Category: Celebrations

• Wonderful cookies, flu season

  You know it, and I know it. We’re going to make some Christmas treats (and, we hope, eat only a few!!). So those treats might as well be wonderful. Luckily, these are called Wonderful Cookies. I ate my first at a book club get-together 2 weeks ago. I got the recipe from the host and then…

  JoAnn Rhodes Grose

  December 3, 2015

  Advent, Baking, Celebrations, Holiday baking, Holiday eating, Recipes, Winter

  Almond, Baking, Boosting immune system, Christmas, Cookies, healthy eating

• We are each other’s memories, home-court habits

  “We are each other’s memories,” said my beautiful, silver-haired friend yesterday morning at book club, and with that remark, she grounded me in my world in a way I’ve never before felt. Until I went to college at 17, my mother, sister and I were kept isolated in a very rural setting by my control-freak…

  JoAnn Rhodes Grose

  November 18, 2015

  Building better habits, Celebrations, Emotional side of weight loss, healthy cooking, Holiday eating, Importance of exercise, Keeping track of what we eat, Roasting vegetables

  cauliflower, healthy eating, Peppers, Potatoes, Rosemary

• Hoppin’ John Salad

  Please note: A friend who ate this after it spent a day in the fridge liked it just fine. I could not taste any Italian dressing or thyme. Next time I will dress salad immediately before serving. My new left hip and I are celebrating today with the traditional Southern dinner thought to bring good luck, health…

  JoAnn Rhodes Grose

  January 1, 2015

  Celebrations, healthy cooking, Holiday cooking, Hoppin’ John, vegetables, Winter salads

  Black-eyed peas, Celery, Green onions, Peppers, red pepper flakes, Rice, Thyme

• Mother’s Day breakfast

  I’m not going to start in on Mother’s Day, oh well, maybe just a little. I talked to all of our daughters, heard some grandchildren screeching in the background; we took a small picnic and a big thermos of coffee to a park on the Yadkin River in Forsythe County; we came home and stretched…

  JoAnn Rhodes Grose

  May 12, 2014

  Asparagus, Breakfast, Celebrations, vegetables

  eggs, healthy eating, Parmesan, White sauce

• What an appetizer and a restaurant should be

  A week ago tonight, on a night like this with air like champagne, we sat at a wall of windows in Canyons, a bar and restaurant in Blowing Rock, NC. This was our 26th wedding anniversary celebration, and we’d decided to make it an occasion by driving 70 miles on a friend’s recommendation. That it was…

  JoAnn Rhodes Grose

  May 3, 2014

  Appetizers, Beets, Canyons restaurant, Celebrations, Restaurant eating while dieting

  Bacon jam, Fried green tomatoes, Honey mustard, Radish sprouts, Ramps

• Great-aunt Charlotte, angel food cake

  This is my mother’s mother’s baby sister, Charlotte. I remember her whooping laugh, her wonderful, ramshackle cottage on Lake Pochung and her angel food cake, which was high and white as the Cliffs of Dover, sweet and light  as a forkful of cloud. For my 16th birthday, she made one of these wonders and Uncle Theodore brought his…

  JoAnn Rhodes Grose

  April 5, 2014

  Baking, Cake, Celebrations, Desserts, Easter, Family recipes, Fruit

  angel food cake, Pineapple

• And then…

  Anne Lamott describing her usual Sunday School class for youngsters in Stitches: “Then we pray to try to be good and kind to one another. We read a short passage of Scripture, talk about it and try to learn something together about our lives and God’s love. And then, as in all great religious traditions, we…

  JoAnn Rhodes Grose

  March 1, 2014

  Anne Lamott, Breakfast-brunch, Cake, Celebrations, Desserts, Southern food

  Daleville VA, Deep-fried Oreos, restaurant eating, Stitches, Sweet potato fries, Three Little Pigs Barbecue

• Adult chocolate cake

  It was a lovely wedding last weekend — beautiful, meaningful ceremony full of promises and promise, laughter, spring flowers, good people, fat babies and food to make hearts sing. Friday night we ate Italian, the Saturday brunch reception food was Cajun and the Sunday morning breakfast for out-of-towners was a table of quiches, breads, fresh…

  JoAnn Rhodes Grose

  March 1, 2014

  Cake, Celebrations, Chocolate, Desserts

  chocolate, Coffee, Layer cake, Wedding food