Southern Comfort: A Down-Home Cookbook

Southern food is a hug that got cooked. A Buffalo boy by birth, Dr. Christopher D. Pritchard, D.D. learned Southern cooking the right way — in Marine Corps chow lines, church potlucks, and little kitchens where somebody's mama was patient enough to teach him. Southern Comfort collects 50 of the classics, done the honest way: shattering fried chicken, smoky collard greens, skillet cornbread, mac and cheese, gumbo, pecan pie, and sweet tea by the pitcher.

Every recipe uses ingredients from a regular grocery store and directions written like a friend is standing in your kitchen — no pretension, no gatekeeping, no rushing the greens. From Sunday mains to the desserts-and-drinks finish, this is the down-home table, set for everybody. Pull up a chair.