Stacey Little - The Southern bite cookbook : more than 150 irresistible dishes from 4 generations of my family’s kitchen

2014 by Stacey Wayne Little

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Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Nelson Books, an imprint of Thomas Nelson. Nelson Books and Thomas Nelson are registered trademarks of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc.

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Photography by Kim Box

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Little, Stacey, 1981

The Southern bite cookbook : more than 150 irresistible dishes from 4 generations of my familys kitchen / Stacey Little.

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-4016-0543-8

ISBN 978-1-4016-0544-5 (eBook)

1. Cooking, AmericanSouthern style. I. Title.

TX715.2.S68L577 2014

641.5975dc23

2013032371

Printed in the United States of America

13 14 15 16 17 QG 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my mother, who taught me that any food, no matter how basic or inexpensive, made with love is the best food.

CONTENTS

by Christy Jordan

HERE IN THE SOUTH, ITS ALL ABOUT FAMILY. FAMILY GET-TOGETHERS, family memories, and family recipes dominate our social landscape, and thats just how we like it. As a result, we tend to have an extended family network everywhere we go and share many of the same traditions and even foods.

Thats where this wonderful cookbook comes in.

The beautiful thing about sitting down with a cookbook is that youre not just curling up with words on paper, bound together. Youre sitting down to visit and get to know the author. As the old Southern invitation goes, Sit a spell; stay awhile. A cookbook invites you to come into our lives and to allow us to linger in yours. So its important when choosing one that its written by someone you know youre gonna like spending time withsomeone who feels like family.

When I first met Stacey, he came to one of my book signings, but he stood out. While some were checking their watches and looking at the line, Stacey was grinning from ear to ear, making friends with everyone around him, and holding a big old plate of Pecan Chewies! The moment he introduced himself, there was a connection. Sometimes when you meet someone, you realize theyre more than a friendtheyre family. It was as if God had made us from the same speck of dust and he was my long-lost brother from heaven. We became fast friends, and hes been part of my family ever since.

I love Staceys attitude toward life, his heart for others, and anything that comes out of his kitchen is sure to set stomachs to growling!

Family is a precious thing, and Im of the mind that you can never have too many precious things in your life. So I am glad to see you inviting Stacey into yours. You wont regret it.

The recipes in this book are the best kind of food: simple, straightforward, and delicious. These are recipes from four generations of Staceys family, and I can tell you from personal experience, each generation Ive had the honor of meeting has been as good as gold.

So from my adopted brothers family to yours, sit a spell and stay awhile. It tastes just like home here.

Christy Jordan

Author of Southern Plate

IM NOT A CHEF. IVE NEVER CLAIMED TO BE ONE. I HAVE NO FORMAL culinary training, and thats fine with me. My practical kitchen knowledge comes from being under the feet of my mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother as they prepared meals for our family. From the time I was old enough to hold a spoon, Ive found that the kitchen holds a sense of comfort for me like no other place. Some of my earliest memories are sitting on the floor of my grandparents kitchen, pulling out all of my grandmothers pots, pans, bowls, and spoons, and cooking up a storm. The kitchen is my place to be. I never grow tired of the comfort it provides me.

Who am I, and why should you listen to me? The truth is, Im not sure. Ive been blessed to live a rather uneventful life. I have no fancy title or special abbreviations after my name. My designations are more like daddy, husband, son, and friend. And though some strive for acclaim, celebrity, and wealth, Im perfectly happy with the titles I already have. My struggles each day are about my being the best daddy, husband, son, and friend I can be. Im human, though, so most days are put to bed with thoughts that I could have done a little better or tried a little harder. To put it simply, every day I pray that God will bless me with the wisdom to be a better person than I was the day before. It might sound simple, but its how I live my life.

My mother taught me years ago that being positive is the key to so many of lifes successes. I wake up each morning with the realization that regardless of what happens to throw my day off track, I have the ability to make it a good day or a bad one. Its my choice whether to allow the negative things that might happen to have such an influence over me that they ruin my day. I use that philosophy in my entire life too. My journey hasnt always been easy, but not a year goes by that we all dont face challenges and hardships. Its how we allow those negatives to influence us and shape our lives that really matters. We can allow those bad things to define us and control us, or we can allow them to make us better people.

I never set out to write a cookbook. But one thing that Ive learned in this process is that I have a lot to sayabout food, that is. Food and family are two of the most important things in my life. When I write about my family and the food that has defined us for generations, I can write volumes.

I was fortunate to grow up in a household where my mother cooked three meals a day. Every evening found us all gathered at the kitchen table for supper. Ive discovered that rarely do families gather around the table like that to share a meal anymore. Our fast-paced lives seldom allow time for a home-cooked meal, and when they do, those meals are often interrupted by e-mails, texts, and phone calls. Our families, our culture, need to get back to uninterrupted mealtimes together.

I have the great fortune of being presented with a unique opportunity, one that many folks can only dream of. Through these pages, I get to share my passion with youmy food. That food is a patchwork of the amazing cooks that came before me. Its a collection of time-honored recipes that have been updated, honed, and perfected through the years. Now, you wont find me going on against the use of convenience products like cream of chicken soup and instant brown gravy mix. I think for most folks, getting dinner on the table is challenge enough, and I dont know about you, but Ill be glad to take all the help I can get. Im sure there are healthier alternatives to things like ranch dressing and onion soup mixes, but my philosophy is that the relationships we develop around the table sharing a meal as a family are far more important than any cream of chicken soup.