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
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
Make-Ahead Holiday Breakfast Ideas
I often will use equal parts milk and water when cooking grits — but you can't if you are cooking in a slow cooker as
Old-Fashioned Peanut Brittle
My mother has a large square of rose-colored marble for making such as brittle and butterscotch on her kitchen counter. Most likely Etowah marble from
Danish Butter Cookies
Every year of my childhood, without fail, one or more of those iconic tins of butter cookies would appear at my grandparents’ home during the
Holiday Cookies
Cookies are synonymous with the holidays. There are cookies for Santa, cookie swaps at school or work, cookies and cider after church on Sunday, and
Turkey 101: Thanksgiving Tips and Techniques
Turkey is the foundation of Thanksgiving dinner for many American families. And that comes with a heaping helping of stress — how long does a
Soup Swap: Three Quick and Easy Soup Recipes
It’s a cold, grey and rainy fall evening at the end of a very long day, and you’re on your way home from work in
Weeknight Supper: Healthy Hunter’s Style Chicken with Mushrooms
This satisfying, comforting recipe for Hunter’s-Style Chicken with Mushrooms has roots in both Italian and French cuisine as Pollo a la Cacciatora and Poulet au Chasseur.
APPLE RECIPES! Slab Apple Pie with a Cheddar Crust, Oat Pecan Apple Crisp, & Pork with Apples
Even though peaches are considered the quintessential Southern fruit, the phrase “as American as apple pie” applies to the South, too. Every weekend during the
Homemade and Healthy Oven Roasted Sloppy Joes
One Pot Wonder Weeknight Family Supper Who doesn’t like Sloppy Joes? They are pretty much the absolute best of a juicy hamburger and barbecue sandwich