Cookbooks

Chicken tortilla soup became really popular in restaurants a few years ago, but it was never something I made at home. Garth loves this soup and orders it almost every time he sees it on a menu, so I started studying the different versions at each restaurant and questioning Garth about what he liked and didn’t like about each one. This recipe I finally came up with doesn’t actually taste like any of those we tasted in restaurants, but we love it—and now we can enjoy it whenever we want!

My daddy was a great cook, and many of the recipes in this cookbook are his. If there was a fund-raiser in Monticello, people would always ask, “Is Jack making the Brunswick Stew?” or “Is Jack cooking the chickens?” before they bought their tickets. The food was usually prepared outside in very large quantities with the help of members of the sponsoring organization. Brunswick Stew is one of those classic southern dishes that varies from region to region, but I’ve never had Brunswick Stew that tasted like my dad’s. In his version, everything is ground through a food grinder, so it’s more like a wonderfully rich soup than a stew. His version also fed 160 people, so we’ve reduced our recipe to serve a cozy 16!

I love living in Oklahoma. I do miss my family in Georgia, but luckily I get to travel back and forth a lot for visits. My Georgia family has also made the trek to Oklahoma several times, so now both places feel like home. Only once have I gotten so homesick I thought I wouldn’t make it, and that was because I was really sick with the flu and Mama wasn’t there to take care of me. Sometimes nobody will do except Mama! She made this soup for me, froze it in quart containers, packed it in dry ice (who knew you could get dry ice in Monticello?), and shipped it overnight to me in a Styrofoam cooler. When I got it the next morning, I cried, ate some soup, cried, ate some more soup, and thanked God for the most awesome mom on the planet!

If you’re not a sweet pickle fan, you should try these wonderful dill pickles that my friend Lisa’s grandmother makes. Sweet pickles are generally sliced, but these are served whole. They are deliciously dilled and better than any store-bought pickle, I guarantee it!

My grandmother, Lizzie Paulk, was an amazing woman. She worked the fields in South Georgia with my grandfather Winnes, raised three children, and somehow still found time to put three home-cooked meals on the table every single day. She passed away when I was in junior high, but I have wonderful memories of her laughter and her love for her family. Mama had always complained she could never get her dumplings to come out as thin as her mom’s, but the first time she made them after Grandma died, she said it was as if Lizzie were guiding her. Maybe she finally decided it was okay for Mama to be able to make her dumplings! They’ve come out perfectly every time since.

I think making someone else’s recipes is a wonderful way to remember them when they’re no longer with us. Garth’s brother Jerry loved my cooking, and he was a good cook himself. He always made me feel he truly appreciated the meals I made for him, and I loved him for it. He had a wonderful smile and a great spirit. Jerry brought these pecans out to the house one day, and I only stopped eating them when they were gone! The butter and sugar make them crunchy, sweet, and rich.

These are sweet and crunchy, like no other pickle I’ve ever tasted. They’re great on salads, but I eat them right out of the jar with a fork!

Serve this punch with Cheese Straws (page 20). It’s a Yearwood family tradition—perfect to serve at Christmas parties, because it’s a beautiful bright green and makes a pretty punch bowl.

If you’ve ever driven through a small town in Georgia, you no doubt have seen signs for boiled peanuts along the roadside. I’ve found that they’re a love-hate thing; people are rarely undecided about boiled peanuts! I include the recipe here because I absolutely love them. When I make them at home in Oklahoma, it takes me back to our family vacation trips to Florida, when we’d stop on the roadside and eat the warm peanuts in the car. Yum!

You won’t go to a southern picnic or covered-dish supper and not see deviled eggs. Garth and I grew up eating different versions of this dish, so both varieties are included here. Honestly, I never met a deviled egg I didn’t like, so these are both yummy to me!

A pimiento cheese sandwich made on very fresh white bread is a true southern staple. Nothing goes better with Gwen’s Fried Chicken (page 93). Mama slices the crusts off the sandwiches and cuts them in half for family reunions—very southern belle!

This is my sister’s go-to appetizer for church socials, Super Bowl Sundays, and Christmas munchies. Several years ago, she put too much of the ranch dressing mix into the recipe, and it was hard to serve. My dad renamed it the “cheese wad.” We think Ranch Dressing Cheese Ball sounds more appetizing, but at our house, it will forever be known as Cheese Wad!

Spinach artichoke dips seem to be on every restaurant’s appetizer list these days, and I like them okay but have never been a big spinach fan. Feta cheese, on the other hand, is something I’m very fond of, so I was excited to find this recipe. It’s also one of those really easy recipes that tastes like it must have been really hard to make. You gotta love those!

I’m sort of a snob when it comes to trying new recipes. I just seem to like my old tried and true ones best, and it takes a lot for something new to grab my attention. I had to have the recipe for this dip after I tried it on Super Bowl Sunday 2006. Garth is a die-hard Steelers fan, so it was an exciting day. Everybody always brings something for the party, and this was my friend Kim’s contribution. Being a good southern girl, I love anything with black-eyed peas in it, but for you folks who are right now turning up your noses at the idea of eating black-eyed peas, all I can say is just try it. In fact, maybe I should name it something else for those skeptics. How about Pea Dippy?

I’ve laughed a lot while writing this cookbook—and gotten very hungry! I laugh because most people consider these tasty meatballs the perfect small bite for a party or wedding reception, but I sometimes make them just to satisfy a craving! They are usually served cold, but when I make them at home, I serve them warm, right out of the oven, and they are awesome! So to answer the burning question, can you make an entire meal out of sausage ball appetizers? Yes!

I love cheese! I would eat a piece of Cheddar cheese over a piece of chocolate cake any day. That probably makes me a little weird, but if you love cheese like I do, you’ll love these cheese straws. My mom used to make them for baby showers and wedding receptions. In 1991, the year my career started to really take off, she made them for me to give as Christmas gifts to everyone who had been so supportive. We laughed about how these cheesy treats were baked in a small kitchen in Monticello, Georgia, and ended up on the desks of some of the biggest movers and shakers in Nashville.

It is hard to imagine how the flavor of fresh-picked Jewel strawberries could possibly be improved. But with traditional balsamic vinegar, the gorgeous, sweet-tart, syrupy vinegar made from local grapes in Modena, Italy, it is ridiculously easy to make the strawberry taste burst out in an incredible way. If you can, use Jewel strawberries.

In The All American Wine & Cheese Book, food writer Laura Werlin named Lively Run’s fresh goat cheese as one of the two best chèvres in the country. A concentrated burst of blue cheese flavor adds zest to an appetizer created by Steve and Suzanne Messmer of Lively Run.

Consider the Spitzenberg. The heirloom variety ripens in mid-October, when Chick Evans buys every one of these local beauties he can get his hands on. Black Diamond Farm supplies the Spitzenbergs, and Chick turns them into a delicious apple cake, spiked with apple brandy. If you can’t find Spitzenbergs, substitute Ida Red, Cortland, or Granny Smith apples.

Our region’s most important restaurant chefs cultivate relationships with local growers and express their creativity through daily special menus. Paul Andrews’s confit method leaves the duck meltingly tender and moist, while locally grown blue potatoes add a subtle, nutty flavor to the hash.