Gourmet Breakfast Becomes Tradition

After our daughter married and our sons were still home, we began a family tradition with our gourmet Christmas brunch. Now that all of them are out of the nest, we find it hard to find a time to have breakfast together during the season, but when we can work it out, this is our menu: sausage casserole, hot fruit bake, coffee cake made from crescent rolls and fruit, and grits. No Southern breakfast is complete without grits.

Once when we were at Mother's in New Orleans, we noticed a young man eating grits for lunch—nothing else—just a big bowl of grits. Seems he had them the very first time at breakfast that morning and didn't get enough.

After I wrote a column about my new Joy of Cooking cookbook, a sweet lady from Greenville called to tell me she had a copy of the first edition published in 1931. I asked her if it was smudged. She replied, "Of course." Recently I bought a cookbook stand, hoping to keep my cookbooks cleaner, and my sister Bette observed that was how she knew if a recipe was good—when the page was stained.

All cooks have their favorite recipes, many of them handwritten. We treasure recipes from our mothers, grandmothers and friends. I tried to gather all of my favorite recipes in one book. I was not successful, of course, but I did publish a book containing over 100 recipes and sold all of the copies. 

However, I've had the book reprinted. You'll find all the recipes mentioned above in this book. Only $10.95—it would be an inexpensive Christmas gift for someone on your list. Contact me at evegray854@charter.net or 864-859-5239 if you are interested.