My church is having an "Old South Dinner" in a couple of weeks. Our congregation is full of southeners, and this is their way of celebrating their heritage and past. There used to be a woman who used to go my church from New Orleans, and her house was full of old family antiques and silver pieces which were over a hundred years old. Her name was Nina, and every generation a girl child was named Nina, so the Nina I knew was the fourth Nina. She even had a painting of the original Nina on her wall.

When I was in West Virginia, the person I was staying with, gave me a cookbook called "The Best of Southern Living Recipes". I told the organizer I would bring a "real southern dessert", which means I should spend the weekend checking out the recipes in my new Southern Living cookbook.