Southern Favorites, Memories and Congrats to the Cookbook Winner!

Wow, I've been a bit remiss in posting over here this week. Let's just call it the winter blues. Honestly I don't even know where the week went.

Oh my gosh, was I ever thrilled to read all of the comments on my review of the Best of the Best from the Deep South Cookbook - great food was mentioned and a lot of wonderful, sentimental memories!  I loved them all. I know it's hard to pick a favorite when there are so many great southern dishes to choose from, but thanks for participating, tweeting and sharing with your friends and family about this wonderful cookbook. I appreciate you all. My one regret is, after reading all the great comments, I only have one cookbook to giveaway!

Thanks for playing along, thanks for being a reader of My New 30 and of Deep South Dish. I hope you find a laugh or two along the way and maybe something good to eat too!  I thought I would repost some of the wonderful comments and memories here since I enjoyed them so much.

But first, the winner is ..... Carol, who said...

My nanny made the best biscuits I have ever had, they were topped with homemade butter and blackberry jam. My job was to gather the eggs from outside and then she would let me sift the flour. Everything she cooked was done on/in an old wood stove and no matter what it was it seemed to taste better then anywhere else. My favorite to make would be Pecan Pie or Brown Sugar Pie.

Congratulations Carol - what a wonderful memory to cherish! I can remember seeing old handwritten recipes that started with "go out to the hen house and gather two eggs."  I have sent you an email to notify you - be sure to check your inbox and reply within 48 hours of that email to claim your cookbook!

GREAT NEWS!!!!  I just heard from the publisher, and if you would love to to purchase this great cookbook to add to your collection, if you order it by telephone at 1-800-343-1583, and mention that  you are a friend of Deep South Dish or My New 30, you will get a 20% discount on your order.

I'm sure this discount will only be available for a short time, so be sure to call soon!

Of course you can also order online right here - but please note that the discount only applies when you order by phone.

Thanks again for entering and stay tuned ... I have another great giveaway coming up next that I think you'll like too!

LindaCinKY said...

One of my favorite dishes was one my father would make from time to time. Surprisingly, I have never seen it in any restaurant I've been to or in a cookbook or at anyone's house. This dish is very simple:

Pour one can of tomatoes into a saucepan, add a Tablespoon (or to your taste) of margarine and some salt. Heat on low 'til warmed. Add about 4 to 6 slices of bread, torn into pieces. Stir together and serve over hot rice.

I have learned just last year that this is a recipe that was common during the great depression and also around hobo camps along railroad routes. Well, my dad was a young boy during the great depression and my grandfather worked for a railroad company.

Last year, I found only a few references to this dish online in various forms (some included sugar--yuck!).

It's really good. :)

Blogger Tequila Cupcake said...

I cannot pick a favorite! I learned to cook first from my grandmother. Love all of the old southern 'staples' she used to make! She did a lot of the old timer's style cooking and baking, but nothing spicy-and using ingredients available home-grown or purchased in our area.
At age 13 I could bake a cake without a recipe!

Blogger Teresa said...

I love "visitin" with you and have tried a few of your recipes. We lived next door to an elderly lady when we moved to Marrero and I would love to smell what was cooking in her kitchen everday! I learned to make roux from her along with alot more.

Blogger Omnivore said...

Chicken and dumplings, which I learned about as a cook at Phil's, a long-departed meat and three in Houston.

Blogger Keeper of our Home said...

One of my favorite Southern foods would have to be buttermilk fried chicken and homemade mac-n-cheese.

Growing up Mom would always make fried chicken and boy was it yummy. It was only as an adult that I learned fried chicken wasn't supposed to be soggy! (no offense Mom *grin*) But she gave me a love for it. What better to go with it though than mac-n-0cheese...but not that boxed stuff. It's got to be the real homemade version dripping in freshly grated cheese, heavy cream and BUTTER!!!

I also joined the FB fan page and have twittered about it. I also posted a link to the give-a-way on my blog. Happy cooking everyone!

~Mrs. M

Anonymous said...

Fried okra! My Mama used to fry okra with cornmeal only in an iron skillet. She didn't bread each individual piece, but threw it all in there togethr and fried it up nice and crispy. I used to love to mix it with pinto beans. I have never been able to recreate her recipe and she has since passed away.
Angela

Blogger Melanie said...

Baked mac & cheese:)

Blogger Jen said...

I'd have to say that hushpuppies and fried chicken is one of my favorites. My hubby and I want to travel someday but now is not an option. So we get cookbooks from all over the US. I make us a nice supper from an area we would love to visit someday.

Blogger beachmom25 said...

Too many favorites to mention. Probably mac 'n cheese though.



Blogger Patricia P. said...

Southern Bread Pudding! Of course, I love all things southern. My husband has family in the New Orleans area. It's a giant smorgasbord of flavor!!

Blogger Wendy said...

Shrimp Creole and bread pudding! I would love to live in the South but unfortunately my work and life are in the North. Someday maybe....

Blogger A Year on the Grill said...

I'm partial to your sweet tea... been drinking it for 5 days in a row!

Blogger Alicia said...

Fried okra is my all time favorite!

Blogger suburban prep said...

I love love love Banana Foster. I don't know where I first had it but I can telly you that one of the places that I did the tasting for when I got married had the best version of it I ever tasted. I know that the first time I had it though I was with my mother. My mother was born in the south but raised in Texas and in California. I have been born and raised and lived most of my life in the Mid-West.

Blogger Courtney said...

One of my favorites is Biscuits and Gravy. Anytime my mom would make that growing up, it was such a treat!

Anonymous Kat said...

I have always LOVED fried okra. There is just something so irresistibly wonderful about it, that I can never pass it up!

Blogger Elizabeth Spann Craig/Riley Adams said...

This sounds like a great series!

I love Frogmore Stew! I have great memories from college of going to the beach (Lowcountry SC), buying fresh shrimp and making a big mess of it! :)

Blogger CA said...

My favorite southern recipe is red velvet cake. I just love anything with cream cheese frosting and pecans!!

Blogger Ann said...

I love reading your blog everyday..I love the potatoe soup with chesse and bacon..I made it for my kids and they loved it..I would love to have a copy of this book so that I can make more wondeful meals for my family...


Blogger Granna Girl said...

Pecan pie. I use the recipe on the Karo bottle. I've tried others but that's the best one!

Blogger healingtouch said...

Being from the deep south (south of New Orleans....yes there is land south of New Orleans) I'd have to say my favorite southern dish would be anything that contains cornbread. I absolutely love the stuff!!!! I honestly could eat it daily. Mmmmm I think I will go and bake some now!

Blogger Haden News said...

Shrimp and Grits is my favorite southern dish! I love your blog and wonderful recipes...thanks for the inspiration!

Blogger Lisa said...

My favorite southern recipe is my Granny's fried okra. She uses fresh okra from her garden, breads it with cornmeal, then fries it in her iron skillet until it is black. It is not done until it is burned! Yum!

Blogger Olde Dame Penniwig said...


I guess when it all boils down to it, my favorite Southern dish is actually a drink -- ICED TEA. Sorry rest-of-the-world, yer tea cannot compare with Deep South tea.

Second fave would be GRITS.

Blogger Shelly said...

A few years ago we were traveling down south (Mississippi) to be exact and we stopped in this mom and pop type of eatery...a cafe. I got this delicious peach cobbler and topped it off with some freshly made peach ice tea. Since that time...I drink peach ice tea every week! Love my peaches!

One thing I would like to try that I have never tried is crawfish from the south.

Anonymous Tracey S said...

Only one? Fried okra. My mom died over 20 years ago before I learned how to make it and I finally cracked the code this past year. An iron skillet makes the difference. Then there's chili beans and cornbread, chicken and dumplings, macaroni and cheese. Can't pick one fave.

Blogger Cheryl said...

One of my favorite deep south dishes has to be goulash. My grandma would be pressure cooking meat, when I would arrive home for school. I knew we were going to have a great supper with Goulash, cornbread (with honey butter) and sweet tea. My mouth would water. One day, I foolishly was trying to sneek into grandma's pressure pot to get some goodies. Don't let anyone tell you, you can't open a pressure cooker by hand. I did and it landed me in the emergency room with burns to my neck and chest. Yes, ma am, I learned my lesson right quick.

Blogger Eva Gallant said...

I would SO love to win that cookbook. I would love to learn to make southern fried chicken. Whenever we have ventured south, the fried chicken we've had has been so superior to anything we get up here! My mouth waters thinking of it!

Blogger Grammy Blick said...

Hoppin' John is my favorite southern recipe. Such a melding of flavors and textures. Both warm from heat and from spices. Also, it comes with memories of celebrating each New Year with family and friends -- an entirely different warm, but oh, so filling!

Thanks for offering the book so that we can share not only recipes, but wonderful memories.

Anonymous Renea said...

My favorite southern recipe with the most memories for me is my Momma's cornbread dressing. One reason is it is delicious, but the main reason is it reminds me of my family and many wonderful memories of my life. Just the smell of it cooking in the overn is pure comfort for me. We always have this dressing at Thanksgiving of course, but also Christmas and usually Easter too.

Blogger little ole me said...

Way to many to mention - I love tomato gravy and biscuits (my mother still mixes her biscuits in a wooden bowl using only her hands as utensils) I also love boiled peanuts - I never knew that boiled peanuts were not known everywhere until someone (from the north) looked at me like I was crazy when I mentioned them hahahaha and the list could go on and on and on

Anonymous ~~Rhonda said...

Favorite? Fried chicken, no contest. :) Thanks for hosting a great giveaway!

Blogger Lynda said...

There are too many favorites to pick from, Mary, but candied sweet potatoes is one dish passed down from my grandmother to my mother, to me. I know it's sweet, but I LOVE it! My family cannot celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas without them! And then there's fried chicken, chicken fried steak; I could go on and on!

Jim-49 said

Well,these ladies,sure got me hungry!!Fried Okra,Cornbread Dressing(your cornbread),Peach Cobbler,that coffee cake(you baked),Fried Chicken.Well,I'm Southern and country,so pull yo chairs up,and been still.I hunted and take that turkey(wild or stor-bought)strip the breast out in little strips about the size of your finger,and cut across the grain,in 1 inch pieces.Salt & pepper,roll in flour,and smother fry,slowly.make the gravy,out of drippings,hot biscuits,rice,1/2 gallon of real cold milk(D-of course),and a piece of Marys coffee cake!! Now,some time,in the easy chair,in front of the fire,and sleep southern style tonight!! Oh Yes,DOGS-OH-DOGS,NO SCRAPS TONIGHT!!

Blogger Anna said...

One southern meal I love and you don't see alot is for Ham with cornmeal dumplings - that's about as southern as you get!! My Mom could make em so good along with her homemade biscuits (yes, with lard!) This looks to be an interesting cookbook - Good luck!

Anonymous Carol said...

My nanny made the best biscuits I have ever had, they were topped with homemade butter and blackberry jam. My job was to gather the eggs from outside and then she would let me sift the flour. Everything she cooked was done on/in an old wood stove and no matter what it was it seemed to taste better then anywhere else. My favorite to make would be Pecan Pie or Brown Sugar Pie.

Blogger Gene said...

I think my favorite is Bananna Pudding or well-made Macaroni and Cheese. Both of them are the first things I think of when i think of good southern cooking.

Cindy, my wife, cooks a lot of good southern dishes. We also get to enjoy good cooking at many of the "eating places" here in South Carolina.

Hope I win

Anonymous said...

My favorite recipe is one that was published by Southern Living mag. back in the 80's for spicy fried chicken, it has lots of pantry herbs and spices and makes a nice dark crust and very flavorful...I am drooling now.

Blogger Ryan Waldron said...

My favorite recipe is my shrimp remoulade.

Blogger Carolsue said...

Ever since I visited New Orleans a few years ago, Bananas Foster is my favorite Southern recipe. Also Shrimp Etouffe.

Lisa said...

Being a transplant 26 years ago from Iowa to Texas it was important to me to learn how to make a true southern biscuit. I am proud to report I have it mastered!! Would love to have this book!!


Blogger Miss Donna said...

My mom used to make a similar recipe to LindaCinKY's, using canned tomatoes with macaroni. She added a little butter, some flour and milk, salt and maybe pepper, added cooked macaroni and fed the whole family... Served it with some home-canned green beans and cream-style corn, a pan of corn bread and a cold glass of milk-- and that was a meal we looked forward to!

Anonymous Pam at Daysong Reflections said...

As a lifetime southerner born and raised in west Tenn., it would be hard to decide what my favorite southern recipe is. Just never learned to love grits. My most recent favorite now that I have learned to make real roux is gumbo, particularly shrimp with andouille.


Anonymous Strickland85 said...

My special deep south dish would be "Homemade Biscuits". The recipe is pretty standard but what makes them special is the connection to my Grandmother. She made them everytime we visited and I am the only family member who learned how to make them from her. Just before she died, I made a batch and got them right...she loved them :). She has been gone 30 years but I think of her everytime I make those biscuits. Thanks for letting me share. My email is Strickland85@yahoo.com

Blogger avalarue said...

I love grits. I like them just plain with butter and salt, or in my daughter's favorite recipe, cheese grits. This staple has been in my Louisiana family for generations.


Blogger Sweet Tea and Biscuits said...

My fav southern dish is granny's homemade biscuits. drop biscuits are the best!

Blogger Carolyn said...

Lemon Meringue Pie---lemony creamy and tangy, not the jello type!

Blogger CH said...

Chicken & dumplings along with fried okra are one of my favorites from Sunday dinners with our family.

Blogger Laurie said...

I love my PawPaw's BBQ chicken. He would sit outside with it all day long. But my favorite southern recipe is my mom's potato salad. With five kids she had lots of I don't like thats to work around but her potato salad was awesome and still is. When she visits I usualy have the potatoes already cooked for her. I remember everyone wanting her ot bring that to church potlucks, funerals, everywhere. Everyone loved it.