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Chicago Tribune

"Soul of A New Cuisine"  

 

Click Images to Learn more about Southern and Soul Food Recipes, Cookbooks and Chefs:

 

Lem's BBQ

(Chicago Tribune & CLTV)

 

 

"Foods of Chicago"

WTTW (PBS)

 

 

 

Edna's Restaurant

(Chicago Tribune & CLTV

 

 

 

"The Great Migration Chicago"

Augie Lehmann's

 

 

 

Black America Cooks

(Beta)

 

Celebrating Cooks who Stir Culture, Tradition & Soul into Recipes...  

 

Donna Pierce

 

 

Skillet Diary™

Recipe For Change

©Donna Pierce

 Aug. 28, 2010

This button is my reminder to always choose showing up for what you believe in. It was worn at the March by a family member who also counted this quote among her favorites:

"The world is dying for lack of compassion. It is the food of life, so everyone must give what they can.

Whatever the question is, love is the answer, yet somehow there is never enough. But there could be as much as we need and then some. You just have to give yourself." …Merle Shain

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Skillet Diary™

Making Promises to Keep

©Donna Pierce

 Aug. 21, 2010

If it were not for the ornament we’ve hung on our tree every Christmas since he was a toddler, my son would not remember Fievel or the film, "An American Tale."
He was 3 years old the afternoon we spent in a movie theater watching the Disney feature-length cartoon about a young mouse separated from his family during their voyage to a new home in America, where, according to rodent legend, mice enjoyed life without cats.
The movie introduced a song, "Somewhere Out There." And when it was over, I sang it softly to my little boy as we walked to our car. MORE

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Skillet Diary™

Happy Birthday Julia

©Donna Pierce

 Aug. 16, 2010

 I celebrated Julia Child's birthday yesterday recalling her encouragement during a time my ideas about food writing had been challenged by my mother, who described the shift as a

"ridiculous limit of my talents." MORE

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Skillet Diary™

Family Rolls

©Donna Pierce

Aug. 12, 2010

When my mother's kid sister, our last direct genetic link to Mom, joined our family for last night's reunion dinner, emotions surprised me. For the first 10 minutes around my sister's dining table, I felt about 8-years-old … hungry for her approval. MORE

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Skillet Diary™

South of the South

©Donna Pierce

August 9, 2010

My grandmother, who like many of her "girlhood" friends, honeymooned in Havana in the 1920s, was fond of describing her Mobile, Alabama home town as "South of the South" based on cuisine and lifestyle. MORE

 

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Soul2Keep Southern and Soul Food Recipes Include:

Fried Chicken, Gumbo, Potato Salad, Macaroni and Cheese, Jambalaya, Barbecue, Greens, Biscuits, Calas, Chitterlings, Cornbread, Yeast Rolls, Sweet Potato Pie, Peach Cobblers, and other Southern and Creole Historic Recipes from our grandparent's kitchens with menus designed to promote healthy eating for children and adults.

Highlighting African Americans and People of African Descent with:


  • Top Chef and Restaurant Recipes

  • Quick and Easy Recipes from our Test Kitchen

  • Soulful Southern Recipes From Old and New Cookbooks

  • Culinary Travel Guides including Links to Caribbean Recipes, Brazilian Recipes,  Afro-Mexican Recipes and other International Recipes and Cooking

  • Soul Food 2 Keep

    African Americans, Caribbean Americans and Blacks of African descent have long stirred pots containing more than soul food in North America, the Caribbean, South America and Europe. But the soul food label, made popular during the 1960’s and 1970’s, survives in the 21st century as a delicious brand that includes family celebration dinners and survival recipes we don’t want to lose.

    At BlackAmericaCooks.com, we pay deep respect to the skill and contributions of unnamed top chefs and family cooks who created and/or revised soulful, southern, “down home” and upscale “uptown” recipe renditions ranging from beaten biscuits to cheese croquettes and sweet potato pie to Strawberry Sarabande.

    BlackAmericaCooks.com menus, recipes, videos, interviews, blogs and columns highlight home cooks, top chefs and restaurant recipes and dishes (from French to Finnish) inspired by someone Black in the kitchen.

     

    Honeyboy Edwards

     

     

    May 11, 2010

    After Honeyboy Edwards, 95-year-old Blues Great, sang "Sweet Home Chicago" at the Chicago Cultural Center, the Grammy Lifetime-Achievement Award Winner described his Favorite Dessert to Black America Cooks. Inspired by Mr. Edwards, we share a Blackberry Cobbler recipe.



    Dorothy Height, Leah Chase and Other Legends....

    Dorothy Height from the National Council of Negro Women works to preserve history of African American culture

     

     

     

     

    “Don't give up on your vision. It's a valuable one.”

    Dorothy Height, Chair and President Emerita of National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), offered advice regarding plans for BlackAmericaCooks.com during the National Black Family Reunion.

    Black America Cook's booth at the Black Family Reunion (pictured right) held in September, 2009 in Washington D.C.

     

    There are no secret recipes according to New Orleans' legendary Creole cook, Leah Chase

    Click here to play video

    This video was recorded during the summer of 2009 at Dooky Chase restaurant in New Orleans. It served as a wake-up call about the importance of  holding nothing back from Leah Chase” who nudged us to full disclosure with recipes from our family collections. Click on each of the recipes for previously undisclosed family recipes.

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    Meet Donna Pierce

     

    Donna Pierce is a national award-winning food and travel journalist and former Assistant Food Editor and Test Kitchen Director for the Chicago Tribune. She grew up with deep roots in Mobile, Alabama, where her family lived for five generations before her parents moved to Missouri.

    Donna lived in San Francisco and Los Angeles before a return to Missouri where she was an adjunct instructor for the University of Missouri Journalism School.

    She has traveled to Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean exploring the roots of African American culinary traditions. She is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, the James Beard Foundation, the Association of Food Journalists and Les Dames d’Escoffier.

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    Radio Interview

     

    Click here to listen to an interview in 4 parts with John Key of "Higher Ground" discussing "Food and African American Culture" with Donna Pierce.

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    Terms/Privacy/Press

     

    September 3, 2010

    Click Above to Share

    Join us on Facebook

    New Content Below:

    Southern Recipes

    (Blackberry Cobbler)

    Soul Food

    (Peach Cobbler)

    Chefs

    Restaurants

    Home Cooks

    (LA Times/Egg Safety)

    New/Old Cookbooks …and more.

    Skillet Diaries Division helps Publish and Promote Family Cookbooks and Recipe Collections for Reunions, Churches, Businesses, Social and Community Groups.


    Friend us on Facebook:

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    and more:

    People:

    Click to Top Chefs, Legends, Rising Stars and Restaurateurs

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    Click to Southern and Soul Restaurant Links:

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    Click for info about Family Cookbooks & Community Cookbooks

    Create personal heirloom recipe collections for:

    Holiday Cookbooks

    Family Reunions

    Churches Graduations

    Weddings

    Anniversaries

    Fund Raisers

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    For archived columns from Skillet Diary™

    and archived national-award winning columns & more by Donna Pierce, former Chicago Tribune Test Kitchen Director and Assistant Food Editor

    Click Here

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    Read Black America Cooks Q/A on "I'm Black and I Travel"

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    Southern and Soul News Archives

    March-June 2010

    First Lady M. Obama

    Travel: Egypt

    Grandmothers Know

    Chef Joe Randall

    Southern Bourbon Recs

    Raw Oyster Myths

    Samuelsson's Plans for Harlem Eatery

    Reunion Cookbooks

    Inmates Collard Harvest

    USDA--Last Plantation?

     

    Donna's grandmother's top secret tips for

    "Take this recipe to your grave"… Deviled Eggs

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    File Ramps under "Cool Discoveries" our Ancestors picked wild…

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    Cured:

    If your To-Do List isn't Long Enough, or you want to Really, Really Impress your Mother-in-Law: Click for Curing Fresh Ham at Home Tips

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    Best Baguette in Paris?

    Click for Photo and Story with African roots

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    …Addicted to Fat? Cracked Cheesecake Takes on New Meaning

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    “Find out what makes southern bread so good”

    -Tasting Table Chicago

    Donna's Southern Bread cooking class was recently featured and recommended by Tasting Table Chicago Click here to Read

    Click here for class photos

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    Every Day is Mother's Day

    Click Photo of Donna and her Mom for "Flavors of Home," A Poem Dedicated to all Mothers.

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    Photo Credits (Scrolling at top of Page)  with Julia Child, Marcus Samuelsson, Art Smith, Leah Chase and more…

    Counter-Clockwise Beginning with Wedding:

    1. Donna's parents (Muriel & Eliot Batte) w/ Mobile, Alabama wedding party, June 28, 1950. Click to see Eliot Battle & flower girl, Peggy Cooper Caffritz. in 2009.)

    2. Donna with Art Smith.

    3. Donna's paternal great aunts (c.1890)

    Wilson, North Carolina.

    4. Donna with Julia Child, Greenbrier Hotel, 1997.

    5. From private photo collection, unknown Boone County Missouri Couple/WW1.

    6. Donna, Donna's Father, Eliot Battle, Sr., Chef Marcus Samuelsson.

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    Contact Us:

    dp@soul2keep.com

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