Hello Ya’ll (I’m getting into practice re-being more Southern – lol!!!),
I moved to New York at age 20 to pursue acting and voice-over, and spent a fortune on a vocal coach to help me lose my Southern accent. It worked to a certain extent so that I’ve been able to make my living in front of a microphone promoting everything from expensive jewelry to fried chicken and pizza to portable dog bathing units. So when Bryan Curtis (my friend and editor of My Southern Food and author in his own right) approached me about doing a Southern cookbook – all I could think is “RELAPSE”! If I am on the phone with my mother, Patricia Walker Ford, everyone knows it because I fall into the rural clip of North Louisiana speak and a Southern cookbook meant living on the phone with her. My mom is the reason both my sister, Faith and I can cook. She forced it upon us like it was required learning. Oh, I am so glad she did!
Upon the first keystroke of My Southern Food, I rented the movie Julie and Julia, not even knowing what it was about! Talk about Divine Providence, because I was instantly inspired. My mother became my Julia, and I became Julie. I began asking her how she prepared meals that instantly make me homesick, and the food testing and transcription began. Over 200 recipes later, My Southern Food is a compilation of treasures that have been passed down from Great-grands, grands, mamas, and papas in our family for generations. We have a black binder with plastic pages protecting the bits of handwritten well-used recipes in the handwriting of the kitchen matriarchs and these are worth more than gold to any of us, along with the ‘preaching Bibles’ that my PawPaw Walker used in the pulpit of Crockett Point Baptist Church.
When my friend Elaine, from Ft. Wayne, IN wrote that she was going to do the Julie and Julia thing with My Southern Food Recipes – I thought WHAT A GREAT IDEA! Everyone will have things to add and menu and serving suggestions which I welcome here. Southern food is accessible, inexpensive, and comforting and just invites people to slow down and sit a spell.
So anyone who tries the recipes in My Southern Food, like my friend Elaine – please share your serving suggestions, preparation experiences, and your pictures of your tables here! Elaine prepares the prettiest table I’ve ever seen so I cannot WAIT to see her pictures. Are your skillets and your iphones ready?????? Remember you can become part of the My Southern Food Hotline by going to www.broadtexter.com/gravy and putting in your cell phone number to get free texts of new postings and southern food ideas/events.
Love and happy kitchens, devon
Cora Walker's Pie Crust
mysouthernfood
