African American

Soul Food: Classic Cuisine from the Deep South

Hallelujah! The Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories with Recipes

Throughout Maya Angelou’s life, from her childhood in Stamps, Arkansas, to her world travels as a bestselling writer, good food has played a central role. Preparing and enjoying homemade meals provides a sense of purpose and calm, accomplishment and connection. Now in Hallelujah! The Welcome Table, Angelou shares memories pithy and poignant–and the recipes that helped to make them both indelible and irreplaceable.

Angelou tells us about the time she was expelled from school for being afraid to speak–and her mother baked a delicious maple cake to brighten her spirits. She gives us her recipe for short ribs along with a story about a job she had as a cook at a Creole restaurant (never mind that she didn’t know how to cook and had no idea what Creole food might entail). There was the time in London when she attended a wretched dinner party full of wretched people; but all wasn’t lost–she did experience her initial taste of a savory onion tart. She recounts her very first night in her new home in Sonoma, California, when she invited M. F. K. Fisher over for cassoulet, and the evening Deca Mitford roasted a chicken when she was beyond tipsy–and created Chicken Drunkard Style. And then there was the hearty brunch Angelou made for a homesick Southerner, a meal that earned her both a job offer and a prophetic compliment: “If you can write half as good as you can cook, you are going to be famous.”

Maya Angelou is renowned in her wide and generous circle of friends as a marvelous chef. Her kitchen is a social center. From fried meat pies, chicken livers, and beef Wellington to caramel cake, bread pudding, and chocolate éclairs, the one hundred-plus recipes included here are all tried and true, and come from Angelou’s heart and her home. Hallelujah! The Welcome Table is a stunning collaboration between the two things Angelou loves best: writing and cooking.

The Black Family Reunion Cookbook: Recipes and Food Memories

The Black Family Reunion Celebrations, organized by The National Council of Negro Women and held in seven cities across America every summer, celebrate and preserve the values, traditions, and strengths of the African-American family. Inspired by these festivals, The Black Family Reunion Cookbook contains more than 250 recipes from home kitchens across America, seasoned with warm memories and "homemade love."

Including personal reminiscences from celebrities such as Natalie Cole, Wilma Rudolph, Patti LaBelle, and Spetman College President Johnetta Cole, this unique collection reflects the local, national, and international heritage of the Black community. It offers dishes for every occasion and every taste, from African-inspired Mustard Greens with Peanut Sauce to down-home Family Famous Chicken and Dumplings, from a traditional gumbo to sophisticated Sweet Potato Smoked Turkey Bisque, and, in honor of the council's founder, Mary McLeod Bethune, her own recipe for her celebrated Sweet Potato Pie.

New Soul Cooking: Updating a Cuisine Rich in Flavor and Tradition (Melting Pot)

Soul food embodies the best of American cooking-it's tasty, homegrown, and redolent of the country's multiethnic history. In New Soul Cooking, the Food Network's Tanya Holland redefines this much-loved cuisine, introducing fresh and healthy ingredients, modern cooking styles, and global flavors.

From Africa to the Caribbean, Brazil, and the American South, Holland shows how African flavors fused with existing cooking traditions created the basis for soul food. She combines this now traditional style with fresh flavor combinations and cooking techniques, to create soul food cooking for a new generation of home cooks and chefs.

The 90 delicious creations in New Soul Cooking-from Black-eyed Pea and Country Ham Chowder to Pecan-Crusted Boneless Chicken Breasts and Confetti Cornbread-reinvigorate the concept of soul food. Luscious color photographs of many of these dishes introduce new presentation ideas, reinforcing Holland's belief that a color palette is as important as a wonderful flavor palate.

Spoonbread & Strawberry Wine: Recipes and Reminiscences of a Family

Spanning over a century of African-American life  and culture, this classic oral history celebrates  one remarkable family's heritage as told through  photos, reminiscences, and recipes--now back in  print after six years.



B & W  photographs throughout

Occasions to Savor

Recipes, menus, and entertaining tips from one of the largest, most respected African-American women's organizations in the world.

Renowned for their dedication to service, the women of Delta Sigma Theta are equally admired for their chic signature style. In Occasions to Savor, the sorority shares its entertaining savvy with everyone-Deltas and non-Deltas alike.

Lavishly illustrated, this book features more than 250 recipes compiled from members of the sorority, plus entertaining tips and suggested menus for specific occasions, including bridal and baby showers, book club meetings, an after-theater dinner, a backyard barbecue, and Christmas dinner. Featuring a full range of recipes from appetizers, beverages, salads, soups, and entrées to breads, breakfast foods, and desserts, Occasions to Savor is much more than an entertaining guide and cookbook; it's a celebration of African-American women who have made significant contributions to society.

Engaging profiles of such influential Deltas as former Congresswoman Barbara Jordan; Mary McCleod Bethune, founder of Bethune-Cookman College and founder and first president of the National Council of Negro Women; renowned choreographer Judith Jamison; and Dorothy Height, civil rights activist and chair and president emerita of the National Council of Negro Women, reveal why the women of this esteemed organization are held up both as role models and mentors and as icons of style and substance.

Sylvia's Family Soul Food Cookbook: From Hemingway, South Carolina, To Harlem

Sylvia's Family Soul Food Cookbook begins as Sylvia recalls her childhood, when she lived with both her mother and her grandmother -- the town's only midwives. The entire community of Hemingway, South Carolina, shared responsibilities, helped raise all of the children, and worked side by side together every day in the bean fields. Perhaps most important, the community shared its food and recipes. When Sylvia set out to write this cookbook, she decided to hold a cook-off back home in Hemingway at Jeremiah Church. Family and friends of all ages shared their favorite dishes as well as their spirit and love for one another. The recipes offered at the cook-off were then compiled to create this incredible collection, along with many of Sylvia's and the Woods family's own recipes.

Here are the kinds of recipes you'd find if you visited the Woods family's home. Sylvia's daughter Bedelia is well known for her Barbecued Beef Short Ribs, which are as sassy and spicy as Bedelia herself. Kenneth, Sylvia's youngest son, has loved to fish ever since he was a child, spending his summers by the fishing hole in Hemingway. Now Kenneth's son, DeSean, enjoys fishing, too. Kenneth's Honey Lemon Tilefish, DeSean's favorite, is just one of Kenneth's special recipes presented here.

And there are many, many other wonderful dishes, too. In this remarkable cookbook, Sylvia has gathered more than 125 soul food classics, including mouthwatering recipes for okra, collard greens, Southern-style pound cakes, hearty meat and seafood stews and casseroles, salads, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and more. These recipes are straight from the heart of the Woods community of family and friends. Now Sylvia gives them to you to share with your loved ones. Bring them into your home and experience a little bit of Hemingway's soul.

Sylvia's Soul Food

Sylvia Woods has been barbecuing, baking, frying, and smothering New York City's best soul food for nearly thirty years. According to the Zagat New York City Restaurant Survey, "For down-home delicious Soul Food, this funky Harlemite is the real thing; go for great ribs, incredible fried chicken, fiery greens, and other artery-clogging Southern staples. Don't tell your doctor what you ate."

Now, for the first time, the "Queen of Soul Food" reveals her recipe secrets for more than one hundred of the authentic, stick-to-your-ribs soul food and classic Southern dishes she serves at her world-famous Harlem restaurant.

Start off with a breakfast of homemade pork sausage with eggs and the tenderest, flakiest biscuits you've ever eaten. Move on to tried-and-true soul food favorites that include Smothered Chicken, Fried Catfish with Hushpuppies, Sweet and Spicy Chicken Wings, Blackeyed Peas and Rice, and, of course, "Sylvia's World-Famous Talked-About Barbecued Ribs."

Of course, no meal at Sylvia's would be complete without a couple of "sides": Fried Green Tomatoes, Collard Greens with Cornmeal Dumplings, Candied Sweet Potatoes, and more. Sylvia's desserts are enough to satisfy any sweet tooth: Peach Cobbler, Lemon Pie, and Three-Layer Caramel Cake.

So, "if you're craving great barbecue, down-home soul food, and something uniquely New York, catch a cab up to Sylvia's, a marvelous restaurant serving up batches of great ribs, pork chops, candied sweet potatoes, and pecan pies that will satisfy the biggest eater in the family" (Passport to New York Restaurants). If you can't make it to New York, Sylvia's Soul Food will make you feel like you're there.

Soul Food: Recipes and Reflections from African-American Churches

When Joyce White moved to New York City from Alabama, she left small-town life behind and landed ajob as a food editor at a major women's magazine. Weekends, however, found her visiting churches in Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvestant, looking for a taste of home. Food has long been a part of the spiritual life of African-American churches, and what she found there, along with what she missed from home, was the comforting blend of cooking and fellowship that feeds both the body and soul.

In this warm and joyful collection, White offers more than 150 recipes for the foods that worshipers look forward to after services, and she captures the spirit of these sociable meals with warm, conversational and occasionally poignant reflections from African-American churchgoers around the United States.

"We don't just come to church service and leave," says a retired nurse who directs hospitality for a large church in Los Angeles. "Many of us stay here half the day. That way we get a chance to rub shoulders and see what is going on or going wrong with each other."

From delicious renditions of classics such as Sugar-Crusted Biscuits to updated favorites such as Black Beans with Sun-Dried Tomatoes, as well as special fare for entertaining and Kwaanza, the pages of Soul Food are alive with the spirit and love of African-American churches -- and the terrific food to be found there.

Southern Homecoming Traditions: Recipes and Remembrances

Southern Homecoming Traditions is a cookbook and a celebration of the five historic black colleges and one university that comprise the Atlanta University Center: Morehouse, Spelman, and Morris Brown Colleges, Morehouse School of Medicine, Interdenominational Theological Center, and Clark-Atlanta University. Author Carolyn Quick Tillery uses the evocative power of food to take us back to the institutions where so many great African-American leaders were educated, and the region where so many great dishes were created. With over 200 mouthwatering recipes, along with powerful history, moving remembrances and stunning archival photographs, this book is a homecoming table laden with memories, pride and pleasure. So take a seat and dig in!

A Sampling of the Recipes:

APPETIZERS
* Sweet Auburn Street Wings
* Rum-Glazed Tiger Prawns
* Corn and Field Pea Dip
* Blue Cheese and Toasted Pecan Spread

MAIN DISHES
* Spicy Fried Chicken with Spicy Tomato Salad
* Sunday Collard Greens with Rice and Ham
* Blazing Jalapeno and Turkey Greens
* Black-Eyed Peas with Smoked Ham

BREADS AND DESSERTS
* Ginger Cookies
* Mother's Cake
* Georgia Peach and Praline Pie
* Peanut Butter Cake with Chocolate Amaretto Frosting
* Sweet Potato Cake with Pineapple Filling and Cream Cheese Frosting

A melting pot of speeches, songs, stories, and photographs, Southern Homecoming Traditions illuminates the whole of the African-American experience. Enhanced by inspiring African proverbs ("Teach a woman and you teach a nation") and touching remembrances, this is both a sumptuous cookbook and a joyous living history of black America's ever-continuing influence on American cuisine and culture.