Lisa Ks Book Reviews

Thursday, July 5, 2018

What's Cooking?

A little bit of this, and a little bit of that!

🍽🍽🍽🍽🍽🍽🍽

I'm a big fan of bite sized food.

This cookbook was a must read for me!

This cookbook is dedicated to the truth that southerners are just as skilled and generous with the snack as they are with their bounteous, overflowing meals. In seventy-seven recipes that range from classic to contemporary, Perre Coleman Magness embraces the southern approach to snacking, including all the small bites you'll need for any event, whether a football game, a party, or, if things are looking down, a funeral. Many of the recipes are inspired by southern community cookbooks, home cooks, and chefs who put new twists on southern flavors.

Highlighting local ingredients and traditional techniques, these snacks—from Fried Dill Pickles with Delta Comeback Sauce to Louisiana's Natchitoches Meat Pies and Charleston's Benne Wafers—shine a light on the diversity of regionally distinct southern cuisine. The contemporary recipes work ingeniously with familiar southern ingredients, from Field Pea Hummus and Country Ham Pate to Smoked Catfish Spread and Sweet Tea Pecans. The recipes are enriched with delightful stories and lore, along with thirty-six lush color photographs. Getting together with friends and family? You will never arrive empty-handed again.

🍽🍽🍽🍽🍽🍽🍽

My Review

I love appetizers and hor d’oeuvres. They’re my favorite part of a holiday meal or going out to eat. I could make a meal out of them. And sometimes at home, I do. So, I was thrilled to find SOUTHERN SNACKS.

The first thing I did when I opened this book was look at all the photos. Sadly, there isn’t a photo for every recipe (that’s my hang-up), but the photos that are included made my stomach growl, my mouth water, and my grocery bill go up.

Throughout chapters for Dips and Spreads, Cheese, Deep-Fried morsels, Seafood, Meat, Veggies, Nuts, and Crackers and Biscuits, author Perre Coleman Magness also includes little notes about her life, family, and the southern food that she grew up with. My favorite story is Gas Station Peanut Brittle. It made me smile, and sad at the same time, because I could completely relate with how the author felt.

Recipes range from simple to elegant, so there’s something for every gathering. Your guests will rave over each platter full of these culinary creations . . . Mississippi Sin, Deviled Egg Spread, Traditional Cheese Straws (yum), Williamsburg Cheese Biscuits, Country Ham Cheesecake, Comeback Sauce, Fried Grits with Tomato-Bacon Jam, Crab Cake Bites with Artichoke Tartar Sauce, Petite Crawfish Pies, Beef Tenderloin with Blue Cheese Biscuits and Green Onion Butter, Bama Wings with White Sauce, Party Tomato Pies, Dilly Beans, Sweet Tea Pecans, Nuts and Bolts, Cornbread Thins, Cocktails Biscuits, and more!

I’ll be going back and checking out this author’s other cookbooks. If they’re anything like SOUTHERN SNACKS, they’ll be wonderful additions to my cookbook library.

A note to author Perre Coleman Magness. Ma’am, as wonderful as your recipes are, so too are your reminiscences of your life. What a wonderful book your memories alone would make.