It was 22 degrees on the day of my first deer hunt, so I wore my mink and an orange safety vest. My motto is: Do everything with style, especially your own. And that includes deer hunting.

Of course I had to bring refreshments as well, and I’m glad I did. My friend Kent and I sat in a grove of trees for an hour and a half, watching, whispering and drinking my homemade hot chocolate with shots of Belle Meade Bourbon on the side. Being warmed from the inside is just as important as being warm on the outside.

Then a deer appeared. And before Kent shot it, I remembered something Chris Hastings, chef/owner of the Hot and Hot Fish Club in Birmingham, said when he visited for the Southern Chefs Series. He said he approaches animals with reverence and shoots for sustenance, not for sport. So I said a prayer for the spirit of the deer, thanking it for what it would give us.

Kent dressed the deer and we headed back to the truck: Him with a carcass and me with my picnic basket full of cold-weather cocktails.

Marie’s Hot Chocolate 

Serves 4-6

4 cups whole milk
1 cup Ghirardelli 60% cacao chips
2-4 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch or two of cayenne
Pinch of kosher salt

Place milk, cacao chips and sugar in a saucepan and heat to medium until chips are melted and milk is hot. Remove and add remaining ingredients. Stir well.

In the South, you’re either a cake person or a pie person.

As I’m not a fan of fruit fillings, I side with the cake people. But Thursday is National Pie Day, so I’m sharing my Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie, a recipe that was first published when I was 16.

My mother’s family was from Columbus, Georgia, and everyone left but my Aunt Sarah, who became one of the grand dames of the town. She ran a restaurant, was the food editor of the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer and didn’t know a damn thing about cooking.

Sarah’s two sisters lived in Atlanta, and on one of her visits I made this version of Hoosier Pie, which brings in two very Southern ingredients: bourbon and pecans.  She was so impressed, she went home, wrote a story about it and published my recipe.

This pie is a staple on the dessert menu at The Farmhouse. The only time we take it off is when we do our chocolate cake—my favorite cake in the world. The texture can only be described as “oh my God.” And you have to eat it immediately because it becomes a completely different cake the next day. That’s no problem at all.

Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie

1 cup dark Karo syrup
¾ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
3 eggs
1 cup pecan pieces, toasted
¼ cup semi sweet chocolate chips
¼ cup bourbon
1 unbaked pie shell

Combine the Karo syrup, sugar and salt in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a rolling bowl, stirring steadily, for two minutes. Remove from heat and add 3 tablespoons butter.

Beat eggs in a separate bowl. Pour in hot syrup mixture slowly and beat with a wire whisk.

Add the toasted pecan pieces, chocolate chips and bourbon and mix together. Pour into an unbaked pie shell and bake for 45-50, until filling is firm. Cool before cutting.

When people write stories about me, they inevitably ask for a photo of my mother and I cooking together. And though we spent my childhood in the kitchen, no one ever stopped stirring long enough to take a picture.

But thanks to this month’s issue of Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles, I can now say I have photos of me with the second most important food mentor in my life: Father Austin Ford.

A well-known Episcopalian minister and civil rights activist, Father Ford started Emmaus House, a community center in the Peoplestown neighborhood of Atlanta. I volunteered to run his summer program for underprivileged children and we started a funky friendship that’s lasted 28 years.

Father Ford an utterly fascinating human being. He’s a biblical scholar. A classical scholar. He has a vast knowledge of literature, poetry and history. He’s the only person I know with starched linen sheets. He hosts an annual Christmas Eve dinner after which we retire to the living room, have hot chocolate, hold hands, sing Christmas carols and are not allowed to leave until the stroke of midnight. And he heats his house with coal.

Coal!

I have learned so much about food, French service and the correct way to eat with a fork and spoon from Father Ford. He makes the best sautéed red cabbage, scrambled eggs and gumbo I’ve ever had. So for the article, we cooked his gumbo for a dinner party with Steve and the girls.

When I met Father Ford, I was 26 and he was 56. Today there’s a little less tread on our tires, but he still knows his way around the kitchen. His gumbo is so much like our friendship: It takes a long time to make, is full of deep, rich flavors, nourishes the soul and sticks with you long after you’re done eating.

Photos courtesy of Ali Harper Photography 2014.

Father Ford’s Gumbo
Serves 10
1 ½ cups vegetable oil
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
4 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
½ cup chopped scallion
½ cup chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 16-ounce can tomatoes, with juice
1 8-inch piece Polish or Andouille sausage, sliced
4 thin smoked pork chops, cubed
1/8 teaspoon each ground allspice, cloves, mace, coriander and cardamom
3 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons salt
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Juice of 2 lemons
1 gallon water
4 pounds fresh okra, sliced
2 pounds peeled and deveined shrimp
½ pound crabmeat

Cook vegetable oil and all-purpose flour together in a heavy cast-iron skillet. Transfer to a 2-gallon pot and add everything but the seafood. Simmer for one hour then add the seafood. Serve over rice.

Cast Iron Chef: Marie served Farmhouse Chicken and Hominy Stew to guests at the 13th annual Afternoon in the Country.

Sunday, November third was one of those exquisitely beautiful fall days when you just fall in love with everything. And it was the perfect day for Serenbe to host the 13^th annual Afternoon in the Country, benefitting the Atlanta chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier International.

It was also a blur. And of all the wonderful chefs, restaurants, shops, farms and distributors that brought food, I had time to eat two things: Miller Union chef Steven Satterfield’s roasted butternut squash with fried quail egg and Gunshow chef Kevin Gillespie’s “off Sunday sandwich,” a fabulous play on a Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwich.

Of course I also tasted my own dish: Farmhouse chicken and hominy stew. I was inspired to create it after reading a Wall Street Journal article on hominy. I love it and think it’s an amazing side dish, though it’s a Southern ingredient people don’t use very much anymore.

More than 900 people came out to support the Atlanta chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier International

So I started thinking about what I could do with it for Les Dames and came up with hominy stew with chicken confit, sautéed red pepper, scallions, Serenbe Farms braised cabbage and a Belle Meade Bourbon cream sauce with a little paprika sprinkled on top.

I know this sounds crazy, but I like to experiment with a new dish every year. I don’t even test it before I put it out for 900 people. I just like to wing it and somehow it always works.

FARMHOUSE CHICKEN AND HOMINY STEW

6 boneless,skinless chicken breast
8 tablespoons butter
3 cups napa cabbage,chopped
1 cup carrots, peeled and julienned
1/2 cup green onions, chopped
1 29 oz can hominy
1/2 cup bourbon
2 cup heavy cream
2 tsp Dijon mustard
Kosher salt and pepper

Put hominy with juice in a small pan and place on low heat to heat through while preparing vegetables and chicken.

Heat another small skillet. Add bourbon and very carefully ignite with a match to flame. Allow flame to subside, then add cream. Cook on low and sauce will thicken as cooking remainder of ingredients.
As nearing finish time on vegetables, add Dijon mustard and readjust seasoning to taste.

Melt 4 tablespoons butter in a large cast iron skillet. Salt and pepper the chicken breasts. Sauté the breasts in the butter 4-6 min each side. Remove from skillet and place in a pan and keep warm in low degree oven- 200.

And remaining butter and melt. Add cabbage and carrots and sauté until softened. add green onions and sauté additional 2-3 min. Season with salt and pepper.

To assemble:
Drain hominy and add to vegetables.Remove chicken from oven and cut into strips. Add to vegetables. Mix bourbon cream sauce into chicken and vegetable mixture.

Serve in bowls.