For Brooke (and by extension, Chlöe)

I was intending for this to be a funny post originally, and then I got some very sad news yesterday that a dear friend and mentor passed away of breast cancer. I was actually hoping to go see her before Christmas because I'd been told she was not doing well, but it appears that wasn't meant to be.

These pictures are from a Southern cookbook that my friend Amie's mother bought when she got married in the late sixties; they illustrate the way women were viewed in the 50s and 60s and we all know the difference now. They're also interesting just in terms of having a view of Southern culture through its cuisine.

I'd like to dedicate this post to my friend and mentor Brooke who I think would have gotten a kick out of these pictures: She was what you would qualify as a "pistol" in U.K. English and a "firecracker" in U.S. English. She had more personality in her little finger than a lot of people put together. She was one of the first women in the U.S. to go to business school; she fought to be taken seriously in the workplace and I will be eternally grateful to her for doing that so that women of my generation don't have to. She put her foot down and told me to pursue my dreams when even I thought they were foolish. She always encouraged me and Chlöe to live, to be daring, to pick ourselves up when we'd fallen and to keep going, to go out there and make a difference.
She was fearless.
She was Brooke.
Resquiat in pace.


The Book:

The Periods:

The Traditional South:

Only in the South:

Something we can all get in touch with (though we don't really dress like that anymore):

The Southern Way:
This was amazing and inherently interesting:

Examples of the above:
When you're missing one or more ingredients: