Grandma was a southern cook extrordinaire. She could fry anything. I have yet to taste fried chicken as good as hers, "secret recipes" from Kentucky colonels notwithstanding. Salt, fat, and sugar were not viewed as ingredients to be minimized in the name of health and nutrition, but essential to the characteristic mouth-watering essence of that incredibly edible sustenance from south of the Mason-Dixon line. In fact, if you mentioned "fat gram" to her, she may think you were calling her mom's mom overweight.

Don't look for the "Nutrition Facts" box on any of the following recipes. What you can expect are some wonderful treats, whether a meat dish, a casserole, or a dessert. Many of these delicacies may cause your tongue to "jump out and part your eyebrows".

We have sifted through countless pages found in Grandma's recipe basket, many yellowed with age, and many handwritten. We have selected a few that we feel represent a cross section of her "preferred dishes".

The recipies came from many sources: southern cookbooks, newspapers, relatives, and friends. Grandma often used her acute intuition or "culinary license" (as great cooks often do) to personalize recipes. One such embellishment is rather ironic - look at the first ingredient in New York Cherry Cheese Cake. One cup of grits. First of all, who would ever think to put grits in a cheesecake.....and why? Secondly, who in New York even knows what a grit is? Well, curiosity got the best of us, so Barb followed the recipe very strictly, being faithful to this unlikely fare - and.........it was fantastic! Lighter and almost fluffy compared to regular cheesecakes. So, here's a very informal and fun collection of recipes that represent an important part of Grandma's life.

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