Author: Debbi Covington

I ‘ve recently become a partner with DIY Weddings Magazine and am now writing a wedding catering advice column 4 times a year. This issue of Lowcountry Weekly features my first column originally published in December 2012 along with food photography by the incomparable Susan DeLoach!

Blow the horns, throw the confetti and pop the cork on 2013 in sparkling style! A time for reflection as well as for reveling, the turning of the year provides an opportunity to look back with satisfaction and ahead with hope. 

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! How can you tell? Christmas trees are popping up everywhere! This year, why don’t you invite the gang over for a Tree Trimming Party?! It’s a great way to kick off the holiday season!

Cooking takes on special joy during the Christmas season! Cocktail parties, intimate dinners, casual gatherings and cookie exchanges all call for the finest holiday foods.  Christmas is also a time for remembering special neighbors, co-workers and friends with tasty homemade treats from your kitchen. 

“Bless us O Lord and make us more true and thankful for these and all our many blessings. We ask these prayers in Christ’s name. Amen.” This is the prayer that my husband Vince has said over our evening meal for the past twenty-one years of our marriage. This Thanksgiving season, while we break bread with our family and friends, let’s take the time to be truly thankful for all of our many blessings.

A few issues ago, I mentioned that I had been testing some new cauliflower dishes. I’m tickled pink with the number of people who have stopped me in the grocery store or at catering events to ask me when I was going to share some of those recipes. This is the week!

Nothing compares with the aroma of freshly baked bread! All of this week’s recipes are for easy-to-prepare breads and muffins that are best when served warm. Some of my favorite serving suggestions include:  Cheesy Spinach Muffins with tomato soup, Praline Muffins and Cranberry Butter with a green salad, Herbed Parmesan Biscuits with spaghetti or pasta, Sour Cream Muffins with chicken salad, Peach Poppy Seed Muffins with spinach quiche, Black-Eyed Pea Cornbread with pork chops, and Miniature Buttermilk Biscuits with baked salmon. Happy baking!

Eggplant is in season and it’s quite abundant at all of the farmers’ markets. This time of year they’re plump and firm and perfect! The eggplant (aka aubergine) is a member of the nightshade family. They’re very filling, supply few calories and contain virtually no fat. Their meaty texture makes eggplant a wonderful vegetarian main-dish choice. 

Okay, so I’m going through a “pea” phase. Last week I made cauliflower every which way but loose. This week it’s peas! Not just your everyday green peas mind you, all kinds of peas. Black-eyed peas, chickpeas (actually a legume), sugar snap peas, snow peas –the list goes on! Beans and peas are part of the same plant group.

A gentleman from California once asked a group of us Southerners gathered at a cocktail party why we were so much fun to be with. “There must be something in the water,” he figured. “Yes,” I said. “Bourbon.”