Presents a food memoir, cookbook, and tribute to the author's mother, sharing classic family recipes, many of them pre-dating the Civil War, and preparation secrets for such traditional fare as short ribs, biscuits, and mashed potatoes.

Margaret Bragg does not own a single cookbook, but she can tell you the secrets to perfect food. In this book, her son tells the stories that framed his mother's cooking, from childhood into old age.