BasilandFig

When I was a kid, broccoli was a persistent companion at the dinner table.

Often, to get us to eat more of it (or to eat it at all) it was accompanied by Cheez Whiz.

And I’m not gonna lie: it was delicious.

Usually the whole jar was microwaved, stirred at 30 second increments until it was hot [...]

When My Guy and I first started dating we briefly signed up for one of those online genealogy programs, just to make sure that we were not somehow distant cousins.

Because that would just be too Southern for me to handle, and nothing ruins a relationship as swiftly and terribly as finding out you’re related.

I don’t [...]

Let me tell you a story.

A story about a girl who loved potatoes.

And more than potatoes, she loved a good deal.

Now, I don’t have to tell you what happened one day when, at the Food Lion, she saw 10-pound bags of potatoes on sale for $1.99.

She bought them of course.  No story there, except that [...]

Have you been making refrigerator pickles all summer?

We have.

I wish I could say that they’re from my own cucumbers that I grew but, save for one, they’re not.  For some reason I have bad luck with cucumbers, and by ‘bad luck’ I mean that there is some virus or pest that always kills them, but [...]

When I was in middle school we sometimes took class trips to (insert ‘educational destination that obviously had a long-lasting impact on my life seeing as I can’t remember it’ here), or we had away (insert whatever sport I happened to play at the time) games that, for some reason, required the hiring of a [...]

You know how there are just certain foods that are the essence of summer, of the fresh-luscious bounty of the earth?  There is the juicy peach, the corn-on-the-cob, the thick crimson wedges of watermelon; there is tomato pie and fresh pesto and open-faced tomato sandwiches that must be eaten over the sink to catch the [...]

My parents are friends with a man who keeps a farm as a hobby—you know, just for fun.

I’m vague on the specifics (acreage, animals) but what I do know is that every year he grows a bunch of field corn for (horses? dove-hunting?) and since he’s at it—sure, why not—a few rows of sweet corn.

When [...]

Well, the first thing I have to say about this recipe is that I have no freakin’ idea who or what a Noonie is, so don’t ask.

The cookbook this recipe comes from fails to elaborate on the matter, declining to note whether Noonie was perhaps a beloved grandmother or simply the nickname of the lady [...]

I'll go ahead and save you the suspense: none of these pictures are that great.

One of my “Not-a-New-Year’s-Resolution” Resolutions has been to eat—and cook—more beans.

To that end, I’ve been stocking up on bags of dry beans when they go on sale and cooking a big pot of them every week or so.

After all, what’s [...]

My favorite seed company, Southern Exposure, each year includes an admonition in their section on heirloom cottons.  Everyone, they say, should grow and pick a row of cotton at least once in their lives, if only to gain an understanding of how physically demanding—back-breaking, hand-hurting—a task it is, and imagine what it must have been [...]