About Martha Hall Foose

Martha Hall Foose is the James Beard award-winning author of the best-selling cookbooks Screen Doors and Sweet Tea and A Southerly Course: Recipes & Stories From Close to Home. Born and raised in the Mississippi Delta, she attended the famed pastry school École Lenôtre in France. She returned to Mississippi and opened Bottletree Bakery in Oxford, and, later, Mockingbird Bakery in Greenwood, both of which have become Southern institutions. @marthafoose

Two large glass bottles filled with Southern sweet tea.

Southern Sweet Tea

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Nothing slakes thirst, quells worries, and comes together with such ease quite like Southern sweet tea.

A root beer-glazed ham on a wooden cutting board with a fork and knife resting beside it.

Root Beer-Glazed Ham

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Ah, sassafras. It plays oh so nicely with ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and anise to enhance the smoky, salty goodness of glazed ham.

An inside-out sweet potato coated in corn flakes, with a marshmallow center.

Inside-Out Sweet Potatoes

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Mashed sweet potatoes are slathered over marshmallows, coated in crushed corn flakes, and deep-fried until crisp. Talk about something to be thankful for!

A spider spoon with a fried summer squash in it being set onto a cooling rack.

Summer Squash Fritters

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Part hush puppy, part fritter, and lovely through and through, these little blobs of cornmeal batter and summer squash blossom like sunflowers as they fry.

Bittersweet Chocolate Cake

Darkness on the Delta

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A deep, dark-as-night, fudgy-as-heck, bittersweet cake that’s a deserving dessert for any dinner party. Chocoholics, you’re welcome.