Author: Debbi Covington

Keep it fresh! Good salads are only made with good ingredients and freshness is all-important when it comes to purchasing salad greens. Let your eyes guide you. Fresh greens look fresh. They won’t have any leaves tinged with brown nor will they be wilted or slimy.

Summer entertaining should be both casual and simple. This week’s dinner party menu is just that! The meal starts with a cool and delicious Chilled Cumber Soup with Basil. The creamy soup is a summertime favorite that’s easy to prepare, is served cold, and highlights the local basil that’s in season.

 My new cookbook Celebrate Everything! has arrived and I’m in the mood to party! Life is full of happy surprises! Good feelings and good times are meant to be shared with others. Infused with high spirits and full of delicious recipes, Celebrate Everything! is a delightful book that inspires cooking and entertaining throughout the year with lots of new reasons to eat, drink and be merry!

In November 2005 my first cookbook, Dining Under the Carolina Moon, was published. I’m happy to report that the 4,000 copy first printing is sold out! And, with the exception of a very few used copies still available on Amazon.com the book is currently out of print. The exciting and good news is that I have a brand new cookbook coming out in just a few days!

I loved cooking for my father!  Daddy’s favorite foods were few in number, and as a young girl, they were the first things that I learned how to prepare.  Almost every Saturday morning, when I was in junior high, I used to bake a chocolate cake with chocolate icing.  The cake would still be warm when Daddy came in around lunchtime expecting a slice.  I can almost hear him saying “Sugar, is that cake ready yet? How about a taste?”

It’s that time of year again – Blueberry Season! South Carolina summers bring ripe blueberries to roadside stands, farmers’ markets and local grocery stores.  Round and smooth-skinned blueberries are juicy and sweet.  Cultivated blueberries comprise the majority of those that reach the market and the season can span from May through October. 

We Southerners revere our mothers!  Since 1912, the second Sunday in May has been set aside to commemorate motherhood.  The mid-spring celebration comes when days are long, gardens are lush with flowers and the promise of summer is in the air.  What better time to honor our Mamas!

Strawberries are the first fruit to come into season in the Lowcountry.  When the strawberry farms open, we flock out to the fields to get our first taste of spring. Strawberries can be traced back to the Greeks and the Romans. Medieval stonemasons carved strawberry designs on altars and around the tops of pillars in churches and cathedrals, symbolizing perfection and righteousness.

“I well remember that last meal on the Titanic. We had a big vase of beautiful daffodils on the table, as fresh as if they had just been picked. Everybody was gay, and people were making bets on the probable time of this record-breaking voyage.” —First-class passenger Lady Duff-Gordon

Warm spring weather fills me with added appreciation for the beautiful place in which we live. The air is fresher, the grass is greener, the azaleas are in full bloom – even the water seems bluer! I’m reminded of a time when I hadn’t even heard of Tomato Pie or Red Rice, back before I learned how to peel shrimp, before I had ever eaten an oyster –  let alone shucked one!