Southern

This recipe can be prepared in 45 minutes or less. Although we call for canned black-eyed peas, you can use frozen peas or cook up a batch of dried ones.

An updated southern side dish.

These are based on the wonderful pecan pralines of noted cookbook author and columnist Marion Cunningham.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

All Southern cooks have their own ways of making gumbo. Our recipe contains neither okra nor filé powder, producing a thinner, lighter gumbo.

If you can't find one type of the greens for this recipe, you can either increase the other two kinds proportionally or substitute kale and/or chard.

Ambrosia is fruit dessert that is also a salad. We Southerners always add it to Thanksgiving and Christmas menus to allow us to have the illusion that we're not in too much trouble with our diets, because after all, "We only had ambrosia for dessert!" The better the oranges in it, the better it is. Splurge and get flavor-filled navel oranges if you can. In any case, seedless oranges are a must. If there are going to be children at the meal, you can add maraschino cherries—sans stems. My mother always did, perhaps because one of my treasured memories from childhood was when my father took me to the men's club and ordered me a Shirley Temple with a maraschino cherry. I ate nearly a whole bottle, thanks to the indulgent waiter.

These crab cakes are flavored with the "holy trinity" of Cajun cooking: onion, green bell pepper, and celery. Serve them with a helping of coleslaw or a green salad.

The following recipe calls for filé powder, a spice made from the dried, ground leaves of the sassafras tree. Although often added as a thickener to gumbos while they cook, filé powder can also serve purely as a seasoning. As in this recipe, it is then sprinkled over the gumbo at the penultimate moment.

As a child, I was a picky eater and this cobbler was especially hard for me to take, since it's sort of an ugly dish. After being threatened with a trip to the doctor for vitamin shots, I did start eating more, and the cobbler turned out to be one of my favorites. It's a classic North Carolina recipe and is one of my mom's signature dishes. It's so simple and takes no time to make.

Inspired by the cooking of the American South—and absolutely delicious.