Author: Debbi Covington

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Audra and I met for lunch at a new restaurant. It was a typical girls’ lunch, a glass of wine, a salad, lots of chit-chat, a bit of catching up and some giggling. We had fun. The food was good. All the normal stuff.

Judy Payette is my sister from another mister. I’m the bratty little sister that she never wanted and somehow got stuck with. Judy’s mom, Marie Payette-Peatross-Andrews was my other mother. When I was the secretary at First Presbyterian Church, Marie helped me count the Sunday offering every Monday morning. For years. For years and years and years. Our working relationship developed into a loving friendship that lasted until Marie’s passing in 2013. In the meantime, Marie’s real daughter, Judy, was living and teaching school on an Air Force Base in England.

I’m not going to waste any space this week rambling on about why we should all eat more salads. We already know why, don’t we? Have a happy and healthy August! Grilled Steak Salad with Peachesand Blueberries I rarely peel peaches. The skin is perfectly safe to eat. Be sure to wash the peaches just like you would wash an apple or pear before consuming.

I always gain weight in the summer. I guess it’s because my event schedule is not as busy, and likely because I’m spending more time on the couch with my sweet kitty Belle, binge watching The Blacklist, and Poldark and Victoria. Yep. The couch is most certainly the culprit.

What fun it is to have friends from out of town come to our house for lunch! A big meal in the middle of the day is almost decadent. I recommend it highly. When California friends Holley and Cam Miller come to Beaufort to visit Holley’s parents, they always take me out to eat. This visit, I treated them to lunch, with notice that they’d be helping me test recipes for my LCW column.

It’s rare, and actually quite wonderful when it happens, for Vince and me to be home alone for a few days without a catering event on my calendar. I love to cook for us. When we were dating and I was living in Raleigh, I spent hours planning menus for Vince’s weekend visits. The sorry truth is, I have a tough time cooking for two people.

That’s amore! Who doesn’t love a good pizza? Longer and warmer days are incentive for quick and easy to prepare suppers. Pizza is the easiest.

It’s the middle of the morning on Friday and I’m still in my pajamas. Actually, it’s closer to noon on Friday and I’m still in my pajamas. Vince is on his way to visit his mother in Florence for a couple of days so Belle and I are home alone having a girls weekend.

I had to bake a couple of cakes for a catering gig yesterday. At the last minute, I thought to add my Mama’s secret ingredient, black walnut flavoring. That’s what triggered it. As the cakes baked, my kitchen was ensconced with a lovingly familiar and kind of melancholy scent. My mind was flooded with memories. Smells do that to me more than anything else. And then, hot tears started streaming down my cheeks.

Sophisticated Cuisine from the South Carolina Lowcountry   It’s getting real up in here! My new cookbook, Celebrate Beaufort, is set for release on Thursday, April 19th and I’m so excited! The cookbook arrived just in time for Mother’s Day gift giving and book signings are scheduled all over town during the next few weeks. (A current listing follows at the end of this column.) Celebrate Beaufort is a gorgeous book, full of easy-to-prepare and delicious recipes, beautiful photography, a bit of local history and folklore, and a few personal stories about some of my favorite Beaufortonians.