If you're in the Nashville area, Meridee's Breadbasket in Franklin is definitely something you won't want to miss.  Our family loves Meridee's, it's my favorite restaurant, wonderful food, fresh baked pies (the key lime is ahh-mazing and you can never go wrong with the cherry)  homemade bread, what's not to love.

My love of cooking began with Silver Palate Cookbook and Abby Mandel’s Cuisinart Classroom.

I’ve cooked for years, but the two cookbooks that really started whatever creativity in the kitchen that I have, began in the 1978 when hubby bought me my DLC-7 Cuisinart, the same workhorse that still sits in my kitchen to this day and has inspired me to make many wonderful dishes.

My first really great cookbook was Abby Mandel’s Cuisinart Classroom.  Oh, my, the woman was a wonder.  She introduced me to spices and herbs and food combinations I had never heard of, her recipes were phenomenal.  She’s gone now, but her recipes will live on forever.  You can find her cookbooks on eBay, they are wonderful for anyone who loves to cook.

And then came The Silver Palate, and I was off to the races.  I subsequently bought every cookbook that Julie Rosso and Sheila Lukins published, but none compared to the first.  The recipes are delightful, they never fail, and I still use that cookbook to this day. Some of our families favorite recipes came from the pages of The Silver Palate.   It’s battered and scarred, the pages are grease stained and torn, and I love it.

A few years ago, Ryan bought the same cookbook, and then had me go through it and note in his everything that I wrote in mine.

So regardless of all the wonderful cookbooks that came later, these will always be the most special.  Such good memories…. ~ Jan