Southern Cooking

I was fortunate enough to receive an advanced copy of B. Smith Cooks Southern-Style. The actual cookbook will be available later this year – November 3 to be exact. The timing couldn’t be better, because there are countless recipes in this wonderful cookbook that you’ll want to make during the holidays – PLUS it will make the ultimate gift for anyone on your Christmas list.

You might want to bake a few Sweet Potato Pies With Brown Sugar Pecan Topping (page 285). While you can use store-bought pie shells, you’ll never buy one again once you try her Butter Pie Dough (page 286).

Other recipes you’ll embrace during Autumn and Winter:

• Pumpkin-Pecan Cake with Caramel-Cream Cheese Frosting
• Deep-Dish Apple Pie
• Candy Apple Grits Creme Brulee (!!!)
• Yeast Rolls
• Sweet Potato Spoon Bread
• Whole-Wheat Potato Rolls
• Hoppin’ John
• Macaroni and a Plethora of Cheese (features mozzarella, cheddar, Monterey jack, Swiss, and Parmigiano-Reggiano)
• Cinnamon-Spiced Carrots
• Southern Spiced Catfish Roulade with Black-Eyed Pea Gravy
• Ham Steak with Red Eye Gravy
• Roasted Capon (or roasting chicken) with Sausage-Apple-Pear Dressing
• Chicken Fried Steak
• Cajun Fried Pork Chops (OMG – these sound amazing)
• Many, many, many more…

Of course, the recipes will serve you year round – I just happen to have Thanksgiving and Christmas on my mind.  Truth be told, I often have the holidays somewhere in mind, if not in the front of my brain – they’re always lurking in the back, all decked out in their glittery colors and smelling like Heaven.

Other Recipes you’re going to love are:

• Root Beer Barbecued Pulled Pork
• Blackened Tilapia
• New Orleans Barbecued Shrmip
• Grilled Mahi Mahi with Coconut Curry Sauce
• Succotash
• Green Tomato Relish
• Grilled Okra and Tomato Salad
• Fifties-Style Lobster Salad
• Corn Fritters
• Down-Home Cornbread

There are many, many, many more recipes – but I wanted you to get a good feel for the “heart and spirit” behind this cookbook and behind Barbara Smith.  If you aren’t yet familiar with B. Smith, it’s time to familiarize yourself!  If you love Paula Deen and Nigella Lawson, you’ll love B. Smith.  She has the warmth, charm, beauty, and cooking talent of Paula and Nigella and her cooking (to me, anyway) reminds me of what you’d get if Paula Deen and Nigella Lawson put their heads together for a meal.  However, it’s EVEN better because B. Smith brings something to the table that only she can bring – herself.

B. Smith’s recipes are completely unique and utterly fascinating.  Her recipes will be a wake up call to your kitchen as well as to your taste buds.  Your pots and pans will be talking about these dishes for years to come.  If cooking and meal-planning have become mundane, uninspiring, and boring or if you find yourself making the same things over and over – B. Smith Cooks Southern Style will be a dream come true. Cooking will be fun again and your meals will be more delicious than ever.

As I’ve said before, I collect cookbooks – in fact, my cookbook collection is one of my greatest prides and joys.  I spend a lot of time with my cookbooks and can tell you which book any particular recipe is in.  It’s a feat and a half considering that my collection is in the hundreds!

I only mention this because I want to point out one thing:  I don’t recommend a lot of different cookbooks – simply because, with all the ones I get, if I recommended every single one the truly magical ones wouldn’t stand out.  It’d be like, “Oh, Joi wants me to buy another cookbook… surprise, surprise.“   On the other hand, if I (the High Priestess of Cookbooks) only recommend the ones that flat out blow me away and make my kitchen come alive – then you’ll know that you need to hustle your buns to your nearest bookstore or save the bun motion and grab a copy on Amazon (B. Smith Cooks Southern-Style).  If you click the link now, you can actually pre-order a copy on Amazon now – and they’ll rush it to you as soon as it’s ready to roll.

You.  Will. Want. This. Cookbook. It’s sassy, fun, original, spirited, and filled with recipes you WILL NOT find anywhere else.  That can’t be said about a lot of cookbooks, you know.  Trust the High Priestess on that one.