Holiday Giveaways: My Favorite Southern Cookbooks - CLOSED

***This giveaway is now closed and a winner has been chosen.  Thank you for entering!***

For my final giveaway this year, one lucky winner will receive three of my favorite cookbooks.  Born and raised in the south, southern food is quite easily my favorite cuisine.  And I would argue vehemently that it has the richest food culture of any other region in the US.  It is definitely more than just Paula Deen, fried food, and lard.  It's the original farm-to-table cuisine.  It's about passing down treasured recipes from generation to generation.  It's about family and togetherness and love.  And this week I want to share that love with all of you.  I'll be giving away three cookbooks:  The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook, Sara Foster's Southern Kitchen, and Basic to Brilliant, Y'all by Virginia Willis.  I have made multiple recipes out of each of these cookbooks, all with rave reviews.

The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook is my Bible when it comes to southern food.  It has all the basics of southern cuisine - a killer pimiento cheese recipe, boiled peanuts, fried green tomatoes, collards, Brunswick stew, pound cake, biscuits... plus some fun and interesting spins on classics as well.  Wine and beer and beer pairings are also included with most of the recipes, and the recipes and commentary are witty and wonderfully written.  This is the first book I pull out when I want to reference any southern classic.

Sara Foster's Southern Kitchen is another winner.  She's all about seasonal and local cooking.  She takes traditional southern recipes and gives them a modern twist - some of the standouts:  flounder with garden vegetable ratatouille, corn cakes topped with an avocado-tomato salad, country ham and hominy hash, Autumnal chicken pot pie,  grits with roasted butternut squash and blue cheese, grilled peach salad with country ham and herbs, rhubarb-cornmeal tart...and her cornbread dressing is one of the best I've ever had.  It is now my Thanksgiving staple, bar none.

And finally, Basic to Brilliant, Y'all.  This is the newest cookbook that I've added to my collection, and I am so in love.  Virginia Willis is a classically French-trained chef who was born and raised in the south.  She combines the two cuisines effortlessly, giving fancy French recipes a down-home feel, and updating some classic southern-style dishes as French preparations.  Some standouts:  sweet potato grits, pecan-crusted trout with brown-butter sauce, kale omelet baked in a bread boule, roasted red pepper and goat cheese gratin, apple-Roquefort turnovers, summer squash slaw, poached eggs in red wine sauce, deviled chicken thighs, peach dijon-crusted pork tenderloin, Coca-Cola Cake... and each recipe is accompanied by a "brilliant" idea:  a shortcut, a short recipe that can accompany the dish, or an alternate presentation.  The book is also beautifully photographed by the talented Helene Dujardin.

The Rules:

1. To enter, leave me a comment answering this question: What is your favorite cuisine?
2. One entry per person.  The winner will be chosen by a random number generator.
3. Must leave a valid email address with your entry (I need a way to get in touch with you if you win!!)
4. Giveaway is open until Thursday 12/22 at 10 pm EST.