Author Archives: Robert

  It’s prom season. Thousands of high school kids have been waiting years for their big night. Thousands of parents have been dreading it since their kids entered school. As the father of a 16-year old, 11th grade daughter, who just fed 43 of her tuxedo-clad and chiffon-and-satin laced friends in our back yard, I speakContinue reading “Prom Season”

  It’s greening up around here. The first stage of pollen has fallen and been washed away. Leaves are greener, days are warmer, and everything is in bloom. Spring is Mother Nature’s coming out party. I always fall victim to EPS, early pollen syndrome. It’s similar to the first cold snap in the fall. InContinue reading “Spring Forward”

  We lose people every day. It’s the natural cycle of life. Many pass without noticing. Though as William Faulkner once said to a young Shelby Foote while the two were walking though a cemetery, “There’s a story behind each of these stones.” One of the greatest stories now lies behind a new stone. ThatContinue reading “A Life of Passion & Love”

  I love Mississippi. Sure, there are other states that might be prettier. It’s hard to top the mountain vistas of North Carolina and Virginia. The redwoods of Northern California are majestic, the craggy cliffs that overlook the Atlantic on the northeast coast have inspired hundreds of writers, and the colorful autumn foliage of NewContinue reading “At Home With Hospitality”

  I grew up mainly Methodist in a mostly Baptist world. I was raised in a neighborhood that was filled with Protestants. In my little notch of the Bible Belt, there were a few Jewish families scattered about, but the Hillendale section of Hattiesburg was as WASPy as any neighborhood could be. Nevertheless, I hadContinue reading “Oh How I Love Wheat”

I once had an aunt and uncle who lived in France for several years. They eventually returned to the States but kept an apartment in Paris and a country cottage in Normandy. The two were devout Francophiles. As far as they were concerned, all that was beautiful in life began— and ended— at the FrenchContinue reading “Dreaming of Tuscany”

  Bacon is good. Bacon is popular. Bacon gets a lot of press. I love bacon. Bacon gets the prime slot on grocery store shelves— front and center, eye level in the breakfast meats cooler. Sausage, bacon’s redheaded stepbrother, is relegated to a few shelves next to the pressed luncheon meats and water-filled hams. It’sContinue reading “For the Love of Sausage”

  The food business is seasonal There is a specific time when vegetables are at their peak. No matter where they are being grown— Florida, California, our your backyard— there is a certain time of the year they will reach a pinnacle in flavor and bounty. One would think that meat isn’t seasonal, but beefContinue reading “King Cake Bread Pudding”

Some say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Others skip the early morning meal altogether. I’ll leave the right and wrong of that debate to doctors and nutritionists. Either way, breakfast is— by far— my favorite meal of the day. As a kid I ate typical breakfasts enjoyed by most peopleContinue reading “Breakfast”