Simple Cooking

If you’re looking for an appetizer with a summertime attitude, here’s a simple, refreshin’ recipe. The scallops grill up in minutes, and the tangy citrus marinade gets transformed into a delicious sauce.

Come into the Dinosaur any night after work and eat this salsa at the bar with freshly fried tortilla chips. Back home, make it with the best tomatoes you can get your hands on.

Folks might laugh, but I could eat deviled eggs all day. My mother made them for me when I was a kid, and I’ve loved them ever since. When we serve our spiced-up version on a catering job or make them for a Custom-Que appetizer, everyone just goes nuts. To buy Zatarain’s mustard, see the Resources section (page 175).

Garth’s mom was famous for her fudge, and I feel honored to include her recipe in this cookbook. I think that one of her secrets was the old, deep cast-iron skillet she used to make it in. I know the peanut butter makes it really smooth!

I first came across these tasty Colombian fried corn cakes stuffed with oozin’, stringy cheese at a Miami street festival. Back home, I messed around with the recipe and added whole corn kernels to the dough to make ‘em more interesting. In the restaurant we serve arepas with a pile of pulled pork in the center for a real Memphis-meets-Miami dish. But if you don’t have the pork on hand, they’re just as good served with some Fire-Roasted Garlic Salsa.

These delectable shrimp boiled in beer and rolled in lots of spice and garlic are our most popular appetizer. Their “a-peel” has always been in the roll-up-your-sleeves sloppy nature of eating ‘em. There’s nothin’ polite about ‘em, and that’s the way we like it.

Georgia produces more peanuts than peaches—maybe it should be called the peanut state! This is one great way to use them. Daddy loved peanut brittle, and he made this all the time when I was growing up.

This candy is a Christmas memory for me. Beth and I can hardly wait for it to cool every year so we can slice it up and wrap it. We always eat as much as we wrap (or more), so truthfully, I don’t really know how much the recipe makes!

Boiled custard is a southern tradition that has been used for centuries in recipes like banana pudding, pies, and homemade ice cream. It adds the richness and flavor of a pastry cream to every recipe it’s used in, but it’s not as thick.

I’m including this recipe from my sister’s mother-in-law, Blanche (Whew! That’s a mouthful!), because it is so easy, skips the time-consuming custard-making process of the previous recipe, and tastes awesome! Try both recipes and see which one you like best.

Who ever heard of baking a dessert in a cast-iron skillet? You have now! The heavy pan ensures that the shortbread cooks evenly to a beautiful pale color top and bottom.

Don’t be surprised at how sticky this dough is as you’re trying to shape it into a log for the first baking! After it comes out of the oven, it’s easy to cut into biscotti slices. Cooking the slices slowly on both sides gives it that nice biscotti crunch.

The original recipe for these cinnamon cookies is written on an index card in my sister Beth’s earliest cursive handwriting, and it is probably the first recipe I remember her making when we were girls. She still makes them every Halloween.

The tradition of making homemade treats for gifts is still alive and well in the South. In the early to mid-1990s, I worked on videos and photo shoots in Nashville with a girl named Maria Smoot. She is responsible for some of the most beautiful hair-styles in country music. I found a tin of these cookies in my mailbox one Christmas with a sweet note from Maria. What was even sweeter was that she included the recipe.

One of our girls doesn’t like chocolate! Hard to believe if you’re a chocolate lover like me, but I’m always looking for a chocolate alternative for dessert around my house. Fortunately, this was Beth’s specialty growing up, and I’ve stolen her recipe for my own.

I started making these cookies in the eighth grade, and they just might be responsible for my love of cooking. It wasn’t just that they are gooey and awesome, which they are; it was also that people complimented me on my cooking skills, and that gave me confidence. It later worked out in the singing thing, too! Exactly how chewy these cookies are depends on how big you make them. I make mine a little bigger than the recipe calls for because I like them soft in the middle. They are best served with a really cold glass of milk … or more cookies!

I love these brownies plain, but Garth likes them frosted, so I usually make some Coconut Frosting (page 172) on the side just for him. The unsweetened baking chocolate keeps the brownies from being too sweet. I know, sweets are supposed to be sweet, but trust me, these are just right!

You can’t be considered a serious southern cook if you don’t know how to make peach cobbler. Canned or frozen fruit works better in some recipes than fresh, and this is a perfect example. I recommend any brand of canned freestone peaches because they are tender and tasty. This dessert is easy to make and it tastes delicious, especially with a huge dollop of Home-Churned Ice Cream (page 212) on top.

My nephew Bret is allergic to eggs, which always presents a challenge when it comes to dessert. The bigger challenge is that Bret loves banana pudding. When a seven-year-old boy who is very cute asks why everyone else is having banana pudding while he is not, Aunt Trisha has to think quickly, and because my regular recipe calls for four eggs, I have to get really creative. This banana pudding recipe came about on the spot, and Bret isn’t the only one who loves it!