Wednesday, July 12, 2006

For the love of family and food

By Tina Firesheets
Staff Writer Greensboro News & Record

Want the cookbooks?

Call Lisa Shively at 623-7511 or visit www.fromourhometoyours.net.EDEN — If Lisa Shively’s family memories had aromas, they would smell like fried chicken, garden-fresh vegetables cooked with bacon and homemade Red Velvet cake.

Shively fondly recalls girlhood visits to her grandmothers’ homes in Georgia. Their houses always smelled of a good meal. One grandmother prepared ham, green beans and macaroni and cheese for their visits. And that’s what Shively always asked her mom to cook when she was home from college.

"I grew up wanting to cook like my grandmothers," Shively, now 40, says.

But when she called her grandmothers for their recipes, they told her to cook the chicken until it was done. Or add a little pinch of this or a dash of that. None of this proved helpful to Shively. She wanted more specific instructions with exact measurements.

"I like knowing how things are put together," the former LabCorp chemist says.

She worked for years to perfect their recipes, eventually compiling them into cookbooks. And now, her family refers to them for their own dishes.

"My grandmother cooks from my cookbook now, and that’s a huge compliment," Shively says.

Her grandmother even buys the books for others.

Food, once a passion, is now a full-time job for Shively. She has written three cookbooks and is working on a fourth on crockpot recipes.

"I’ve always loved food," Shively says. "I can tell you the best dish I’ve ever had at every family gathering my whole life."

Now, she shares the recipes to those memorable meals. Her first cookbook, "From Our Home to Yours," was published in 2003 and includes a collection of family recipes.

Last year, her second book, "Gritslickers — Southern Home Cooking for Today’s Cooks," earned her an invitation to cook on the celebrity cooking stage at the Southern Women’s Show in Greensboro. Her demonstrations were so popular, she was also invited to the shows in Richmond, Va., Charlotte and Raleigh.

This year she started a cooking segment that airs on local radio station WLOE/WMYN (1490/1420 AM). She also published a third cookbook of blueberry recipes. That book led to an invitation to judge a recipe contest for the state blueberry festival.

Shively has even been known to pick a church based on its covered-dish suppers. When she moved to Rockingham County a few years ago, she searched the phone book for churches. One of the ads said it held covered-dish suppers on Wednesdays.

"I thought if they like each other enough to eat with each other every week, I want to be a part of that," Shively says.

And the ad didn’t steer her wrong. It was a tight-knit congregation, further bonded and nourished over hearty casseroles and fresh fruit and vegetable salads.

But there’s more to her love of food than the food itself. For Shively, a good home-cooked meal creates lasting family memories of everyone gathered at the table enjoying each other’s company. She cooks dinner nightly so that she can hear what happened to her husband and sons that day. It’s challenging to fit a family supper into a schedule that includes after-school activities, jobs and meetings, but she calls their time together "priceless."

"I’m so afraid kids today are not going to have those memories (of eating meals with their families)," she says.

Working moms often don’t have time — or energy — to cook meals after work, but Shively has a recommendation: "Dads can cook, too."

She pauses, then adds with a laugh: "Just not in my kitchen."

It took almost two years to complete, but “Gritslickers-Southern Home Cooking for Today‘s Cooks” is now available. North Carolina’s, Lisa Lofton Shively, has been busy working on her second cookbook and the finished product has arrived.

When asked about the unusual name, she explains “One night, I called my sister and told her of my frustrations with naming this book. I could tell that she was chewing something while talking, so I asked her what her dinner was. She replied, “Grits.” I didn’t think about her answer again and went on to bed. In the middle of the night, I sat straight up and said, “Gritslickers!” That was it. It seemed the perfect word for those of us who grew up eating grits. We are not city slickers but Gritslickers. I loved the word instantly and knew that my worries about my title were over. ”

As with her first book “From Our Home to Yours“, the recipes use “normal” ingredients and have easy to follow directions. One of the differencesfrom the first book is that each of the 400 recipes has a personal note about it.The notes are helpful tips or suggestions for the dish which makes it more personal. Ms. Shively wants the reader to feel like they are listening to a friend while they are cooking.

Some of the recipes in “Gritslickers” are:

Buffalo Dip, Cornbread Salad, Watermelon Chillers, Buttermilk Chicken with Gravy, Inside Out Burgers, Squash Plops, Doughnuts in a Bowl, Pecan Logs and Carolina Chewies.

Even though the book is southern based, there are plenty of recipes for all tastes:

Barbequed Kielbasa, Beef and Pepper Rice, Cajun Chicken Strips, Enchiladas Stack, Italian Stuffed Chicken, Mexicali Pork Chops, and Japanese Chicken, just to name a few.

She says “Cooking is a chore that we all must do. Don’t look at it as work, but enjoy the satisfaction of feeding your family at home. The time spent together is worth more than any inconvenience. Every meal doesn’t have to be a feast, but it should always be shared with those you love. Serve with plenty of “chit chat”, otherwise known as conversation, where we stay in touch with our children and they learn about their parents.”

Lisa Lofton Shively did not attend a culinary institute and does not own a restaurant…she is an everyday cook, like most of us, who enjoys feeding her family at home. In “Gritslickers”, she shares herself and her recipes, and hopes to inspire you to:

“Savor not only the meal, but also the company!”