Latest / Cookbook Love Podcast / Episode 396: Southern Roots and the Life That Shaped It with Spring Council

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Episode 396: Southern Roots and the Life That Shaped It with Spring Council · Cookbook Love Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker: You are listening to the Cookbook Love Podcast with
• 0:04
  Speaker: Maggie Greene, episode number three ninety six.
• 0:11
  Speaker: Welcome to the cookbook Love
• 0:12
  Speaker: Podcast, a podcast that
• 0:14
  Speaker: celebrates cookbook readers,
• 0:16
  Speaker: buyers, collectors, writers, and
• 0:18
  Speaker: clubs.
• 0:19
  Speaker: And now your host, cookbook
• 0:21
  Speaker: author, culinary dietitian, and
• 0:23
  Speaker: cookbook writing coach, Maggie
• 0:25
  Speaker: Green.
• 0:31
  Speaker: Hi, everybody.
• 0:31
  Speaker: Welcome back to another episode of the cookbook Love podcast.
• 0:35
  Speaker: How's everybody doing today?
• 0:36
  Speaker: As always, hope you're doing well.
• 0:38
  Speaker: Welcome to any new listeners to the show.
• 0:41
  Speaker: And again, hello and thank you to regular listeners.
• 0:45
  Speaker: I really appreciate everybody
• 0:46
  Speaker: taking time to stop by and
• 0:49
  Speaker: listen to what we have to talk
• 0:50
  Speaker: about today.
• 0:52
  Speaker: And I'm so excited to have an
• 0:53
  Speaker: interview today with Spring
• 0:54
  Speaker: Council.
• 0:55
  Speaker: Spring is a chef, philanthropist, and vintage
• 0:58
  Speaker: curator based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, as the co-owner
• 1:02
  Speaker: of Mama Dip's Kitchen, the celebrated restaurant founded by
• 1:06
  Speaker: her mother in nineteen seventy six, spring spent decades
• 1:10
  Speaker: working alongside her siblings to provide traditional country
• 1:13
  Speaker: cooking to their customers.
• 1:16
  Speaker: She's a Southern Foodways Alliance Lifetime Achievement
• 1:19
  Speaker: Award recipient, and today she can be found working alongside
• 1:23
  Speaker: her daughter Tanya.
• 1:24
  Speaker: Council at Tanya's Cookies and Cafe.
• 1:27
  Speaker: Today on the show, we talk all about spring's beautiful new
• 1:30
  Speaker: book, Southern Roots Recipes and Stories from Mama Dip's
• 1:34
  Speaker: daughter, and we dive into spring's time and what she calls
• 1:40
  Speaker: Mama Dip's University Spring's penchant for design tableware,
• 1:46
  Speaker: vintage table pieces.
• 1:49
  Speaker: We also talk about spring's love
• 1:52
  Speaker: of vintage cookbooks, her
• 1:54
  Speaker: writing habits, and how she
• 1:56
  Speaker: developed and wrote the stories
• 1:58
  Speaker: for her new book, Southern
• 2:00
  Speaker: Roots.
• 2:01
  Speaker: We also take a look at several of the recipes inside Southern
• 2:03
  Speaker: Roots and the place where these recipes came from, and spring
• 2:09
  Speaker: explains how her recipes are truly rooted in what she knows,
• 2:14
  Speaker: but she always tries to add a nice modern twist to make the
• 2:18
  Speaker: recipes her own.
• 2:20
  Speaker: This was a great interview and so much fun.
• 2:23
  Speaker: Also to talk to spring about her vintage tableware collection.
• 2:27
  Speaker: So if you're interested in
• 2:29
  Speaker: thrift shops and vintage
• 2:30
  Speaker: tableware, this is an interview
• 2:32
  Speaker: that you are not going to want
• 2:33
  Speaker: to miss.
• 2:35
  Speaker: So without further delay, let's
• 2:36
  Speaker: dive into this interview with
• 2:37
  Speaker: Spring Council.
• 2:39
  Speaker: Hi, spring, welcome to the Cookbook Love podcast.
• 2:43
  Speaker: Hi. Thank you for having me.
• 2:44
  Speaker: Yes.
• 2:45
  Speaker: So excited that you're here.
• 2:46
  Speaker: Can't wait to dive in and talk
• 2:47
  Speaker: all about your beautiful new
• 2:49
  Speaker: book.
• 2:49
  Speaker: But before we do, why don't you
• 2:50
  Speaker: tell everybody a little bit
• 2:52
  Speaker: about who you are and what you
• 2:53
  Speaker: do?
• 2:54
  Speaker: Well, I'm a chef and and a vintage creator, and I grew up
• 2:59
  Speaker: in my mother's kitchen at a home and also in a restaurant for
• 3:03
  Speaker: over fifty years.
• 3:05
  Speaker: Yeah, fifty years in a restaurant is no small feat.
• 3:09
  Speaker: I think we probably should talk about that first, because this
• 3:13
  Speaker: was truly the inspiration for what you're doing now with your
• 3:16
  Speaker: books and with your business.
• 3:18
  Speaker: But let's talk all about your mother.
• 3:20
  Speaker: Tell us who your mother was.
• 3:22
  Speaker: Uh, my mother was a excellent
• 3:24
  Speaker: cook, and she was a community
• 3:26
  Speaker: person too.
• 3:26
  Speaker: And she just loved people and was growing up as kids.
• 3:30
  Speaker: You know, folks knew her because of her love and care and how she
• 3:33
  Speaker: gave to the community.
• 3:34
  Speaker: And she brought that same love and care to a restaurant and
• 3:37
  Speaker: mama dips, and she learned to cook on their farm, a tenant
• 3:40
  Speaker: farm in Chatham County, which is outside of Chapel Hill.
• 3:43
  Speaker: And so she just wanted to share her food, her love for cooking.
• 3:47
  Speaker: And she actually did her first meal at age nine.
• 3:49
  Speaker: Wow.
• 3:50
  Speaker: And she went by Mama dip.
• 3:52
  Speaker: What was her what was her name?
• 3:54
  Speaker: Her name is Mildred Council.
• 3:56
  Speaker: and she, the customer started calling her mom and we had a
• 4:02
  Speaker: situation where a franchise holder asked us to join their
• 4:05
  Speaker: Country Kitchen franchise.
• 4:06
  Speaker: And so we didn't do that.
• 4:08
  Speaker: And then they said we was infringing on the copyright.
• 4:10
  Speaker: And so I said, well, Mama,
• 4:11
  Speaker: people call you mama dip
• 4:12
  Speaker: already.
• 4:13
  Speaker: So we just just name it Mama dip.
• 4:15
  Speaker: So that's and dip is a nickname.
• 4:17
  Speaker: Yes.
• 4:18
  Speaker: And yeah, they heard us call her mama.
• 4:20
  Speaker: And so they start calling her mama dip.
• 4:22
  Speaker: Yes.
• 4:22
  Speaker: And I read that she was tall and
• 4:24
  Speaker: she had long arms, and she could
• 4:26
  Speaker: reach into things and dip out
• 4:28
  Speaker: water or food just because of
• 4:31
  Speaker: her.
• 4:31
  Speaker: Her stature, correct?
• 4:33
  Speaker: Yes.
• 4:34
  Speaker: She likes to dip water out of the water barrel at the home.
• 4:38
  Speaker: Well, I come from a family of tall girls.
• 4:41
  Speaker: We were all tall, and I just love the fact that she was tall.
• 4:46
  Speaker: And there's.
• 4:46
  Speaker: I think it's very helpful in a kitchen, don't you think?
• 4:48
  Speaker: To be tall and strong and like
• 4:51
  Speaker: someone that cooks and I can
• 4:54
  Speaker: loves looking at pictures of her
• 4:56
  Speaker: and seeing the restaurant is no
• 4:57
  Speaker: longer open.
• 4:58
  Speaker: Is that correct?
• 4:59
  Speaker: That's correct.
• 5:00
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 5:00
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 5:01
  Speaker: Tyler is good in the kitchen
• 5:02
  Speaker: because, you know, he reads the
• 5:03
  Speaker: shelves.
• 5:03
  Speaker: And a lot of times I'm at the grocery store, excuse me, I'm at
• 5:07
  Speaker: the grocery store and people ask me if I can get some off the
• 5:11
  Speaker: shelf for them.
• 5:11
  Speaker: So I find that kind of amusing when they do that.
• 5:14
  Speaker: It is amusing.
• 5:15
  Speaker: So you got height from your mom also?
• 5:18
  Speaker: Yes, yes.
• 5:19
  Speaker: So you worked alongside her in
• 5:21
  Speaker: the restaurant business for
• 5:22
  Speaker: fifty years.
• 5:25
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 5:25
  Speaker: Well, she passed away in twenty eighteen.
• 5:27
  Speaker: And so, um, and so I've been there.
• 5:29
  Speaker: When we first started, she was a cook and I was a waitress when
• 5:33
  Speaker: we first started off.
• 5:34
  Speaker: And then as the business grew,
• 5:36
  Speaker: more family members came in and
• 5:37
  Speaker: stopped working.
• 5:38
  Speaker: Uh, it was, um, right after I
• 5:40
  Speaker: graduated high school, a year
• 5:41
  Speaker: after that, I started doing
• 5:43
  Speaker: that.
• 5:43
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 5:44
  Speaker: And I just wanted to be by her side.
• 5:45
  Speaker: Yes.
• 5:46
  Speaker: And I think that, um, business itself and the restaurant
• 5:50
  Speaker: business is completely different than cookbook writing and
• 5:54
  Speaker: writing a cookbook, but I'd love to talk a little bit about the
• 5:57
  Speaker: business side of, um, Mama Dips and the things that you learned
• 6:02
  Speaker: and experienced and were able to take away from, um, what you
• 6:06
  Speaker: call mama dip university.
• 6:09
  Speaker: Well, one thing is that we build a community around food.
• 6:14
  Speaker: Um, my mom built that community of people and, and welcome
• 6:17
  Speaker: everybody to the table.
• 6:19
  Speaker: We had people that came to the restaurant that didn't have
• 6:22
  Speaker: money to spend for food and we would feed them.
• 6:25
  Speaker: Uh, after we closed at the end of the night, we had certain
• 6:27
  Speaker: people would come by and we would just fix them whatever the
• 6:29
  Speaker: leftover food was to make sure you have a meal.
• 6:32
  Speaker: And it was all about making sure that people felt welcome and,
• 6:36
  Speaker: and comfortable, and no one felt like they was better than anyone
• 6:41
  Speaker: else, you know?
• 6:41
  Speaker: We didn't let a celebrity come
• 6:43
  Speaker: in and jump ahead of somebody
• 6:44
  Speaker: else.
• 6:44
  Speaker: We, we treat everybody like a celebrity.
• 6:47
  Speaker: And so within that space, people love Mama.
• 6:49
  Speaker: She loved talking.
• 6:50
  Speaker: Um, she had a special chair.
• 6:52
  Speaker: She sat in in the dining room and just to greet the customers.
• 6:55
  Speaker: And if she was in the kitchen working, she would ask the
• 6:58
  Speaker: customer to come on back to the kitchen and they'd go back
• 7:01
  Speaker: there, take a picture, have a conversation with her.
• 7:03
  Speaker: So she really did that, that
• 7:05
  Speaker: love and welcome atmosphere in
• 7:06
  Speaker: the restaurant.
• 7:07
  Speaker: Yeah, she was there every day.
• 7:10
  Speaker: Yeah, she was there every day.
• 7:11
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 7:11
  Speaker: She loved she loved cooking.
• 7:13
  Speaker: She loved talking to the customers.
• 7:15
  Speaker: And she also helped a lot of
• 7:16
  Speaker: folks that people really didn't
• 7:18
  Speaker: want to give a chance to have
• 7:19
  Speaker: people from the prison come in
• 7:21
  Speaker: and work through the work
• 7:22
  Speaker: release program.
• 7:23
  Speaker: She also helped people.
• 7:24
  Speaker: Then the drug addiction halfway houses gave them jobs, and she
• 7:29
  Speaker: actually had refugees from Burma that came in from the church and
• 7:33
  Speaker: she gave them jobs.
• 7:34
  Speaker: So her door was always open to everyone.
• 7:36
  Speaker: A lot of university students waited tables there.
• 7:39
  Speaker: Of course, the family was there, had like three generations
• 7:42
  Speaker: working at one time.
• 7:43
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:44
  Speaker: So that's really a way that you get to know your family well
• 7:46
  Speaker: when you're working together in an environment like that.
• 7:50
  Speaker: Yes.
• 7:51
  Speaker: And we worked so much in the restaurant that the customers
• 7:53
  Speaker: that came in, they were like our connection to the outside world.
• 7:57
  Speaker: So that's how we really created
• 7:59
  Speaker: that atmosphere of being
• 8:01
  Speaker: someone's friend or somebody
• 8:03
  Speaker: making people feel like they are
• 8:04
  Speaker: family.
• 8:05
  Speaker: Yeah, I think that's probably one of the best things about a
• 8:09
  Speaker: restaurant like that.
• 8:10
  Speaker: That truly is a community space
• 8:11
  Speaker: where people can come and truly
• 8:13
  Speaker: feel welcome.
• 8:14
  Speaker: And, uh, restaurants that can create that and that can sustain
• 8:18
  Speaker: that for many years in one community, they become a fixture
• 8:22
  Speaker: in the community.
• 8:24
  Speaker: Uh, yes.
• 8:25
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 8:25
  Speaker: He was a fixture and we decided to close.
• 8:27
  Speaker: It was a hard thing for people, you know, to say that Mama Dips
• 8:30
  Speaker: will no longer be there.
• 8:32
  Speaker: And one of the biggest thing is
• 8:33
  Speaker: that the New Year's Day meal,
• 8:35
  Speaker: that was a really big thing at
• 8:37
  Speaker: Mama Dips.
• 8:38
  Speaker: Uh, so that was a, that was a
• 8:39
  Speaker: tough one, but my daughter
• 8:40
  Speaker: actually started preparing that
• 8:42
  Speaker: this year.
• 8:43
  Speaker: Her restaurant, she has a bakery cafe, but it's amazing how
• 8:47
  Speaker: people came into the restaurant.
• 8:48
  Speaker: You know, they come in, they're
• 8:49
  Speaker: single, then they come back with
• 8:51
  Speaker: a date.
• 8:52
  Speaker: Then they get married and have children.
• 8:55
  Speaker: And then the children go off to
• 8:56
  Speaker: college and bring their friends
• 8:59
  Speaker: back.
• 8:59
  Speaker: So we saw the whole process through those years of how
• 9:03
  Speaker: people family was.
• 9:04
  Speaker: You know, we need the cousins and aunts and uncles and this is
• 9:08
  Speaker: one particular customer came in.
• 9:11
  Speaker: I could always remember what a
• 9:12
  Speaker: person would order when I was
• 9:14
  Speaker: waiting tables, but I could not
• 9:16
  Speaker: remember names so much for so
• 9:18
  Speaker: many people.
• 9:18
  Speaker: So this one particular customer would come in, he'd bring about
• 9:21
  Speaker: six or eight people in to eat and he'd say, tell him what I'm
• 9:23
  Speaker: going to eat, you know?
• 9:24
  Speaker: And I tell him what he's going to eat.
• 9:25
  Speaker: And they just all have a, a big laugh and a good time.
• 9:28
  Speaker: So it was just a fun space to be in.
• 9:30
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 9:31
  Speaker: So what was the what did the New Year's meal consist?
• 9:33
  Speaker: New Year's Day meal consist of?
• 9:35
  Speaker: Uh, the New Year's Day meal consists of roasted pork and
• 9:38
  Speaker: for, um, good health, Collard greens for lots of money, black
• 9:43
  Speaker: eyed peas for good luck.
• 9:44
  Speaker: And my mama added some yams, you know, to it to give her a little
• 9:47
  Speaker: sweetness to the meal.
• 9:48
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 9:48
  Speaker: And people just loved it.
• 9:50
  Speaker: They came near and far.
• 9:51
  Speaker: Yes, and New Year's Day is a fun
• 9:53
  Speaker: day to do something like that, I
• 9:55
  Speaker: think.
• 9:55
  Speaker: Um, I've heard of people having
• 9:58
  Speaker: traditions on New Year's Day
• 9:59
  Speaker: that it's, it's just a, it's,
• 10:01
  Speaker: it's a fun day to celebrate with
• 10:03
  Speaker: food different than Christmas
• 10:05
  Speaker: and different than Thanksgiving
• 10:06
  Speaker: because of the, the new year and
• 10:08
  Speaker: the excitement and the
• 10:09
  Speaker: opportunity that a new year
• 10:10
  Speaker: presents.
• 10:11
  Speaker: So, um, it's exciting no matter what day of the week it was on.
• 10:15
  Speaker: Uh, she was always open on New Year's Day.
• 10:17
  Speaker: Always.
• 10:18
  Speaker: Oh, it was the busiest day for us of the year.
• 10:21
  Speaker: It was, you know, and it's especially because people pretty
• 10:24
  Speaker: much the same thing.
• 10:25
  Speaker: Everybody's eating the same thing.
• 10:26
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 10:26
  Speaker: You know, the pork, the call us the black eyed peas.
• 10:29
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 10:29
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 10:29
  Speaker: Were you open for breakfast?
• 10:31
  Speaker: Lunch and dinner?
• 10:33
  Speaker: Oh, for breakfast.
• 10:33
  Speaker: Lunch and dinner.
• 10:34
  Speaker: Yes.
• 10:34
  Speaker: Um, and then at the, at the
• 10:36
  Speaker: maybe last maybe ten or fifteen
• 10:38
  Speaker: years, she stopped serving
• 10:39
  Speaker: breakfast and just did lunch and
• 10:41
  Speaker: dinner.
• 10:42
  Speaker: Um, she did breakfast because, you know, we're here anyway,
• 10:45
  Speaker: we're working just like the people in the door.
• 10:46
  Speaker: We're cooking breakfast.
• 10:47
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 10:47
  Speaker: And then we finally convinced her mom maybe we shouldn't do
• 10:50
  Speaker: breakfast anymore, so we finally stop doing that.
• 10:53
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 10:53
  Speaker: What was her favorite thing to cook?
• 10:56
  Speaker: Wow.
• 10:58
  Speaker: Um, Mama loved to bake pies, and she.
• 11:01
  Speaker: She used to make these fried, dried apple pies.
• 11:04
  Speaker: Um, and that was a special thing at the restaurant.
• 11:07
  Speaker: She sat back there and wrote that, you know, crust out in the
• 11:09
  Speaker: circle and make the little dried spices and with the apples.
• 11:13
  Speaker: And she loved that.
• 11:14
  Speaker: And our sister doing that sometimes when she wasn't able
• 11:17
  Speaker: to get up and move around so much, I would take the apple pie
• 11:21
  Speaker: that she fired and, and stick them in the oven so they can
• 11:23
  Speaker: really get heated through.
• 11:24
  Speaker: And, um, yeah, but she loved that and it was really good too.
• 11:27
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 11:28
  Speaker: I think back when people would dry apples or have dried apples,
• 11:31
  Speaker: it was a really, uh, nice thing to do with the dried apples to
• 11:34
  Speaker: make those fried pies, but I don't know if people dry fruit
• 11:38
  Speaker: as much as they used to.
• 11:39
  Speaker: And to have that kind of an ingredient available and then
• 11:42
  Speaker: making something with it, it really is a, a special thing.
• 11:47
  Speaker: So I believe based on what I
• 11:49
  Speaker: read and what you've told me
• 11:50
  Speaker: through our communication before
• 11:52
  Speaker: the show, you put some of your
• 11:54
  Speaker: own interests and pursuits kind
• 11:56
  Speaker: of on hold in order to work in
• 11:58
  Speaker: the restaurant.
• 11:59
  Speaker: Let's talk a little bit about that, you creative person.
• 12:02
  Speaker: You, uh, interested in fashion design?
• 12:05
  Speaker: I read you even maybe thought about becoming a model.
• 12:08
  Speaker: And, uh, tell us how that went
• 12:11
  Speaker: for you and what you you
• 12:12
  Speaker: obviously ended up deciding to
• 12:14
  Speaker: stay with the restaurant, but
• 12:15
  Speaker: what was that point in your life
• 12:17
  Speaker: like?
• 12:17
  Speaker: And as a result of your
• 12:19
  Speaker: decision, what you brought to
• 12:20
  Speaker: the restaurant?
• 12:22
  Speaker: Well, it was yeah, I didn't want to be a fashion buyer.
• 12:25
  Speaker: People were always telling me I
• 12:26
  Speaker: should model and I want to go to
• 12:28
  Speaker: Atlanta, to the Institute of
• 12:30
  Speaker: Fashion Institute of America, I
• 12:32
  Speaker: think wasn't allowed at the
• 12:33
  Speaker: time.
• 12:33
  Speaker: And I wanted to go there and,
• 12:35
  Speaker: um, I didn't get support from my
• 12:37
  Speaker: mama.
• 12:37
  Speaker: And, you know, she's probably
• 12:38
  Speaker: right, you know, probably too
• 12:40
  Speaker: gullible to be going to a big
• 12:41
  Speaker: city.
• 12:41
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 12:42
  Speaker: And so instead, I decided to
• 12:43
  Speaker: just come and work at the
• 12:44
  Speaker: restaurant rather than go off to
• 12:45
  Speaker: college.
• 12:46
  Speaker: and I just sort of used my creativity there.
• 12:49
  Speaker: You know, in the way I played with the food.
• 12:51
  Speaker: Before we even thought about a food stylist, I want the food to
• 12:54
  Speaker: look on the plate.
• 12:55
  Speaker: And I would take in, you know, go to the thrift stores and try
• 12:59
  Speaker: to be on my tableware.
• 13:00
  Speaker: And, and I sort of got creative in that process of that.
• 13:04
  Speaker: And then that sort of came from my grandmother too.
• 13:07
  Speaker: When I was a kid, she used to
• 13:09
  Speaker: set these pretty tables for the
• 13:11
  Speaker: Willing Workers Club from the
• 13:13
  Speaker: church.
• 13:14
  Speaker: And I used to always go by her house to see what our table was
• 13:16
  Speaker: going to look like.
• 13:17
  Speaker: And, and when I remember as a kid looking at that table, I not
• 13:21
  Speaker: only saw those pretty crystal and China and silver there, but
• 13:25
  Speaker: I saw the women that's going to actually sit at that table and,
• 13:28
  Speaker: and eat from those things.
• 13:30
  Speaker: And their job was to work, help the people in the community.
• 13:35
  Speaker: Their job was to figure out what are we going to do to support
• 13:38
  Speaker: the poor in the community.
• 13:40
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 13:40
  Speaker: And so me setting the table was not more about setting a fancy
• 13:45
  Speaker: table, but setting the table to make sure people feel
• 13:47
  Speaker: comfortable at home.
• 13:49
  Speaker: And and welcome to the table.
• 13:51
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 13:52
  Speaker: And I think that your mom had advice when it came to, uh,
• 13:56
  Speaker: plates and silverware.
• 13:58
  Speaker: And what did she always say about things like that?
• 14:02
  Speaker: Well, she was saying, you know,
• 14:03
  Speaker: always use your your nice
• 14:04
  Speaker: things.
• 14:05
  Speaker: Don't put them in a China cabinet.
• 14:06
  Speaker: Just sit there and use them often.
• 14:08
  Speaker: Um, that she would say, and, and
• 14:10
  Speaker: I do, I have a, a little
• 14:12
  Speaker: breakfast table.
• 14:13
  Speaker: I always set it up to make sure that I just don't go eat on the
• 14:16
  Speaker: couch, but I sit down at the table and enjoy my meal and, and
• 14:20
  Speaker: I just love setting a table and having people over and they just
• 14:24
  Speaker: get a thrill out of it.
• 14:25
  Speaker: Looking at the table setting,
• 14:27
  Speaker: and especially when they see
• 14:28
  Speaker: their name cards with a name
• 14:30
  Speaker: carved the name on it really
• 14:31
  Speaker: feel special.
• 14:32
  Speaker: I took time out to, you know, put their name on the card and
• 14:35
  Speaker: they really feel welcome then.
• 14:37
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 14:37
  Speaker: So I've heard you say twice
• 14:39
  Speaker: since I've been talking to you
• 14:41
  Speaker: here today about the importance
• 14:43
  Speaker: of an experience that somebody
• 14:44
  Speaker: has when they sit at your table,
• 14:46
  Speaker: when they come into your
• 14:47
  Speaker: restaurant.
• 14:48
  Speaker: Making them feel welcome.
• 14:49
  Speaker: It sounds like that's something
• 14:51
  Speaker: that you definitely learned from
• 14:52
  Speaker: your mom.
• 14:54
  Speaker: I do, I did learn that she's,
• 14:56
  Speaker: um, we were growing up as kids
• 14:57
  Speaker: and even our own, our home, um,
• 15:00
  Speaker: holiday parties, you know, if
• 15:01
  Speaker: there was someone that didn't
• 15:02
  Speaker: have spaces to go, uh, to eat,
• 15:05
  Speaker: you know, she would welcome to
• 15:07
  Speaker: our table.
• 15:08
  Speaker: And so we always had guests coming.
• 15:10
  Speaker: Uh, maybe a student that wasn't able to go home and they would
• 15:13
  Speaker: come to our house to eat.
• 15:15
  Speaker: And so she really taught us to set a nice atmosphere.
• 15:18
  Speaker: We actually decorated really nice, um, at her home as well.
• 15:22
  Speaker: And she had her kind of patterns and things.
• 15:24
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
• 15:25
  Speaker: And I think that maybe that's part and parcel of being coming,
• 15:28
  Speaker: being, being from a big family.
• 15:30
  Speaker: Um, my mom was kind of the same.
• 15:32
  Speaker: We would, uh, we lived in
• 15:34
  Speaker: Lexington, Kentucky, and the
• 15:35
  Speaker: University of Kentucky was like
• 15:36
  Speaker: right there, but, and we lived
• 15:38
  Speaker: at home and we would take
• 15:39
  Speaker: classes.
• 15:39
  Speaker: But she always told us if we
• 15:41
  Speaker: knew anybody that couldn't go
• 15:42
  Speaker: home for Thanksgiving, or they
• 15:43
  Speaker: couldn't go home for Christmas
• 15:45
  Speaker: just to.
• 15:45
  Speaker: Bring them over and carried that through to my own children.
• 15:49
  Speaker: And at Easter many years ago my daughter, a girl, could not go
• 15:54
  Speaker: home, and she brought her to our family gathering in Louisville.
• 15:58
  Speaker: And I think that, um, when you're cooking for a large group
• 16:01
  Speaker: of people, one more place to set or one more mouth to feed is not
• 16:06
  Speaker: any big deal.
• 16:08
  Speaker: And, um, I think it makes people
• 16:09
  Speaker: feel special when you do that
• 16:12
  Speaker: for them.
• 16:12
  Speaker: And I think it's an amazing
• 16:13
  Speaker: thing that your mother did to
• 16:15
  Speaker: not only do that in her own
• 16:17
  Speaker: home, but then that she extended
• 16:19
  Speaker: that feeling into her
• 16:20
  Speaker: restaurant.
• 16:21
  Speaker: Yes, she did, which makes her restaurant almost just like an
• 16:24
  Speaker: extension of her home.
• 16:25
  Speaker: Right?
• 16:26
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 16:26
  Speaker: It was it was that for us, you know, and just, you know, people
• 16:29
  Speaker: coming in and, um, eating and, and we spoke to everybody came
• 16:32
  Speaker: to and we trained our staff.
• 16:34
  Speaker: Even if you're not going to wait on a particular person, uh, make
• 16:37
  Speaker: sure that you greet them when they came in the door and, and
• 16:40
  Speaker: the customer had, the Customer had questions about us.
• 16:43
  Speaker: They want to know about my mama.
• 16:44
  Speaker: How she got her name.
• 16:46
  Speaker: They want to know how long we've been in business.
• 16:48
  Speaker: And so we actually created a, um, a training test to give to
• 16:52
  Speaker: our staff to make sure that they knew the answers to those.
• 16:55
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 16:56
  Speaker: Because you knew people were going to ask, you wanted them to
• 16:59
  Speaker: report the right, you know, tell the right thing.
• 17:01
  Speaker: Yes.
• 17:02
  Speaker: How did you set the tables at the restaurant?
• 17:04
  Speaker: Well, the restaurant we had, she
• 17:05
  Speaker: had like, um, these beige plates
• 17:08
  Speaker: with a Burgundy, um, stripe
• 17:10
  Speaker: around it.
• 17:10
  Speaker: So we really didn't set the table.
• 17:12
  Speaker: Um, she had the cloth napkins to start with, um, on Sundays and
• 17:16
  Speaker: then she would just have just a nice glasses and things.
• 17:19
  Speaker: It wasn't like set up.
• 17:20
  Speaker: Right.
• 17:21
  Speaker: Was it a restaurant where people
• 17:22
  Speaker: ordered off a menu and then the
• 17:23
  Speaker: food would be brought to their
• 17:24
  Speaker: table?
• 17:25
  Speaker: Or was it past family style, or how was the food served?
• 17:28
  Speaker: It was a full service restaurant
• 17:30
  Speaker: where the server would take your
• 17:31
  Speaker: order and we'd bring the food to
• 17:32
  Speaker: the table.
• 17:33
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 17:33
  Speaker: And we also had a family style menu.
• 17:35
  Speaker: Sometimes large parties want to come in or maybe a wedding
• 17:38
  Speaker: rehearsal dinner, and we would offer them family style.
• 17:41
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 17:42
  Speaker: You mentioned when you were talking about design, the way
• 17:44
  Speaker: you plated the food.
• 17:45
  Speaker: Why don't you talk a little bit about that?
• 17:47
  Speaker: There might be people that are
• 17:48
  Speaker: listening that aren't like, what
• 17:50
  Speaker: kind of design could I use to
• 17:52
  Speaker: plate food?
• 17:54
  Speaker: Um, maybe they've seen it at a really fancy high end
• 17:56
  Speaker: restaurant, but I think it's really neat that you brought
• 17:59
  Speaker: that desire that you had to make the food look nice on the plate.
• 18:03
  Speaker: What kinds of things did you do to make it look better?
• 18:07
  Speaker: Well, so I was just pretty much
• 18:08
  Speaker: playing traditional southern
• 18:10
  Speaker: food.
• 18:10
  Speaker: So I didn't have like tweezers or anything.
• 18:12
  Speaker: I just made sure that that piece of fried chicken was just laying
• 18:16
  Speaker: over to the side.
• 18:17
  Speaker: And those potatoes, you know,
• 18:19
  Speaker: when I put that gravy on those
• 18:21
  Speaker: potatoes, it was just splashed
• 18:22
  Speaker: on.
• 18:23
  Speaker: I made sure it was like a little
• 18:24
  Speaker: indent, like a circle that held
• 18:26
  Speaker: those potatoes and just make
• 18:28
  Speaker: sure those vegetables were
• 18:29
  Speaker: separate and not all piled
• 18:30
  Speaker: together.
• 18:31
  Speaker: It's funny, I went to this
• 18:31
  Speaker: restaurant and I had this yoga
• 18:34
  Speaker: bowl and I thought, it's a nice
• 18:36
  Speaker: yoga bowl.
• 18:36
  Speaker: And so now I go home and put my yogurt in a bold deep bowl.
• 18:40
  Speaker: I put in like a little shallow
• 18:42
  Speaker: plate, and then I just spread it
• 18:44
  Speaker: out on there and then just put
• 18:45
  Speaker: the food on, just like the
• 18:47
  Speaker: restaurant did.
• 18:48
  Speaker: Well, I guess that the way they.
• 18:49
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
• 18:50
  Speaker: No, I mean, I think you're right.
• 18:51
  Speaker: If that was a way.
• 18:52
  Speaker: And if you do it too deep, then you can't really see anything.
• 18:56
  Speaker: Right?
• 18:57
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 18:57
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 18:58
  Speaker: So. So you were inspired by that with something recently then?
• 19:03
  Speaker: Yes.
• 19:04
  Speaker: And so now when I do my yoga, I make sure it's in a shallow bowl
• 19:07
  Speaker: so I can sort of spread it out and, you know, put my little
• 19:09
  Speaker: toasted coconut on there.
• 19:11
  Speaker: And that's now I have like a yoga, um, containers and I have
• 19:16
  Speaker: all my nuts and my toasted coconuts and my dried fruit.
• 19:20
  Speaker: And of course, I keep my mangoes, my blueberries and
• 19:22
  Speaker: bananas and stuff.
• 19:23
  Speaker: So that's one of my main breakfast items.
• 19:25
  Speaker: I love to eat the yogurt.
• 19:26
  Speaker: Nice.
• 19:27
  Speaker: So that's great.
• 19:28
  Speaker: A way that you can, everyone can use the design tip like that
• 19:32
  Speaker: when they're making their own yogurt bowls at home.
• 19:35
  Speaker: Why not make them look nice and
• 19:37
  Speaker: enjoy them even in our own
• 19:39
  Speaker: kitchen.
• 19:40
  Speaker: So with even when I'm when I'm entertained at home.
• 19:42
  Speaker: You know, I like to use the nice
• 19:44
  Speaker: coupes and the little small,
• 19:46
  Speaker: petite glasses.
• 19:48
  Speaker: And just to, you know, put on, I have these like old fashioned,
• 19:52
  Speaker: um, crystal candy jars.
• 19:54
  Speaker: So you open it up.
• 19:55
  Speaker: So I put a salad in that.
• 19:57
  Speaker: So when people come to the table, they see the salad in
• 19:59
  Speaker: this covered candy dish.
• 20:01
  Speaker: So that's the way I can reuse that over the time.
• 20:04
  Speaker: And I go to the thrift shop and I just keep finding them.
• 20:07
  Speaker: I just collect, I get a set of eight and that's how I have
• 20:10
  Speaker: enough to do a party, you know.
• 20:11
  Speaker: So and so you put your salad then in it and everybody has
• 20:15
  Speaker: their own, uh, candy dish with the salad in it.
• 20:18
  Speaker: Yes.
• 20:18
  Speaker: That's great.
• 20:19
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 20:20
  Speaker: So they sort of give them this
• 20:21
  Speaker: special presentation and people
• 20:23
  Speaker: like to see stuff like that on
• 20:24
  Speaker: the table.
• 20:25
  Speaker: So and I enjoy doing it too.
• 20:26
  Speaker: You might give me that sense of creativity that I like to do.
• 20:29
  Speaker: You know, I go into a vintage
• 20:31
  Speaker: shop and I'm always amazed at
• 20:33
  Speaker: the things that are in there
• 20:35
  Speaker: because what are people going to
• 20:36
  Speaker: do?
• 20:36
  Speaker: They can't you, I guess you could throw it away.
• 20:38
  Speaker: But there's just so much.
• 20:40
  Speaker: And there's so many vintage shops.
• 20:42
  Speaker: You know, you could go into any
• 20:43
  Speaker: town in any state, and there's
• 20:47
  Speaker: usually some sort of antique
• 20:48
  Speaker: shop or vintage shop and just so
• 20:51
  Speaker: much stuff.
• 20:52
  Speaker: Um, it's beautiful and a lot of beautiful colored glass.
• 20:54
  Speaker: And, uh, I think it's a wonderful way to collect things
• 20:57
  Speaker: for your table.
• 20:58
  Speaker: And I know that you have an
• 20:59
  Speaker: interest also in looking for
• 21:00
  Speaker: vintage cookbooks when you go to
• 21:02
  Speaker: the stores.
• 21:04
  Speaker: Yes.
• 21:04
  Speaker: I definitely have a good collection of those.
• 21:06
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 21:07
  Speaker: And, um, I just love those cookbooks because I think
• 21:10
  Speaker: looking at the old cookbooks, you give you more room for
• 21:12
  Speaker: creativity in the sense that I can take this recipe and, you
• 21:15
  Speaker: know, make a change to it.
• 21:17
  Speaker: For instance, like the bacon wrapped cracker.
• 21:19
  Speaker: Um, I found the book and I took and made that into a cracker
• 21:22
  Speaker: BLT, BLT cracker.
• 21:24
  Speaker: And it, since I just added
• 21:25
  Speaker: tomatoes and mayo and put it on
• 21:27
  Speaker: there.
• 21:28
  Speaker: So just sort of seeing that recipe.
• 21:29
  Speaker: Oh, what can I do that to make it different?
• 21:31
  Speaker: Um, that's what I like about old books.
• 21:33
  Speaker: And you, the old books sort of tell a story about who actually
• 21:36
  Speaker: owned that book.
• 21:38
  Speaker: I had found this Creole book, I think it was called the The
• 21:42
  Speaker: Pickle Book Creole Food.
• 21:44
  Speaker: And this lady, she actually had written the dates of every city
• 21:48
  Speaker: she had lived in.
• 21:50
  Speaker: You know, she ended up in Orange County.
• 21:52
  Speaker: You know, where I'll be living in Orange County.
• 21:54
  Speaker: And then she had a bout with cancer.
• 21:56
  Speaker: And she had little notes about that in that book.
• 21:59
  Speaker: And then she also was telling,
• 22:01
  Speaker: uh, giving advice on how to
• 22:03
  Speaker: create flavors.
• 22:03
  Speaker: So I thought that was quite interesting.
• 22:06
  Speaker: Um, that she had that.
• 22:07
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 22:08
  Speaker: And it must have obviously been a cookbook.
• 22:09
  Speaker: She looked at a lot if there were different dates from
• 22:11
  Speaker: different years in her life.
• 22:13
  Speaker: Right.
• 22:13
  Speaker: Yeah, she's a I, I'm living here right now.
• 22:16
  Speaker: I'm living at this place right now.
• 22:18
  Speaker: And wherever she moved, she had that cookbook with her.
• 22:20
  Speaker: And I thought that was.
• 22:21
  Speaker: Wow, that was really amazing.
• 22:23
  Speaker: Um, how she told her story about writing those notes.
• 22:27
  Speaker: I thought it was really cool.
• 22:28
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 22:29
  Speaker: And I think it's kind of sad, though, when the.
• 22:31
  Speaker: I mean, maybe she might not have had any family that was left,
• 22:34
  Speaker: but people just get rid of them.
• 22:36
  Speaker: And then now it's in the hands of someone.
• 22:37
  Speaker: You didn't even know her.
• 22:38
  Speaker: But I guess you feel like you kind of have a peek into her
• 22:41
  Speaker: life by looking at her notes that were in the books.
• 22:43
  Speaker: Yes.
• 22:44
  Speaker: That's true.
• 22:45
  Speaker: And, and she also had a match
• 22:47
  Speaker: set from that same restaurant,
• 22:49
  Speaker: uh, whereas the matches had been
• 22:51
  Speaker: used.
• 22:51
  Speaker: And so it was in the, in the, in the book too, as a placeholder.
• 22:55
  Speaker: So I'm thinking she might have
• 22:56
  Speaker: went to New Orleans and went to
• 22:58
  Speaker: that particular restaurant and
• 22:59
  Speaker: bought the book and the matches
• 23:01
  Speaker: with her.
• 23:01
  Speaker: That's just my guess on that.
• 23:03
  Speaker: But I thought that somehow those
• 23:04
  Speaker: old cookbooks really tell a
• 23:05
  Speaker: story.
• 23:06
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 23:07
  Speaker: About how people lived.
• 23:08
  Speaker: And you can tell by the stains on the pages of the flour, uh,
• 23:11
  Speaker: what people cook mostly, or the notes they talk about.
• 23:15
  Speaker: You know, this was good.
• 23:17
  Speaker: Very good.
• 23:18
  Speaker: Don't try.
• 23:19
  Speaker: This needs a little bit more particular ingredient.
• 23:21
  Speaker: So it's like they're telling a
• 23:23
  Speaker: story about, you know, what
• 23:24
  Speaker: they're cooking.
• 23:25
  Speaker: So it's pretty I like that.
• 23:27
  Speaker: I bought a nineteen sixty four
• 23:29
  Speaker: edition of Joy of cooking many
• 23:30
  Speaker: years ago.
• 23:31
  Speaker: And spring.
• 23:32
  Speaker: The person that had that book took a pen to every single
• 23:37
  Speaker: recipe and they wrote things like try this one, not that one.
• 23:41
  Speaker: I mean, they ex threw things.
• 23:42
  Speaker: They drew threw things.
• 23:44
  Speaker: I mean, the whole book and I, I probably wouldn't have bought it
• 23:47
  Speaker: because there was so much writing in it, but it just
• 23:49
  Speaker: fascinated me how they put the notations for almost everything.
• 23:56
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 23:57
  Speaker: And it's almost like they were talking to the book, right?
• 24:03
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 24:03
  Speaker: With their pen.
• 24:04
  Speaker: But I think what's interesting
• 24:05
  Speaker: too, you know, you can see a
• 24:06
  Speaker: stain.
• 24:07
  Speaker: You can see like a chocolate
• 24:08
  Speaker: splash or a grease stain, but
• 24:10
  Speaker: the flour dust, that's actually
• 24:13
  Speaker: part of the ingredient that they
• 24:14
  Speaker: used.
• 24:15
  Speaker: Right?
• 24:16
  Speaker: Fill in the book.
• 24:17
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 24:18
  Speaker: And then you also can see what they did in use because if you
• 24:21
  Speaker: look at those.
• 24:21
  Speaker: But good.
• 24:22
  Speaker: You see, oh, this look like this
• 24:23
  Speaker: section of the book was never
• 24:24
  Speaker: touched, right?
• 24:25
  Speaker: It still looks new, you know, so
• 24:27
  Speaker: it's, uh, yeah, those cookbooks
• 24:29
  Speaker: sell a lot, give a lot of
• 24:30
  Speaker: history.
• 24:31
  Speaker: And so when I start talking
• 24:33
  Speaker: about, you know, when I'm
• 24:34
  Speaker: looking at writing southern
• 24:35
  Speaker: routes.
• 24:35
  Speaker: Um, you know, telling the
• 24:37
  Speaker: stories and the head notes was a
• 24:38
  Speaker: good idea.
• 24:38
  Speaker: Sort of my thought on how they wrote their book, wrote the
• 24:41
  Speaker: notes in the books.
• 24:43
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 24:43
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 24:43
  Speaker: So you took that and you brought that into your own book.
• 24:47
  Speaker: I think you mentioned that you,
• 24:49
  Speaker: um, you did a lot of writing for
• 24:52
  Speaker: southern routes.
• 24:52
  Speaker: It's not really it's not, it's
• 24:54
  Speaker: not just a collection of
• 24:55
  Speaker: recipes.
• 24:56
  Speaker: You wrote stories, you wrote head notes, you intersperse them
• 24:59
  Speaker: throughout the book.
• 25:00
  Speaker: Let's talk a little bit about writing for you.
• 25:04
  Speaker: Um, when you worked in the restaurant, were you doing a lot
• 25:07
  Speaker: of writing or did this become something that you did as a
• 25:12
  Speaker: result of just becoming an author for Southern Routes?
• 25:16
  Speaker: Well, I didn't do a lot of writing in the restaurant.
• 25:18
  Speaker: I did a lot of reading when I was in the restaurant.
• 25:21
  Speaker: Um, if I'm at the cashier station and if it's not busy, I
• 25:24
  Speaker: always had a book there.
• 25:25
  Speaker: My mama told me one time, you're
• 25:26
  Speaker: reading too much, you know, and
• 25:28
  Speaker: I knew she was not saying that,
• 25:29
  Speaker: you know, people coming in, you
• 25:31
  Speaker: got to make sure that, you know,
• 25:32
  Speaker: you look up, make sure people
• 25:34
  Speaker: know this.
• 25:34
  Speaker: But that was my way of just sort of, you know, being okay when
• 25:37
  Speaker: when it wasn't so busy.
• 25:39
  Speaker: But, you know, just seeing my mama and what she did and she
• 25:42
  Speaker: wrote the cookbook and, and I love to cook.
• 25:44
  Speaker: I said, wow, she showed me that I could do that.
• 25:47
  Speaker: But what I did was I started writing a book about
• 25:50
  Speaker: entertaining at home.
• 25:52
  Speaker: Had this manuscript completed, I submitted it to a publisher.
• 25:56
  Speaker: She said it wasn't marketable.
• 25:58
  Speaker: I went to an agent and she didn't have time.
• 26:02
  Speaker: It was too much work.
• 26:03
  Speaker: And so I went to a friend of mine, Marcy Faris, who wrote the
• 26:06
  Speaker: foreword for the book, and she looked at my stuff.
• 26:09
  Speaker: She said, I see what you're trying to do.
• 26:12
  Speaker: And she told me you need to write a memoir.
• 26:14
  Speaker: And I said, well, master, no one
• 26:15
  Speaker: wants to hear what I have to
• 26:16
  Speaker: say.
• 26:17
  Speaker: And she said, yes, they do.
• 26:18
  Speaker: They do want to hear it.
• 26:19
  Speaker: And so I said, I left that meeting feeling really good.
• 26:22
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 26:22
  Speaker: And I said, I can really do this.
• 26:24
  Speaker: And so when I sat down, I just start writing and looking at the
• 26:27
  Speaker: recipe I had created for the entertaining book, these stories
• 26:31
  Speaker: just start coming to mind, you know, because the recipes
• 26:33
  Speaker: already had a story.
• 26:35
  Speaker: And then I start creating other
• 26:36
  Speaker: recipes based on my memories to
• 26:39
  Speaker: sort of start flooding back to
• 26:40
  Speaker: me.
• 26:41
  Speaker: And when I'm writing, I don't set like a time, um, or, um,
• 26:46
  Speaker: outlines and all that.
• 26:48
  Speaker: Uh, that's just not how I work.
• 26:50
  Speaker: I try to do that, but it's just
• 26:52
  Speaker: not how I, um, I function as a
• 26:54
  Speaker: writer.
• 26:54
  Speaker: So just whenever I feel like it, that's when I start writing.
• 26:57
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
• 26:58
  Speaker: And you use pen and paper or computer.
• 27:01
  Speaker: Uh, I go to, I like paper first.
• 27:03
  Speaker: I start with paper and I go to computer.
• 27:05
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah, I agree about that too.
• 27:07
  Speaker: I keep a notebook in my kitchen,
• 27:09
  Speaker: write things down, and I always
• 27:11
  Speaker: start there.
• 27:12
  Speaker: What about your mom?
• 27:13
  Speaker: Did she use pen and paper at the
• 27:14
  Speaker: time too, when she was doing
• 27:15
  Speaker: hers?
• 27:16
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 27:16
  Speaker: So it was pen and paper.
• 27:17
  Speaker: Yes.
• 27:18
  Speaker: And then she, um, you know, got
• 27:19
  Speaker: some folks to type it out for
• 27:21
  Speaker: us.
• 27:21
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 27:21
  Speaker: Um, yeah.
• 27:23
  Speaker: Book publishing was different even in nineteen ninety nine
• 27:25
  Speaker: when she wrote her first book.
• 27:26
  Speaker: Um, so it really changed in
• 27:29
  Speaker: terms of the way that the book
• 27:31
  Speaker: is even sent to the publisher
• 27:33
  Speaker: and the way the pages are
• 27:34
  Speaker: created.
• 27:36
  Speaker: You know, everything.
• 27:37
  Speaker: Of course, digital and computerized now versus having
• 27:40
  Speaker: to be typed.
• 27:41
  Speaker: And then, you know, maybe a
• 27:42
  Speaker: manuscript mailed, a printed
• 27:44
  Speaker: manuscript mailed into the
• 27:45
  Speaker: publisher, right?
• 27:47
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 27:47
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 27:48
  Speaker: So you would, uh, what about there's people that listen to
• 27:51
  Speaker: this podcast that have a dream of writing a cookbook.
• 27:56
  Speaker: Uh, what would you tell them?
• 27:59
  Speaker: I would say write your cookbook
• 28:00
  Speaker: and, um, and be patient about
• 28:02
  Speaker: it.
• 28:03
  Speaker: And for me, uh, when I was
• 28:05
  Speaker: getting all those rejections, I
• 28:06
  Speaker: had to hold on to, I believe in
• 28:08
  Speaker: my projects.
• 28:09
  Speaker: I just hold on to it.
• 28:10
  Speaker: And then timing came, right.
• 28:12
  Speaker: But put people in my space that, you know, help me and mentor me,
• 28:15
  Speaker: um, through that stock process.
• 28:18
  Speaker: And so, yeah, just make sure you have a mentor, um, and just hang
• 28:23
  Speaker: on to your idea.
• 28:24
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 28:24
  Speaker: And make sure your recipes are delicious and creative and good.
• 28:27
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
• 28:28
  Speaker: because it does take time.
• 28:30
  Speaker: Uh, it's hard to hear a no and hard to get a rejection.
• 28:34
  Speaker: But if you do hang on to your idea and you love your idea and
• 28:37
  Speaker: you know you can do it, and you have someone on your side
• 28:40
  Speaker: telling you that it does really help a lot.
• 28:43
  Speaker: Yes it does.
• 28:44
  Speaker: I always hope through this
• 28:45
  Speaker: podcast, even if people don't
• 28:47
  Speaker: know me personally or they don't
• 28:49
  Speaker: know you personally, but that we
• 28:51
  Speaker: can encourage them through
• 28:53
  Speaker: talking about it that way to
• 28:54
  Speaker: them.
• 28:55
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 28:56
  Speaker: Yeah, it takes time, but you
• 28:57
  Speaker: know, you just gotta hang in
• 28:58
  Speaker: there.
• 28:58
  Speaker: And I talk about that in one of the stories in my book, uh, how
• 29:02
  Speaker: I encouraged by this plum tree, you know, and knowing that, you
• 29:06
  Speaker: know, if I keep going forward, I can do it, you know?
• 29:09
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 29:09
  Speaker: And my mom always used to say, you know, if you can do anything
• 29:11
  Speaker: you want to, as long as you put your mind to it.
• 29:13
  Speaker: That's right.
• 29:14
  Speaker: Because the plum tree doesn't grow overnight, right?
• 29:15
  Speaker: It starts as a little I mean, I'm even amazed that seeds start
• 29:21
  Speaker: for trees the same way they start for, like, a tomato plant.
• 29:24
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 29:25
  Speaker: Like, if you look at a plum tree that's Healthy and producing
• 29:28
  Speaker: fruit that it started in the very same way.
• 29:32
  Speaker: It always boggles my mind that
• 29:34
  Speaker: all that potential is just in
• 29:35
  Speaker: that seed to create a prolific
• 29:38
  Speaker: fruit tree.
• 29:39
  Speaker: It's an amazing thing.
• 29:40
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 29:41
  Speaker: And it's the same same for writers.
• 29:42
  Speaker: I mean, same for people.
• 29:43
  Speaker: There's always possibility if
• 29:45
  Speaker: someone else has done it, that
• 29:46
  Speaker: means that it's possible for you
• 29:48
  Speaker: too.
• 29:49
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 29:49
  Speaker: Yes, I agree with that.
• 29:51
  Speaker: I, um, I just love, um, I love reading and, and love writing
• 29:56
  Speaker: and I was just so happy to be able to put it out.
• 29:59
  Speaker: And mainly thing too is to be
• 30:00
  Speaker: able to, um, to tell a story
• 30:02
  Speaker: about my mom and our, um,
• 30:05
  Speaker: experience together and the
• 30:06
  Speaker: community of north south
• 30:07
  Speaker: community.
• 30:08
  Speaker: Um, that was really special to me to be able to do that and get
• 30:12
  Speaker: it out into the world.
• 30:13
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 30:13
  Speaker: And then the other side of the
• 30:15
  Speaker: writing, the cookbook is the
• 30:16
  Speaker: recipe part.
• 30:17
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 30:17
  Speaker: We're not just writing the stories, right?
• 30:19
  Speaker: We gotta write the recipes.
• 30:20
  Speaker: Let's talk a little bit about your, your recipe writing and
• 30:23
  Speaker: your philosophy about what a recipe is and the tips that you
• 30:27
  Speaker: have for writing good recipes.
• 30:30
  Speaker: So with the recipes.
• 30:31
  Speaker: You know, just looking at for me, I want to get get away from
• 30:34
  Speaker: the traditional southern cooking, mostly because that's
• 30:37
  Speaker: what my mom did.
• 30:37
  Speaker: She had two cookbooks, and so I had to figure out what flavors I
• 30:41
  Speaker: can add to a particular dish.
• 30:42
  Speaker: So I had to create something new.
• 30:44
  Speaker: And this is a book called The
• 30:46
  Speaker: Flavor Bible, which is really
• 30:47
  Speaker: good.
• 30:48
  Speaker: And I've, you know, I definitely
• 30:50
  Speaker: use that a lot to sort of figure
• 30:51
  Speaker: out, okay, you know, how can I
• 30:53
  Speaker: build the flavor on this
• 30:54
  Speaker: particular dish?
• 30:56
  Speaker: And, um, and then to, um, just
• 30:59
  Speaker: making sure that I stick to my
• 31:00
  Speaker: roots, um, stick to my southern
• 31:03
  Speaker: heritage and cooking because
• 31:04
  Speaker: when I tried to go outside of
• 31:05
  Speaker: that, um, it didn't work for me
• 31:08
  Speaker: without learning from my, from
• 31:09
  Speaker: my roots.
• 31:10
  Speaker: I remember the time I was
• 31:11
  Speaker: trying, trying to cook chicken
• 31:13
  Speaker: Kiev and, um, I took it to my
• 31:16
  Speaker: mom.
• 31:16
  Speaker: She said it was dry, you know,
• 31:18
  Speaker: and then I thought about it over
• 31:19
  Speaker: the years.
• 31:19
  Speaker: I said, you know what?
• 31:20
  Speaker: I'm out of fried chicken.
• 31:21
  Speaker: So I was so caught up in that fancy French name that I
• 31:24
  Speaker: thought, oh, this was a French piece of fried chicken.
• 31:28
  Speaker: So of course now I can cook it because I know what it is.
• 31:31
  Speaker: And, uh, and so, uh, just
• 31:33
  Speaker: looking to, you know what you
• 31:35
  Speaker: grew up learning to eat and, and
• 31:37
  Speaker: just cook until you get it
• 31:38
  Speaker: right.
• 31:38
  Speaker: You know, if I, you know, make a particular item and it didn't
• 31:42
  Speaker: come out right then I said, what can I do do to it different and
• 31:45
  Speaker: sometimes just let it go.
• 31:47
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 31:47
  Speaker: I know one of the recipes that I
• 31:49
  Speaker: was going to put in the book, it
• 31:51
  Speaker: was this, um, fried, um, hot
• 31:54
  Speaker: water cornbread.
• 31:55
  Speaker: And I put the corn in there and, uh, corn kernels in there.
• 31:59
  Speaker: And so I gave it to my friend to
• 32:00
  Speaker: test it and it was just popping
• 32:02
  Speaker: the corn.
• 32:03
  Speaker: Just pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.
• 32:04
  Speaker: And so she, she just, she said,
• 32:06
  Speaker: just, just pop it everywhere
• 32:08
  Speaker: with me.
• 32:08
  Speaker: It popped.
• 32:08
  Speaker: But, you know, I'm used to hot grease.
• 32:11
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 32:11
  Speaker: And so what I did, I took it and got rid of the corn and I put
• 32:14
  Speaker: the okra in instead.
• 32:15
  Speaker: So just trying to figure out how you can make that recipe work.
• 32:18
  Speaker: I want to keep the same base of the recipe, but just change one
• 32:22
  Speaker: ingredient and make it work.
• 32:23
  Speaker: And it didn't pop as much with the okra in it as it did with
• 32:26
  Speaker: the corn kernels, right?
• 32:27
  Speaker: Didn't pop it all with the okra because of course, you know, I
• 32:30
  Speaker: guess corn is like, you know, you get the heat in.
• 32:32
  Speaker: It's going to be like popcorn, you know?
• 32:34
  Speaker: So the air coming in, moisture and air going in there.
• 32:37
  Speaker: Well, that's a good testament to having people try your recipes
• 32:40
  Speaker: too, before you actually publish them, because they'll tell you
• 32:42
  Speaker: things that you never even experienced when you made them.
• 32:45
  Speaker: Just exactly like what you said.
• 32:47
  Speaker: You probably didn't think anything about the corn kernels
• 32:50
  Speaker: popping a little bit, but yeah, but somebody else is going to be
• 32:55
  Speaker: a disaster for somebody else.
• 32:56
  Speaker: Yeah, I get that.
• 32:57
  Speaker: When she said that, I sort of
• 32:58
  Speaker: saw how they would feel someone
• 32:59
  Speaker: else would feel about preparing
• 33:01
  Speaker: that recipe.
• 33:01
  Speaker: And I said, well, I can't do that.
• 33:03
  Speaker: Right.
• 33:04
  Speaker: Right.
• 33:04
  Speaker: So you talk about, um, a recipe being good enough talk.
• 33:08
  Speaker: Tell us what you mean by that.
• 33:11
  Speaker: Well, it's like you can for me.
• 33:13
  Speaker: I like to cook and I want to get
• 33:14
  Speaker: that, um, type taste when I, you
• 33:17
  Speaker: know, something would be good,
• 33:18
  Speaker: but you get something that's
• 33:19
  Speaker: really good.
• 33:20
  Speaker: Yes.
• 33:20
  Speaker: I mean, the first time I made scones, I made scones.
• 33:23
  Speaker: They were good scones.
• 33:24
  Speaker: And then I read.
• 33:25
  Speaker: I said, okay, the science of it
• 33:27
  Speaker: where if your butter is big
• 33:29
  Speaker: enough.
• 33:29
  Speaker: And then once you get into the
• 33:31
  Speaker: oven, it melts and create these
• 33:32
  Speaker: air pockets.
• 33:33
  Speaker: We create the flakiness.
• 33:35
  Speaker: And so I start making my butter bits larger.
• 33:37
  Speaker: And now my scones got off to them.
• 33:39
  Speaker: They're delicious.
• 33:40
  Speaker: You know they were good before.
• 33:42
  Speaker: Now they're really good.
• 33:44
  Speaker: And so, um, and just sort of testing stuff and making sure
• 33:47
  Speaker: that if you know what's good and you know what's great and so
• 33:50
  Speaker: stick to the great stuff.
• 33:51
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 33:51
  Speaker: That's right.
• 33:52
  Speaker: And I think with cookbooks in particular, people want to be
• 33:56
  Speaker: like, they want to make your recipe and think, that was
• 33:59
  Speaker: really, really good.
• 34:00
  Speaker: I'm going to make that again.
• 34:01
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 34:02
  Speaker: And that's how recipes, I think become part of people's, uh,
• 34:07
  Speaker: that's, that'll become the main page in the book, the part where
• 34:10
  Speaker: there's the flour, that's the part of your book that they'll
• 34:13
  Speaker: go back to, and then they'll come a time possibly where they
• 34:16
  Speaker: don't even need the book anymore to make that because they've
• 34:19
  Speaker: made it so many times.
• 34:20
  Speaker: Right?
• 34:21
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 34:21
  Speaker: It's um, I love how recipes that we put in our books.
• 34:25
  Speaker: We don't even really know when it becomes part of someone's
• 34:30
  Speaker: everyday repertoire, like something they can make without
• 34:33
  Speaker: even looking at our books.
• 34:34
  Speaker: It's incredible to think that that happens with something that
• 34:37
  Speaker: something that we write.
• 34:39
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 34:39
  Speaker: And just to see people, um,
• 34:41
  Speaker: that's going to actually make a
• 34:42
  Speaker: recipe.
• 34:42
  Speaker: I on my social media, one lady said, well, she made my
• 34:45
  Speaker: strawberry biscuit cake as an extra treat for her birthday.
• 34:48
  Speaker: And then someone else wrote that they're going to, um, they're
• 34:51
  Speaker: going to try out my, um, artichoke and spinach, um,
• 34:55
  Speaker: Groton over the weekend.
• 34:56
  Speaker: And then I went to one of my book events and this lady had my
• 35:00
  Speaker: book and she had about fifteen pieces of paper, you know,
• 35:03
  Speaker: marked out, I guess what she was going to try.
• 35:06
  Speaker: And I said, wow, that's pretty cool.
• 35:08
  Speaker: It's neat that she's looking
• 35:10
  Speaker: look at the book already and
• 35:11
  Speaker: decided, this is what I'm going
• 35:12
  Speaker: to try.
• 35:13
  Speaker: Yeah, she really dug into it.
• 35:14
  Speaker: So yeah, and I think that's how people are with cookbooks.
• 35:18
  Speaker: They don't necessarily like read them from cover to cover and
• 35:21
  Speaker: then put them away.
• 35:22
  Speaker: Uh, people study them and they decide what it is they are going
• 35:26
  Speaker: to cook or they read it.
• 35:28
  Speaker: They might read it cover to cover, but I love it when people
• 35:32
  Speaker: are planning already how they're going to use a book.
• 35:36
  Speaker: Got a funny story to tell you about Saint Patrick's Day.
• 35:38
  Speaker: You mentioned, uh, incorporating
• 35:40
  Speaker: and making a scone more like a
• 35:42
  Speaker: biscuit.
• 35:42
  Speaker: So it was more a little more flaky.
• 35:44
  Speaker: Buttery.
• 35:45
  Speaker: You, you took your biscuit
• 35:46
  Speaker: knowledge and applied it to
• 35:47
  Speaker: scones, right?
• 35:48
  Speaker: Yes.
• 35:48
  Speaker: Or Saint Patrick's Day.
• 35:50
  Speaker: We were having some friends over for dinner because my mom always
• 35:52
  Speaker: made corned beef and cabbage.
• 35:54
  Speaker: Um, and the friends I was having
• 35:56
  Speaker: over there, their mom never made
• 35:58
  Speaker: it.
• 35:58
  Speaker: Of course, my mom made it because her mom made it, and she
• 36:01
  Speaker: made it for us.
• 36:02
  Speaker: And I made it for my kids, but my friends had never had it.
• 36:04
  Speaker: So I said, I'm going to have them over for dinner.
• 36:06
  Speaker: And as I was getting ready to
• 36:07
  Speaker: mix up, you know, soda bread to
• 36:09
  Speaker: me is like a big it's like a big
• 36:10
  Speaker: biscuit.
• 36:11
  Speaker: It's like a big scone, but it's Irish instead of so I did.
• 36:15
  Speaker: It's funny you said that I did the same thing.
• 36:17
  Speaker: I put a little more butter in it and when I turned it down on the
• 36:20
  Speaker: counter, I folded it a few more times so that it was not quite
• 36:24
  Speaker: as just doughy.
• 36:25
  Speaker: It was a little bit more folded
• 36:27
  Speaker: and it was the best soda bread
• 36:29
  Speaker: ever.
• 36:30
  Speaker: But I took my experience with making biscuits and took it to
• 36:34
  Speaker: the soda bread.
• 36:35
  Speaker: And you took it to the scones.
• 36:37
  Speaker: But you can do that when you're developing and making recipes.
• 36:41
  Speaker: You can make it your own.
• 36:42
  Speaker: And, um, taking what you know
• 36:45
  Speaker: and making it just a little bit
• 36:47
  Speaker: better and a little bit, uh,
• 36:48
  Speaker: more delicious is what I like to
• 36:50
  Speaker: think.
• 36:51
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 36:51
  Speaker: It's true.
• 36:52
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 36:52
  Speaker: That's the fun part of cooking.
• 36:54
  Speaker: You know, just discovering.
• 36:55
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 36:56
  Speaker: So you put a hundred recipes in your book, Southern Roots.
• 37:00
  Speaker: Is that right?
• 37:01
  Speaker: Yes.
• 37:01
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 37:02
  Speaker: And, and tell us about the Northside community.
• 37:05
  Speaker: What about Northside community was so special for you?
• 37:10
  Speaker: It was, uh, back then.
• 37:12
  Speaker: It was like it was a community.
• 37:14
  Speaker: Um, it's no longer exist now.
• 37:15
  Speaker: It's just like you saw your next door neighbors every day.
• 37:19
  Speaker: You know, you played outside with the other kids.
• 37:22
  Speaker: Um, you went to neighbor's house for the apple and plum trees and
• 37:26
  Speaker: cherry trees, and it was just a very tight knit community.
• 37:31
  Speaker: Um, everybody sort of looked out for each other.
• 37:34
  Speaker: Um, the sound, the ice cream
• 37:35
  Speaker: truck coming down, everybody
• 37:36
  Speaker: running to the mom to get some
• 37:38
  Speaker: money.
• 37:38
  Speaker: Um, it was just a very, um,
• 37:41
  Speaker: tight knit community and a
• 37:43
  Speaker: loving community.
• 37:44
  Speaker: And the ladies always invited you into their kitchen.
• 37:47
  Speaker: You can just go to someone's house and just stand in the
• 37:49
  Speaker: kitchen and watch them cook.
• 37:50
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 37:51
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 37:51
  Speaker: And I just thought that was, that was really, uh, a fun time.
• 37:55
  Speaker: Yeah, I think it, um, it's a very special time.
• 37:59
  Speaker: And you wrote this book as a tribute to your mother and the
• 38:03
  Speaker: fifty years that you spent in the family business.
• 38:06
  Speaker: So let's talk a little bit about
• 38:08
  Speaker: this book and, uh, what's in the
• 38:12
  Speaker: book and what's special about
• 38:14
  Speaker: the book and what you want
• 38:15
  Speaker: people to know about southern
• 38:17
  Speaker: roots.
• 38:18
  Speaker: Okay, so I was asked by my editor, what do I want people to
• 38:22
  Speaker: do with my book?
• 38:23
  Speaker: And my answer was, I want them to read the stories.
• 38:27
  Speaker: I want them to look at the
• 38:28
  Speaker: beautiful pictures, and I want
• 38:29
  Speaker: them to get into the kitchen and
• 38:31
  Speaker: cook.
• 38:31
  Speaker: And with those one hundred
• 38:33
  Speaker: recipes, that's a modern take on
• 38:35
  Speaker: southern cooking.
• 38:36
  Speaker: And also I have like menus in the back, which you can create
• 38:40
  Speaker: your own particular menu and all the dishes and the silverware
• 38:46
  Speaker: and the tablecloths and napkins came from my collection, except
• 38:49
  Speaker: for one plum bowl.
• 38:51
  Speaker: Um, for my yoga bowl, a friend of mine let me borrow.
• 38:54
  Speaker: But it's just a wonderful book.
• 38:57
  Speaker: And the stories that I talk
• 38:59
  Speaker: about how I remembered, you
• 39:01
  Speaker: know, any time with my uncle in
• 39:02
  Speaker: the garden or my Uncle Jim
• 39:05
  Speaker: working at the Rathskellar, how
• 39:06
  Speaker: he spent time with us, and
• 39:08
  Speaker: especially my mama's kitchen,
• 39:09
  Speaker: and how, um, she invited us into
• 39:11
  Speaker: her kitchen to spend time with
• 39:13
  Speaker: us and learned that all recipes
• 39:15
  Speaker: sharing.
• 39:16
  Speaker: um, not even knowing that's what was going on.
• 39:19
  Speaker: And writing this book, I
• 39:21
  Speaker: realized, okay, so I was talking
• 39:23
  Speaker: about, you know, my mama sister,
• 39:25
  Speaker: how she learned to cook and then
• 39:26
  Speaker: how she showed us how we learned
• 39:28
  Speaker: to cook.
• 39:29
  Speaker: Um, when she was growing up on the Chatham County farm, she was
• 39:34
  Speaker: responsible for bringing the wood into the, um, into the,
• 39:37
  Speaker: into the house.
• 39:38
  Speaker: And so her going back and forth,
• 39:40
  Speaker: getting this wood and keeping
• 39:41
  Speaker: that fire going, you know, she
• 39:43
  Speaker: watched and tasted, uh, while
• 39:45
  Speaker: her sister cooked and a family
• 39:47
  Speaker: friend cooked.
• 39:48
  Speaker: And so it's just the fact that
• 39:50
  Speaker: she wanted to share that with us
• 39:51
  Speaker: as well.
• 39:52
  Speaker: Uh, it was really good that she did that.
• 39:55
  Speaker: I just can't imagine, um, you
• 39:58
  Speaker: know, not have been in the
• 39:59
  Speaker: kitchen with mom during those
• 40:00
  Speaker: times.
• 40:01
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 40:01
  Speaker: And when people tell me that they, uh, they don't know how to
• 40:04
  Speaker: cook, sometimes I say, huh?
• 40:05
  Speaker: You didn't go in the kitchen with your mom or or that.
• 40:09
  Speaker: I was just surprised with that.
• 40:10
  Speaker: For me, that was just second nature of being there.
• 40:13
  Speaker: We just love being there with her.
• 40:14
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 40:15
  Speaker: My mom, uh, we'd spend time in
• 40:17
  Speaker: the kitchen with her and then
• 40:18
  Speaker: also with her, her mother, my,
• 40:19
  Speaker: my grandmother.
• 40:20
  Speaker: And I don't know if it's because
• 40:21
  Speaker: we had a lot of kids, but I
• 40:22
  Speaker: always felt like when my mom was
• 40:24
  Speaker: in the kitchen, you know, she
• 40:25
  Speaker: was trying to get a meal on the
• 40:26
  Speaker: table.
• 40:27
  Speaker: Uh, she did it every day.
• 40:29
  Speaker: But I always felt like when we went with to my grandmother's
• 40:31
  Speaker: house, there was usually it was more one on one like me with her
• 40:35
  Speaker: rather than me with, like, you know, other sisters around.
• 40:38
  Speaker: And, um, plus my grandmother always remembered the things
• 40:42
  Speaker: that we like to eat.
• 40:43
  Speaker: So everybody would go over there
• 40:45
  Speaker: and she would just remember to
• 40:47
  Speaker: make.
• 40:48
  Speaker: She always made fried eggs for me, but she'd make something
• 40:51
  Speaker: else for my other sister.
• 40:52
  Speaker: So it's kind of, uh, very special to have those memories
• 40:56
  Speaker: in the kitchen with, um, your mom, grandma cooking with you or
• 41:02
  Speaker: for you, uh, and watching them and learning from them.
• 41:05
  Speaker: Um, really, truly amazing.
• 41:07
  Speaker: Now, what I want people to
• 41:08
  Speaker: understand about this book too,
• 41:10
  Speaker: is these recipes, like you
• 41:11
  Speaker: mentioned earlier, are not your
• 41:13
  Speaker: mom's recipes or recipes from
• 41:15
  Speaker: the cookbook from the
• 41:17
  Speaker: restaurant.
• 41:17
  Speaker: Necessarily, you're inspired by that, but these are new
• 41:20
  Speaker: creations that you created.
• 41:22
  Speaker: Yes, I, um, yeah, it's all my recipes.
• 41:25
  Speaker: Um, for instance, I take the chicken and gravy recipe that my
• 41:29
  Speaker: mom had at the restaurant and I added a sausage to that to
• 41:33
  Speaker: create my own.
• 41:34
  Speaker: So yeah, just take a little, um,
• 41:36
  Speaker: you know, modern take on that
• 41:38
  Speaker: particular dish.
• 41:38
  Speaker: But yeah, I created them all.
• 41:40
  Speaker: And, um, and I entertain a lot
• 41:42
  Speaker: at home, a lot of recipes is
• 41:44
  Speaker: what I prepared already for my
• 41:46
  Speaker: family.
• 41:47
  Speaker: Um, you know, during the holidays and for family and
• 41:50
  Speaker: friends at the table.
• 41:51
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 41:52
  Speaker: And you have everything from breakfast and brunch to snacks
• 41:55
  Speaker: and starters, soup and salad, vegetable sides, main dishes.
• 41:59
  Speaker: You also have a section called Holidays at Home.
• 42:02
  Speaker: Let's talk a little bit about, um, holidays for you.
• 42:06
  Speaker: And you wanted to talk about entertaining, um, in the books
• 42:09
  Speaker: that you thought you might want to write, but um, Uh, let's for
• 42:14
  Speaker: the holiday section.
• 42:15
  Speaker: Um, what holidays do you really like to cook for?
• 42:18
  Speaker: And what kinds of things do you like to make?
• 42:20
  Speaker: Maybe we can talk about, uh, we just had Easter.
• 42:23
  Speaker: Um, so what kinds of things come
• 42:25
  Speaker: to mind when you think about the
• 42:26
  Speaker: spring holidays?
• 42:29
  Speaker: Uh, the spring holidays?
• 42:31
  Speaker: Well, well, birthdays for me coming up was a birthday.
• 42:35
  Speaker: Let's talk about celebrating the birthday.
• 42:37
  Speaker: Okay.
• 42:38
  Speaker: And so it's like for me, it's for like for the holidays.
• 42:42
  Speaker: If you take Christmas, which is
• 42:43
  Speaker: gone and, you know, you set a
• 42:45
  Speaker: table, people have like the
• 42:46
  Speaker: silver and the gold and they'll
• 42:48
  Speaker: put it away for the rest of the
• 42:49
  Speaker: year.
• 42:49
  Speaker: My thing is bring that out for your birthday celebration.
• 42:52
  Speaker: You know, set that table.
• 42:53
  Speaker: You won't have the reds and the greens, but you can add some
• 42:56
  Speaker: pink or yellows to that, to that silver gold to sort of make it
• 43:00
  Speaker: pop. And as far as the recipes, actually, I just ended
• 43:05
  Speaker: entertained for some friends, uh, for our March birthdays.
• 43:09
  Speaker: And I had like the braised beef
• 43:10
  Speaker: short ribs or mashed potatoes
• 43:12
  Speaker: and turnips.
• 43:13
  Speaker: Yes.
• 43:13
  Speaker: And, um, and that was really good.
• 43:16
  Speaker: I just have that in the book.
• 43:17
  Speaker: So it was really good.
• 43:18
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 43:18
  Speaker: And that's one of the dishes
• 43:19
  Speaker: that, you know, remind me of my
• 43:21
  Speaker: mom.
• 43:22
  Speaker: And when the first time she saw that beef, those beef ribs in
• 43:25
  Speaker: front of me and I tasted it and yeah, I was in heaven.
• 43:28
  Speaker: So that's one of my comfort food items.
• 43:30
  Speaker: And so I brought her to the table on that day.
• 43:33
  Speaker: Yes.
• 43:34
  Speaker: Well, I also saw a recipe.
• 43:35
  Speaker: I know we did just have Easter,
• 43:36
  Speaker: but you have, um, a spiral ham
• 43:40
  Speaker: with a cornbread and pickle
• 43:43
  Speaker: crust.
• 43:43
  Speaker: You have got to tell me about that ham.
• 43:46
  Speaker: So I have saw in an old cookbook
• 43:49
  Speaker: where they had stuffed ham and,
• 43:51
  Speaker: you know, you say put incision
• 43:53
  Speaker: into the ham and you stuff the
• 43:54
  Speaker: pickle down in there and, and,
• 43:57
  Speaker: and bread.
• 43:57
  Speaker: And I was like, mm.
• 43:59
  Speaker: I said, let me just do something different.
• 44:01
  Speaker: I'm not going to stuff a ham.
• 44:02
  Speaker: So I took decided to put it on the coating of the ham instead.
• 44:06
  Speaker: So I just take and put mustard, uh, glaze on it.
• 44:09
  Speaker: And then I use that as a cohesive.
• 44:12
  Speaker: And then I put the pickles and the cornbread on top and to
• 44:15
  Speaker: toast that up.
• 44:17
  Speaker: But it was good.
• 44:18
  Speaker: Yeah, it's really good.
• 44:19
  Speaker: Really good.
• 44:20
  Speaker: It looks good.
• 44:21
  Speaker: It looks good.
• 44:22
  Speaker: The photos are nice.
• 44:23
  Speaker: Who did the photography for you?
• 44:25
  Speaker: Oh, yeah.
• 44:26
  Speaker: Anna, um, did the photographer.
• 44:28
  Speaker: She's an excellent photographer.
• 44:29
  Speaker: And she was just really excited about, um, you know, working
• 44:33
  Speaker: with me when I called her to, to do the work and she was leaving
• 44:37
  Speaker: out, um, to do, you know, talking about what we're going
• 44:41
  Speaker: to do next, you know, tomorrow we're going to do this and that.
• 44:44
  Speaker: It was she was just amazing.
• 44:46
  Speaker: Um, and to the point where we're going to go to the market and
• 44:48
  Speaker: take the pictures, I can just see the sun coming out.
• 44:51
  Speaker: Oh, she's, she's just very passionate about her work.
• 44:54
  Speaker: And, uh, she was a blessing to, to do the photo shoot for me.
• 44:57
  Speaker: Yeah, I think that, um, I think the photos for a cookbook are
• 45:01
  Speaker: more than just the photos.
• 45:02
  Speaker: There's a like people have a vision for what it's going to
• 45:05
  Speaker: all go together and look like they're able to make their
• 45:08
  Speaker: photography like, you know, bring the whole thing together.
• 45:11
  Speaker: And so it is a really, a lot of fun to work with a photographer.
• 45:15
  Speaker: So you mentioned the strawberry
• 45:17
  Speaker: biscuit cake is something that
• 45:18
  Speaker: someone said they were going to
• 45:20
  Speaker: make.
• 45:21
  Speaker: Why don't you tell us about the strawberry biscuit cake?
• 45:23
  Speaker: I think that sounds delicious.
• 45:25
  Speaker: So it's almost like a, it's a it's a strawberry sort of
• 45:29
  Speaker: shortcake, not shortcake, but it's the same that you have like
• 45:32
  Speaker: a strawberry shortcake with a biscuit, but it's going into the
• 45:35
  Speaker: pan and I'm putting a sauce over it to give it some extra
• 45:38
  Speaker: moisture and the strawberries and, um, and it's really good.
• 45:43
  Speaker: And it's like a cake that you actually like cut out rather
• 45:47
  Speaker: than take out the pan.
• 45:48
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 45:49
  Speaker: So yeah, that's really good.
• 45:50
  Speaker: Sounds great.
• 45:51
  Speaker: Now, you mentioned that you had
• 45:53
  Speaker: a lot of family working at the
• 45:55
  Speaker: restaurant, so you've been
• 45:56
  Speaker: spending a lot of time with your
• 45:58
  Speaker: extended family because of the
• 45:59
  Speaker: restaurant.
• 46:00
  Speaker: And one of the recipes I read
• 46:01
  Speaker: about somebody in the peanut rum
• 46:03
  Speaker: and coke recipe, um, in the
• 46:06
  Speaker: photo has the Coca-Cola bottle
• 46:08
  Speaker: and you can see peanuts in the
• 46:09
  Speaker: coke.
• 46:09
  Speaker: So tell us about this recipe, but also about the family member
• 46:13
  Speaker: that you were inspired by for this peanut rum and coke.
• 46:17
  Speaker: Yeah, that's my grandfather.
• 46:19
  Speaker: He was always on his porch,
• 46:21
  Speaker: especially in the summertime,
• 46:22
  Speaker: you know, drinking those peanuts
• 46:25
  Speaker: and coke, you know, just taking
• 46:26
  Speaker: empty or salted peanuts into the
• 46:28
  Speaker: coke and just just drink it
• 46:30
  Speaker: straight up.
• 46:30
  Speaker: My dad loved that, too.
• 46:31
  Speaker: I can just see him now just crunching on those peanuts.
• 46:34
  Speaker: But people from the people that aren't from the South might not
• 46:36
  Speaker: realize that that's what people would actually do.
• 46:38
  Speaker: They would take a bottle of coke
• 46:41
  Speaker: and pour the peanuts in the
• 46:42
  Speaker: coke.
• 46:43
  Speaker: Mhm.
• 46:44
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah, it was really good too.
• 46:45
  Speaker: You get that sweet and salty
• 46:46
  Speaker: flavors that they talk about
• 46:48
  Speaker: now.
• 46:49
  Speaker: And so I said, what can I do different again?
• 46:51
  Speaker: So I said, let me add some rum to the bottle.
• 46:52
  Speaker: So I think that would be a good thing to, you know, set up for a
• 46:55
  Speaker: party having a bottle of rum and you and your bottles of soda and
• 46:59
  Speaker: then your peanuts and just let people make their own.
• 47:02
  Speaker: I think that's a great idea.
• 47:04
  Speaker: It really is.
• 47:04
  Speaker: I'm going to have to give that a try sometime because we're
• 47:07
  Speaker: always looking for different things to do for a little fun
• 47:10
  Speaker: drink to have for a party.
• 47:12
  Speaker: And, um, the Chapel Hill cocktail.
• 47:14
  Speaker: You have a recipe, of course, for old fashioned lemonade.
• 47:18
  Speaker: Um, but this was created by your cousin Larry Williams.
• 47:21
  Speaker: Tell us about that.
• 47:23
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 47:23
  Speaker: My, um, my mom actually, um,
• 47:25
  Speaker: decided to open up a bar for a
• 47:26
  Speaker: little while.
• 47:26
  Speaker: I didn't last long at the restaurant.
• 47:28
  Speaker: And Larry, um, she sent him to bartending school, and so he
• 47:32
  Speaker: came up with that drink, the cocktail, and, uh, it's really,
• 47:36
  Speaker: really delicious drink.
• 47:37
  Speaker: And I use the homemade lemonade to make it.
• 47:39
  Speaker: You have the bourbon in there?
• 47:40
  Speaker: Um, and so it's a really good southern drink.
• 47:43
  Speaker: And it was very popular at Mama Dixon.
• 47:45
  Speaker: We were selling it too, but I think the Big Dipper was the
• 47:47
  Speaker: most popular one.
• 47:49
  Speaker: But tell us about that one.
• 47:50
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 47:51
  Speaker: Well, it's actually about five different like sweet type
• 47:54
  Speaker: liquors in it.
• 47:55
  Speaker: And, uh, we used to get folks come in and order five and six.
• 47:59
  Speaker: That's a group of people to order them.
• 48:01
  Speaker: So I had to learn how to, you know, make a bunch of drinks at
• 48:03
  Speaker: one time, multiple drinks.
• 48:04
  Speaker: And I was just lying the glasses up and just, you know, do a free
• 48:08
  Speaker: pour down the line to to make them up for them.
• 48:11
  Speaker: So the recipe that you put in the book serves six.
• 48:13
  Speaker: So you can mix up a larger batch
• 48:15
  Speaker: and then pour it into people's
• 48:17
  Speaker: glasses rather than mixing them
• 48:18
  Speaker: individually, right?
• 48:19
  Speaker: Yes.
• 48:20
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 48:21
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 48:21
  Speaker: You know, I bet it was interesting, though, to have a
• 48:24
  Speaker: restaurant that didn't have a bar and then decide to open a
• 48:27
  Speaker: bar in the restaurant.
• 48:28
  Speaker: It's a whole different thing to
• 48:30
  Speaker: have to serve alcohol, I would
• 48:31
  Speaker: believe.
• 48:32
  Speaker: Yeah, it was different.
• 48:33
  Speaker: And not only that, it brought longer hours to us.
• 48:36
  Speaker: You know, we were already working a lot.
• 48:38
  Speaker: And so you're going from closing at ten to closing at two o'clock
• 48:41
  Speaker: in the morning.
• 48:41
  Speaker: Oh yeah.
• 48:42
  Speaker: And so yeah, with that, we just didn't want to keep doing that.
• 48:45
  Speaker: So we just gave that up.
• 48:47
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 48:47
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 48:48
  Speaker: Yeah, I can see that.
• 48:49
  Speaker: I mean, because by the time two
• 48:50
  Speaker: in the morning rolls around,
• 48:51
  Speaker: you're closing.
• 48:53
  Speaker: I mean, you probably had to be back sometime before lunch to
• 48:55
  Speaker: get started, obviously with for the next day.
• 48:58
  Speaker: And that doesn't you don't want to be there all the time.
• 49:02
  Speaker: No, not all the time.
• 49:03
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 49:03
  Speaker: You want to be able to live your life a little.
• 49:06
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
• 49:07
  Speaker: Well, it's a beautiful new book.
• 49:09
  Speaker: Um, and I think the photos and
• 49:11
  Speaker: the way it looks and the
• 49:12
  Speaker: stories, it's, uh, it's it's
• 49:14
  Speaker: lovely.
• 49:15
  Speaker: So I know that people will
• 49:16
  Speaker: really enjoy not only using it,
• 49:18
  Speaker: but reading it and looking at it
• 49:20
  Speaker: as well.
• 49:22
  Speaker: Okay.
• 49:22
  Speaker: So cookbooks.
• 49:23
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 49:24
  Speaker: Cookbooks.
• 49:24
  Speaker: You love to talk about vintage cookbooks, your mother's
• 49:27
  Speaker: cookbooks, this cookbook.
• 49:28
  Speaker: But I think that people that love cookbooks, there's also
• 49:31
  Speaker: cookbooks that we use in our kitchens that inspired us.
• 49:35
  Speaker: So, um, what was a favorite cookbook of yours?
• 49:39
  Speaker: And I'm going to link to it in our show notes.
• 49:43
  Speaker: I have to say my mama cookbook of, of not just, of course,
• 49:46
  Speaker: because it's true.
• 49:47
  Speaker: It's my favorite cookbook because, um, it's the food I
• 49:49
  Speaker: grew up eating and it tells a story about my family, um, and
• 49:55
  Speaker: her family that that's documented and it's just, um,
• 49:59
  Speaker: yeah, traditional southern cooking that I love.
• 50:02
  Speaker: Yes, yes.
• 50:03
  Speaker: So which one When?
• 50:04
  Speaker: When you.
• 50:05
  Speaker: I think your mother wrote two.
• 50:06
  Speaker: So when you think about those
• 50:08
  Speaker: books, what are the differences
• 50:09
  Speaker: between the two cookbooks that
• 50:11
  Speaker: she wrote?
• 50:13
  Speaker: So the Mama Dips Kitchen
• 50:15
  Speaker: Cookbook was the first book that
• 50:16
  Speaker: she wrote, and it has the
• 50:17
  Speaker: traditional southern cooking
• 50:19
  Speaker: that she grew up going on the
• 50:20
  Speaker: farm.
• 50:21
  Speaker: Uh, she cooked growing up on the farm.
• 50:23
  Speaker: Okay.
• 50:23
  Speaker: And then the Mama Dips family cookbook.
• 50:25
  Speaker: It was more like maybe the seventies stuff when you start
• 50:30
  Speaker: using, um, pre-made ingredients, adding that to your recipes.
• 50:35
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 50:35
  Speaker: I'll tell you, for instance, she
• 50:36
  Speaker: has a recipe in Mama Dips
• 50:38
  Speaker: Kitchen where she has chicken
• 50:39
  Speaker: and dumplings.
• 50:40
  Speaker: So you make the dumplings from scratch.
• 50:42
  Speaker: But in the kitchen, Mama Dips family cookbook.
• 50:46
  Speaker: She has dumplings, but she uses flour tortilla.
• 50:48
  Speaker: Oh, and I said Mama flour tortilla.
• 50:52
  Speaker: And then she cooked it at a cooking demonstration once and
• 50:55
  Speaker: gave me some.
• 50:56
  Speaker: She said, see, I told you, you know, and it worked.
• 50:59
  Speaker: And I was like, wow.
• 51:00
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
• 51:01
  Speaker: So those sort of things like that.
• 51:03
  Speaker: But that wouldn't obviously have
• 51:04
  Speaker: been something that she, when
• 51:05
  Speaker: she was growing up on the farm
• 51:06
  Speaker: and cooking on the farm, she
• 51:08
  Speaker: wouldn't have used the flour
• 51:09
  Speaker: tortilla.
• 51:09
  Speaker: She just made them, like you said, from scratch.
• 51:11
  Speaker: Right.
• 51:12
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 51:12
  Speaker: She never that's.
• 51:13
  Speaker: She did that only for that recipe for the cookbook.
• 51:16
  Speaker: Interesting.
• 51:16
  Speaker: She's never cooked that at home
• 51:18
  Speaker: other than cooking
• 51:18
  Speaker: demonstrations.
• 51:19
  Speaker: She goes to the to the regular dumplings.
• 51:21
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 51:23
  Speaker: And I will link to both of those
• 51:24
  Speaker: in the show notes as well as
• 51:26
  Speaker: your book here, Southern Roots
• 51:28
  Speaker: Recipes and Stories from Mama
• 51:30
  Speaker: Dip's Daughter.
• 51:31
  Speaker: So you mentioned that your daughter has a restaurant also
• 51:34
  Speaker: or a bakery.
• 51:35
  Speaker: Is it in the same town?
• 51:36
  Speaker: It is here in Chapel Hill.
• 51:38
  Speaker: She has a restaurant, Tanya cookies and then Tanya's cafe.
• 51:43
  Speaker: And she started out with the bakery first, and then she span
• 51:46
  Speaker: it over to the restaurant.
• 51:47
  Speaker: She has southern cook food in there and also some sandwiches
• 51:50
  Speaker: and her cookies.
• 51:51
  Speaker: Tanya cookies were Oprah's favorite thing.
• 51:53
  Speaker: Um, and then she took and put my, uh, I take my mother's cream
• 51:58
  Speaker: cheese pound cake and one that again in twenty twenty four.
• 52:01
  Speaker: So. So she's really doing a great job with baking.
• 52:05
  Speaker: And, um, and being creative in her space of cooking.
• 52:09
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 52:10
  Speaker: She does a good job.
• 52:11
  Speaker: What's it like to watch your
• 52:12
  Speaker: daughter, uh, continue in the
• 52:14
  Speaker: restaurant business?
• 52:15
  Speaker: I think it's great, I think, to see her, um, carry on mama
• 52:18
  Speaker: legacy and just really want to, you know, to do that, you know,
• 52:22
  Speaker: to honor mama and as well, that's she said, that's what I
• 52:25
  Speaker: know, you know, people don't want to do something.
• 52:27
  Speaker: This is what I know, I know
• 52:28
  Speaker: food, I know cooking, I know
• 52:30
  Speaker: restaurant.
• 52:31
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 52:31
  Speaker: Right.
• 52:31
  Speaker: That's true.
• 52:32
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 52:32
  Speaker: Well that's wonderful.
• 52:33
  Speaker: So continuing the legacy.
• 52:35
  Speaker: Well, it's been a joy to talk to.
• 52:37
  Speaker: You hear all about your book and your experience at Mama Dip
• 52:41
  Speaker: University, but why don't you tell everybody how they can
• 52:43
  Speaker: connect with you online?
• 52:47
  Speaker: On Instagram or Facebook?
• 52:49
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 52:49
  Speaker: Well, my website is Spring Council dot me and my Substack
• 52:54
  Speaker: is the Collected Life.
• 52:55
  Speaker: Uh, Instagram is spring dot council and my Facebook is
• 53:00
  Speaker: spring dot that council as well.
• 53:02
  Speaker: Okay, great.
• 53:03
  Speaker: So tell me, what's it like to do?
• 53:05
  Speaker: So you do a Substack newsletter.
• 53:08
  Speaker: What's it like?
• 53:09
  Speaker: Would you like do you like?
• 53:10
  Speaker: You doing Substack?
• 53:11
  Speaker: I do, I do.
• 53:12
  Speaker: I was surprised, you know.
• 53:13
  Speaker: I was doing a blog.
• 53:15
  Speaker: First and then the blog was not getting much attention.
• 53:17
  Speaker: And then I said, you know, blog is kind of hard.
• 53:20
  Speaker: You have to write more.
• 53:20
  Speaker: So let me go to Substack, people
• 53:22
  Speaker: talking about Substack and it's
• 53:23
  Speaker: more shorter articles and I'm
• 53:25
  Speaker: getting more, um, interest in my
• 53:28
  Speaker: Substack.
• 53:29
  Speaker: Uh, so it's really growing and doing good.
• 53:32
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 53:32
  Speaker: That's great.
• 53:33
  Speaker: Very good.
• 53:33
  Speaker: I think it's great.
• 53:34
  Speaker: I have a lot of, I think it's a great space for people to write
• 53:37
  Speaker: about food and cooking and memories, whatever it is you
• 53:40
  Speaker: want to write about.
• 53:41
  Speaker: I often tell people it's a if
• 53:44
  Speaker: you're trying to find your voice
• 53:45
  Speaker: or you're trying to write more,
• 53:46
  Speaker: I think it's a great place to
• 53:48
  Speaker: turn to.
• 53:49
  Speaker: And, um, I love hearing that.
• 53:51
  Speaker: I love hearing that you're using that.
• 53:53
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah.
• 53:54
  Speaker: And so yeah, I use, uh, talk about, um, you know, you know,
• 53:58
  Speaker: some recipes and have some recipes on there.
• 54:01
  Speaker: And then my collection of tableware.
• 54:05
  Speaker: So I want to talk about table settings and showing people how
• 54:09
  Speaker: to mix patterns and things.
• 54:10
  Speaker: Right now on my table, I have this really busy table.
• 54:14
  Speaker: Actually, it's fabric.
• 54:15
  Speaker: I bulk of fabric I found at a thrift store.
• 54:17
  Speaker: So I have like these five napkins laid out, decide on
• 54:21
  Speaker: which napkins I was going to use to set that table.
• 54:24
  Speaker: And so I was just sort of give people an idea, you know, when
• 54:26
  Speaker: I'm trying to create a table setting, you know, this is a
• 54:29
  Speaker: process I go through.
• 54:30
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah, I love that you do that.
• 54:32
  Speaker: I like to set the table.
• 54:34
  Speaker: But I don't know that I, I think
• 54:35
  Speaker: it's a fascinating when people
• 54:37
  Speaker: have, uh, the choices of the
• 54:40
  Speaker: dishware and the napkins and the
• 54:43
  Speaker: settings.
• 54:43
  Speaker: And I think it's a, it's a wonderful thing to do.
• 54:46
  Speaker: And I'm sure your guests enjoy it when they come over.
• 54:49
  Speaker: Yeah, they do, they do.
• 54:50
  Speaker: Especially you put out little dainty little coffee cup.
• 54:53
  Speaker: They really like that.
• 54:56
  Speaker: They really feel special.
• 54:57
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 54:57
  Speaker: We're used to using a big mug, I guess, huh?
• 54:59
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah, but it's all, you
• 55:01
  Speaker: know, all my thrift shop finds,
• 55:03
  Speaker: I just.
• 55:03
  Speaker: You're talking about going to
• 55:04
  Speaker: different cities no matter where
• 55:05
  Speaker: I go.
• 55:06
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 55:06
  Speaker: If I see a thrift shop, I'm going to make a u turn.
• 55:09
  Speaker: If I see a state sale, I'm going to make a u turn.
• 55:12
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 55:12
  Speaker: Um, but I found this interesting piece I'm gonna post about.
• 55:15
  Speaker: It was like a, it's like a big ornament go ornament.
• 55:19
  Speaker: And I said, what is this?
• 55:21
  Speaker: You know, is it?
• 55:22
  Speaker: I couldn't figure it out because I had a mirror in the lid.
• 55:25
  Speaker: And, um, and so I said, well, let me find out.
• 55:27
  Speaker: So I googled and found out it's a individual ice bucket.
• 55:31
  Speaker: Oh, wow.
• 55:31
  Speaker: Individual individual ice bucket.
• 55:34
  Speaker: And I'm going to do a subset post about that.
• 55:38
  Speaker: And it has all these different components to it.
• 55:41
  Speaker: And I also went to the church thrift shop about three weeks
• 55:44
  Speaker: ago, opened up this case and it was a traveling, um, bar.
• 55:51
  Speaker: And, and so I got all these components in that.
• 55:54
  Speaker: So these are the kind of things I want to be sharing on my
• 55:56
  Speaker: Substack, those vintage things.
• 55:58
  Speaker: And also, um, you know, how to
• 56:00
  Speaker: set tables and recipes and stuff
• 56:01
  Speaker: like that.
• 56:02
  Speaker: So I guess if you're going on a car trip or a picnic or you're
• 56:04
  Speaker: going to a hotel, you take your traveling bar with you.
• 56:07
  Speaker: Yes, I use some sometime.
• 56:09
  Speaker: My friend said, you bring some cocktails with you, so come on
• 56:13
  Speaker: over with your traveling bar.
• 56:15
  Speaker: Right.
• 56:16
  Speaker: You know, um, yeah, I think
• 56:18
  Speaker: it's, it's it's fascinating that
• 56:20
  Speaker: to think that everybody at the
• 56:21
  Speaker: table could have their own ice
• 56:22
  Speaker: bucket.
• 56:24
  Speaker: Uh, yeah, that's pretty cool.
• 56:25
  Speaker: I wish I could find some more of those, but yeah.
• 56:28
  Speaker: Um, yeah, I said, wow.
• 56:29
  Speaker: I said, what is this thing?
• 56:31
  Speaker: You know, it has a lot of little
• 56:32
  Speaker: things going to it, um, as well
• 56:34
  Speaker: actually, if you sort of open up
• 56:36
  Speaker: the, take the top off from the
• 56:39
  Speaker: gold, you open up has another
• 56:41
  Speaker: little lid and there's a mirror
• 56:43
  Speaker: there.
• 56:43
  Speaker: And I was like, that's like, what is this?
• 56:45
  Speaker: What the mirror does is if you're far away, you can open a
• 56:48
  Speaker: mirror and see how much ice you still have in.
• 56:50
  Speaker: Oh, I see, and it also reflects, um, down on the ice.
• 56:55
  Speaker: The ice cold.
• 56:57
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 56:58
  Speaker: So I thought that was quite interesting.
• 57:00
  Speaker: That was a good find.
• 57:01
  Speaker: That is a good find.
• 57:02
  Speaker: What do you like better?
• 57:02
  Speaker: Estate sales or vintage stores?
• 57:06
  Speaker: Um, well, thrift shops are my
• 57:08
  Speaker: favorite because I can go all
• 57:09
  Speaker: the time.
• 57:10
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 57:10
  Speaker: Um, estate sales, I love those too.
• 57:12
  Speaker: But you've, I, I have more luck, I guess, at these thrift stores.
• 57:18
  Speaker: Gotta go often, but I have found
• 57:19
  Speaker: some good things at estate
• 57:20
  Speaker: sales.
• 57:21
  Speaker: Estate sales be a little bit more pricier than thrift stores.
• 57:24
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 57:24
  Speaker: Um, but yeah, I like thrift shopping.
• 57:27
  Speaker: I guess the thrift stores too.
• 57:28
  Speaker: If there's some that you regularly go to, you know,
• 57:31
  Speaker: what's there and if you see something new pop up, you know
• 57:33
  Speaker: that it's new, right?
• 57:34
  Speaker: You maybe I haven't seen this here before, or maybe there's a
• 57:37
  Speaker: new booth or a new vendor, um, carrying different things.
• 57:42
  Speaker: Well, yeah, with the thrift stores, um, here in Chapel Hill,
• 57:44
  Speaker: you pretty much, uh, if I go, you know, you can say, well,
• 57:47
  Speaker: this, this, um, coffee set has been there for a while or.
• 57:51
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 57:51
  Speaker: Oh, somebody got there.
• 57:52
  Speaker: That was the other day and I was going to get one of the cannon
• 57:54
  Speaker: dishes I was talking about earlier and I said, well, you
• 57:57
  Speaker: know, I got my hands full.
• 57:58
  Speaker: I come back to it.
• 57:58
  Speaker: So I'm over there looking at the
• 58:00
  Speaker: jury and this lady at the
• 58:01
  Speaker: checkout with my oh, she bought
• 58:03
  Speaker: it.
• 58:04
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 58:04
  Speaker: She bought it with something else, you know, and I was like,
• 58:07
  Speaker: you know, and I told her the story about it.
• 58:08
  Speaker: She was, I think she thought I was asking her to give it to me.
• 58:11
  Speaker: I wasn't yeah, just telling her how you used them.
• 58:14
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 58:15
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 58:15
  Speaker: But it was um, but that was, that was a fun moment.
• 58:18
  Speaker: And I always tell myself and tell other people, never let
• 58:22
  Speaker: something stay there.
• 58:23
  Speaker: You get it right then.
• 58:24
  Speaker: And I did the total opposite.
• 58:26
  Speaker: But yeah, I love I love the
• 58:28
  Speaker: thrift stores and I need to stay
• 58:29
  Speaker: out.
• 58:30
  Speaker: You walked, you walked away from
• 58:32
  Speaker: it and someone else picked it
• 58:33
  Speaker: up.
• 58:34
  Speaker: That's right.
• 58:34
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 58:35
  Speaker: Got it.
• 58:35
  Speaker: Go ahead on and get it.
• 58:36
  Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 58:37
  Speaker: Well, my mom and dad, when they would, uh, come to visit, they
• 58:41
  Speaker: always wanted to.
• 58:42
  Speaker: They liked it because they could
• 58:43
  Speaker: give them things to do when they
• 58:44
  Speaker: stopped in a town if they were
• 58:46
  Speaker: traveling or on the road
• 58:47
  Speaker: somewhere, they, they always
• 58:48
  Speaker: enjoyed that.
• 58:49
  Speaker: So it's wonderful.
• 58:50
  Speaker: Well, I'm gonna have to check your Substack out.
• 58:53
  Speaker: And what's it called?
• 58:53
  Speaker: The collect.
• 58:54
  Speaker: What did you say?
• 58:55
  Speaker: The name of Collected life.
• 58:56
  Speaker: Yes.
• 58:57
  Speaker: Spring Council, the collected life.
• 58:59
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 58:59
  Speaker: Nice.
• 58:59
  Speaker: Very good.
• 59:00
  Speaker: Alright.
• 59:01
  Speaker: Well, it's been a pleasure to have you on the show.
• 59:04
  Speaker: Um, have fun meeting all your cookbook people with their notes
• 59:08
  Speaker: in the book about what they're going to cook.
• 59:09
  Speaker: And, uh, wish you nothing but success.
• 59:12
  Speaker: Uh, thank you so much with your book.
• 59:14
  Speaker: Uh, southern roots.
• 59:16
  Speaker: Uh, and I did want to, um, if I can do, get a shout out to my
• 59:19
  Speaker: photographer because I didn't see her name.
• 59:20
  Speaker: Right.
• 59:21
  Speaker: Sure.
• 59:21
  Speaker: Anna Barzini is my photographer.
• 59:24
  Speaker: She's right here in Chapel Hill.
• 59:25
  Speaker: Nice.
• 59:26
  Speaker: Very good.
• 59:26
  Speaker: So she was close by when you were working with her.
• 59:29
  Speaker: And, uh, sounds like you developed quite a relationship,
• 59:32
  Speaker: and you got a nice photographer that brought your book to life.
• 59:35
  Speaker: She really did a great job.
• 59:36
  Speaker: Yes, she did.
• 59:37
  Speaker: She did a wonderful job.
• 59:38
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 59:39
  Speaker: Very good.
• 59:40
  Speaker: Well, I hope you have a good time promoting your book.
• 59:44
  Speaker: Thanks again for coming on the show.
• 59:45
  Speaker: Okay.
• 59:46
  Speaker: Thank you for having me.
• 59:47
  Speaker: It's been fun.
• 59:48
  Speaker: Yep.
• 59:48
  Speaker: Thank you.
• 59:49
  Speaker: Thank you so much for joining us today for this episode of the
• 59:52
  Speaker: cookbook Love podcast.
• 59:54
  Speaker: Again, all the links can be found in the show notes at WW.
• 59:59
  Speaker: And if you are interested in writing a cookbook of your own,
• 1:00:03
  Speaker: please check out the free.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker: Cookbook writing masterclass
• 1:00:06
  Speaker: called How to Get Paid to Write
• 1:00:08
  Speaker: a Cookbook.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker: It is designed.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker: Specifically for food or
• 1:00:12
  Speaker: nutrition experts and you can
• 1:00:14
  Speaker: check that out at WW w Cookbook
• 1:00:17
  Speaker: Writers Academy.com.
• 1:00:21
  Speaker: So that's it for today's episode of the Cookbook Love Podcast.
• 1:00:24
  Speaker: This is your host, Maggie Green.
• 1:00:26
  Speaker: And until next time, have a
• 1:00:27
  Speaker: great day and keep loving your
• 1:00:29
  Speaker: cookbooks.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker: Thanks for listening to the Cookbook Love Podcast.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker: You can find out more information at WW dot.