posted in Food
09.22.2011
I love when I meet someone and I feel that I’m a better person from just having been around them. Virginia Willis is one of those people. Willis is one of the most genuinely nice, warm, and charming individuals I’ve had the pleasure to meet and photograph. She’s a gem of a person as well as an amazing teacher in the kitchen. Her second cook book, Basic to Brilliant, Yall, will be available September 27th and features basic southern recipes that can be gussied up and made brilliant of course. On a recent photo shoot for an AJC feature on Willis and her new book she cooked Sweet Tea-Brined Pork Blade Steaks With “Brilliant” Grilled Onions and Sherry Vinegar, Sautéed Brussels Sprouts With Apples and Bacon, and Anne’s Cornmeal Cake With “Brilliant” Candied Lemon Zest.
If you’d like to read Wendell Brock’s article on Willis and find the recipes to the dishes she made please follow the link below.
http://www.accessatlanta.com/atlanta-restaurants-food/dressing-up-basic-southern-1180487.html
I hope you enjoy the images. I’m very much looking forward to cooking from Basic to Brilliant and can’t wait to see Virginia again.
One last thanks to The Cooks Warehouse for allowing us to cook and shoot at their Ansley Mall location!
I’ve been enjoying the pickles and preserves from one of my latest food shoots for a few weeks now. The pickled okra , cucumber sweets, pickled green tomatoes and fig preserves have accompanied biscuits, sandwiches, added a little extra punch to meals and honestly I’ve been nibbling on them pretty much all the time. A few of the images from this post accompanied Wendell Brock’s article in yesterday’s food section of the AJC. I’m super excited to share these little gems with you…. just in case you missed the paper.
If you need a tasty project for the weekend that you’ll enjoy all month long I highly recommend finding a few old jelly jars and making a trip to the farmers market to gather local veggies for pickling. You might even find what you need in your backyard or a neighbors! The link below provides recipes that Mr. Brock spent lots of time tweaking and perfecting.
http://www.accessatlanta.com/atlanta-restaurants-food/canning-for-dummies-quick-1094975.html
These pickled green tomatoes weren’t in the article but they sure were good.
Each time I see one of these images I feel compelled to drive to the nearest local farmers market or speed over to Miller Union and order their daily vegetable plate! Steven Satterfield, executive chef of Atlanta restaurant Miller Union, recently cooked five different veggie dishes for Bob Townsend’s article on Southern veggie plates which I was more than thrilled to shoot and sample. I’m partial to the fried okra and could snack on it all day.
If you can’t pick up a copy of todays AJC make sure you check out Townsend’s article complete with recipes at the link below. And if all else fails visit Satterfield’s restaurant and enjoy the seasonal bounty.
http://www.accessatlanta.com/atlanta-restaurants-food/tweaking-the-southern-veggie-1010855.html
I dedicate these okra close ups to Wendell Brock.
I love going to local orchards and farms to pick fruit and berries but you’ll never catch me picking peaches. My granny Brock took me to a peach orchard as a child and it seemed like we were there for hours picking one of my favorite summer fruits. At the end of our adventure my little legs and arms were itching madly from the peach fuzz and I’ve never wanted a shower so badly in my life. I guess you could say I’m a little traumatized.
While I won’t gather the fruit myself I do still love eating a good peach and always relish in making a cobbler. I recently worked with food writer Conne Ward-Cameron on a peach feature for the AJC and thought I’d share a link to her story and recipes below. The images in this post will run in tomorrows edition of the AJC.
http://www.accessatlanta.com/atlanta-restaurants-food/buy-peaches-from-farmer-1000006.html
If you can’t stand the thought of baking or cooking in this heat you’ll love Conne’s recipe for peach gazpacho. And if that’s too fancy for you be sure to visit a local farmers market and enjoy the fruit pealed and sliced, my favorite. My granny Brock always indulged me with food when I visited her home in South Georgia. I remember fondly the juice running over the rings on her fingers and the wrinkles of her hands as she peeled peaches for me.
Bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwiches hold many fond memories for me. Growing up I spent lots of time with my grandparents in south Georgia and remember with great pleasure my grandmother frying bacon and the ripe tomatoes from their garden that were the makings for my favorite lunch. Each time I bite into a BLT I think of my grands. I’m reminded of the time spent in their garden, the mornings spent fishing and flying with my grandfather, afternoons watching my grandmother bake and make jam, and early evenings watching birds and listening to summer insects. I take great delight in the simple things in life and each time I smell bacon frying and see a perfectly ripe tomato I am reminded that I learned this from the time spent with my grandparents.
It’s amazing how food has the ability to conjure so many feelings and memories for people. I recently spoke with my grandfather who said he thinks of me each time he and my grandmother have a BLT.
Okay, so before I get too teary-eyed I’d love to introduce the images in this article which were recently shot for an AJC feature on BLTs. Loved working on this with my uncle Wendell who also enjoys bacon from time to time. The bacon laden story features a Breakfast BLT (inspired by Highland Bakery), as well as Scott Peacocks recipe for a BLT salad, and last but not least BLT Dip with Bacon Crackers. I love each of these recipes, which can be found at the link below, but I advise you not to make them all at once unless you’re up for a bacon binge and then you might as well stop by Morelli’s for Maple Bacon Brittle ice cream. Enjoy.
http://www.accessatlanta.com/atlanta-restaurants-food/variations-on-the-classic-989877.html
If you’ve never been to Morelli’s Ice Cream well shame on you! Each visit to this ice cream dreamerie is heaven! I’m partial to the Salted Caramel and the Krispy Kreamier but they also have flavors such as Rosemary Honey and Maple Bacon Brittle.
Even better than one Morelli’s location is two! I was very happy to shoot a sundae assignment recently for the AJC at the new Edgewood location. Chef Kevin Gillespie, who churns up delicious flavors for this hot spot, was on hand with a few of his creations including Caramelized Peach Ice Cream with Peaches and Cinnamon Toast as well as Caramelized Peach Ice Cream with Raspberries and Almond Butter. One of Gillespie’s favorite things to eat as a child was cinnamon toast. Now he piles as much butter cinnamon and sugar onto the bread as it will allow. Cut into triangles and topping a sundae his take on cinnamon toast will make you smile.
If you’d like to try your hand at these desserts check out Bob Townsend’s article in the AJC at the link below.
http://www.accessatlanta.com/atlanta-restaurants-food/ice-cream-sundae-combos-983617.html
The joy that food writer Rebecca Lang takes in food is immediately apparent. When we visited her recently, at her home in Athens Georgia, to shoot an article for the AJC she was positively glowing in her kitchen. While cooking from her most recent cook book, Quick-Fix Southern, Lang talked about her grandmothers’ influence on her cooking and her time learning with the great Nathalie Dupree. The trio’s tutelage in the delights of southern cooking definitely stuck with Lang and continue to inspire her. Lang’s recently published cookbook shares recipes with readers that require 30 minutes of hands on time and are simply delicious. So if you were previously intimidated by southern cooking this is a great book to guide you into the flavors of the south.
During our shoot Lang cooked okra fritters, lazy girl berry cobbler, and stuffed and baked chicken! Enjoy the images and be sure to read Wendell Brock’s article on Lang as well his list of recently published southern cookbooks.
This past April I had a birthday as big as one of the ripe strawberries you see above, I turned thirty! My dear uncle always plans a special dinner for my birthday and this year we decided to celebrate by making a trip to a local strawberry patch. To top it off we had dinner at Delia’s Chicken Sausage Stand. Delicious. They even had tasty things for my vegan boyfriend.
After visiting The Strawberry Patch in Meansville I thought I had enough berries to make pies, smoothies, freezer jam, ice cream…. the list goes on. But after a few smoothies and making Nancie McDermott’s Strawberry Icebox Pie from her book Southern Pies my berry supply was kaput! Just thinking about the pie makes me feel wistful and greedy. Thankfully I shared the luscious dessert or I would have ended up standing in the glow of the refrigerator late at night with a pie pan in one hand, a spoon in the other, and a big gluttonous smile on my face… okay so maybe that doesn’t sound so bad.
Enjoy my little birthday adventure and while strawberries have ended their season in Georgia please visit The Strawberry Patch as they will have lots of other summer berries and vegetables to pick.
Luckily for Mr. L the nice people at The Strawberry Patch had a sunhat and sunscreen.
Mr. L (my boyfriend)
Unlce Wendell!
I Indulged in the patch’s strawberry ice cream and fried apple pies!
Spotted this awesome old T-Bird on the way to chicken sausage heaven in East Atlanta.
Delia’s Chicken Sausage Stand!
There are few things that I love more than a picnic! What could be better than good food and company in the serenity of the great outdoors. Not to mention being able to kick off your shoes and walk barefoot in the grass.
For a recent food feature on picnic food, which ran yesterday in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Wendell Brock and I had the pleasure of shooting this assignment in a top secret wildflower field. Enjoy the images and I hope you’ll feel inspired to fill a basket with goodies and spread a blanket somewhere lovely for a picnic of your own.
If you’d like to read Wendell’s article and try out the recipes go to the following link:
http://www.accessatlanta.com/atlanta-restaurants-food/a-spring-picnic-quick-944071.html
Blueberry Lemonade
Fresh Summer Salad of Cantaloupe, Goat Cheese and Onion
Chicken Salad Sandwiches with Tarragon and Almonds
We didn’t forget dessert!
Super-Intense Fudge Brownies
It’s Tuesday and I thought everyone needed a feast for the eyes. So I hope you’ll enjoy these photos from a food feature on ham that I recently shot for The Atlanta Journal Constitution. This story coincidentally ran on my birthday.
