Welcome to Cooking with Virginia!
Here you will find delicious and doable, seasonal, chef-driven recipes for home cooks along with tips, techniques, and stories. And, given Virginia’s health journey and 65# weight loss, the recipes are not only good — they are good for you, too!
Each post features mouth-watering food photography, easy-to-follow instructions, and helpful hints for well-tested recipes from Southern chef, Food Network Kitchen Instructor, and James Beard award-winning cookbook author Virginia Willis.
You’ll also find Virginia’s signature stories chronicling formational childhood experiences gained baking in her grandmother’s and mother’s kitchen, her extensive professional experience from working in patisserie in a Michelin-starred restaurant, to the hot lights of food television, and her culinary centric far-flung travels. The recipes build on this practical knowledge and are written so that the reader feels that Virginia is by their side in the kitchen, as she walks the reader through surefire recipes that work every time. The recipes are rigorously tested and are essential, foolproof dishes you actually want to make and eat!
Bon Appétit, Y’all!
Virginia Willis
Turning Old into New: Banana Mango Muffins
Tips on Preventing Food Waste – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle — and Rethink! I have a near daily ritual in that I scope out the fridge
Potato Salad Recipes
Bacon, Southern, and Chef-Inspired Potato Salad Recipes Ah, potato salad. The perfect combination of comforting carbs and decadent dressing. So many choices, so many styles!
What’s in Season: Vidalia Onion Dressing
How to Make Homemade Vidalia Onion Dressing and other Great Sweet Onion Recipes A few weeks ago I shot a video making Vidalia Onion Dressing
Most Delicious Deviled Eggs
This recipe is for the most delicious deviled eggs ever. Shh! There’s a secret ingredient.
Blueberry Muffins with Yogurt
Blueberry Benefits and Nutrition Blueberries are the Doris Day of summer fruit – happy-go-lucky, bright bouncing balls of flavor. Blackberries are moody, musky, and complex.
What’s in Season: Asparagus
How to Cook Asparagus, How to Store, How to Trim, and How to Know When It is Done. Spring is starting to kick into high
Easter Dinner: Bourbon Glazed Ham
How did serving ham for Easter become a custom? Mediterranean celebrations, including the Jewish Passover, traditionally call for lamb at spring feasts. However, in northern
The Masters’ Egg Salad Sandwich
Every spring, when I was a little girl my mother would take me to The Masters. I loved our mama-daughter dates and it was always
Strawberry Desserts
Strawberries are the most popular berry fruit in the world, and while they are available in grocery stores every week of the year, spring
How to Cook Leeks: Sautéed Leeks and Celery
Yikes! Take a look at that muddy mess of leeks! Soil or grit in food is the culinary equivalent to nails scratching a chalkboard. Yet