This is the first in what will be an ongoing series called Food is Political. I thought it was appropriate that this first post come during Black History Month and gives me a chance to talk about attribution, appropriation, and giving credit where it’s due It’s Black History Month. And on this blog, that’s going…
In July 2019, I took Zach to The Optimist for his birthday. It was our first time there, and I’m just going to say it up front: it’s the best seafood we’ve had anywhere. Better than St. Simons. Better than the coast. Better than a lot of places we’ve eaten on our travels. The Optimist…
It’s the end of January and already this month has been a heck of a year, hasn’t it? I completely forgot the Friday Roundup yesterday. So we’re doing it on Saturday instead. That feels about right for how January 2026 has gone. That’s It. That’s the roundup for this week. Or last week. Whatever. Time…
I baked these cookies on Saturday. The day Alex Pretti was shot and killed by ICE thugs in Minneapolis. These are my comfort cookies. The ones I make when I need the repetitiveness. The rhythm. When I need to not think about anything past the next 8 to 12 minutes. I don’t actually make cookies…
I had a whole other post planned for today. A fun one. One talking about our favorite seafood restaurant in Atlanta. It was written, scheduled, and ready to go. And yesterday morning cos-playing ICE thugs murdered another American citizen. This time a man. A nurse. 37 years old. A good man. His parents told him…
It’s been a couple of weeks since I did a proper Friday Roundup – last week I skipped it entirely, and the week before that I replaced it with the Renee Good post. And today I got to it late in the day. So here we are, catching up on what’s been happening. That’s it…
She was fearless in a way I didn’t fully appreciate until I was older …
This is my grandmother’s cornbread recipe, halved for smaller households. She made twice this amount in a 12-inch skillet, feeding a family of six plus whoever showed up at dinnertime (which in rural Texas was often neighbors, cousins, or people from church). This version makes enough for 4 people, or 2 people with leftovers for…
I’m going to say something that physically pains me to type: the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025-2030, released by the Trump administration under RFK Jr.’s leadership at HHS, are not completely wrong about everything. There. I said it. I hate it. And now I need to explain why this makes me so uncomfortable. This…
As I write this, it’s pouring down rain outside. And it’s WARM. I’m still salty about the fact that it’s January and we have daytime temperatures in the 70s. I really want some winter weather before winter is over. But it is mid-January. Seed catalogs have been flooding the mailbox since before Thanksgiving, and I’ve…
I had a whole other post with links and “return from the holidays” thoughts written and ready to go, but last night I scrapped it. Things feel too heavy right now for a lighthearted post. By now most people are aware that on Wednesday morning, January 7th, an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Nicole…
In the South, collards are a staple side dish, but they’re also a New Year’s Day tradition: My Meemaw (my East Texas grandmother) always made collard greens, black-eyed peas, and cornbread for New Year’s Day. Every single year, without fail: greens for money, peas for luck in the coming year.
