Table Talk

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Articles Tagged with recipes

Award-Winning Lemon Chess Pie

This delicious lemon chess pie is the perfect coda to a spring luncheon or a heavy winter dinner.

A Refined Beef Stew for a Festive Holiday

It’s no secret to any of my friends that boeuf bourguignon is my go-to dish for winter entertaining. I love to serve it with garlicky cheese grits and crusty French bread and a big salad with lemony vinaigrette. When I do cook stew for a special occasion, though, I love to depart from my old (and very easy) standby. For Christmas or New Year's Eve, I'll pull out my tattered copy of Patricia Wells’ divine cookbook, At Home in Provence, and head straight to the recipe for Monsieur Henry’s Three Beef Daube.

Bourbon Balls & Other Cocktail Supper Must-Haves

The bourbon ball is definitely an acquired taste, but Julia's recipe will make even the youngest guest at the party a fan of these boozy confections.

Year-Round Tomato Tart

Make this tomato tart in any season!

Lisa Donovan's Chocolate Church Cake

When my friend Lisa Donovan serves this chocolate deliciousness, everyone is rendered speechless.

Mary Mack's Fresh Peach Ice Cream

I'm grateful that ice cream makers have come a long way since the mid-70s, but I'll be following Mama's recipe to a tee.

Nora Jane's Summer Corn Pudding

Your guests will never guess that the key ingredient in this corn pudding is Jiffy Corn Muffin mix.

Summer Sangria

This sangria recipe from Julia's hilarious book is perfect to have on hand as spring fades into summer.

Cocktails for Derby Day and Spring

I love a frozen drink, I adore mint, and I have never met a variation on a julep that didn't make me deliriously happy. Here, I've created a sort of cross between a julep and a mojito. Though most of us think of a julep as the classic mint version with bourbon, a julep is defined as any drink utilizing alcohol and herbs, usually over shaved or crushed ice.

Lemon Lover’s Tart

My favorite yearly staple is a Meyer lemon tart I’ve been cooking for years from Patricia Wells’ divine cookbook, At Home in Provence, where she shares recipes inspired by her country farmhouse in Southern France.

Aunt Hebe's Christmas Baked Brie

I serve this baked brie with brown sugar and cognac in a puffed pastry at every Christmas party I host, and people go wild for it.

Mary Mack's Southern Cornbread Dressing

Every year for 52 years, my mother has orchestrated the most delicious Thanksgiving meal for those we gather around the table. I've - happily - been assigned the flowers in my middle age and the place settings when I was younger.

Favorite Fall Recipes

Two things do show up on Claire's menu again and again, and I think they are the perfect combination for dessert after a hearty fall supper. I hope you'll enjoy Claire's lemon curd (served best in her hand-thrown cups) and ginger snaps at your next autumn meal.

Mary Mack's Squash Casserole

No matter how many times I serve this on my screened porch in Sewanee or even at a more formal dinner with sliced tenderloin (on which occasion I might call it a gratin), I’ve never known this recipe to fail. And I’ve never known people not to ask for seconds. I hope you’ll enjoy incorporating it into your summer repertoire. It’s a sure thing.

Valentine's Day Strawberry Cake

Don’t let the down-market ingredients fool you. This cake is the height of refinement when served with a garnish of fresh berries in season. No one would ever suspect Jell-O to be a primary ingredient. First published in the ’80s in Mississippi Magazine, this recipe has been a favorite of my family for ages.

Easter Brunch Perfection: Mock Cheese Soufflé

Easter lunch is always one of my favorite meals of the year. There’s nothing more joyful than gathering the last of the daffodils from the yard and arranging them with Lenten rose and other tender spring blooms on a table festooned with bunnies and eggs and the collected memories of Easters past. And a menu of spring lamb, fresh asparagus and various lemony and other sugary desserts feels like one more way to welcome in spring.

Boxing Day Boeuf Bourguignon by the Fire

Wherever you'll be on the 26th, this recipe for Boeuf Bourguignon from the New Basics Cookbook (a must have!) never fails as the perfect accompaniment to an evening by the fire or around the kitchen table with the folks who mean the most to you.

Cheese Dreams and Other Preludes to Thanksgiving

By the time the first course was put out - the most delicious sauteed oysters on buttered toast points - we were all well and tipsy as I recall. The remainder of the meal, delicious I'm sure, fades in memory. It's the cooking with friends, the prelude to the main event, that stays with me even now. So I leave you with the recipes for cheese dreams and sauteed oysters on toast, both favorites in Julia's extensive repertoire, and now, lucky me, in mine too.

Red, White & Blueberry Crisp

My mother is a master cobbler-maker and can turn just about any summer fruit into a heavenly combination of sucré and salé - sweet and salty (and tart) - that elevates the palate and, as my late stepfather used to say, causes the eyes to roll back in the head in ecstasy. Even Julia, not one to give up culinary compliments freely, honored Mama by including her blackberry cobbler recipe in Julia Reed's South, a badge of honor Mama wears proudly.