Of course, most folks think that no one cooks like their Grandmama, and I count myself part of this proud contingent. Grandmama Long's speciality, being from North Carolina and all, would have to be her buttermilk biscuits. They consist of nothing more than self-rising flour ("It's got to be Red Band or they won't turn out right," she always says), Crisco, and a healthy dollop of buttermilk. Eat 'em in the morning as biscuit toast with cheese on them, with a meal -- especially with gravy -- or for desert with a little butter and jelly. No one makes them like her. (I'd share the exact portions here, but, well it's sort of a family secret.) We won't even get started on Grandmama Dee's chicken and dumplings, which I'm sorry to say I haven't tasted in many years. But they were always our favorites on Sunday afternoons when Mom and Dad and Jeff and I would stop by her house in Raleigh for Sunday lunch.

Grandmama Dee has not yet written down the recipes for some of her best dishes, and when you ask her how she turns out things like perfect red velvet cakes or those infamous dumplings, she always says that she throws in a pinch of this or a little extra dash of that. In other words, nobody can do them but her. Grandmama Long, however, did sit down a few years back and write out a handful of her favorites recipes. I've taken the liberty of reprinting a few of them here, just so you get an idea what southern cooking is all about. (Although I wouldn't swear to the "Russian Tea" being either Russian or tea, and it really isn't particularly southern.) They're the kind of dishes that go best with coffee and long talks around the family table on a Sunday evening, and yes, she's still cooking. In fact, she asks Mom to go to the store so often these days, that Mom swears Grandmama's giving food out the back door.

So here they are. Eat up.