2016 James Beard Award winner and 2016 International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) nominee for Best American Cookbook A collection of classic Southern comfort food recipes--including seven-layer dip, chicken and gravy, and strawberry shortcake--made lighter, healthier, and completely guilt-free. Virginia Willis is not only an authority on Southern cooking. She's also a French-trained chef, a veteran cookbook author, and a proud Southerner who adores eating and cooking for family and friends. So when she needed to drop a few pounds and generally lighten up her diet, the most important criterion for her new lifestyle was that all the food had to taste delicious. The result is Lighten Up, Y’all, a soul-satisfying and deeply personal collection of Virginia’s new favorite recipes. All the classics are covered—from a comforting Southern Style Shepherd’s Pie with Grits to warm, melting Broccoli Mac and Cheese to Old-Fashioned Buttermilk Pie. Each dish is packed with real Southern flavor, but made with healthier, more wholesome ingredients and techniques. Wherever you are on your health and wellness journey, Lighten Up, Y’all has the recipes, tools, and inspiration you need to make the nourishing, down-home Southern food you love.
Featuring new recipes and photographs, this revised and updated edition of Virginia Willis’s best-selling culinary classic also features new variations and commentary on the original recipes plus options using healthier ingredients. More than two hundred heritage and new recipes seamlessly blend into a thoroughly modern Southern cookbook. The daughter and granddaughter of consummate Southern cooks, Willis is also a classically trained French chef and an award-winning writer. These divergent influences come together splendidly in Bon Appétit, Y’all, a modern Southern chef’s passionate and evolving homage to her culinary roots. Espousing a simple-is-best philosophy, Willis uses good ingredients, concentrates on sound French technique, and lets the food shine in a style she calls “refined Southern cuisine.” Approachable recipes are arranged by chapter into starters and nibbles; salads and slaws; eggs and dairy; main dishes with fowl, fish, and other meats; sides; biscuits and breads; soups and stews; desserts; and sauces and preserves. Collected here are stylishly updated Southern and French classics (New Southern Chicken and Herb Dumplings, Boeuf Bourguignonne, Fried Catfish Fingers with Country Rémoulade) and traditional favorites (Meme’s Biscuits, Mama’s Apple Pie, Okra and Tomatoes), and it wouldn’t be Southern cooking without vegetables (Cauliflower and Broccoli Parmesan, Green Beans Provençal, and Smoky Collard Greens). More than one hundred photographs bring to life both Virginia’s food and the bounty of her native Georgia. You’ll also find well-written stories, a wealth of tips and techniques from a skilled and innovative teacher, and the wisdom of a renowned authority in American regional cuisine, steeped to her core in the food, culinary knowledge, and hospitality of the South. Bon Appétit, Y’all is Virginia Willis’s way of saying, “Welcome to my Southern kitchen. Pull up a chair.” Once you have tasted her food, you’ll want to stay a good long while.
“Virginia’s recipes are useful for every home cook, and offer a plateful of Southern comfort . . . All this makes for good cooking and reading.”—Nathalie Dupree, author, TV personality, and James Beard Award winner In Secrets of the Southern Table, award-winning chef and cookbook author Virginia Willis takes you on a tour of today’s South—a region rich in history and cultural diversity. With her signature charm and wit, Virginia shares many well-known Southern recipes like Pimento Cheese Tomato Herb Pie and “Cathead” Biscuits, but also some surprising revelations drawn from the area’s many global influences, like Catfish Tacos with Avocado Crema, Mississippi-Style Char Siu Pork Tenderloin, and Greek Okra and Tomatoes. In addition to the recipes, Virginia profiles some of the diverse chefs, farmers, and other culinary influencers who are shaping contemporary Southern cuisine. Together, these stories and the delicious recipes that accompany them celebrate the rich and ever-evolving heritage of Southern cooking. “Arepas inspired by a Venezuelan stand in an Atlanta market where Martin Luther King Jr.’s family shopped; lemon-herb potatoes born of the Greek fishing village of Tarpon Springs, Florida: to hell with that old moonlight and corn pone schtick. Virginia Willis showcases a contemporary South that is dizzily and honestly diverse.”—John T. Edge, author, The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South “An ode to a regional cuisine rich in culture and soul . . . a culinary quilt filled with reverence for the past, marvel of the present, and excitement for the future of Southern foodways.”—Sandra A. Gutierrez, award-winning author of The New Southern-Latino Table
A follow-up to the author’s acclaimed Bon Appétit, Y’all, featuring 150 recipes that combine Southern flavors with time-honored French technique, and include a sophisticated variation that kicks each dish up a notch to make it brilliant. Virginia Willis has a knack for giving French recipes a downhome Southern feel. In Basic to Brilliant, Y’all, she builds on her signature style by offering 150 dual recipes: a soul-satisfying basic recipe accompanied by a technique, garnish, additional step, or short recipe that transforms a wonderful dish into a show stopper. A weeknight classic like Mama’s Chicken Pot Pie becomes sophisticated dinner party fare when it’s baked in a winter squash, and Old Fashioned Stove Top Low-Country Broth can be transformed into a Bouillabaisse-style broth with just a few simple changes. Throughout the book, Virginia paints a vivid picture of her Southern upbringing, drawing readers in with her vibrant tales of food and friends.
The Emmy Award–nominated chef puts a lighter, healthier twist on Southern cooking with these 150 recipes accompanied by color photos. Southern recipes are cherished heirlooms passed down from generation to generation, and Home Plate Cooking shows how to prepare the same recipes your grandmother used to make—while also sharing fresh versions of the same food. That could mean preparing a marinade for collard greens that will eliminate the need for fat back, or cutting down on preparation or cooking time for a family favorite. Featuring 150 recipes, Home Plate Cooking celebrates home cooked southern meals in a way southern recipes have never been presented before—inspired by Marvin Woods’s desire to prepare tasty cuisine that reflected his heritage and influence, but that people could eat more than once a week without worrying about their blood pressure with every bite. Home Plate Cooking shares recipes for such delicacies as: Cheddar Grits Soufflé New Southern Chicken & Dumplings Carrot Apple Slaw Cheddar Cornbread Okra & Tomatoes Bourbon-Baked Ham New Orleans Barbecued Shrimp Pecan Sandies Upside-Down Apple Cake, and many more
Somewhere along the line, the daily dilemma of "What's for dinner?" has become one of the most dreaded decisions of the day. Now, thanks to Pasta Dinners 1, 2, 3, getting a meal on the table nightly has become (dare we say it?) a pleasure. With this cookbook in hand, planning a meal is more like a game as you flip back and forth through the recipe cards until you hit on the combination that is just right for tonight's supper. The cards are divided into three groups: Soup, Salad, and Antipasto Dishes; Main Pasta Dishes; and Bread and Dessert Dishes. Whether you're in the mood tonight for Mushroom Soup, Peppered Fettuccine with Goat Cheese-Tomato Sauce, and Shortcut Parmesan Herb Bread or Thai Mixed Green Salad, Ginger-Cilantro Pesto Noodles, and Pear-Walnut Crisp, Pasta Dinners 1, 2, 3 helps you get a satisfying, delicious meal on the table quickly and with little effort. The recipes are fast and simple, and you'll find perfect meals for weekday family dinners, as well as sophisticated menu possibilities for entertaining. Recipe headnotes provide essential information such as what can be made ahead, storage directions, ingredient notes, and variation ideas. Each recipe also comes with a list of suggestions to mix and match, or be creative and come up with your own. Either way, planning a meal has never been so much fun!
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