Cooking with Grandma

Faye Porter can't smell roast beef without thinking of her paternal grandmother.

“Her home always smelled like roast beef,” Porter says in a recent phone interview. “That smell takes me back, but it never seems to taste as good as it smells.”

Most of the memories Porter has of her grandmothers are tied to food. On her mother's side, it's Grandma Ferkan's giant sugar cookies stored inside the apple cookie jar while Grandma Porter had a crystal dish always filled with dark green pickles.

“They were called lime pickles,” she says.

Porter grew up in the Midwest but found her home in Nashville. There she also found a community dedicated to opening their homes, and their kitchens, to others.

“Entertaining is such a big thing in the south,” Porter says. “So much of what they learned, and the traditions they continue with their family, had come from their grandmother.”

It's that sense of nostalgia of passing down recipes from one generation to the next that inspired Porter's first cookbook, “At My Grandmother's Knee: Recipes & Memories Handed Down by Women of the South” (Thomas Nelson; March 22, 2011).

“Initially, the first book was granddaughters submitting recipes,” Porter says. “When it came out, I had men contacting me to say they wished they could have participated, too.”

The response was so great, a second cookbook was planned, with both granddaughters and grandsons invited to submit recipes. These appear in her newest cookbook, “At My Grandmother's Table: Heartwarming Stories & Cherished Recipes from the South” (Thomas Nelson; April 16, 2013).

Part cookbook, part memoir, each recipe comes with a memory from the person who submitted it. Stories range from table manners to birthday customs. Porter says her goal was to showcase the great food and people of the South and inspire families to start their own traditions.

“As busy as people are today - we have families that don't even eat dinner together - it's great to see that there are still some things being passed along,” Porter says. “It's my hope that this cookbook will show families that there are little things they can do together - it doesn't have to be elaborate - to start a tradition.”

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GRANA'S GROWN-UP MAC AND CHEESE

• Cooking spray
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 1/2 cups whole milk
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese, divided
• 8 ounces elbow pasta, cooked and drained
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen spinach, thawed
• 1 (6 ounce) can chopped mushrooms, drained
• 1 (10 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly spray a 2-quart casserole dish.

In a saucepan, combine the cornstarch, salt, mustard, and pepper. Stir in the milk and butter, stirring constantly.

Bring to a boil over medium heat, approximately 1 minute. Remove from the heat. Stir in 1 3/4 cups of cheese until melted. Stir in the pasta.

In a medium skillet over medium heat, add the olive oil and sauté the spinach, mushrooms, and tomatoes until the spinach is limp, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the sautéed vegetables to the pasta and stir to combine.

Spoon the pasta into the casserole dish and top with the remaining 1/4 cup cheese. Bake uncovered for 25 minutes or until lightly browned on top.

Make 4 to 6 servings.

Source: "At My Grandmother's Table: Heartwarming Stories & Cherished Recipes from the South” by Faye Porter (Thomas Nelson; April 16, 2013).