Joining us today is Cynthia Wong, pastry chef at one of Atlanta’s own southern-staple restaurants, Empire State South. I fell in love with ESS even before I ever set foot into the fine establishment, simply because of my past experience with their sister restaurant Five & Ten in Athens, Georgia where I attended college. The atmosphere & ambiance is perfectly southern, with a fabulous bar and bocce ball on hand too – and the food is certainly top-notch.

With Thanksgiving week upon us, I am thankful today that Cynthia has shared a heartfelt and honest post below, sharing a special shrimp dish recipe with us all and reminding us that there are so many things to be thankful for. Many thanks Cynthia for taking the time to join the Heirloom Recipe Series!

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This recipe for shrimp dip belonged to my late father-in-law, Bob Harmon. Like my husband, who is his spitting image, Bob was a strapping man, a master of banter, talented cook, and lover of good wine and late nights. I’ve spent most of the last 13 holiday seasons with the large, loud, warm, accepting, incredibly funny Harmons, who now seem more like adopted family than in-laws. I have always been a bit shy, and was initially uneasy during Christmas visits to the Harmon family homestead. I had a hard time keeping up with the all-night, wine-soaked story telling and joke cracking that left me with hangover headache that would blister the paint off a car.

Their 10-foot long family dinner table is always set for Christmas supper with a succulent, mahogany-skinned behemoth of pork known as The Harmon Family Ham, yeast rolls and biscuits, a large jar of mustard, a heaping dish of Hellman’s mayonnaise, cranberry jelly, cornbread dressing, roast oysters, smoked beef tenderloin and horseradish sauce, sausage balls, green salad, collards, black eyed peas, and Bob’s shrimp dip. The food is left on the table after dinner, until every last bite is eaten– a practice that initially appalled me, but one that I have grown to love. Why put away the leftovers and go to bed? Would it not be better to put your feet up by the fire in the den, make another plate and tell another tale of family legend? Sleep is for later, when you are back at home and need to go to work.

I am estranged from my own family, who are as different from the Harmons as to almost seem alien. Two of the most terrible things I’ve come to learn as an adult are that some differences are truly irreconcilable, and that time does not really heal. But the best thing I’ve grown to understand is that contrary to the old saying, you can choose your family.

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Bob’s Shrimp Spread

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Be sure to connect with Cynthia by following Empire State South on Twitter and Facebook too!

Part of our Heirloom Recipe Series, featuring foodies, chefs, artisans, Southerners & fabulous folks willing to share their stories, recipes and photos in an effort to help preserve and share these family recipes for generations to come.

As you must know, I am just thrilled to have Amanda with us today to share a family recipe of her very own, as our Heirloom Recipe Series continues!

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My mother has many specialties, but her Chocolate Dump-It Cake is most beloved in my family. My mother used to do all of her baking late at night, after we were in bed. Around 1 in the morning, the aroma of this cake would begin wafting up to our bedrooms. Then we’d watch her frost it while we ate breakfast. My mother kept this cake in the fridge, and it is sublime even when cold.

Chocolate Dump-It Cake
Serves 10

2 cups sugar
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/4 pound unsalted butter (1 stick), plus more for greasing the pan
2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pan
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon cider vinegar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup Nestle’s semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and place a baking sheet on the lowest rack, to catch any drips when the cake bakes. Put the sugar, unsweetened chocolate, butter and 1 cup of water in a saucepan. Place over medium heat and stir occasionally until all of the ingredients are melted and blended. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.

2. Meanwhile, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, stir together the milk and vinegar. Grease and flour a 9-inch tube pan. (If you prefer, you can grease it, line it with parchment and then grease and flour it. This is not necessary, but parchment does make getting the cake out easier.)

3. When the chocolate in the pan has cooled a bit, whisk in the milk mixture and eggs. In several additions and without overmixing, whisk in the dry ingredients. When the mixture is smooth, add the vanilla and whisk once or twice, to blend. Pour the batter into the tube pan and bake on the middle rack until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, about 30 to 35 minutes. Let the cake cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan and cool on a rack. (This can be tricky – if someone is around, enlist them to help. Place a ring of wax paper on top of the cake so you have something to grab onto when turning it out.) Let cool completely.

4. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler, then let cool to room temperature. It is very important that the chocolate and sour cream be the same temperature, otherwise the icing will be lumpy or grainy. (Test it by stirring a little of the sour cream and chocolate together in a bowl; if it mixes smoothly, it’s ready.) Stir in the sour cream, 1/4 cup at a time, until the mixture is smooth. Taste some! It’s good.

5. When the cake is cool, you may frost it as is or cut it in half so that you have two layers (when I do this, I use 2 cups chocolate chips and 2 cups sour cream). My mother uses any leftover icing to make flowers on top. She dabs small rosettes, or buttons, on top, then uses toasted almond slices as the petals, pushing them in around the base of the rosette.

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Be sure to connect with Amanda on Twitter, and with food52 on Twitter and Facebook too!

Part of our Heirloom Recipe Series, featuring foodies, chefs, artisans, Southerners & fabulous folks willing to share their stories, recipes and photos in an effort to help preserve and share these family recipes for generations to come.

I have been just bursting to share the delights of  Merrill Stubbs, part one of the dynamic duo behind fabulous foodie site, food52. {note: Amanda joins us tomorrow too – be sure to stop back!}  Merrill, who grew up in a home fortunate enough to have a mother for an amazing cook, has quite an extensive love affair with food. Along with her work on  The Essential New York Times Cookbook, she has also had stints at such amazing publications as Cooks Illustrated and Herb Quarterly (and you know how I adore herbs …).

Here with us today is Merrill, graciously sharing one of her very own family recipes from who else but her mother of course, adding to the collection that is the Heirloom Recipe Series!

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For years now, on the day before Thanksgiving my mother has made what my family refers to as “Tuscan Onion Goo” (slightly off putting, I know, so please don’t go by the name alone). Inspired by a visit to a family-owned trattoria in Florence called Ristorante del Fagioli, this sour-sweet onion confit was originally served to my mother as an antipasto. She enjoyed it so much that she asked, in halting but enthusiastic Italian, if the waiter would tell her how it was made. He promptly ushered her into the tiny kitchen, where the sweaty, grinning chef showed her how to put together the dish. She took mental notes and then came home and recreated it, with a few small adaptations.

The recipe has since become one of my mother’s signatures, and Thanksgiving would simply not be the same without “Tuscan Onion Goo.” It’s a great addition — or alternative — to cranberry sauce. While the flavors are very different, it serves a similar role: the sweetness provides a counterpoint to other, more savory sides, and the acid in the vinegar cuts through some of the richness that often pervades the meal.

The confit couldn’t be easier to make, although it does require a bit of a time commitment. You can use frozen pearl onions, but it’s worth trying with fresh cippollini. My mother insists that you have to be crazy to make it with anything other than frozen onions after the first time, but I find peeling cippollini somewhat cathartic. The confit keeps very well in the fridge, and it doesn’t have to be limited to turkey, or to Thanksgiving; it’s great with beef, pork and lamb as well.

Tuscan Onion Confit

Makes about 3 cups

1/4 cup pine nuts
12 ounces small cipollini onions or one 10-ounce bag of frozen pearl onions, thawed
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup medium sherry
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup raisins
Salt

1. Using a small frying pan, lightly toast the pine nuts over medium-low heat for 3-5 minutes, shaking the pan back and forth to keep them from scorching. Set aside.

2. Peel the onions — either by blanching them first in boiling, salted water for about 30 seconds and then using a sharp paring knife to strip away the skins, or by simply going at the raw onions with the aforementioned paring knife. (Personally, I find blanching a waste of time here and prefer to just have at it.)

3. Put the olive oil in large frying pan over medium-low heat. Add the onions and cook gently (without browning) for about 5 minutes. Add the sherry and cook until mostly reduced. Add 3/4 cup water, vinegar, sugar, raisins, pine nuts and a pinch of salt. Stir well. Simmer the mixture over the lowest heat possible for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring every 15 minutes or so. You may need to add more water from time to time if the mixture gets too thick and gooey or starts to stick to the bottom of the pan. It is finished when everything has caramelized well, and the flavors have blended together (you can take it as far as you’d like—I for one prefer a deep amber color).

4. Cool and serve at room temperature. Can be made ahead of time and refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.

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Be sure to connect with Merrill on Twitter, and with food52 on Twitter and Facebook too!

Part of our Heirloom Recipe Series, featuring foodies, chefs, artisans, Southerners & fabulous folks willing to share their stories, recipes and photos in an effort to help preserve and share these family recipes for generations to come.

i absolutely adore the unique products that paper designer Ashley Woodman and her uber-talented team have, perfect for gifting! the grande opening of this Westside shop was a great gathering, where I enjoyed meeting several new friends and catching up with a few old ones too. i hope you’ll stop in to say hello and check out the lovely assortment of goodies!

the pillows are just killer and there was a campfire candle that makes me want to go take a hike in the woods and never come back! a giant pewter trophy continues to catch my eye each time I walk in the store, and a fun candy bar that is stocked full of hard-to-find candies. and, just in time for Halloween, i can’t get enough of the not-so-spooky {but super cute!} witch display they have put together with our mother & daughter aprons! isn’t it just adorable?

click over to take a peek at the full collection of photos I took from the evening!

images via : my personal collection

like commemorating any special event, our first child is one we will do just as meaningfully as any other. i was on the hunt for the perfect gift for my mother & mother-in-law who threw a baby shower for me this past weekend. our parents have been doing so much for us to prepare,  in all the excitement as we await our little boy.

i adore the simple, classic, Southern tradition of the silhouette, but of course we will have to wait on that one for a bit {hard to do before he’s born, you know ..}. the stackable 1,2,3 and a,b,c rings i am just obsessed with – simple and easy to add to as your family grows, but i decided that i loved this more as a gift idea for a new mom {ie: me!} than as grandma gifts. and so, i settled on the vintage-inspired initial charms that each grandma can use however they please to commemorate their grandson and his new name. i think they are just darling and i’m so happy with the find.

i wanted to find a gift that would be as special and memorable as the shower itself, and also one that would play to a little surprise we were planning for the shower. we have been working to find the perfect name for our little guy, and 8 months later we have finally found it. and so, we used the shower as the perfect time to surprise our parents, family & friends by revealing his name. but, more on that tomorrow!

what other gift ideas have you seen or given as a baby shower thank you, or for grandparents to be?

images via: catbird jewelry / charm & chain / gibson lane studio / layla grayce

when we first got married, there were certainly some things we each had to part with to accommodate living together in a civil manner. i admittedly had more of a girly, shabby chic vibe going in my single days and had many pieces remaining that just didn’t work. and the mister had a few things left over from his college days, most of which celebrated sports in some form or fashion.

and so we compromised on several things and did a great job in creating a home that truly reflects the personal style of us both together. but still, for some time now we had been sitting upon a living room filled with big, blue couches. we finally made a switch after simply fawning over the restoration hardware collection for some time now {that design book got me, right?} and i am just loving our neutral, linen & leather living room.

it’s cozy and liveable, with some of our favorite vintage finds – a big storage basket as our coffee table and a little old safe as an end table – both of which we found while popping into different antique stores over the years. it is so nice to have a room in which we spend most of our time that is a perfect reflection of living.

images via : restoration hardware / pottery barn

if there is one thing i love, it’s a wedding. have it take place in a restored barn in north carolina and I couldn’t possibly love it more. some of our wonderful friends, jen & alex were married at the gorgeous bascom in highlands, north carolina and as you can clearly see it couldn’t have been a more lovely affair.

the gorgeously neutral colors of the bridal party perfectly complemented the gorgeously worn wood of the towering barn-building, which is actually an arts museum currently as well. the space was just beautiful, with a boxwood backdrop for the ceremony itself. a wonderful breeze brought to life the large paper globes that hung from the complementing ceiling all night long.

the perfect reflection of this laid back couple, the whole occasion was simply gorgeous and effortless. i adored jen’s veil which looked about as heirloomed as it comes, and the soft look of her classic dress – she was just stunning don’t you think? And the rich color of alex’s suit was just perfect, i am a big fan of the suit and tie look – especially for an outdoor wedding.

though it was nearly impossible to choose just a few photos to highlight for this post, i quickly decided my favorite shot was the one above of the darling couple sitting in the most perfect setting and lighting i have ever seen. how simply perfect? and of course, one of my favorite parts of the evening was when alex got up on stage and serenaded his new bride – and all of us guests as well! it was the perfect evening for a perfect couple and we couldn’t be more thrilled to have been a part of the weekend wedding.

best wishes to jen & alex for a lifetime of wonderful memories!

images via :  Alea Moore Photography

i have had a pair of moccasins in my closet, in some form or fashion, for as long as i can remember. minnetonkas are a staple at the mast general store, the most fabulous general store of all time, that we frequent during our trips to north carolina. i love that they are throwback {my first pair was the “thunderbird”} and the indian nature in which they originated from the land. and, you can beat the fact that they simply last forever.

my current pair is more of a chocolate suede with some light fringe and i spent many, many hours in them last fall & winter. i was thrilled to see the fringe look to be pretty in vogue for fall fashion this season, perhaps i’ll get slightly less comments on mine this year. i’ve been loving the light-skinned mocs above since i first saw them this past summer, and am toying with an ankle or mid-calf length bootie of sorts too to combat the cold for the upcoming season – aren’t they great? of course, i couldn’t resist these little teeny mocs for baby boy. his first pair of shoes and i’m quite sure he’ll love them!

are you a lover of the fringe? would love to see your favorite picks for this season!

images via : minnetonka / zulily

there are few things that remind me of the South more than a well-seasoned cast iron skillet. a staple in Southern kitchens for generations, the skillet has been a versatile vessel for sweet to savory dishes alike. i love the beauty of the deep black skillets, especially when well-worn. there is such a rustic and simplistic quality to their art form, allowing the food to truly be the hero.

i remember my mother using our big cast iron skillet for many dishes over the years, but an all-day pot roast with potatoes and carrots is the one that I most recall it being used for. followed by an encore of hash the very next day, of course.

what cast iron skillet recipe or memory is your favorite?

images via : savory sweet life / always with butter / martha stewart / honey & jam

it’s never too early for your first heirloom! the very first baby gift i received came from my mom { besides the actual gift of our baby-to-be of course! } and was this absolutely adorable little piggy pewter spoon.

this was the perfect little gift for our little guy, one he’ll cherish for years to come i am certain. being that i am a huge lover of pewter, instead of registering for china for our wedding { i am lucky to have a set of grandma’s and nana’s china } we registered instead for pewter serving pieces. and the little pig on the spoon was just too cute for a feeding spoon, don’t you think?

and, ironically i was fortunate to have met the folks at beehive at the last gift show in Atlanta too. i simply love their matching pewter cup as well, how darling? i have several tiny sterling cups that were passed down from both sides of my family, which i can only assume were baby heirlooms at one point in time as well.

and, so i got on a little piggy kick, because really they are just too cute. another heirloom option that i’m loving is the piggy bank. making a perfect gift for baby, or for a 1st birthday, encouraging good fortune and good habits early on. i adore these two twists on a traditional bank, the glass and the gold make for quite a statement, even for the littlest of people.

what was your first heirloom?

images via: beehive kitchenware co. / viva terra / areawear