Southern Living's 1001 Ways to Cook Southern

The Southern part of the United States is well known for its down home style of cooking. Boiled peanuts, cornbread, black-eyed peas, buttermilk biscuits, delicious cakes, pies, and the list goes on. This cookbook is one of the newer ones in my collection and one I really love. It's another one of those grand books that you can just get lost in, not only with the recipes, but the notes laced throughout its pages.

There is the testament on page 825 that states, "Southerners can't stand to eat alone. If we're going to cook a mess of greens, we want to eat them with a mess of people." Or, over on page 709, "It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato." There is a quote by Mark Twain that I found amusing! "The North thinks it knows how to make cornbread, but this is a gross superstition. Perhaps no bread in the world is quite a good as Southern cornbread, and perhaps no bread in the world is quite as bad as the Northern imitation of it."

Many of the classic Southern recipes come with a mini article called Taste of the South that explains just what makes them Southern.

As with other cookbooks I have featured here in the past weeks, it is impossible to choose one or two recipes to adequately showcase this wonderful cookbook. But here are two that I'm sure you will appreciate.

Rosemary-Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

2 pints cherry tomatoes
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Combine all the ingredients in a ziploc bag and gently shake until the tomatoes are well coated. Transfer to an aluminum foil-lined jelly roll pan coated with cooking spray.

Bake, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes or until tomatoes begin to burst.



Maw-Maw's Chicken Pie

4 cups chopped, cook chicken
1 can of Cream of Chicken Soup
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place the chicken in a lightly greased 12 x 8 inch baking dish.

Whisk together soup, broth, and cornstarch; pour mixture evenly over the chicken.

Whisk together flour, buttermilk, and butter; spoon batter evenly over chicken mixture.

Bake for 40 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Note: Try replacing some of the chicken with chopped vegetables, or stir a cup of shredded cheese into the soup mixture.