Oh…Damaris!

In November 2016 following a very stressful week (election week) I was treated to a wonderful birthday gift. A trip to the Fabulous Food Network Show at the I-X Center in Cleveland. The bigger and best treat of all was that I was treated to prime second row reserved seats for the Damaris Phillips presentation. Now I have been following Damaris Phillips since she won the ninth season of the Food Network series Food Network Star on August 11, 2013. Her style of cooking is traditional Southern cooking with her own twist on it. I have watched every episode of her show Southern at Heart and continue to DVR them, even though I think I’ve seen them all. Sadly though!! Her show Southern at Heart ended in February 2013. In Cleveland that day she did a presentation on using leftover Thanksgiving foods into re-vamped croquettes. She is very humorous, extremely down-to-earth, a Southern spit-fire and puts on quite a show. During the presentation she involved audience members and well, no matter how fast or hard I waved my hands and arms she chose other people to join her on stage. Following the presentation she allowed time for autographs and selfies, you had best believe I knocked down several people to fight my way to that line, as I directed Jackie to the free wooden spoons that were being handed out. I have an autographed recipe card, “to her #1 fan in Ohio” and pictures of us together. Last year when my family made our annual trek to Collierville, TN for Spring Break we decided to stop in Louisville and buy Modjeska’s (a delectable caramel covered marshmallow) that she had used in a sweet potato recipe on her show. We visited Muth’s Candies a family run business in the downtown Louisville neighborhood of “NULU” (look for a Muth’s Candies post soon) where we loaded up on Modjeska’s and other homemade chocolates for our visit with family, not much of the purchases actually made it to Collierville – so of course we stopped in Louisville again on our way home, and loaded up on even more for Easter. I think there is a regional connection for me to Damaris as she grew up in Louisville, KY and I grew up over east in West Virginia, and many of our cooking styles are very much alike. Meeting Damaris Phillips was one of my most cherished memories of 2016. Please visit her website at www.damarisphillips.com to read more about this great chef and my #1 food mentor, or look for reruns of her show on the Food Network. I have included one of her recipes in the recipe section for onion jam. As Damaris might say…”Helllooo there you luscious onion jam”