Johnnie Gabriel - How to Cook Like a Southerner: Classic Recipes from the Souths Best Down-Home Cooks

2014 by Johnnie Gabriel Enterprises

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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.

Photography by Stephanie Mullins

Food and prop styling by Teresa Blackburn

Thomas Nelson, Inc., titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

Images on photodisc

Image on Shutterstock.com/Hitdelight

Image on Shutterstock.com/Olga Pink

Image on Shutterstock.com/phofotos

Image on Fotolia

Image on Shutterstock.com/Serenethos

Image on BrebcaFotolia

Image on JJAVAFotolia

Image on bit24Fotolia

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gabriel, Johnnie, 1945

How to cook like a Southerner : classic recipes from the Souths best down-home cooks / Johnnie Gabriel.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4016-0505-6 (alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-4016-0506-3 (eBook)

1. Cooking, AmericanSouthern style. I. Title.

TX715.2.S68G333 2014

641.5975dc23 2013042877

Printed in the United States of America

14 15 16 17 18 QG 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is dedicated to the special ladies in my life: my godly mother, Carol Heath Howell; my grandmothers, Mommee, Charlye Paul Heath, and Big Mama; Kate McClusky Howell; my Aunt LaNell Heath Merrill, who taught me to love wholeheartedly, live joyously, and work hard. Also, to my daughters: Stephanie Payne-Gabriel Bahm and Laura Payne-Gabriel, who gave me every reason to do so. And to Ed Gabriel, who has always supported me.

CONTENTS

M y cousin, Johnnie, and I grew up in the heart of the South, but yall probably know that by now. We grew up in the heat of the Georgia sun, tugging on our Mamas aprons, playing hard, and laughing even harder. We were raised with a passion for family, and stickin with each other through thick and thin. But perhaps one of the best parts about growing up in the South is that we were brought up on some mighty fine recipes. And when I say, mighty fine, I mean these were the brand of recipes that, as kids, we knew we wanted to hang on to for the rest of our lives. Our plates were always licked clean!

Its no wonder Johnnie and I both pursued careers cooking for other peoplewe come from a whole family of cooks! I remember Grandmother Paul teaching me her recipes in the kitchen. She didnt even need a recipe most of the time, because her hands worked from memory. And I know Johnnie has similar memories, toowe all do.

When most folks think about food in the South, they think of a few things: fried chicken, mac n cheese, and maybe some sawmill gravy thrown in for good measure. The truth is, though, that we have so much more to offer, and few can say it as well as my darlin cousin. Thats what this whole cookbook is about, sharing every delicious recipe and ingredient that the South has to offer. Shes rounded up the finest recipes from all over, from friends and family alike to share. And I have to say, yall, she didnt leave anything out. (I wouldnt trust anyone else to put this together, either. Heck, I only trust Johnnie to make wedding cakes for my family!)

As I thumbed through the pages of Johnnies gorgeous How to Cook Like a Southerner, I couldnt help but smile. The recipes on these pages will make you do that, yall. Whether its an old classic, like smothered steak or squash casserole, or a new favorite, like fresh roasted broccoli, I couldnt wait to get into my kitchen and whip something delicious up for Michael.

Want me to let you in on a little secret? You see, while the rest of the country is raving over this new farm to table fad, its something weve been proud of doing our whole lives here in the South. Generation after generation of Southerners has eaten freshly grown vegetables from our families gardens. We still want those vegetables, but now most of us just have to purchase them rather than grow them ourselves. We love our vegetables, and we know just how to fix em so that everyone comes back for seconds.

One other thing I love about Johnnies book is that shes really expanded the idea of what it means to be Southern; its more than just the lower right-hand corner of the U. S. map. Our Southern palates have grown to appreciate recipes from all over the country, and we've somehow made them our own. Shes included recipes for a breath-taking chicken piccata, a slap-yo-mama good seafood gumbo from Mississippi, and a down-home shrimp and grits recipe from beautiful Southern Carolina. And did I mention the southwest chili?

So as you open up this book for yourself, know that Johnnie herself is opening up her home to you, and inviting you to come over and sit a spell. And when youre following along the recipes in this book, I hope that youre creating the same magical memories for your families, as Johnnie has for our family.

PAULA DEEN

W hen our long growing season begins, we once again enjoy the fresh fruits and vegetables that we cherish here in the Southpeaches, butterbeans, peas, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers. With such an abundance of good food, how could we not have a tradition of delicious dishes!

I am so happy to come to you a third time with recipes using those fresh, tasty ingredients from Gabriels Bakery and Restaurant, from family, and from friends. Many of these recipes have been passed down from generation to generation. I often have a customer eating in Gabriels tell me, This corn tastes just like my grandmothers. When customers speak of their families' traditional pound cakes or pie recipes, I can tell they are reminiscing about time well spent making memories.

There are traditions every family never wants to forget and recipes they cherish. When writing this book, I mentioned to Heather Skelton, my very patient editor, that the only recipes I have of my Grandmother Howell are in a black-and-white composition notebook that I put together for her when I was a child. The taste and look of her dishes are forever in my memory. She was an excellent cook and baker. The recipes are in her handwriting, my mothers, and mine. Some she cut from newspapers and taped to the pages. Most of the written recipes are ones neighbors shared with her. Unfortunately, the recipes her mother taught her to cook were only stored in her memory. She made scuppernong wine, pickles and preserves, and a strawberry cobbler that I cant recreate. The purpose of this third cookbook is to preserve these traditional recipes, expose you to some new ones, and introduce those of you who are unfamiliar with Southern cooking to some of our tried and true dishes.

I hope you cook, enjoy, and share these dishes with friends and family. Spending time in the kitchen with those you love can be a wonderful experience. My grandchildren have learned to enjoy time in the kitchen with their mom and dad and are truly proud when they put their dishes on the table. Many precious memories have been made there.