Root Vegetable

The key word here is “Gouda”: it takes your mashed potatoes right to the VIP list. This way, please!

The great thing about this glaze is that it can be used for any grilled meat. You can brush it onto pork chops, chicken, ribs—anything you feel like grilling on game day!

PAT Most people will serve chicken for tailgates, but you know we like to shake it up a bit, so we serve turkey legs—or “Fred Flintstone bones,” as I like to call them. To give ours a kick, we let them marinate overnight in buttermilk, hot sauce, lemon, onion, and garlic. Then we take them out the next day, let the excess drip off, brush on the olive oil, and throw them on the grill. Folks will be asking for these so fast, you may never get to your business with the glaze.

Fall is a perfect time to try this bisque. The healthy and delicious sweet potato, which certainly represents the season in our home, is one of the stars of the soup. And if you’ve got leftover pumpkin flesh after carving your decorations, you can always substitute that for the canned purée. Using chicken broth instead of water gives this thick soup a rich-tasting down-home flair.

A great dressing is the key to an outstanding potato salad. And let me tell you: in our version, this German lady is wearing a nice dress. Y’all know Gina dresses well, too, and once she adds her signature “pig,” this salad is a stand-out, even among the best potato salads in Memphis.

PAT I told y’all, I can’t have steak without potatoes, and fingerling potatoes are my choice. These rich and creamy little darlings are about the size of my fingers, and they are firm enough to withstand the heat of my grill. A great tip for grilling potatoes is to boil them a bit first; this will give you faster and more even grilling. The olive oil will keep them moist and let the rosemary and garlic do their aromatic thing.

Don’t let these puppies fool you. We call them mini-pizzas, but there’s nothing all that little about them, in either size or flavor. It just makes us feel better, because you find yourself eating a lot of them before you know it!

Everybody in the South has their own potato-salad recipe, and our version, using red potatoes and the coarse-ground, zippy Creole mustard, makes this a winner. Be sure to drain your potatoes thoroughly, because additional water will dilute the fantastic ingredients in the salad. It’s best to dress the potatoes while they’re still warm, so they can fully absorb the flavors.

This is it: the famous sweet and spicy slaw from the restaurant that people come and buy by the bucketful. Make extra; trust us, you’ll need it!

One of the essential Southern side dishes is fried onion rings, and the key to great ones is the batter. Ours calls for buttermilk, cornmeal, hot sauce, and cayenne. The buttermilk and cornmeal will create a thick golden crust, and the hot sauce and the cayenne pepper give the rings a little kick.

PAT My sweetie and her mama love their sweet potatoes. You think maybe that has something to do with why they are so sweet? Gina created this extra-special dish for the mamas in our lives, but I love to prepare these potato cakes for her on Mother’s Day and serve Miss Gina in bed, of course.

The little zing of this crunchy mustard slaw is just the right thing to round off the kick of cayenne in the catfish and the bite of cheddar in the hush puppies.

We grill anything, and potatoes are no exception. The simplest way to grill sliced potatoes is to parboil them first. This makes for fast and even grilling. The calling card of these tasty taters is the appetizing grill marks that make them irresistible. That, and our house seasoning, when Neely’s barbecue rub makes its annual spring debut.

PAT Gina loves the daintiness of these “baby reds,” and the garlic, rosemary, and olive oil pop on your palate. But Spenser and Shelbi inherited their need for some potatoes with most meals from their daddy. We love us some taters.

GINA Who doesn’t like a good potato? I know I married a meat-and-potatoes man, and so does Tanya. She always finds a way to make great potatoes, and these are some of her very best. Buttery and garlicky—yum. PAT Baby, you can’t do pork chops without mashed potatoes. There’s something about taking your fork and getting a bite of pork chop and garlic mashed potatoes at the same time. You just take both of those jokers and let ’em hit the palate!

PAT In our house there’s always some barbecue going on (even if we’re not grilling, we’re adding the spice). These chips are dusted with paprika, garlic, sugar, and salt, and once they’re out of the fryer, they quickly disappear (so make two batches!).

GINA For some reason, there are always potatoes in the pantry. So pull them out and make some potato skins! Grilling them gives them a nice spin, and since we are the first family of barbecue, these skins are complemented by barbecue sauce, pulled pork, and bacon. And you guys all know how I feel about the pig . . . so I like to call these the “double pig.” They also make a nice pick-me-up when you’re entertaining, so, to make them more like appetizers, you can slice them in quarters, arrange on a platter, and sprinkle with green onions. Trust me, these will be eaten so fast they’ll be history. PAT That’s right, pig layered on pig, y’all! Having potato skins, and adding two types of pork—bacon and pulled pork—truly puts a guy (that’s me, Pat!) in hog heaven. For you non–pig lovers (surely only a few of you), you can always substitute turkey bacon, chicken, or even beef brisket for the bacon and pulled pork.

You can customize these crumbs with lemon zest, oregano, parsley, or other herbs. Simply reprocess the crumbs with the herbs after you have finished the basic recipe. They have a thousand uses, and are excellent as a topping for oysters, artichokes, pastas, and more.