Welcome to My Website

Calendar: Wednesday, June 4: I’ll discuss A Love Affair with Southern Cooking on “The Faith Middleton Food Schmooze,” Connecticut Public Radio. Time: 3:20 to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 14, noon-ish, Literary Bookpost, 119 S. Main St., Downtown Salisbury, NC: I’ll talk about my Love Affair with Southern Cooking and serve a light lunch featuring recipes from the book. For details, call 704-630-9788 or e-mail the store at bookpost@velocenet.net . North Carolina Bookwatch: I’ve just taped a half-hour discussion of A Love Affair with Southern Cooking with host D.G. Martin , which will air on UNC-TV sometime soon. The day before the taping, I baked a Kentucky Bourbon Cake (one of many classic southern cakes in the book), and set it up on-set as a kind of “show and tell.” At the end of the taping but still on-camera, D.G. grabbed a piece, took a bite, and said, “Boy, this is good!” UNC-TV not only covers all of North Carolina but also parts of Virginia and South Carolina, and possibly easternmost Tennessee as well. Check local listings. In Brief: A Love Affair with Southern Cooking ,has been nominated for three “Best Cookbook” awards: James Beard, IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals) and SIBA (Southern Independent Booksellers Association). Needless to add, I’m over the moon because for nearly four years, I poured heart and soul into researching, recipe-testing, and writing. I’m just back from the Alabama Book Festival, which took place one sunny April Saturday in Montgomery’s Old Town. I opened the festival at ten, speaking to a good crowd in one of the historic buildings. This was my first trip to the Alabama state capital and I was impressed by the number of antebellum houses, many of them now painstakingly restored. After an evening-before reception at the Young House where half a dozen recipes from A Love Affair with Southern Cooking were served, I headed for Nancy Patterson’s Bistro in what must be this city’s poshest neighborhood. My New York friend Joanne Hayes, who’d flown south to help me drive from North Carolina to Alabama, loved the food as much as I though it’s hardly southern. Among the winners that night: Vertical Salad of Tomatoes, Buffalo Mozzarella, and Lump Crab . . . Bourbon-Glazed Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp on a Bed of Grits . . . Maple Soy Salmon with Sesame Linguini. If you’re ever in Montgomery, do try Nancy Patterson’s Bistro at 503 Cloverdale Road. Having no reservation, we walked in the door and were promptly seated -- on a Friday. Help! Anybody have a recipe for Porcupine Cake? A young friend of mine says it’s something her German grandmother made for special occasions. And now, as a treat for her father, she wants to re-create it. But sadly, as too often happens with precious heirloom recipes, this one has disappeared. What, exactly, is Porcupine Cake? She describes it as “a nine-layer almond cake with butter cream frosting, toasted almonds on the outside, and shards of almond brittle on the top.” The first person to come up with an authentic Porcupine Cake recipe gets an autographed copy of A Love Affair with Southern Cooking. Good riddance! Spring sent a stream of little black ants into my kitchen and after trying several ways to banish them – sans success -- I sprayed the seam where countertop meets backsplash with a heavy-duty cleaner containing bleach. I then pushed tightly rolled-up paper towels against those seams and sprayed them, too. It’s been nearly 10 days now and I’ve seen nary an ant.

Q & A

Crisco, cont.

“Found the original Crisco at a Food Lion the other day. Don't know whether that means it's been brought back or just leftovers.  Expiration date was 2010.  Also just talked to a nice lady at Crisco.  She says that if you freeze the shortening, it will act more like the original.” -- Robert Holmes, High Point, NC

“This is a copy of the e-mail I just sent Crisco: I have been using Crisco all my life to make pie crusts. I am VERY unhappy with your new no-transfat formula. The new Crisco makes a pie crust that is softer – it tears while trying to place it in the pie plate, and worst of all, it MELTS in the oven. None of the pies I have made have held their fluting in the oven. Right now, I have a custard pie in the oven that is a disaster – one side of the crust has sunk down into the plate and the custard has run under the crust. I NEVER had a single problem with the old formula. How about offering both types so those of us who are more concerned about a presentable pie than a few grams of transfat can be happy:? Target sells their Market Pantry brand that still has transfats. I will be buying it in the future – no more Crisco for me!!! “ -- Deborah Morgan, Batavia, IL

“On the subject of the "new" Crisco, does this explain why the Angel Biscuits I make aren't as good as I remember, or other biscuit recipes either?  I thought it must be that I've lost the touch.” -- Virginia Nance, Fort Wayne, IN

“I'm afraid the new Crisco has ruined the pound cake I always made with only 1/2 cup. Just for the hell of it, I decided to try the recipe again, and now the cake falls apart weirdly in pieces. It tastes fine, but half the crust just crumbles when you turn the cake out, and when you cut a slice, it splits into about three pieces. From now on, it's butter -- though I recently tried a store brand of butter that made some cookies spread all over the sheet.  They really are destroying everything.” -- James Villas, East Hampton, NY

Please let me hear if you, too, have been having trouble with the new Crisco. I’d like to keep this discussion going.

Autographed Book Plates:

If you’d like an autographed book plate for any of my books, just let me know. Please specify which book and to whom it should be inscribed.