:18 EDT On many a Georgia farm, few scents were more inviting than that of a nutmeg-laced egg custard pie warm from the oven. For one Atlanta reader, the recipe for it was one more window into the extended, loving family she became part of in marriage. Recipe tester Deborah Geering found this simple and frugal contribution to our ongoing series deceptively appealing. The contributors: Lynne Byrd, and her husband, Noah Byrd. Both have been in residential real estate for 23 years. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/09/18/edgecolfd.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/09/18/edgecolfd.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:36:55 EDT Thirteen years have passed since I moved from Atlanta to Oxford, Miss., to chuck my corporate career and plunge into graduate school. When I left Little Five Points, I did so with some regret. I was in love with diverse and eclectic Atlanta. I was in the thrall of my neighborhood. On the day before departure, I bought a gallon of green sauce from (the now defunct) Tortillas, scarfed a lunch of Varsity pimento burgers and made one last run to the Dekalb Farmers Market, where I stocked my cart with udon noodles, green curry paste and fish sauce. I figured that the Kroger in Oxford wouldn't offer easy access to such exotica. I was right. But Oxford offered its own diversity. I soon was eating kibbe at Marie's Lebanese cafe, just off the square. In time, I learned that the Chinese restaurant, down on University Avenue, was owned by a Vietnamese family. After a month of courting, the proprietor served me an early lunch of pho, the beef broth and noodle soup that is the de facto national dish of Vietnam. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/08/28/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/08/28/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:00:59 EDT The contributor: Marlene Taylor, 61, retired showroom manager from Grayson. The story: "My grandmother's side of the family, the Estes, had deep roots in Troup County. They lived there during the War Between the States. But by the Depression, work was hard to find, so they moved to Birmingham and then they moved again to Atlanta. They settled in Grant Park, right across from the zoo. My parents actually met at a dance at the pavilion over there at the park. "I lived in a duplex with my parents on one side and my grandmother [Alice] Inez Estes Taylor lived on the other. She was one of those cooks who didn't use recipes. She cooked by feel and memory because she learned to cook by watching her mother. I wasn't interested in learning when I was really young, but by the time I was in my 20s, I started writing down Grandmother's recipes while she cooked. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/08/14/southernfd.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/08/14/southernfd.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Thu, 14 Aug 2008 02:50:24 EDT The okra most Southerners were reared on was sliced into rounds, dipped in cornmeal and fried until crackly crisp. But that's not how Patricia Thomas' grandmother made it. Rather, she combined her Central Florida upbringing with her Italian heritage with delicious results. The contributor: Patricia Thomas, a journalism professor at the University of Georgia since 2005. A native of the small Central Florida town of Dunnellon, she attended college in Illinois, then California and came to the Atlanta area in the 1970s, specializing in health and medical journalism. A fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology lured her to Boston in 1986, where she edited the Harvard Health Letter and wrote a book about HIV vaccine research. She loves living in Athens and cooking with produce from local organic farmers. But she is even happier when she and her family travel to Italy and she is able to cook for them there. The story: "When I describe my grandmother as Southern Italian, I don't mean her family came from Naples or Sicily. The Toffaletti and Ghiotto families made wine on the outskirts of Verona, in the rice-eating North, and in 1874 they were lured to Central Florida by the false promise that valpolicella and soave would thrive in the New World. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/08/14/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/08/14/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:07:17 EDT The okra most Southerners were reared on was sliced into rounds, dipped in cornmeal and fried until crackly crisp. But that's not how Patricia Thomas' grandmother made it. Rather, she combined her Central Florida upbringing with her Italian heritage with delicious results. The contributor: Patricia Thomas, a journalism professor at the University of Georgia since 2005. A native of the small Central Florida town of Dunnellon, she attended college in Illinois, then California and came to the Atlanta area in the 1970s, specializing in health and medical journalism. A fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology lured her to Boston in 1986, where she edited the Harvard Health Letter and wrote a book about HIV vaccine research. She loves living in Athens and cooking with produce from local organic farmers. But she is even happier when she and her family travel to Italy and she is able to cook for them there. The story: "When I describe my grandmother as Southern Italian, I don't mean her family came from Naples or Sicily. The Toffaletti and Ghiotto families made wine on the outskirts of Verona, in the rice-eating North, and in 1874 they were lured to Central Florida by the false promise that valpolicella and soave would thrive in the New World. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/08/07/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/08/07/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Wed, 6 Aug 2008 12:47:10 EDT Southerners have long had an affinity for sweet, fruity things to serve alongside savory meats and casseroles, and not just congealed salads. Hot curried fruit is one such dish that became wildly popular on buffet tables in the 1960s, and still turns up —- usually for holidays —- even now. The original recipe is ideal for winter, as it combines canned peaches with other canned and bottled syrupy fruits, plenty of brown sugar, butter and spice. We thank reader Virginia Quillian for sharing her favorite recipe, taken from her tattered copy of "Klippings From Our Kitchen Kabinets," published in 1966 by Simpson Memorial Methodist Church on McFarland Avenue in Rossville. With Georgia peaches in their prime, Atlanta cookbook author and Saving Southern Food chefs panelist Virginia Willis decided to use that recipe as inspiration for an updated version with fresh fruits, sauteing them in a skillet just long enough to warm them through. The result was a lovely, vibrant accompaniment that would pair beautifully with grilled, sauteed or smoked meats or poultry, especially pork chops. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/07/17/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/07/17/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:43:20 EDT For many of us these days, a simple homemade poundcake is a rare treat. But for the reader who contributed her grandmother's handwritten recipe to our ongoing series, it was a year-round standby. Unable to afford butter after she moved to the city, she cut costs by substituting shortening and several flavorings. But if you're willing to splurge, by all means use butter. Our recipe tester, Deborah Geering, found that, either way, it's a wonderful match for the season's ripest fruits and maybe a scoop of vanilla ice cream. The contributor: Suzy Davis of Canton, a retired paralegal, with family roots in Dawsonville. The story: "My grandmother Gladys Burt Green was born in Dawsonville back in 1904 on a farm. By the time she was a teenager, there wasn't much work and she had to move to Atlanta. She had two little kids to take care of, my mother and my uncle, and at the time my uncle had polio, so moving was good because he could get better medical care here. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/07/10/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/07/10/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Wed, 9 Jul 2008 10:24:33 EDT Sometimes it's hard to remember a world in which dinner didn't come in a microwave-ready box and ketchup didn't come from a bottle. But this recipe proves that most foods (with the possible exception of, say, Cheetos) were once homemade. And you might be as surprised as our tester was to discover that the spices in ketchup are allspice and cloves. The contributor: Roseann Blacher is an EcoBroker-certified Realtor who lives in Marietta. Her interest in environmental issues extends to her own yard, where she keeps an organic garden. She is married to Joel, a science teacher. In addition to gardening and cooking, "We hike, and we canoe, and we love to read and we are avid hockey fans," she said. She also is compiling a family-history cookbook and a margarita recipe book. The story: Blacher's great-grandparents, immigrants from Germany, owned a bakery in Augusta, and the family lived above it. When their daughter, Rosa Clare Ferber, married, the couple lived over the bakery, too, but her new family also had a farm. During the Depression, Blacher said, "They would do all kinds of stuff to supplement. They used to go out to the farm and get all their food." http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/05/22/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/05/22/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Wed, 21 May 2008 11:26:06 EDT For this installment of our ongoing series, a reader tells us why a recipe called Sad Cake made everyone who tasted it so happy. The contributor: Melanie Nugent, who has spent much of her life working for her family's baseball cap manufacturing business in Putman County and has also managed several restaurants. She now lives in Tallahassee with her husband, Pat, a former assistant manager for the Braves, and works for Comcast Cable Corp. She has twin daughters, Alex and Sara, who will head to Georgia Southern University this summer, as well as a 9-year-old grandson, Kaleb, and a stepdaughter, Katie, who lives in Atlanta and sells original oil paintings in Buckhead. The story: "This was a cake that would appear at all types of gatherings in Cleveland, Tenn., and Bradley County in my teen years from 1976 to 1979: funerals, family outings, political functions and church covered dishes. The whole community seemed to know this recipe, so I am not sure of where it first originated, but you could bet it would be on the table if more than a dozen people gathered. Someone would always say before serving: "Looks sad, tastes great." http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/05/15/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/05/15/southern.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Wed, 14 May 2008 16:18:33 EDT Potato salad is one of those "particular" dishes, as in, people tend to be very particular about how theirs is made: sweet relish vs. chopped dill pickle; lots of mustard vs. none at all; white onion vs. green onions. In this Saving Southern Food installment, we look at one potato salad recipe with a "secret" ingredient. And it isn't paprika. The contributor: Sue Lynch of Fayetteville. This recipe comes from Lynch's 90-year-old mother, Frances Huber of Rustburg, Va. The story: "Rustburg is a small town where everybody knows everybody. And when I was growing up there in the 1950s, everybody knew my mother made the best potato salad. She still does. http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/03/06/southern0306fd.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 http://www.ajc.com/services/content/living/food/stories/2008/03/06/southern0306fd.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=11 Wed, 5 Mar 2008 21:38:18 EST For this installment of our ongoing series, chef Virginia Willis of our Saving Southern Food chefs panel put a reader's adaptation of her late mother's tea cakes to the test, and Willis barely had to make an adjustment. The contributor: Dorothy Sims of Dacula, a former real estate paralegal who also worked as a construction loan closing specialist for a local bank. She now enjoys being a nanny to two grandchildren, gardening, reading, photography and scrapbooking, vacationing at the beach and fishing. "I have recently completed a scrapbook of the history of our family as a special Christmas gift to my siblings," she wrote. The story: "My mama, Daisy Nell Barrett, who has been deceased for 28 years, was a special person, and was loved and respected by all her 12 children. She really lived through some hard times, having been born in 1914 in Gwinnett County, surviving the Depression and war, but she always told us that we would make it through. My father was a farmer and also held other jobs to supplement our income.