Table Of ContentB L E S S
Y O U R
H E A R T
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B L E S S
Y O U R
H E A R T
Saving the World
One Covered Dish at a Time
WITH RECIPES BY
PATSY CALDWELL
AND STORIES BY
AMY LYLES WILSON
© 2010 by Amy Lyles Wilson, Patsy Caldwell, and Bryan Curtis
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except
for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of
Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Photographs by Ron Manville
Page design by Mandi Cofer
Photos on pages 14, 58, 64, 74, 84, 98, 106, 122, 128, 132, 186, 190, 192, 196, 200, 204, 210, 220,
and 242 are from Shutterstock.
Photos on pages 62, 68, and 244 are from iStock.
Photo on page 206 is from Requelle Raley.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Caldwell, Patsy, 1939–
Bless your heart : saving the world, one covered dish at a time / by Patsy Caldwell and Amy Lyles Wilson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4016-0052-5
1. Cookery, American—Southern style. 2. Cookery—Social aspects. I. Wilson, Amy Lyles, 1961– II.
Title.
TX715.2.S68C35 2010
641.5975—dc22
2010020991
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
10 11 12 13 14 WCT 6 5 4 3 2 1
In honor of my mother, Martha Lee Lyles Wilson, born in 1922 in
Tula, Mississippi, to Eunice and S. T. Lyles. A woman who instructed me
not to put the wooden spoon back in the cake batter after I had licked it,
and who taught me, from that day to this, how to love. And in memory
of my father, Earl Raymond Wilson (1922–2000), who introduced me
to smoked oysters and baked quail, and inspired me to live
my life not only as a dreamer but as a doer too.
Amy Lyles Wilson
This book is for my family—my husband Bill, my son Bryan, my daughter
Kelly and her husband Randy, and my grandchildren Scott and Paige.
And in memory of two of the best cooks I have ever known: my mother,
Irene Foster, and my next-door neighbor Mary Burton Buckner.
Patsy Caldwell
CONTENTS
Introduction viii
CHAPTER 1: CHURCH POTLUCK 1
Feeding the Faithful
CHAPTER 2: BODY AND SOUL 25
When Words Aren't Enough
CHAPTER 3: TENDING THE SICK 49
Food for What Ails You
CHAPTER 4: FAMILY REUNIONS 71
Blood Is Thicker than Molasses
CHAPTER 5: HOLIGRAZE 93
From Our Home to Yours
CHAPTER 6: TAILGATING 115
We've Got Cupcakes, Yes We Do
CHAPTER 7: PARTY TIME 139
It’s My Party and I’ll Fry If I Want To
CHAPTER 8: BOOK CLUBS 161
Turn the Page and Pass the Muffins
CHAPTER 9: FESTIVALS 180
Going to Town
CONTENTS | vii
CHAPTER 10: LENDING A HAND 207
Because It’s Just What We Do
CHAPTER 11: COMFORT FOOD 231
All Hail the Covered Dish
Acknowledgments 255
About the Authors 256
Index 257
INTRODUCTION
Southerners are good at many things. We’re good claims as kin. Patsy welcomes all comers, from
at telling tales, preserving tradition, and greeting the undertaker to the sheriff and anyone else who
strangers on the sidewalk. We mind our man- might be hungry for food and fellowship. Such
ners, honor our heritage, and remember not to hospitality epitomizes the spirit of Southern cook-
wear white after Labor Day. But what Southerners ing in general and the philosophy of the covered
are really good at is food. dish in particular.
Just as we are instructed as children not to Although I am not as skilled in the kitchen,
sass our elders, we learn early on that food is not and I am not as quick as Patsy to invite twenty
only for eating. It is also for expressing sympathy, people over for dinner “just for fun,” I, too, value
showing appreciation, demonstrating concern, the power of food to nourish both body and soul.
and conveying excitement. Food that we share Like many of you, I associate several of my life’s
with others invites us to do more than ice a cake milestones with food: my first father-daughter
or bake a casserole. It affords us the opportunity, lunch, just the two of us, when Daddy ordered me
over and over again, to show we care. a shrimp cocktail at the Russian Tea Room in New
Patsy Caldwell has felt at home in the kitchen York while Mother was out shopping with my two
for as long as she can remember. It started some older sisters; the first meal my husband made for
six decades ago while standing by her mother at me, which tasted not so great but showed me,
the stove, and has since that time led her to feed at age forty-one, what true affection looks like;
preachers, executives, politicians, athletes, and and the box lunches the women of my childhood
brides and grooms as a professional caterer. If you church prepared for my family so we could have a
pressed her, I think Patsy would say her favorite bite to eat as we caravanned from the church to
mouths to feed are those belonging to her family. the cemetery, a drive of some 160 miles, to bury
Be it her son and daughter and their families my father.
when they come for Sunday dinner, or her grand- It’s not just any kind of food, mind you, that
children when she hosts the high school seniors enriches the stomach and the heart. It’s the kind
for a multicourse, sit-down meal, complete with of food that is prepared with love. While you mix
candles and cloth napkins, to celebrate their and whip and fold in, you’re consoling your
proms. childhood friend, now all grown up, who has
“Food is at the heart of the family,” says Patsy. received a challenging health diagnosis. As you
But her idea of “family” is not limited to those she chop and dice and simmer, you’re honoring the
INTRODUCTION | ix
church organist who is retiring after fifty years in tions for how to cook; they are instructions on
ministry. When you grease the baking dish with how to live.
the butter wrapper, you’re tending the elderly Regardless of your culinary skills or your food
neighbor who doesn’t get out much anymore. preferences, what it comes down to is this: What
Because Southerners are a humble people, we might look like a simple chicken potpie sustains
don’t like to call attention to ourselves while we’re the friend who had surgery last week. That straw-
working our fingers to the bone in the kitchen. berry cake you’ve made a hundred times reassures
Onion tears, scalded hands, and undercooked your elderly aunt that she has not been forgotten
eggs are part of the territory. Don’t you worry even though she can’t make it out to the family
about us; we’ll be fine. Making an extra casserole reunions anymore. Whatever you do, don’t under-
to put in the freezer “just in case,” is what we do. estimate the power of the covered dish to celebrate,
It’s who we are, mothers who write “big hit at pot- commiserate, and console. Maybe it can even save
luck” on an index card before nestling it back into the world.
the recipe box. Daughters who add a note to “use It is our hope that you will take and eat—and
more cream” in the handmade cookbook passed share—from BlessYourHeart, secure in the knowl-
down from a grandmother, often a small, three- edge that when you feed someone you give one of
ring binder full of notes and recipes and newspaper the greatest gifts a person has to offer: yourself.
clippings. Such scribblings are more than sugges- Amy Lyles Wilson
