Author Archives: Robert

I love bread. I really, really love bread. I probably love bread too much. If there were a twelve-step program for bread addiction, I would be chairing the meetings. Earlier this year I went gluten free for Lent. I will admit that I felt better during that long and tortuous season— and I lost weight—Continue reading “Ode to Bread”

Book Tour 2014 NOVEMBER 5 – NOVEMBER 8   Mistletoe Marketplace . Jackson, MS . Mississippi Trade Mart (Public Signing & Sale) mistletoemarketplace.com NOVEMBER 12 Hawkins Elementary School Signing . Hattiesburg, MS  (Private Signing & Reading) hawkins.hattiesburgpsd.com NOVEMBER 13 Lemuria Books . Jackson, MS . 5PM (Public Signing) lemuriabooks.com NOVEMBER 15 – NOVEMBER 29 FollowContinue reading “"Fred The Red Frog" Book Tour”

    The Mississippi Blues Trail is an ongoing project of the Mississippi Blues Commission. Funding for this project has been made possible by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, Misssissippi Department of Transportation, the Federal Highway Administration, AT&T, and the Delta Center for Culture and Learning atContinue reading “MS Blues Trail 2014”

A friend recently asked if I thought that there are any foods we outgrow. Aside from the obvious answer, Gerber baby food, I had to think on it. I ate a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches when I was four-years old. I don’t eat as many these days, but I still love aContinue reading “Grown-Up Food”

Board of Directors Mississippi Department of Seasons Jackson, Mississippi   To Whom It My Concern: I need to file a complaint. According to Google, the Today Show, and my Farmer’s Almanac calendar, the first day of fall 2014 occurred on September 23rd. I beg to differ. You people up there in the Mississippi Department ofContinue reading “Mississippi Department of Seasons”

In 1971 Hattiesburg, Mississippi was a meat-and-potatoes town. It’s not because we weren’t well travelled or suffered from low exposure. It’s just that exotic foods weren’t readily available. My across-the-street neighbor, Barbara Jane Foote, steamed artichokes and served them with drawn butter. That was a food that seemed exotic and from another world. My neighborsContinue reading “Worldly Cuisine”

Service, food, or atmosphere? That is the question. Most national restaurant surveys surprisingly list “service” as the customer’s most valued facet of dining out. Of course, it probably depends on what type of dining experience and concept one is searching for when choosing a restaurant. Someone who is interested in a theme-heavy national chain, somethingContinue reading “Indian Delight”

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I don’t know who “they” are, but I agree. It’s also my favorite meal of the day. Breakfast offers many opportunities. During the school year, the morning meal is a come-and-go, in-and-out proposition in my home. I have a high school senior and anContinue reading “Breakfast at the Underwood’s”

NASHVILLE— My roots are deep in Nashville. I never lived here, I haven’t spent more than a few consecutive nights in a row here over the last 53 years, but it’s in my blood. My mother’s “people” all come from Nashville. As a child my grandfather, who grew up just outside of town on theContinue reading “NASHVILLE”