Willis - Lighten up, y’all : classic Southern recipes made healthy and wholesome

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Copyright 2015 by Virginia Willis
Foreword copyright 2015 by Art Smith
Photographs copyright 2015 by Angie Mosier

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com

Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Willis, Virginia, 1966
Lighten up, yall : classic Southern recipes made healthy and wholesome / Virginia Willis.
pages cm
1. Cooking, AmericanSouthern style. 2. Low-fat dietRecipes.
I. Title.
TX715.2.S68W5563 2015
641.5975dc23

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-60774-573-0
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-60774-574-7

v3.1

I GREW UP IN A SMALL, rural farming town on the Florida Panhandle called Jasper, where one of the first things I learned was the importance of the family table. It was there that I learned to appreciate fresh, wholesome food, good cooking, and the fellowship of friends and familyin other words, all the things that make Southern cuisine great. Today, I have a full and fulfilling career as a chef, which gives me the opportunity to travel and cook for families all over the worldbut I know that I never would have started down this path were it not for my early experiences sitting at my familys table, at home in Jasper.

The ritual of sharing a meal brings balance to our busy lives. As a chef, I have cooked for families in times of celebration and in times of great sadness. I have cooked for chiefs-of-industry and celebrities, artists and athletesas well as people who are homeless or living in poverty. But I truly believe that when we are at the table, we are all the same. By breaking bread together, we all share in a moment of congregation and connection. And in my experience, Southern cooking is a perfect embodiment of this notionthat a shared meal is as much about family as it is about food.

For this reasonand many othersSouthern food will always hold a dear place in my heart. But even I have to admit that somewhere along the line, Southern food became a bit of a caricature. People forgot about all those fresh ingredients, prepared thoughtfully and with love, and suddenly Southern food became all about butter and bacon fat, deep-frying anything that didnt move fast enough to get away, and sugar, sugar, and more sugar. The South, like many other parts of the country, became enamored with ease of prepared and fast food. Families no longer sat together at the table, started to lose their connections, and became increasingly unhealthy and overweight.

I for one have experienced these challenges firsthand. Several years ago, I was diagnosed with diabetes. I realized that I needed to make a change, to return balance to my busy life. I had fallen off track with my eating and exercise habitsits not hard to do!and my diabetes diagnosis was a wake-up call. I knew I had to change my diet, but I refused to change my passion for food. I have since lost over one hundred pounds, and I feel healthy and strong.

When people ask how I did it, I tell them that I just started eating the old-fashioned way. My grandfather had a large garden that produced an amazing assortment of fruits and vegetables, many of which appeared on our table as I was growing up. It was like having a farmers market in the backyard. Our meals were centered on fresh produce; dishes were homemade and wholesome. In truth, old-fashioned Southern cuisine is perhaps the closest American equivalent to the slow food traditions of Europe. For me, becoming healthier and happier was just a matter of returning to the Southern food traditions that I knew from my childhood.

When I first read Virginias book Lighten Up, Yall , I felt like Id found a kindred spiritsomeone else who believes that Southern food can be healthy and delicious, and actually make you feel good rather than guilty. Virginias recipes, many of which she created and refined on her own journey to health and wellness, are classic and wholesome. She encourages readers to love what theyre cooking and who theyre cooking forafter all, theres no better way to connect with your family and friends than by sharing a healthy and delicious meal together. Lighten Up, Yall is a celebration of old food traditions, family recipes, and shared memories that I am certain you will enjoy and treasure.

by CHEF ART SMITH

IM GOING TO START things out talking about the F-word. No, not that F-word Im talking about the word fat . Please notice I am using the word FAT , which is a lot, a whole heck of a lot different than overweight.

My entire life I have had a problem with my weight. Im not exactly sure when it started, but photos prove I was a chubby toddler. My father was stocky, actually a boxer in the navy, and I am built a good bit like him. Which would be fine if I was a man, a boxer, or perhaps in the navy. I am big-boned with broad shoulders, and had I been a boy, I would have played offensive lineman. I am one sturdy girl, and I have most often been at least a little overweight.

Overweight is a clinical diagnosissomething a doctor would say. Fat , on the other hand, is the ugly word thats cruelly used in taunts on the playground or uttered in hushed whispers in junior high. Fat is a nagging constant in an internal dialogue about self-worth. Fat is the word that makes fully competent adult men and women feel like a failure.

Mama says she shouldnt have fed me so much when I was a little girl. It wasnt her fault, thoughwe didnt eat junk food growing up and she cooked homemade, wholesome food. Like many other Southern families, our dinners were filled with fresh, in-season vegetables, plenty of from-scratch food, and very little of the processed stuff that is so common nowadays. I just ate too much of it and, well, my genetics werent working with me.

In high school, my insecurities about my size and weight continued. Now, when I look back and view photos of myself from my college days and even early my childhood, I see I wasnt actually fat. In fact, I was normalwell within the doctor-recommended weight range for someone my height. The trouble is I never felt normal. Ive only ever felt fat.

That said, food and cooking have always given me incredible joy. I was practically born in the kitchen. My grandmother, whom I called Meme, used to have a steel double sink. When I was a toddler, she would put me in one side while shelling peas in the other. The kitchen is a place of happiness for me. I dont eat for fuel; I eat for enjoyment and pleasure. Some folks overeat when they are upset. I eat when I am happy; I eat when I am sad. I eat when I am angry, joyful, depressed, elated. You name it, I will eat. I love good food.

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