• The most dangerous food is wedding cake. ~ American proverb
  • Make a cake and you have an instant party!  ~ Pam Ricker
  • Let's face it, a nice creamy chocolate cake does a lot for a lot of people; it does for me. ~ Audrey Hepburn
  • This German Chocolate Cake is famous!  It has graced our family tables on many special occasions and travelled across many state lines with Mama and her sisters.  The taste is so good that traveling with it could almost be considered bootlegging!  ~ Pam Ricker
  • My mama and all her five sisters loved pound cake.   When they visited each other, a pound cake usually traveled with them. ~ Pam Ricker ​​
  • Fluffy is desirable for cakes, towels, cat, and blankets. ~  Pam Ricker
  • Mama, the patron saint of patience, would curse when trying to remove cakes from their pans.  Mama only had one curse word in her vernacular: Sh@t. She claimed it was acceptable to say it, because her mother used it only when sewing.  Mama used it while sewing, but expanded it to baking, as well.  ~ Pam Ricker
  • A party without a cake is really just a meeting. ~Julia Child
  • Springform cheesecake pans - every I want to make a cheesecake – the bottom of the pan cannot be found.  It’s like that elusive sock that gets lost.  No matter where you look, it is gone! ~  Pam Ricker
  • To cut your cheesecake – unless you’ve already grabbed a fork and are digging in – use a hot knife.  ~ Pam Ricker
  • My Grandmother Annie used to yank a straw from her broom and stick it in the cake in the oven.  If it came out clean, the cake was done.  ~ Pam Ricker
  • Do not be tempted to open that oven door and check on your cake too soon.  Do that and your cake will sink like the Titanic.  ~  Pam Ricker​​​​
  • Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands—and then eat just one of the pieces. ~Judith Viorst
  • Once we hit forty, women only have about four taste buds left: one for vodka, one for wine, one for cheese, and one for chocolate. ~ Gina Barreca
  • All you need is love.  But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt. ~ Charles M. Schulz​​
  • Life is uncertain.  Eat dessert first.  ~ Ernestine Ulmer
  • You can be miserable before you have a cookie and you can be miserable after you eat a cookie but you can't be miserable while you are eating a cookie. ~ Ina Garten
  • If you want to be an instant hit with the men, just make banana pudding!  They all ooh and aah, like they've never been happier. ~ Aunt Annie Belle Bellia
  • Growing up, the local bakery was located across the alley from my elementary school.   Each year, we always hoped to be in a classroom on the side near the bakery, so we could smell the yummy baked goods cooking all day.  Thus began my life-long love affair with baked goods. ~ Pam Ricker
  • I once ate FIVE of these Irish Cream Brownies at the Houston Festival, where they were sold at a Foley's Department Store booth.  The original was made with Myer's Rum Cream, but I like this version best.   I walked away from the festival with a full tummy and a new boyfriend.  He didn't last, but this recipe is a keeper!  ~ Pam Ricker
  • You can be miserable before you have a cookie and you can be miserable after you eat a cookie, but you can't be miserable while you are eating a cookie. ~ Ina Garten
  • Keep it moist; use the correct amount of baking powder.  Too much and your dessert will be a desert.  ~ Pam Ricker
  • Seize the moment.  Remember all those women on the 'Titanic' who waved off the dessert cart. ~ Erma Bombeck​​
  • Aunt Bessie was a great cook, a dry wit, and had fantastic posture!  Maybe her pies had something to do with all that.  ~ Pam Ricker
  • Promises and pie crusts are made to be broken. - Jonathan Swift
  • I grabbed one of those pies.  My miserable mood magically disappeared with one swing of my arm, as I hurled Mama's famous chocolate meringue pie into the ditch.  ~ Pam Ricker
  • Mama used to eat all pies with a knife.  Hmmm... ~ Pam Ricker
  • If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. ~ Carl Sagan​​
  • I spent the first 40 years of my life not knowing what a leek was.  If you don't know, find out; they're delicious!  ~ Pam Ricker
  • Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon. ~ Doug Larson
  • Nothing so good as butter beans or crowder peas fresh-shelled in the summer.  Mama and Daddy used to go to the Farmer's Market in Mobile and get bushels of these to put up in the freezer.  I remember sitting under the China Berry tree in the front yard shelling those beans and peas, until I could sneak away!  ~  Pam Ricker
  • I made this up myself.  Some people put olives, mustard, and green peppers in their potato salad, but I don't like all that, so this is the way I make it.  ~ Aunt Bessie Holdaway
  • It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato. ~ Lewis Grizzard
  • Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education. ~ Mark Twain
  • Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie. ~Jim Davis
  • Making your own Sauerkraut, it's a bit like a science project, but your prize is delicious and healthy! ~ Pam Ricker​​​​
  • I do not want a gumbo recipe from the New York Times.  I want a gumbo recipe from an old woman named MawMaw Thibodeaux-Landry, who can bare-knuckle box an alligator while reciting the Holy Rosary in Cajun French.  -  Punky Mantilla
  • Mama just made a great gumbo!  That's all there is to it.  ~ Pam Ricker
  • This recipe is all mine.  I copied lots from Mama's Gumbo and learned some from my sis-in-law (Jane), but the rest is me!  ~  Pam Ricker
  • A good Roux - I stand and stir. You can't leave the pot and you can't stop stirring. Takes at least 2 beers or 3 glasses of champagne (for the cook, not the pot) to make a good roux! ~ Pam Ricker
  • Roux - You pull up a stool with a wooden spoon in one hand and a bottle or glass of your choice and some good inspiring music. Making gumbo isn't cooking, it is a state of mind.  ~ Diana Noe
  •  A good roux takes time, a beer or a glass of wine, and lots of patience.  It should be the color of milk chocolate when ready.  It should never be burnt.   If it burns, throw it out and start over. ~  Pam Ricker ​
  • If God had intended us to follow recipes, He wouldn't have given us grandmothers. ~ Linda Henley
  • Pre-heat the oven?  Really?  If I was the sort of person who planned ahead, I wouldn't be eating this Totino's Party Pizza in the first place. ~ Adam Peterson
  • The two biggest sellers in any bookstore are the cookbooks and the diet books. The cookbooks tell you how to prepare the food, and the diet books tell you how not to eat any of it. ~ Andy Rooney​
  • Being in the kitchen should be fun!!  If you don't succeed with a recipe, it's not the end of the world. ~ Pam Ricker
  • If you're afraid of butter, use cream. ~  Julia Child  ​​​
  • If you like good ol' fashion Southern soul food then, yes, I am a good cook!  My specialty is chicken dumplings and poke salad.  ~ Dolly Parton
  • The best comfort food will always be greens, cornbread, and fried chicken.  ~  Maya Angelou
  • When I was little, we would often drive to Aunt Bessie's house for a Sunday dinner of chicken and dumplings. You can’t get much more Southern than an aunt named Bessie and a Sunday dinner.  ~ Pam Ricker
  • There's no better feeling in the world than a warm pizza box on your lap. ~ Kevin James    ​
  • All sorrows are less with bread. ~ Miguel de Cervantes
  • Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts! ~James Beard
  • Rolls, they're always a surprise. We can only expect them to be good every other time I make them.  ~ Jane Ricker​ ​​
  • Breakfast is my favorite.  I could have it for lunch and dinner too. ~  Pam Ricker
  • Soup, it's what's for breakfast. ~ Hellmuth Hinz
  • Popcorn for breakfast!  Why not?  It's a grain.  It's like grits, but with high self-esteem. ~  James Patterson
  • All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast.  ~ John Gunther
  • Mama lived to be one month short of her 101st birthday!  Her recipe for longevity:  ice cream for breakfast.  ~ Pam Ricker​​
  • Wine is bottled poetry. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson​
  • Not sure why I like to drink while I cook, but honestly, the more I drink, the better the food comes out. ~ Ángel Campos
  • I never taste the wine first in restaurants; I just ask the waiter to pour. ~ Nigella Lawson​​
  • I'm sorry if I'm insulting YOUR mom, but MY mom made the best hamburgers in the South. ~  Pam Ricker
  • The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found. ~ Calvin Trillin
  • My mom said the two most important kitchen utensils are attached to your arms... you cannot mix up meatballs with a wooden spoon, get in there, get your fingers dirty! ~ Rachael Ray
  • Chicken Pot Pie - Mama's favorite - however, I never knew her to make one from scratch! ~ Pam Ricker
  • Aunt Bessie Holdaway and Aunt Anniebelle Bellia (Mama's sisters) were the rebels in the family, what with knowing about exotic dishes like tetrazzini.  ~  Pam Ricker
  • Mama made good fried chicken too, but she allowed that Daddy's was the best. ~ Pam Ricker
  • The most indispensable ingredient of all good home cooking: love for those you are cooking for. ~ Sophia Loren
  • Mama made the best French fries ever!  You need 2 paper grocery sacks. ~ Pam Ricker
  • Aunt Pam cooks a great salad. ~ Daryn Ricker
  • Where's that salad with those little marshmallows? ~ The Ricker and Young Families
  • Daddy made this orange sherbet several times every summer, outside in the shade of the Chinaberry tree.  We didn't yet have air-conditioning. I can still taste how refreshing it was in the summer heat!  ~ Pam Ricker​ ​​
  • Growing up a couple of blocks from the Gulf of Mexico was a seafood bonanza.  Love me some shrimp.  ~ Pam Ricker
  • Our family could put away fried shrimp as fast as Mom could cook them! ~ Pam Ricker
  • In my opinion, nobody makes shrimp Po Boys better than Bozo's in Pascagoula on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  It's been a mainstay since 1957.  They also sell Christmas trees during the season.  I remember going there as a little girlwith Daddy to pick out our tree.  It's a winning combo - Po Boys and Christmas trees!!  ~ Pam Ricker​​
  • Cooking is the art of adjustment. ~Jacques Pepin
  • Usually, one's cooking is better than one thinks it is. ~ Julia Child
  • The more you know, the more you can create. There’s no end to imagination in the kitchen. ~ Julia Child
  •  Ha!  Next thing I knew there was grape juice and "grape guts" all over the kitchen, including the ceiling.  Great sorbet in the end!  ~ Pam Ricker
  • The right sauce can even make an old shoe taste elegant. ~ Pam Ricker
  • For years I kept a biscuit that I made in Mrs. Pinkston's Home Economics class.  It was harder than granite and never got moldy, even after years.  Even after I threw it out, it was a constant threat to me. ~ Pam Ricker
  • The only real stumbling block is fear of failure.  In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude. ~  Julia Child  
  • Parents out there want to bring their little ones into the kitchen, the heart of the home.  What a great age to start the learning experience of food! ~ David Hurlock
  • I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate. ~ Julia Child
  • In France, cooking is a serious art form and a national sport. - Julia Child  
  • ​I grill, therefore I am. ~Alton Brown
  • I​ know people that could serve me canned tuna and saltine crackers and have me feel more at home at their table than some people who can cook circles around me.  The more you try to impress people, generally the less you do. ​ ~ ​ Alton Brown
  • Once you get a spice in your home, you have it forever. Women never throw out spices.  The Egyptians were buried with their spices. I know which one I'm taking with me when I go. ~ Erma Bombeck​​​​
  •  (Thai Peanut Dipping Sauce) - Forget dipping, just give me a bowl of this stuff and a spoon, and I'm quite happy! ~ Pam Ricker
  • You don't need a silver fork to eat good food.  ~ Paul Prudhomme
  • Too few people understand a ​really good sandwich. ~James Beard​
  • The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. ~  Willie Nelson
  • Guacamole - I could just eat an entire mixing bowl full of this stuff.  Forget the chips, I'll just use a spoon! ~ Pam Ricker
  • If a man is choking to death on a bite of steak, there is really only one thing to do — finish eating his steak.  ~ Jarod Kintz
  • A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch. ~ James Beard
  • An apple is an excellent thing — until you have tried a peach. ~ George du Maurier
  • Food for thought is no substitute for the real thing. ~ Walt Kelly
  • If you really want to make a friend, go to someone's house and eat with him... he who gives you food, gives you his heart. ~ Cesar Chavez    
  • Laughter is brightest in the place where the food is. ~ Irish saying ​ ​
  • Oh, do those Italians ever know how to use flour! ~ Pam Ricker
  • Life is a combination of magic and pasta. ~ Federico Fellini
  • Everything you see I owe to spaghetti.  ~ Sophia Loren ​​​
  • The highlight of my childhood was making my brother laugh so hard that food came out of his nose. ~ Garrison Keillor
  • My family lived off the land and summer evening meals featured baked stuffed tomatoes, potato salad, corn on the cob, fresh shelled peas and homemade ice cream with strawberries from our garden.  With no air conditioning in those days, the cool porch was the center of our universe after the scorching days. ~ David Mixner 
  • When I was little, there was still a train that took us from our hometown to New Orleans.  What memories - the cable cars, the zoo, the French Quarter, the Blue Room, Mardi Gras, red beans and rice, Schwegmann's grocery, beignets, and of course - gumbo!  ~ Pam Ricker​​​
  • And, of course, the funniest food of all, kumquats. ~ George Carlin
  • ​​ I think we love bacon because it has all the qualities of an amazing sensory experience. When we cook it, the sizzling sound is so appetizing, the aroma is maddening, the crunch of the texture is so gratifying and the taste delivers every time. ~ Alexandra Gurarnaschelli
  • There's absolutely nothing more refreshing on a hot summer day than the taste of a lime. ~  Pam Ricker 
  • Cheese - milk's leap towards immortality.  ~ Clifton Fadiman
  • Just so you know:  Pecans are pronounced 'puh-cahns, not pea-cans'.  Pralines are pronounced 'praw-leens', not 'pray-leens'.  ~ Pam Ricker
A ~ Z   Recipe Index
​Click on a letter below to see recipes in alphabetical order.
​
A     B     C     D     E     F     G     H ~ I     J ~ K     L    M     N     O     P     Q     R     S  ​   T     U ~ V     W ~ Z