Food+Drink
Featured
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What’s A Meal Without Gravy?
In my Smoky Mountain boyhood, and even more so in earlier generations, high country cooks like my Grandma Minnie would have considered a hot meal without gravy something approaching culinary sacrilege.
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Tajines for All Tastes
Say the word “tajine” and see color, spice, shadowed desertous hills, white flowing robes and bare feet and bright sunshine on sand. See markets and earthenware dishes and silver pots of tea with fresh mint and sugar cubes.
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A Bird for Each Season
Sundays in the mountains traditionally involve chicken, often breaded and fried, and served with mashed potatoes and a hearty gravy. French families also serve up chicken, usually weekly.
A Bird for Each Season
Sundays in the mountains traditionally involve chicken, often breaded and fried, and served with mashed potatoes and a hearty gravy. French families also serve up chicken, usually weekly.
Oct 1, 2025
Breads for the Sweet Tooth
One of many memorable aspects of my mountain boyhood focuses on what were simply known as “sweets.” By today’s health standards virtually everyone I knew during my youth consumed an inordinate amount of desserts, jams and jellies, honey and syrups.
Aug 1, 2025
There are no Eggs in Aubergine
Eggplant or aubergine? Depending on your country of origin, you might have strong feelings as to the name of this fruit disguised as a vegetable (eggplant for North America and Australia; aubergine for France and Britain and neighboring countries).
Aug 1, 2025
The Glory Of Grits
Grits have long been a staple of mountain diet along with its sister, food hominy. In old-time mountain parlance, as a matter of fact, you more commonly heard “hominy grits” than just hominy.
Jun 1, 2025
Raiding the Garden for a Refreshing Cucumber
Ever wonder where the expression “cool as a cucumber” originated? Apparently, a certain John Gay penned a poem titled “New Song on New Similes” in 1732.
Jun 1, 2025
Do Not Miss These Donuts
The problem of donuts becomes apparent as soon as you start earnestly looking for them. Finding a donut is easy, but finding a really good one? That’s something else.
Jun 1, 2025
Unearthing the Truffle
In the woods of France, Italy, Croatia, as well as the Pacific Northwest, the piney-woods of North Carolina, and even the hills and hollers of Appalachia, grows a mysteriously delicious tuber called the truffle.
Apr 1, 2025
Offbeat Mountain Edibles
My generation of mountain folks, like every generation before, survived and, in many cases, thrived with a “make do with what you’ve got” mindset.
Apr 1, 2025
