In writing this blog it’s tempting to only recount the successes, to post only photos of the beautiful finished dishes and regale you, gentle reader, with semi-authoritative recipes.
In short, it’s easy to make cooking look easy.
But cooking is not easy. Nor is it safe.
…
That’s when I saw the catfish in the Kroger seafood case.
And that’s [...]

By Tonia Moxley
The Roanoke Times
May 31, 2006
It’s a d— shame that every food good for the Appalachian soul is bad for the heart.
Creamy sausage gravy over buttery biscuits. Fried chicken. Buttermilk and cornbread. Chicken livers and onions cooked in butter. And wilt sallet.
I know that to those who didn’t grow up with it, wilt sallet [...]

By Tonia Moxley
The Roanoke Times
May 24, 2006
Summary: Plank grilling proves cedar isn’t just for shingles any more.
 
BLACKSBURG — Fresh-caught Pacific Northwest salmon from Alaska soon will come rolling into the New River Valley in the back of a refrigerated truck.
 
When the “fish ladies” of Indigo Farms Seafood park their rig at curbs from [...]

By Tonia Moxley
Appalachian Voice
August 2002
 
STICKLEYVILLE, Va. — Martin Miles has been farming tobacco in Southwest Virginia since he was 6 years old. At 60, he’s trying something new – organic produce.
 
While tobacco allotments — the amount of tobacco a given farm is allowed to grow — have been steadily declining in Southwest Virginia, the [...]

By Tonia Moxley
The Roanoke Times
December 03, 2006 
Two years in a row I have cursed the Thanksgiving turkey in the kitchen and served it with big helpings of apology to my guests.
Last year I sliced into a perfectly browned thigh only to find alarmingly pink meat staring back. Poking around, I found the giblets package, steaming [...]