Chipotle sweet potato soup with spiced pecans
Tonight I made one of my favorite soups, a thick sweet potato soup made fiery and smoky with chipotles. I make this soup often in the cold-weather months, but for…
Vegetable
Hatch chile potato casserole: funeral food
“Pass the chicken, pass the pie. We sure eat good when someone dies. Funeral food, it’s so good for the soul. Funeral food, fills you up down to your toes.”…
Spicy pickled okra
Okra: people either love it or hate it. But okra and I have a more complicated relationship. My head tells me that I don’t like okra—I find it slimy and…
Tex-Mex squash casserole
I took a wrong exit on my way to the Birmingham Airport. I don’t usually mind getting lost because this can often lead to discovery. But after meandering endlessly down…
Buttermilk dressing
The first time I ate pizza with my New York friends, I learned that Texans have a special relationship with buttermilk dressing. When the pizza arrived, I pulled a jar…
What’s in your English pea salad?
I was sitting with a group of food writers from the Northeast the other day (I would playfully call them Yankees, but as it was gently pointed out to me,…
Carrot and raisin salad
The end of February can be a very tiring time. You’re tired of wearing that long, black, down-filled coat that keeps you warm but makes you look like a stack…
Not your grandma’s collard greens
My new friend Amy sent me collard greens last week. The gift was much appreciated and they were gorgeous, but there was only one problem—I couldn’t eat them because they…
Purple sage and colorful cauliflower
I’ve been leery of cauliflower for most of my life. Despite my early penchant for devouring white foods, there was just something about cauliflower that seemed a bit wrong. To…
An asparagus sandwich and a new attitude
The small Texas town where I went to college had a surprising bounty of good restaurants despite its size. While I ate the majority of my meals either in Slater’s…