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Starting in the 1940s, Wilkes ran a boarding house in Savannah, Georgia, and was known for her good cooking. She let boarders bring family and friends in to eat, and eventually that grew into a restaurant. Still known as Mrs. Wilkes' Boardinghouse, even though she hadn't taken on boarders for 30 years, the restaurant is known for its lines of people waiting for a spot at one of the community dining tables. "It is a great introduction to the whole South," says John T. Edge, director of the Southern Foodways Alliance at the University of Mississippi. "The pomp and circumstance of it mattered as much as the food." She worked most every day for 60 years, always saying grace for the whole room before the food was served, family style, and making sure that the food was perfect -- along with the servers' manners. She was at work watching over things when she suffered a stroke, and died two weeks later on October 30. She was 95. From This is True for 27 October 2002 Suggestions for further reading:
 By: Martha Hall Foose List Price: $32.50 Amazon Price: $21.45 Editorial Review: Hardcover: 256 pages Publisher: Clarkson Potter (April 29, 2008) Language: English ISBN-10: 0307351408 ISBN-13: 978-0307351401 Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.6 x 1.1 inches Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds  By: Trisha Yearwood List Price: $29.95 Amazon Price: $19.77 Editorial Review: She’s adored by fans as one of country music’s top stars, but among family and friends, Trisha Yearwood is best known for another talent: cooking. Throughout her life–from her humble roots in Georgia to her triumphant recording years in Nashville and a fulfilling married life with husand Garth Brooks in Oklahoma–Trisha has always enjoyed feeding those she loves. Now she dishes up a collection of more than 120 of her go-to recipes in a tribute to both home-grown cooking and family traditions. Trisha believes a recipe always tastes better when it has a memory attached to it. Here, she teams up with her mother and sister to share their family’s best-loved recipes. This is the kind of classic comfort food you’ll want at the heart of your own family’s mealtime memories. Inside is a full menu of Southern fare with a contemporary twist. But you don’t have to be a Southerner to enjoy Yearwood family favorites such as: Trisha’s Chicken Tortilla Soup Gwen’s Fried Chicken with Milk Gravy Stuffed Pork Chops Breakfast Sausage Casserole Blackberry Cobbler Banana Pudding Along with the recipes for inviting soups, textural salads, home-style family entrées, colorful side dishes, and irresistible desserts, Trisha shares everything from charming personal anecdotes to practical advice, time-saving tips, and creative ingredient substitutions to accommodate all tastes. With full-color photographs taken in and around Trisha’s homes and a foreword by Garth Brooks, this soul-warming slice of Southern life will delight country music fans and home cooks alike. Best of all, this is un-pretentious food that is easy to put together, satisfies even big country appetites, and tastes like home. Trisha’s warm evocations of pre-paring food for loved ones will transport you back to your own childhood. These are recipes you’ll enjoy with your family for years to come.  By: Jamie DeenBobby Deen List Price: $24.95 Amazon Price: $16.47 Editorial Review: Get ready for amazing recipes that will entice anyone to clear off the kitchen table and have a few people over. Bobby and Jamie Deen's newest one-of-a-kind cookbook is bursting with flavorful recipes for good eats around the dinner table with family, a pre-game cookout, or a potluck rich with food for half the neighborhood.  By: Julia Reed List Price: $23.95 Amazon Price: $16.29 Editorial Review: Julia Reed spends a lot of time thinking about ham biscuits. And cornbread and casseroles and the surprisingly modern ease of donning a hostess gown for one’s own party. In Ham Biscuits, Hostess Gowns and Other Southern Specialties Julia Reed collects her thoughts on good cooking and the lessons of gracious entertaining that pass from one woman to another, and takes the reader on a lively and very personal tour of the culinary—and social—South. In essays on everything from pork chops to the perfect picnic Julia Reed revels in the simple good qualities that make the Southern table the best possible place to pull up a chair. She expounds on: the Southerner’s relentless penchant for using gelatin; why most things taste better with homemade mayonnaise; the necessity of a holiday milk punch (and, possibly, a Santa hat); how best to “cook for compliments” (at least one squash casserole and Lee Bailey’s barbequed veal are key). She provides recipes for some of the region’s best-loved dishes (cheese straws, red velvet cake, breakfast shrimp), along with her own variations on the classics, including Fried Oysters Rockefeller Salad and Creole Crab Soup. She also elaborates on worthwhile information every hostess would do well to learn: the icebreaking qualities of a Ramos gin fizz and a hot crabmeat canapé, for example; the “wow factor” intrinsic in a platter of devilled eggs or a giant silver punchbowl filled with scoops of homemade ice cream. There is guidance on everything from the best possible way to “eat” your luck on New Year’s Day to composing a menu in honor of someone you love. Grace and hilarity under gastronomic pressure suffuse these essays, along with remembrances of her gastronomic heroes including Richard Olney, Mary Cantwell, and M.F.K. Fisher. Ham Biscuits, Hostess Gowns and Other Southern Specialties is another great book about the South from Julia Reed, a writer who makes her experiences in—and out of—the kitchen a joy to read.  By: Gayden Metcalfe List Price: $19.95 Amazon Price: $13.57 |
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