Oh. My. God. Did I just create the best Thanksgiving dressing ever? Why yes, yes I did. You’re welcome. I got all the flavors of classic dressing (that’s stuffing to you Northerners)—onion, celery, sage—and suspended them in a creamy one-pan cornbread. With this recipe, I’ve saved you the step of baking a whole loaf of cornbread just to crumble into a side dish. Anything I can do to make your home cooking easier and tastier, I’ll do. This just saved you a whole lotta time on Thanksgiving and it’s gonna get you a whole lotta praise.
This hearty Southern take on chicken soup features tender shreds of chicken and chewy strips of pastry in an ultra savory stock. Browning the chicken before simmering it in store-bought chicken broth provided a flavorful base. We opted for chicken thighs rather than lean breasts because they stayed tender throughout the long stewing process. Rolling the “pastry”—which we made from just flour, butter, milk, and baking powder—to 1/8 inch thick before adding it to boiling broth made it fluffy and soft. And cutting the dough into diamond shapes rather than squares added just a little flair to this homey dish. Keep the root ends of the onion halves intact so the petals don’t separate during cooking and the onion is easy to remove from the pot.
Holley Pearce, my coordinator of chaos and close friend, loves food but doesn’t do much cooking. We met because she dined in one of our restaurants four nights a week. When Holley, who’s from Mississippi, started working with me, her lack of cooking skills became a running joke. One weekend, we had a little gathering at my office, and Pearce (as her friends call her) brought something she called BLT dip. She said it was just something her family had always taken to the beach. Unable to stop myself, I stood by it snacking till all that was left of the dip was a puddle of pink mayonnaise-y bliss.
Twenty years ago, no one in the States thought of throwing watermelon into anything other than a fruit salad. But in the past two decades, Americans have come to accept it underneath salty cheeses, amplified by spicy chilies, or grilled alongside shrimp. I’m going a step further to recommend you throw some anchovy into the mix. This snack is healthy, addictive, and startlingly refreshing. Spoon it into the endive spears for a more formal presentation, or serve the spears piled high next to a bowl of the relish to evoke chips and dip.
We can’t think of anything more versatile and delicious than these tomatoes. Eat them by themselves, over rice, tossed with pasta, as a friend for fish, underneath steak, baked with eggs, and spooned next to squash.
Like cucumber, watermelon loses much of its spirit when subjected to heat, so I almost never recommend it any way other than cold and raw. I’ve made an exception here because more people need to know about the wizardry that happens when watermelon and pork cook slowly together. Everybody who eats this will think the watermelon is tomato. Everybody.
The julep is a classic example of a cocktail with history. It is thought to have been created on a horse farm in the late 1700s. Farmwork was very laborious and took a toll on the body. There were no over-the-counter pain relievers at the corner drugstore back then, but there was a lot of whiskey. The whiskeys at that time didn’t taste as good as they do today. So, with the help of a little sugar and mint, the “medicine” went down easier. The muscles would relax and it was then time to get back to work. They called this remedy a “Morning Bracer.” At the end of the day, one would also need an “Evening Bracer.” The cocktail then went on to become a refined drink of the South, now synonymous with the first Saturday in May and the running of the Kentucky Derby.
This is the Kentucky cousin to two cocktails—the Moscow mule and the Dark and Stormy—made popular with ginger beer, which is much spicier than ginger ale. The Moscow mule, traditionally served in a copper mug, is made with vodka, ginger beer, and a squeeze of lime. The Dark and Stormy hails from Bermuda and combines Goslings dark rum, ginger beer, and lime. Our version uses bourbon (of course), which again is the perfect canvas to spotlight the delicious taste of ginger.
These are appropriately yummy morning, noon, and night. Serve them at breakfast, brunch, cocktail hour, or dinner with a homemade aioli, sour cream or hot pepper jelly. You may have your own favorite gristmill for good grits, but we are very partial to Louismill Smoked Yellow Corn City Grits, which lend another nuanced smokiness in addition to the country ham.