LeAnn Rice - The Loving Kitchen Downright Delicious Southern Recipes to Share with Family, Friends, and Neighbors

2014 by LeAnn G. Rice

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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

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: Photography by Mark Boughton and food and prop styling by Teresa Blackburn

: Photos from Shutterstock.com

ISBN 978-1-4016-0537-7 (eBook)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rice, LeAnn, 1964

The loving kitchen : downright delicious Southern recipes to share with family, friends, and neighbors / LeAnn Rice.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4016-0526-1 (paperback : alkaline paper) 1. Cooking, AmericanSouthern style. 2. Sharing. I. Title.

TX715.2.S68R49 2014

641.5975dc23 2013043403

Printed in the United States of America

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

FOR NICK

You fill my life with more love and more joy than my heart could ever contain.

CONTENTS

Gathering In

When Christ said, I was hungry and you fed me, He didnt mean only the hunger for bread and food; He also meant the hunger to be loved.

MOTHER TERESA

T he kitchen table is a place where memories are made and cherished for years to come. Its a place to connect with those we loveto encourage and support one another and to celebrate the many blessings in our lives. Gathering around the table provides the opportunity to share life with those we hold dear.

But life seems to go by too quickly, each day moving a little faster than the one before. We spend more time eating on the go than we spend sitting down together to share a home-cooked meal. I want us to slow down and return to the heart of the homethe family tableand to keep a place at our table open so we may invite others in.

The Loving Kitchen is my way of inviting you to my table.

Wouldnt it be wonderful if we actually could fit around my kitchen table? All of us. At the same time. We would share recipes, encourage one another, laugh together, shed tears together, compare kitchen disaster stories (we all have them), and create lifelong memories.

And we would share food.

And swap pound cake recipes.

So much of life happens in the kitchen. Some of my most cherished memories are of gathering around a large table filled with food. In fact, most memories of my paternal grandmother revolve around her kitchen.

We lived several hundred miles away from Nanny and Grandfather, so we only saw them a couple of times a year. After a ten-hour drive, we arrived to a table filled with food. Nanny spent the entire day in her kitchen, making five entres so each of us had our favorite. Food was love, and she expressed her love for us by preparing and serving our favorite meals.

This act of love was not lost on me. Nor was how special it made me feel to know Nanny loved me that much. And I especially remember the look of joy on her face as I sighed with that first bite of scrumptious love.

Loving others through food is not a new concept. Throughout time, God has prompted people to use food as a means of reaching out to others to meet their needs. Jesus Himself nourished five thousand hungry listeners with some fish and barley loaves on a hillside.

Good food has always been a way not only to nourish but to thank, encourage, console, serve, celebrate, and ultimately love.

Welcoming your son home with his favorite dinner after he struck out at his baseball game...

Bringing a basket filled with warm muffins to coworkers during a stressful workweek...

Inviting a lonely neighbor to your table for a home-cooked meal...

Delivering a simple, comforting casserole to a family experiencing a loss...

Or creating an elaborate cake to celebrate a special occasion or to make an ordinary day extraordinary...

Extending hospitality, simply or extravagantly, is a tangible way to express your love to family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and strangers. Its a way to show others they have not gone unnoticed, that they matter.

Friends, I pray the recipes and glimpses into my heart you now hold in your hands will be a blessing to you.

I pray your eyes are open to the world around you and you will invite the hungry, the lost, and the hurting to your table, extending mercy and grace to the least of these (Matt. 25:40).

I pray you experience His grace and His love every moment of every day.

I pray your hearts are happy.

I pray your tummies are full.

Welcome. Ive set a place for you at my table.

Love and blessings,

LeAnn

B ecause I have such a deep-rooted love of cooking, it seemed natural to pursue some type of career in the food industry. While I did try my hand at catering, I quickly discovered cooking for strangers was not the same as cooking for those I love. I am not a professional chef with years of training in culinary arts. Im simply a gal who loves to make people happy by cooking for and serving them from my heart.

My kitchen is simple. Its an ordinary kitchen with ordinary tools and utensils, ordinary appliances, and ordinary ingredients. I dont own any professional equipment, and I dont shop in specialty food stores. You will be able to make any recipe in this book using hand-me-down pots and pans and ingredients found in your local grocery store. And while some of my recipes have an extra step or two, none are complicated.

Whether you are a seasoned home cook or taking your first steps into the kitchen, we all have room to grow, new things to learn, and cooking traditions to begin. Throughout this book I share some of the lessons Ive learned through my own adventuresand disastersin the kitchen. Ive also listed general notes and tips here for easy reference.

Read the entire recipe before you begin so there arent any surprises after youve already started.

Dry the surface of meat and poultry before browning. Too much moisture will cause the meat to steam instead of brown.

Place raw bacon and boneless pieces of meat in the freezer for 15 minutes to make them easier to slice.

Unless otherwise noted, when sugar is listed among the ingredients, I am referring to white granulated sugar.