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Cooking With My Friends, 206 pages and more
than 400 recipes of the very best of southern cooking. $15.00.
This book may be
obtained from your favorite local bookstore, from on-line vendors such
as Powell's,
or you may order directly from the publisher.
LaVece's Home Page
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Though the distinction is a
subtle one, LaVece Hughes' book, Cooking With My
Friends---Kentucky Recipes Tried and True, is as much about cooking
with friends as it is about cooking with
friends. Though it is a cookbook and contains an abundance of wonderful recipes,
it is equally concerned with the affinity that can be shared by those who
prepare food and serve it to those whom they love. Ms. Hughes makes the case that no extraordinary skill is
required in consulting recipes and putting together dishes, delectable
though they may be. But doing this in the company of others (whether
seen or unseen)--ah, that transcends mere skill; that partakes
of something akin to holiness. So the author depicts the cook as a kind
of high priestess of the kitchen whose culinary ability is meant to
serve the well-being of family members and cherished friends as a priest
would serve communion to parishioners.
And indeed to eat one of LaVece Hughes' meals in
front of a crackling fire on a winter day is to be convinced of the
aptness of her thinking. Preparing meals is, to her, not about merely
providing a virtual hymnology of food; it speaks to the various kinds of
satisfaction inherent in sharing good food with the people one holds
dear. So while the book has a multitude of recipes for some marvelous
dishes, it also celebrates the little-considered role of food in human
relationships--and the people who prepare it.
—
Charles Semones
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Few of the recipes that we use are
truly our own. Most are gifts—the most treasured being those we
receive from friends penciled on crumpled pieces of napkin, or 3 x 5
cards, dog-eared and grease-stained. Others we have gleaned from
favorite books, newspaper columns or magazines, and carried in our
pockets or purses until nearly illegible before having the opportunity
to add them to our kitchen files. We gratefully accept these gifts,
enhance them with our own special touches and embellishments, and pass
them on as our own, as gifts to those we love, or whose friendship we
value. It is with heart-felt appreciation and gratitude for my
friends and family that I now pass on these recipes, precious to me, as
gifts to my family, friends, and the readers of this book.
— LaVece Hughes
Wind
Publications
600 Overbrook Drive
Nicholasville, KY 40356
Orders to the publisher must include $2.00 shipping and 6% sales tax for
Kentucky residents.
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From
the book :
Blackberry Cobbler
LaVece Hughes from Kate Ganter
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Crust:
3 cups flour
12 T shortening
6 T water
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Cobbler:
2 qt blackberries
3 c sugar
3 T flour
½ c water
4 T butter
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Place blackberries in a large pan. Pour 3 T flour, 3 cups
sugar, and ½ cup water over the berries, gently stirring to mix
in flour. While preparing crust, heat berries just to a boil on
medium high heat.
In a mixing bowl, cut shortening into flour and add water.
Mix dough thoroughly. Flour wax paper and roll dough out between
two sheets into a rectangle about 12 x 20 inches. Use extra
flour to prevent crust from sticking to wax paper. Remove wax
paper from one side of crust and turn over into the bottom
corner of a 13 x 9 inch Pyrex dish, leaving the rest of the
crust hanging over the edge of the other side. Remove wax
paper.
After berries have just come to a boil, pour over the crust
in the Pyrex dish and dot with about 4 T butter. Flip the rest
of the crust over the top of the berries and tuck into the
opposite side. Sprinkle sugar over the top. Bake for 35 minutes
at 375 degrees.
This is the "old time" way of making blackberry
cobbler is passed down from my Grandmother Lelia Dickinson. It
makes lots of juice.
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