a taste of home

success on a plate.  simply put.  one of the first restaurants in richmond that i enjoyed was strawberry street cafe.  soon they became a favorite!  i love their broccoli cheese quiche.  so good.  they also have a delicious chicken pot pie that is sooo good and comforting!  truly good. when the shop next door no longer sold the pot pie on behalf of the cafe, i was motivated to make my own.  (i bet you can order them from the cafe still.)  finally i've made a chicken pot pie that almost resembles their own.  i took the first bite and thought it could have been theirs. oh...i just had to.  it's so wonderfully good thanks to the crust recipe that i'll now forever use.  i may have to tweak it a little. when i do, i'll share.  until then, i'll bake. 

and bake i must.  when you have fresh crust on hand you must have a little taste of mississippi pecan pie (pecans from ms, too).  delightful!  success on a plate.  serious goodness.  it's rich, yet not so sweet that you can't eat more than 2 bites.  it's smooth and packs a lot of pecans in each slice.  there's nothing like a good day of cooking!

thanks goes to the grand cookbook of the junior league of jackson, ms for the crust recipe.  mom found this copy recently and sent it to me in a box of goodies from home.  i used the pecan pie recipe as an influence with tweaking to fit my granny's recipe with a touch of freshly grated nutmeg-- influence of another friend thrown in.  i know!  i tempt without recipes!

my grandmother, an avid quilter, had pieces of her work  in various stages that i have inherited.  this runner i made over the weekend sewing excursion using part of an old cover that was among her quilting possessions.  when it's flipped, i'll show the handiwork on the back.  i can only guess that she made it, too.  hard to say.  could have been my great-grandmother's handiwork.  either way, i love it.  it's great on our buffet, as you see here.  i'll be incorporating more of her work into our home as i complete some of those long-ago started projects.  there's so much meaning for my spirit in this process.  i look forward to sharing.