IN THE KITCHEN WITH TRISHA YEARWOOD

Last year, we had the pleasure of talking to Trisha Yearwood about the 10th season of her television cooking show, Trisha’s Southern Kitchen, which premiered in August 2017 on Food Network.

Trisha is well-known for her award-winning singing career – and for being married to country singer Garth Brooks. And for the past several years, she’s gained fame as a best-selling cookbook author and host of Trisha’s Southern Kitchen, where her Southern hospitality shines as she brings to life the stories and recipes from her cookbooks.

Her first two cookbooks, Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen and Home Cooking with Trisha Yearwood, were written with her sister, Beth Yearwood Bernard, and their mom, Gwen Yearwood. The third cookbook, Trisha’s Table, was written by Trisha and Beth, after their mom passed away. We haven’t heard anything about a fourth cookbook yet … but we’re hopeful.

Here’s the interview, as well as a few favorite recipes.

• Have you always liked to cook?

I grew up in a house where my mom was an amazing cook, and my dad was a really good cook, too. My sister and I, when we were kids, basically set the table … and we didn’t have an ice maker, so we cracked the ice cubes. Those were our big jobs.

I think the biggest thing we made were maybe cookies or something like that. My mom was the primary cook. She had a job … she was a schoolteacher … but she would come home every afternoon at 3:30 and have a meal on the table at 6 p.m. … I mean every single night! As an adult now, I don’t even know … I can’t imagine doing that.

I didn’t really learn to cook until I moved away to college and came to Nashville and was living in an apartment. I grew up on a farm with a garden and fresh vegetables … and the first time I ate a vegetable out of a can, I think I called home in tears, like, I don’t know what to do.

My mom gave me a couple really simple recipes (over the phone) to make, like her potato salad and her meatloaf, and both of those things have like four ingredients … and it was kind of like, wow, I cannot only connect with home because I miss my folks, but I can now make this food, and it tastes like Mom’s, so it’s like being at home, and I can cook for myself … and it was really a revelation that it didn’t have to be hard.

It was really more, I guess, of osmosis. I mean, my mom really didn’t teach me … well, she taught me everything I know, but I was older. I was 20 years old before she really started talking me through things, and it was wonderful, because I could pick up the phone and ask her the most basic questions. Questions like: If you’re going to boil corn on