Southern Plate Cookbook

As I've mentioned before, my husband is an "enabler", bless his heart! He knows that estate sales, yard sales, bookstores and kitchen stores are my weaknesses. So when he takes me to one of these places, he goes in with the full knowledge that it will A) take more time than he likes and B) that I will probably come home with something. He is such a gentleman, that he spends his share of time patiently waiting on me, tucked away, sitting....usually checking e-mails or messages on his phone. I grew up watching just such a man.... waiting around for my mom to, "get done looking", guess I wanted that quality in a husband, too. My dad spends his waiting time in his truck (times past), the car, or any convenient bench or chair that he can find. Where am I going with this? Well, it was on a trip to a bookstore before the holidays that I spotted our book for review today. I camped out in a cozy chair and looked clear through this book. I loved it so much that it was hard to put it down and not purchase it, but I had Christmas ahead of me and other ways to spend my money. This southern cookbook, however, made one of the top spots on my wish list. At Christmas, I was thrilled to unwrap it from my son, Justin.

Southern Plate by Christy Jordan is a celebration of family and home style southern foods. My favorite kind of cookbook! The author unapologetically writes about dishes with a down-home, cooked-in-mama's-skillet flair. These recipes come from years of the great cooks in her family, performing the task that makes family memories...cooking. I knew I was going to like her when I read the forward: "I'll be the first one to tell you that I'm no one special, but I come from some awfully good people. Some of the best people who ever walked this earth, and yet they were never known outside of their little boroughs until now." She goes on to give examples of times when money was short and her parents would act like they were busy in the kitchen during meal time, so they could eat what was left when the little ones were done, making sure that their children were full. Very few cookbooks have the kind of stories that make you tear-up, but there I was needing a tissue in the middle of Barnes and Noble! The book includes mouth-watering photos that accompany each recipe. The recipes have such a heritage, that I recognized several of them from past family reunions and church dinners. There's Hoe Cake, Dish Pan Cookies, Apple Dapple Cake and Texas Caviar, just to name a few. Thanks to Christy Jordan from North Alabama we have this rare tribute to us "common folk" and our uncommonly good recipes that have been passed down! (It is my policy not to give a recipe from a recently published book without permission. The
ISBN is 978-0-06-199101-1 and the web address is www.SouthernPlate.com. I think you will enjoy reading this one.

I will be at these swaps today:
-DesignsbyGollum
-LifeasMom
-Grocerycartchallenge
-Momtrends
-AnnKroeker
-Amysfinerthings