Shrimp and Grits for Twelve: Lessons From Feeding a Whole Porch
What I learned the year my cousin announced, at noon, that the whole wedding party was coming to my house for supper.
Loretta Abernathy
@lorettaabernathyI cook for whoever shows up on my porch in Savannah and read whatever the library lets me carry home.
11 articles815 clapsJoined May 7
Articles
My Mother's Peach Cobbler Recipe Had Three Different Versions on One Card
A stained index card, three handwritings, and the summer I finally figured out which one was the real cobbler.
Editing a Church Cookbook Taught Me More About Writing Than College Did
Three hundred recipes from ninety-one women, and what they taught me about clarity, voice and the word "some."
The Tomato Sandwich Is the Most Honest Lunch in Georgia
Three ingredients, no hiding place, and a few strong opinions about bread, mayonnaise and the right week of July.
The Summer I Read Jane Austen Out Loud to My Aunt
Her eyes were failing, my patience was short, and six novels later we were both different readers.
The Public Library Branch That Raised Me Still Smells Like Floor Wax
I went back to the little brick library of my childhood after forty years and found the same radiator, a new kind of patron, and one librarian who remembered me.
Pimento Cheese Is a Family Argument You Can Spread on Crackers
Grated or food processor, sweet pickle or none, and why my sister and I have not agreed on this since 1983.
Okra Season: How I Stopped Apologizing for the Slime
Fried, stewed, pickled and roasted, four ways to cook the vegetable my guests used to push to the side of the plate.
Southern Gothic Is Not a Costume: A Reader From Savannah Talks Back
Tourists come here for the ghosts and the moss, but the books that get this place right are about something quieter and harder.
I Finally Learned to Make Biscuits the Way My Aunt Lottie Did, at 51
It took me thirty years, two hundred flat biscuits, and one phone call to figure out what she was doing with her thumb.
