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
Stress Baking: Button Shortbread
My first baking experience was making biscuits with my grandmother, standing on a chair all of three years old. Before the home was air-conditioned an
Stovetop Low Country Boil
Think Spanish moss hanging from live oaks and pluff mud and you’re thinking Low Country. Think benne seeds and Carolina Gold rice and you’re thinking
Skillet Suppers: Pork Chops with Cabbage and Sweet Potatoes
Skillet suppers, one-pot meals, sheet pan suppers — I’m sure you hear these terms all the time. They’re popular not only for their simplicity
Butternut Squash and Ground Turkey Gratin
Butternut Squash is one of my favorite winter vegetables. I treat them as a multi-purpose vegetable “roast.” It’s actually rare that I cook an
Valentine’s Day Dark Chocolate Raspberry Pastry Flowers
Valentine’s Day often means bouquets of beautiful flowers and luscious boxes of chocolate. What about combining the two?! With a store-bought pie crust, you can
Cooking with Virginia: How to Cook Dried Beans
Beans in some way, shape, or fashion are fundamental in many cuisines. Healthy and economical, they are a go-to in my kitchen. I’ll often cook
Turkey and Black Bean Chili
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Braising Basics: Five Steps to Perfectly Braised Meats
Blustery days are perfect for braising meats and cooking hearty soups and stews, such as red wine-braised short ribs made with a mirepoix of onion,
What’s in Season: Winter Squash
Wintery mix and snowy weather call for comforting foods like this Winter Greens and Butternut Squash Gratin. This cozy casserole is great as a side
New Year’s Food Traditions: Peas and Greens
Eating Hoppin’ John, a dish made of peas and rice, with greens and cornbread on New Year’s Day is a Southern tradition. Folklore says the