American

This mildly seasoned fish with its medley of Creole veggies is wonderful over steamed brown rice.

Such a simple meal and such a great taste! The fresh and tangy blend is wonderful by itself or with whatever additions you have on hand. Check your refrigerator for tomatoes, bell peppers, chiles, or corn to add to this versatile salad.

Here’s a new twist on chicken salad. Serve this one with baked tortilla chips on lettuce-lined plates, garnished with jalapeño rings.

Buttermilk heightens the flavors of the fruit in this kid- and adult-pleasing salad or dessert.

Simple to prepare, this chowder has a rich flavor and an interesting texture that make it enormously satisfying. For a delectable light dinner, serve it with a crisp salad and follow with fruit for dessert.

When you go to the grocery store looking for fat-free hot fudge, be sure to flip the jar and look at the nutrition label even if the front doesn’t say it’s fat-free. Several common brands don’t brag about being fat-free, but they are. The store brand at my local grocery store is one of them, so you might want to check at yours. Feel free to microwave these for a few seconds after you spread each side but before assembling. You’ll end up with an even gooier treat!

Gina: This is Pat’s “feel like a king” dish, and if you are married to a meat-and-potatoes man like I am, this dish will make him feel—you guessed it, girl—like a king. The secret to this sauce is two ingredients: bacon and beer. There isn’t a man anywhere in Memphis who would turn up his nose at a steak lacquered with both of those. We like to serve this steak sliced on the diagonal, with plenty of extra sauce on the side. When Pat takes a bite of this and gives me one of his sly winks, honey, I know it’s a slam dunk!

Pat: In Memphis, barbecued meats are ordered either “dry” or “wet. “Dry” meats are coated with a dry spice rub before they’re cooked, and often sprinkled with those seasonings when they come off the grill. “Wet” meats are slathered with barbecue sauce. Folks who crave a double dose of flavor, like me, order foods “wet and dry,” meaning that the meat is sprinkled with dry rub before being cooked, then slathered with sauce afterward. This Memphis pit tradition has found its way into the repertoire of home cooks as well. The application of a dry rub works for meats cooked on the grill or, as our mothers are fond of doing, in the oven. In this recipe, we douse our chicken with a dry rub and then bake it in barbecue sauce. The result is moist, flavorful, falling-off-the-bone tender chicken. We serve this saucy chicken with steamed rice or hot buttered rolls to soak up all the tomatoey goodness, and the accompanying vegetables on the side. It’s no wonder the Neely boys became so good with the grill when Momma was feeding us dishes like this from her kitchen oven.

Pat: All it takes is a spoon and a wedge of warm buttered cornbread to turn these sweet Southern baked beans, made with chunks of chopped pork, into a meal. Tangy baked beans are a Memphis trademark—we serve them sweeter than other regions around the country do. At our restaurants and at home, we flavor the beans with molasses, brown sugar, and our famous Neely’s Barbecue Sauce—as well as plenty of chopped pork. The hickory flavor from chunks of smoked pork gives this dish some toothy tang.

Because the berries are simmered whole and not strained, this sauce has a chunky texture.

You can use regular lemonade to make this Southern refresher, but we like to use the tart Italian Limonata made by San Pellegrino (it’s available in most grocery stores).

The grand lobby of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis is called “the living room of the South,” for good reason. It’s the best spot in town to sink into a comfy lounge chair, sip a cocktail, and watch people, or the occasional parade of ducks, come and go. Their bracing mint julep is justifiably famous.

Gina: I don’t know if any of you have an appetizer before breakfast, but that’s what we sometimes do in our house, and it sure is fun. ’Course, when we do, the only appetizer we make is Nana’s Caramel Pecan Rolls. Nana was my godmother, who lived across the street from us while we were growing up. Nana is one of the best cooks in our family, and one of our most cherished matriarchs. She took care of me from the time I was six months old until I started school. Later, Nana took care of Shelbi when she was a baby. Nana always made the best caramel pecan rolls, and when we didn’t want to make them ourselves, we’d call her and request a batch for a special Sunday breakfast. After making these, you’ll know why.

Pat: Momma Daisy served these biscuits every Sunday with homemade preserves, scrambled eggs, and bacon. There would also be sorghum molasses, for drizzling over the warm buttered biscuits, whenever she could get some from her uncles in the country. Momma Daisy made everything from scratch back in those days, because it was the most economical way, there weren’t a lot of prepared mixes, and that’s simply how things were done. These biscuits were always mixed by hand, and my mother, Lorine, remembers seeing Momma Daisy work and work and work that dough with her very capable fingers. Some biscuit recipes scare you away from overmixing the dough, but in this recipe that’s how the flaky layers are created. Momma Daisy always used lard for these biscuits, but these days my momma uses a combination of butter and vegetable shortening—feel free to use either. The latter is better for you, but the former creates the fluffiest biscuits around.

Pat: There was a time after college when my brother Gaelin lived with Momma Daisy, and I think he moved in just so he could enjoy this dessert on a regular basis. I can’t blame him: Momma Daisy’s Banana Pudding is a Neely family favorite. In her recipe, homemade vanilla pudding is layered with sliced bananas and vanilla-wafer cookies (the store-bought kind) and finished with whipped cream, to create a creamy, comforting Southern classic. Once you prepare the pudding, it can be layered with the other ingredients and chilled for up to 4 hours in advance. Then all you need to do is garnish it with the whipped cream and crumbled wafers just before serving. We like to use fresh whipped cream, but Momma Daisy used a store bought “French vanilla” whipped topping (you can also use Cool Whip).

Pat: I’m a grits man. Have been my whole life. And it always surprises me when I travel to different parts of the country and taste grits that they are not sweet. In coffee shops and home kitchens throughout Memphis, we stir in sugar to make them sweet. Then we crumble a few sausage patties and stir those in, too. I don’t know about you, but I’m a sucker for something hot, sweet, and salty. My aunt Leona from Detroit stirs chopped poached eggs into her sausage and grits! To me, that seems like the ultimate grit combo. Top it with a dash or two of hot sauce, and you can’t find a better feel-good breakfast for a Southern boy.

Gina: Just about every church cookbook and family recipe box throughout the South has its own version of this dark, rich chocolate cake named for the “muddy” Mississippi River. In our version, we add coffee to deepen the chocolate flavor, and throw in a handful of mini–chocolate chips, creating a sinfully “muddy” bottom that’s fun to drag your fork through. Then we top the whole thing off with mini-marshmallows and a river of icing. This is one Mississippi cake you’ll be happy to drown in!