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. 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
Lemon-Chia Seed Yogurt Cake
Lemon Cakes come in all shapes and sizes, all manners of baking. There are lemon-scented tender yellow cakes topped with rich lemon buttercream, dense
Chicken and Rice Meatballs in Mushroom Gravy
Growing up, my mother made a meatball dish with Rice a Roni called porcupines. It consisted of ground beef, an egg, and a box of
Spicy Cauli-Mac and Cheese
Do we really need another Macaroni and Cheese recipe? According to Restaurant News, “US consumers were eating 19% more cheese per capita at the end
Southern New Year’s Day Food Traditions
Want to know why Southerners eat peas and greens? The science behind the salt and smoke? What about Vegan options for Southern New Year’s Day
Easy Chocolate Cocoa Bombs
Chocolate Cocoa Bombs have well, absolutely exploded this holiday season. I adore the idea, but cannot believe anyone would want to go to the trouble
GF Pear Banana Almond Cakes
When I decided to share this recipe for GF Pear Banana Almond Cakes it was a surprise to me. It would seem like the Banana
Recipe Makeover: Sausage-Pecan Balls
Everyone looks down their nose at sausage balls, pigs in a blanket, and meatballs in BBQ sauce, but the reality is that these popular nibbles
Golden Fruit and Nut Cake (Don’t Call it Fruitcake!)
The word fruitcake immediately conjures images of boozy brown bricks studded with bizarre colored unidentifiable bits of fruit. I am not certain how fruitcake became
Braised Flank Steak with Peppers and Onions
Cool-weather and the current full-time, heightened need for comfort food make me think of braised meats. I love beef stews, braised short ribs, and pot
Covid Thanksgiving and Gratitude
Lordy day, 2020 has been a lot to manage and take in. And, here we are at the holidays. There’s an active call from the