Thanksgiving Throwback!!

Fall is my favorite season – I say it over and over and love it just the same each year. I love too that fall is capped by a swansong holiday like Thanksgiving – a time set aside to simply give thanks.

Setting the table is probably my most enjoyable task for family gatherings, dinner parties and events. When you set your table, you get to quell all the design-desires at once! You pair linens with coordinating flatware and stemware. China and dinnerware and silver and flowers are all integral. Food and flavor and scents for the senses are all brought onto one tableau. When decorating a client’s home, it takes time to layer all the elements together. To set and decorate a table doesn’t usually involve such a process as an interiors project. To decorate my home takes nerve medicine. But that is another post, y’all!

When setting a table, instant gratification is achieved. That design “itch” is scratched and one is forced to dabble in all realms of aesthetics. As Mimi always said, “We eat with our eyes first.”  Before we have feasted, we must feast visually. So I relish in the chance to set the table. Whether it be grandly or simply, I love bringing together the home, kitchen and garden onto a level playing field.

Invite the generations to the table with your heirloom plates, silver and stemware. Bring in the fall bounty from outdoors. Add a new element or even element of surprise! (It is no surprise anymore when I place a piece of taxidermy as a centerpiece on my family’s table… oh well!) Get your fix for decorating by setting the table. I know it is my favorite part of the holidays and entertaining.

Here is my Thanksgiving table from 2014 and some food and family shots too! Nothing like talking turkey well into the New Year, y’all!

Thanks and Giving: A Video with Southern Living

Gearing up for Thanksgiving y'all -- take a gander at this Farmer setting the table with my friends at Southern Living!

Autumn Veggie Soup

Roast em and stew em - that's all there is too em!

I don't know about y'all, but I roast just about everything I can. Veggies, fruit and meats all get nice and toasty and caramelized from high heat and a little salt to draw out the moisture. Roasting veggies has become my MO for getting picky eaters (y'all know who you are) to eat all kinds of veggies. Broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, okra, zucchini, squashes of all sorts and onions too all find their way into the oven and onto plates. Roasted sweet potatoes with rosemary and onion... Oh my my!

I love, love, love vegetable soup. But I have a few stipulations to this stew of sorts. I don't care for potatoes in my veggie soup - can't say why exactly but I don't. Potato soup though is perfectly fine!

I also want my vegetable soup to be seasonally apropos. Modern grocers and canning allows us to eat summer produce in winter but there's something about keeping a seasonal nod to the soup that's quite enjoyable. For me it's the squashes and Brussels sprouts that make this soup fallish!

Another veggie soup stipulation - I don't love frozen veggies to make my soup. I love that this soups freezes but that's a whole other lesson in chemistry in frozen fresh and frozen cooked food. Canned, fresh or "put up" from summer are just fine. In a pinch, the frozen kind will work.

A big ol Dutch oven or big soup pot and a couple roasting pans is all you'll need for cooking - love a one pot, one pan meal!

For my Autumn Veggie Soup, I use a mélange of roasted veggies and a base of onion browned with pancetta or country ham. "Brown the onion first." Mimi and Mama taught me that. Can't go wrong with browned onions as a start to any supper!

As for the stock, a mix of chicken stock and tomato juice is the key. A third to two thirds respectively is good. More or less depending on how "soupy" you want your soup.

Slice and drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper and then roast some broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, autumnal squashes of your liking and even a pepper or two until browned and nearly crisp. They'll reconstitute in the soup!

To the browned onion and ham, throw in some celery too, for I truly believe that celery is unmerited for its cooked flavor. Add canned, crushed, stewed and/or freshly chopped tomatoes to cook down with the browned onions and allow their acidity to deglaze the pan.

Season liberally as you add ingredients, simmer and serve! My family loves Pepper Jack cheese on just about anything and this soup is no exception.

I think that pancetta and Brussels sprouts were made for one another - they're romance of finding one another in the soup pot is truly and story for the ages.

Plus, y'all, this soup can feed pharaoh's army and "freezes beautifully" (Steel Magnolias... Need I say more?). Whip up a batch of cornbread or make quesadillas or grilled cheese (same thing almost right?) or simply serve on its own. This soup gets better as is sits, so enjoy again the next night.

Take some flavors of the season and a traditional soup too and you've a feast! I hope y'all are enjoying fall - it's flavors, temperatures and scenery!

Rosemary and Red Onion Apple Pork

Yeah... The name say it all. Those flavors all melded together in one pot no less is divine. Give me flavor complements like sweet and salty or sweet and tart or sweet and savory and I'm in love! This dish bodes well for such culinary complements!

Braising is probably next to roasting as my favorite cooking method for many things. Taking a meat and braising - not boiling it - is a delicate method to delicious cuts of meat! Gently infusing a gorgeous pork chop with apple cider is nothing short of divine. And this dish is easy and relativity quick! Wilt some kale in it and you've a one dish wonder!

I start with a Dutch oven and begin browning the pork chops on either side to form a slight crust. Salt and peppering the pork and high heat allows this. Searing them may be technically more apropos in culinary diction but y'all get me! Once the chops or even tenderloin are seared and crusted, I remove them from the pan onto a plate to rest.

Next, in the onion or two go to brown in the Dutch oven...No shock there folks! I use Mimi's adage, "butter for flavor, oil for temperature!" I really like to use red onions for this dish because they're color is so lovely - plus they caramelize fantastically! Brown the onions in some butter and oil and salt  and pepper handsomely. This is the base of your meal y'all and adding salt at the end to me doesn't do salt and pepper their true justice of bringing out their companions' natural flavor.

Once the onion begins to brown, I add chopped apples - a mix of sweet and tart such as Granny Smith and Fuji. I also like to throw in some whole garlic cloves to brown, sweeten and soften - they're delicious all mushed together with the apples and onions. 

Once this mixture has melded together and smells utterly heavenly, I throw in some rosemary... Who knew that the smell of those ingredients could make the Angels sing? Once the rosemary softens a tad and is quite aromatic, add the pork back to the Dutch oven and pour in a splash of white wine to deglaze the pan and  then some apple cider. A cup of cider per pound or chop will do the trick!

A nice little time in a 375 oven - say 25-30 minutes or until pork is medium well to well done - will make your kitchen smell even more heavenly. If you'd like a green element to the dish, add some kale! It'll wilt down almost instantly upon removing the dish from the oven.

Pork is naturally sweet and thus fairs so well with apples and onions. This little piggy adores this dish all fall and even into wintertime. I hope y'all do too!

Falling for Fall… I do this Every Year!

There is no doubt – fall is my favorite season. As Editor at Large with Southern Living, I have the privilege of contributing fun stories and ideas to the magazine as a whole, but my fall stories seem to always make the newsstands! I’ve said it over and over and this mantra of mine is worth repeating: “Fall is a Southerner’s reward for surviving summer.” I’ve even seen this printed on a cocktail napkin – thanks y’all for the advertising!

So as y’all peruse the pages of the October Southern Living, I’d love to walk y’all through some of the fun from behind the scenes that didn’t make the cut – as if me and my uber stylish outfit weren’t cute enough for the pages of SL… ha! From the cracker-jack team of my BFF Jess “Frou Frou” Margeson, Stacey and Laura Lyn from JFI to the senior stylist Mrs. Buffy Hargett Miller herself to editor Jen Kopf and photographer extraordinaire Helen Norman (who has photographed A Time to Cook and Porch Living), we managed to somehow not only set, style and shoot and amazing venue, but have an absolute blast doing so! Time certainly flies when you’re having fun, and I’m here to tell y’all it was a blast from start to finish!

Jen Kopf, Helen Norman, yours truly, Buffy Hargett Miller

The setting was a dear, sweet friend’s home in Cashiers. I was at her house one lovely summer day for cocktails before sunset and jokingly said I wanted to transform her immaculate, stunning, antique-filled, absolutely gorgeous home into an autumnal oasis to celebrate the season… and pitch the idea to my editors at Southern Living. This, y’all is never an easy task to ask, but thankfully, my adorable friend (and her family) obliged. I cannot thank my precious friend enough!

With unparallel views of Whiteside Mountain just beyond the tree line, the crisp autumn air glowed with the hues only fall can afford to lend the sky. My friend, an antiques dealer out of Atlanta, has treasure troves of l’objets d’art from her forays through Parisian flea markets, Portobello Road in London and scouring the French and English countryside for just the right barley-twist candlesticks. If ever there was a “set” to photograph a celebration of the season, this home was it. From the mountainsides and gardens and farmers markets, I gleaned the season’s best. Tables were set, flowers were arranged and mantels bedecked with the flair of fall. Give me a pumpkin, some leaves and bittersweet, and I’ll give you a mantel!

Dried hydrangeas, rose hips, beauty berry, dahlias, Free Spirit roses, bittersweet, magnolia, cabbage, apples, pumpkins, oak leaves, acorns, pecans and plumes upon plumes of grasses were all woven together to create a tableau as rich as the season could present.  I could go on and on and on about this shoot. From the feel, the textures, the scents, the sights, the hues, tones, arrays and luscious combinations my favorite season gives us, I am rejuvenated and invigorated for this time of year.

I hope y’all are inspired to kick off the holiday season with a fanfare for fall. I know I am! Enjoy these behind the scenes pics and be sure to check out the October issue on newsstands now!

Jess and I have just as much fun taking selfies as we do making outrageous pumpkin arrangements. Her work is phenomenal! Like her hair, her pumpkin creations are a work of art!!

I love antique crocks and pottery. Here, these fantastic old jars with a deep tobacco glaze. These jars are filled to the brim with nandina berries, sweet gum, dried hydrangea, celosia and viburnum for some fall fabulousness. 

A garland of oak leaves, maple leaves, magnolia and dried hydrangea cloaks one side of the massive stone mantel. I love symmetry but I love balance more. Though this mantel scene is not symmetrical per se, it is balanced. Of course I had to throw some pumpkins and ornamental cabbage for good measure. 

Give Ol' Jimmy a jug of sweet tea and I can decorate for hours. You can take the boy out of Perry, but... y'all know how it goes!

 I love to use dough bowls as centerpieces. They are long and set a table oh so well. Here, I mounded bunches of dried hydrangea, fall foliage, artichokes and even a few turtle shells for texture. The nandina berries just pop against the autumnal palette. I love too how this is so fall but not filled with orange pumpkins. The green 'Cinderella' ones make for a stylish departure for this set up. Plus, this arrangement will last all through the fall with the hydrangeas and leaves and berries drying and the pumpkins lasting for months if they're not carved. 

Don't forget your windowboxes! As for a fall display, I kept the ivy that was spilling out but planted ornamental cabbages that will last all through the winter in the the Deep South. Magnolia, a few pumpkins nestled in here and there, bittersweet winding its way throughout the scene and even an artichoke or two can be found alongside the cabbage. I added a few stems of millet for texture too - because it is fall and I can!

Is there anything better than working with a hydrangea as big as your head? As big as Jess' hair even? No. the answer is "no." Nothing better y'all! Ha!

As wonderful and fabulous as all this created fun is, nothing beats The Almighty's handiwork on an autumn day in Cashiers!

Happy fall, y’all!

Frou Frou to You!

Sometimes, when two folks meet, stars align and maybe even a supernova somewhere in space explodes. Immeasurable energy is created and it must be invested somewhere. That is the case when one Jess aka “Gup” Margeson and I met in Hawkinsville circa… well let’s just say we were children… and that supernova channeled its energy into our friendship.

I came in the house from a day of summer fun on our farm just out from town. Upon returning indoors, I found my mother propped up on the green and white cabana stripe wicker chaise in her room. Her toes were drying from a fresh coat of “Cajun Shrimp” having been recently applied. This was Mama’s color eleven months out of the year. “Big Apple Red” was applied at Christmas.

This scenario was not an odd one for my sisters and me to witness. Mama was pretty religious when it came to her nail color. As I passed by her bedroom door, she waved and woowhooed at me. “I just met the cutest, sweetest, precious, Christian girl. I think y’all should get married. If not, she’s gonna be your best friend I know. I already love her. She liked my nail polish and hair. She’s raised right!” That’s all it took for Jess to brand herself to Mama’s heart.

I was about eleven years old at the time and a SPCG (the acronym given in my family to such gals of merit) for me to be friends with let alone marry was not on my radar. Yet, as mamas do, they have these inklings and premonitions when it comes to their children. The “SPCG” in mention was none other than the former Miss Jessica Elizabeth Vinson. Nowadays she is better known as Jess “Frou Frou”  Mrs. Matt Margeson. Her family had just moved to town and serendipitously down the street from us. Fate and destiny are one thing, noting could asunder what my mama joined together.

Pretty soon, Jess and I were friends. We rode the bus together to our school in the next town and thus had plenty of time to bond. Then nicknames “Gup” and “Doodle’ formed, respectively, as in line with all good friendships boasting nicknames. There are stories to the nicknames but I shan’t digress. We survived middle school together. When high school came around, Jess moved to the big ol’ city of Macon. There we kept in touch by phone, met for our overalls donned dates at THE Fair (when you’re from my neck of the woods, the Georgia National Fair is simply know as THE Fair. There is no other fair in our minds) and I even abused her GAP employee discount all throughout high school proper and into college as well. Those were darker days in our friendship since a twenty-mile stretch of I-75 separated us. When you cannot drive yourself to or from Macon, that I-75 corridor might as well be the Atlantic.

College brought us back together into the same town proper. Auburn called and we answered. After announcing to our respective families that we were going to live together, we had to dissolve said scheme and live in proper boys and girls dorms due to the near coronaries we caused our Mamas. Those dorms were fun, but if only Gup and Doodle could have cohabitated collegiately, there would’ve been volumes more to share. We practically did spend every moment we could together at Auburn. Our dorms were literally across the street from one another. I even (excuse the bravado and boasting but this a collegiate accomplish of great aptitude at Auburn) was able to sneak past “Miss Minnie” the dorm mother and hide out past curfew in Jess’ dorm room. It may have been time by the dormitory’s rule book for “gentlemen callers to leave” but Jess and I were often not through crafting, scheming our next adventure or simply rehashing the same ol’ childhood funnies over and over. Somehow, the stories we tell get funnier with age and repetition of telling!

Jess set her sights on a KA pledge named Matt. He fit her specific bill for what she was looking for in a man. Matt fit the bill with me because he asked me to “please keep dating Jess” when they get married. “I think it is the only way this will work” he said.

I did the flowers for their wedding (with a 102 temp and the flu mind you… hey… what are friends for?) and Jess has accompanied and crafted with me on weddings, parties and events across The South. From Richmond to Montgomery, we’ve decorated and decked the halls in many a Confederate capital city. Her floral design business, Frou Frou is based in Opelika, Alabama, so she remains close to  the “Promised Land – the rolling plains of Dixie, ‘neath the sun kissed skies.”

For my latest story in Southern Living, I had to have Jess as my wingman. Celebrating Fall in Cashiers was enough to get me thrilled beyond repair, but having Jess alongside made it that much better. We cut beauty berry, leaves, branches and grasses all up and down the mountain highways and byways and loaded “Goldie” my suburban down with every heirloom pumpkin we could carry. What the two of us can do with a pumpkin is nothing short of magical! Ha! Jess is great at the small stuff and I like the big stuff. I tackled the mantels (mainly because I could reach them… I’m 6’4” and she’s a good 5’ and slight change) and she tackled the pumpkins. We meet in the middle at the table and the job gets done!

There is something so sound about doing what you love for a living. Jess and I have found our passions and created professions. We are fortunate enough that our businesses coincided and can collaborate regularly. Work isn’t so much work as it is a blast of fun! Having a friend like Jess is one of my life’s greatest blessings in general. Having a friend that I’ve known and loved and can rave about how much I love sheet moss is a precious gift.

So peruse the pages of the October Southern Living and see our work. What the pages don’t show are our selfies, our work “uniforms” and Jess stealing my Plainswear hat. You can keep it Gup!

Happy fall y’all. I hope y’all have a friend or two like I do – if so, I know you’ve a cornucopia of blessings!