Art Smith - Back to the Family: Food Tastes Better Shared with the Ones You Love

BACK TO THE FAMILY To my beloved Oprah Winfrey and Stedman Graham,
with love and appreciation, this book is for you. Recipes copyright 2007 by Art Smith Photographs copyright 2007 by Stephen Hamilton 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 any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Thomas Nelson, Inc. titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fundraising, or sales promotional use.

For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com. Photographs on pages 58, 60, 66, and 121 by Tate Hunt for Stephen Hamilton, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Smith, Art, 1960
Back to the family / by Art Smith with Michael Austin ; photography by Stephen Hamilton.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4016-0289-5
ISBN-10: 1-4016-0289-4
1. Cookery, American. Family. 3. Menus. I. I.

Austin, Michael, 1966 Dec. 28- II. Title.
TX715.S651317 2007
641.5973dc22
2006039005 Printed in the United States of America 07 08 09 10 RRD 5 4 3 2 1 contentsOn lifes journey we meet many people, and many of them we never see again. Some, however, leap directly into our hearts and never leave. Its hard to explain, but you know it when you feel it. We do not always know what brings us together, but with certain friends, as our relationship matures, we realize we are experiencing a unique feeling of love for a very special person.

It is only natural that when we find that sweet spot in a friendship, we tend to search for other people who will give us that same amazing feeling. Eventually we realize that God gives us only a few of those special people in a lifetime. I think of these people as earthbound angels who enrich our lives with their love. Unfortunately, we never know how long they will be with us. My beloved Annie B, my first real friend in Chicago, came to me many years ago, and what an amazing woman she was. Her ability to bring people together through food was incredibly inspiring.

She cooked as if she were a chef trained at the most prestigious cooking schools, but her food also had the unmistakable taste of the finest home cooking. I will always remember her dinners and listening to her tales of discovering the perfect vegetables for a particular dish at Chicagos Green City Market or a roadside stand out in the country. I will also cherish her stories about her children, Kristen and Scott. To share a mutual passion with someone you love is one of lifes great rewards. I will always be thankful for everything Annie gave usfrom her words of wisdom that soothed our souls, to her unforgettable food that brought us so much pleasure. We will miss her, but in her honor we will continue the tradition of preparing beautiful meals for the people we love.

I love you Annie B, and I know that God now has the best cook in heaven. I can only imagine what great meals you are serving! Thank you for being our beloved colleague, family member, and friend. Thank you for sharing your life and your beautiful food. Finding Your Family in the WorldIf we are lucky, in our ever-changing world, family is one thing that holds constant. Coming from small-town America and having planted myself squarely in the urban bustle of Chicago, I am constantly amazed at how readily the human spirit adapts to change. Kindred Spirits Growing up I had no idea so many people could live so closely together! But in the glorious crowds and life-affirming energy of my new hometown, I have found that similar interests and love have attracted people like me.

We always seem to find each other. In the South we have a word for itkin. And yes, technically it means those who share a common ancestry, but in a broader sense it also refers to people who think like we do, feel like we do, and love like we do. Kindred spirits. If we are lucky, those people become the fabric of our new families.

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If we are lucky, in our ever-changing world, family is one thing that holds constant. ART

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That is what happened to me, as soon as I realized it was possible for me to love others the same way I love my family in northern Florida. These newfound friends became my new family.

What I found interesting was how many of these new friends came from similar situations and how many of them traveled around the world to live in America and raise their families in Chicago. We share a passion for our art and recognize the sacrifices we have made to achieve our dreams. We also have a common love for our families back home. Chicago Chicago is a place packed tight with concrete high-rises and hard edges, but it is also smack dab in the center of the Midwest, where miles and miles of some of the worlds most fertile growing soil separate the major metropolitan areas. Because of this, Chicagos edges are softened by a Midwestern sensibility fostered by the farmers who have fed the nation for decades. Chicagoans are hard-working people who understand and appreciate good meals shared with friends.

If they werent, I wouldnt be able to get along with them! They have celebrated my cooking, and their Midwestern sensibility has kept me in Chicago, a place where you can rise to the heights of your full potential but still not be ashamed to serve a humble homemade biscuit. Outside of Chicago, in the patchwork fields of the big-hearted Midwest, you find people not too unlike the people I knew growing up. Some of these folksfrom Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, and other rural parts of the countryhave found their way to the big city. Ive always believed that people who have lived close to the earth have an appreciation for life and a humbleness about them. I enjoy being around people who know what a fresh tomato picked off the vine tastes like, or what its like to help a heifer give birth to a calfeven if they havent done it in thirty years!

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Ive always believed that people who have lived close to the earth have an appreciation for life and a humbleness about them. ART

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When you are in a business so directly affected by the weather, as chefs and farmers are, you really understand and accept change. And you adapt.

Sometimes you find yourself far away from where you started out, but somehow you know you are in exactly the right place. Like my mother, Addie Mae, says, Honey, its meant to be! The Family Farm My life began on a farm, the same farm on which my great-grandmother raised many children, the same farm that to this day provides for our family. When I first wrote Back to the Table: The Reunion of Food and Family, which started this journey, I was not sure if people really would want to hear my stories about life in rural northern Florida. But my beloved family and friends told me to follow my heart. So I did just that. As a result, people have celebrated my stories and cooked from my book, and it is in that same spirit, with their support and loveand of course, with minethat I bring you Back to the Family

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