ORDER YOUR 4th of JULY PIE! It’s Not TOO SOON!!

4TH OF JULY PIE ORDER IS NOW!

I know! It’s still a month out, but I’m not back in action in Nashville from New York until far too close to the date and by then, it’ll feel like a knife fight to try to get this post made, arrangements made for kitchen rental, assistants hired and ingredients sourced.

I’m planning ahead (be proud, this is so contrary to every instinct I have) and now I know, after all these years, what my father meant when he said “a well planned and organized battle becomes the metaphorical high ground for the victor”. He was a field artillery man. As proof, he’s completely deaf in one ear from when the howitzers would go off. We had lots of tactical advice growing up. And, we always have to shout at family dinners.

I leave for New York in a week and perhaps, by now, you all are sizing up your holiday plans for the 4th of July. If you’re not, see above and be a victor and go ahead and check one thing off your to-do list. I’m selling pie. Lots and lots of pie.

I’ll be using the best ingredients I can find, which I hope goes without saying. My buttermilk pies will be made with Knoxville’s own Cruze’s buttermilk. Peaches from our friends at Parson’s Farm/ThePeachTruck. Apples dried from Floyd, Virginia. Chocolate from those jokers at Olive & Sinclair. And, I think put up enough Strawberries and Rhubarb that I think I can cover a handful of orders. As such, Strawberry Rhubarb Pie orders will be a little more limited than the rest.

Since I’m a small operation, I’ll be only taking up to 100 orders. They do sell out fast, and because of this, we will be sending out emails either confirming your pie order or refunding your payment. We will confirm pies in the order that they are received. Thank you for your understanding.

Photo courtesy of Matt Fern

Whole pies will be 10″, enough to feed 8-10 folks and your options are below.

Pies are $40 each.

Pie pick up will be on Friday, July 3rd at a designated pop-up location.

*Special early pickup for those of you who are travelers can be accommodated upon request.

TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, CHOOSE FROM THE OPTIONS BELOW AND PRESS THE “ORDER HERE” LINK FOLLOWING THE MENU. YOU WILL BE REDIRECTED TO THE BMR PAYPAL SITE. PLEASE SPECIFY WHICH PIES YOU’D LIKE TO ORDER IN THE “INSTRUCTIONS/NOTE TO SELLER” SECTION OF YOUR CHECKOUT.

PIE OPTIONS FOR 4TH OF JULY, 2015

 CRUZE’S BUTTERMILK PIE

DOUBLE CRUST PEACH

O&S CHOCOLATE CHESS PIE

CHERRY LATTICE

APPLE AND GA PECAN&CANE SYRUP STREUSEL

ORDER YOUR PIES HERE! 

Thank you and have a happy June!

LD and the BMR Team

Photo courtesy of A. Behrends and J. Justus

A BMR Sunday Supper Resurrection in the Name of Virginia Willis!

I was fairly certain that we had put the BMR Sunday Supper to bed. But, admittedly, I had always hoped someone would come around with a good enough reason for me to strike up the band once more. Virginia Willis has done just that. She’s ignited a spark and I’m kind of beside myself that we get to have one more pow-wow.

I first met Virginia god knows where but I know for certain food was involved and we were likely knee deep in it. Immediately, I felt a kinship for her. She’s easy to love upon first site. She’s honest, affable, a great chef and one of the nicest people with good stories (my favorite kind of nice people) you may ever meet. I’ve put her proper and official bio down below – and, you should read it – but, all I want to say is that I just like her a whole bunch. I enjoy the way she speaks of food. I enjoy the way she cooks it. She speaks of simple southern cookery without 1. deflating it to a big-haired caricature of itself or 2. aggrandizing to a status that makes people feel all of a sudden disconnected from it. She talks about it because it’s her food. It’s our food. And it’s that plain.

When she contacted me to tell me she was coming to Nashville to talk about her book and maybe offer some classes centered around her book signing, we agreed almost immediately that this was one of the finest reasons to reengage in a Buttermilk Road Sunday Supper.

I wouldn’t go as far as to say that good people are hard to find – I seem to be pretty phenomenally gifted at bumping into some of the best folks on this planet (they make the nasty ones you meet so much more palatable and forgettable). But, in Ms. Willis, I feel quite lucky to have stumbled upon such a gem of a person and am so glad that I get to share her with some of you fine Nashville folks in the way of a meal together.

In addition to our Sunday Supper, Virginia will be hosting a chef’s demo, market lunch and book signing at our very own Nashville Farmer’s Market on Saturday, July 11 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.. Details are here!

Courtesy of the ever gracious Matt Bolus, we’ll be taking over the 404Kitchen on Sunday, July 12th. We will follow the traditional BMR style with a cocktail hour between 630pm-730pm and we’ll sit down to a family style meal together with wine pairings from the incredible Robin Riddell Jones of Raising the Glass (if you missed her series of wine classes, you should do everything in your power to make the next series – truly inspired!). Parnassus will be on hand to offer you a glimpse of and a chance to purchase (and have signed) a copy of Virginia’s book after our meal. Also, key words: Belle Meade Bourbon, Peach Truck Peaches, Crema Coffee.. I feel like all I have to do is show up and pretend to stir something since those jokers make it so easy.

The variation of this dinner is that we’ll be cooking a whole meal from Virginia’s aforementioned new book Lighten Up Y’all. You can find the menu below.

For those of you that may be new to BMR, you can reserve your seats by hitting the RESERVE YOUR SEATS HERE link after the menu. You will be directed to the BMR paypal account. You will, then, receive a confirmation or a refund (our max seat capacity is 40 and we typically fill up within a couple of days, if not immediately) within 24-48hours.

So, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, a Buttermilk Road Sunday Supper w. Virginia Willis.

 

Cocktail Hour

BMR and Belle Meade Bourbon Punch

Smokey Eggplant Dip w. Benne Seed Saltines

Lisa’s Biscuits w. Benton’s Ham and Pickled Summer Peaches

Family Style Service/Main Course

(wines chosen by RRJ/Raising the Glass)

Peach and Tomato Gazpacho

Field Pea and Bean Salad

Vegetable Cornbread

Bourbon Grilled Heritage Pork Loin w. Peach BBQ Sauce

Sauteed Green Beans w. Summer Corn

Lisa’s Yeast Rolls

Dessert

Crema Coffee Service

Brown Sugar Shortcakes w. Summer Strawberries and Cruze’s Buttermilk Cream

TO RESERVE A SEAT: We have to keep reservations tight at 40 people as the 404Kitchen is not suited for many more bodies than that. The prix fixe amount for this evening with multiple cocktail offerings, a wine pairing, heavy appetizers and three courses is $85 per person. Once you donate, you will receive an email from us confirming your seat and filling you in on further information. You will find the reservation button on the bottom of this post below the menu.

Grab yourself a seat and we’ll see you at the table!

THIS EVENT IS FULLY BOOKED! THANKS GUYS! 

You can find out more about Virginia here and below. She’s good to know, y’all. She’s good to know.

About Virginia Willis

 

Georgia-born French-trained Chef Virginia Willis has cooked Lapin Normandie with Julia Child in France, prepared lunch for President Clinton, catered a bowling party for Jane Fonda, and harvested capers in the shadow of a smoldering volcano in Sicily — but it all started in her grandmother’s country kitchen.

 

As a popular Southern food authority and writer, Virginia is the author of five cookbooks, including: Bon Appétit, Y’all and Lighten Up, Y’all. She is the blogger for Down-Home Comfort on FoodNetwork.com. Named by the Chicago Tribune as one of “Seven Food Writers You Need to Know,” her fans love her knack for giving classic French dishes a down-home comfort feel and reimagining Southern favorites.

 

She’s a contributing editor for Southern Living and writes for Eating Well, Fine Cooking, and All Recipes. She has been featured in Country Living, House Beautiful, and USA Today. Learn more about Virginia and follow her traveling exploits at www.virginiawillis.com.

A New Road for Us

2015 has ushered in so many opportunities, changes, endings and beginnings. A bit of hibernation, r&r, family time and regrouping was in order for me, personally. I learned a lot about what I’m seeking – as a chef, as a writer, as a woman, as a person. I think you can, through emphatically saying “YES” to everything, learn a lot about what you can eventually say “no” to. For me, getting back to the “why” of cooking has been imperative – the egoless, the pure and simple, the joy inducing, the academic nerdiness I’m prone to, the reading of old cookbooks, the discussions about food with other people who are more interested in the realness of it than the power it has over our culture at the moment. I’ve been able to truly sit and think about all of the wonderful things that have lead me to a place where, holy hell, I actually CAN sit and think. The time for rediscovery is a really luxurious thing.

I’ve been afforded several opportunities to write again. Kate Krader, my editor at Food and Wine magazine took a snipit of a piece I spoke about at the Southern Food Writer’s Conference last year and put it here. I’ve been working with Garden and Gun as well as Southern Living and all of my writing dreams seem to be fleshing themselves out, slowly, over time. Working with people like Kate, John T. Edge, Jennifer Cole and Jessica Mischner has been an education and an honor. I want to continue down this path as long as I’m allowed to.

But, making the shift from “survival mode” to having a slight amount of control over where your future may be heading is at once a terrifying and wonderful thing. I was thrust, pretty early on, into having to be a grown up (cue the world’s smallest violin). There wasn’t a lot of time to think about dreams, but I did anyway. My fixation on only doing work that I cared about has made for nothing but pure hustle. I don’t mind hustling. In fact, for better or worse, it’s probably the thing in this world I’m best at. But, switching gears from that – saying “yes!”, being on point, keeping your eyes open for every opportunity to be better and live better – to being strategic and entrepreneurial is not as easy as I thought it would be. My brain wants action. My body hates sitting in meetings. I don’t want to talk about spreadsheets. I loathe reading contracts. I don’t do business speak. Altogether, what I’m saying is, I’m being a brat. A big, fat, arms crossed, foot stomping brat. But I’m learning. And growing, I guess. I’m learning how to be more than a hustling, free form, reactionary who follows her every flight of fancy – even if this learning feels like I’m playing dress up in my daddy’s shoes. And good things will come of it. But, and luckily, I have good friends and an impossibly good family to remind me that I’m best when I’m moving and making and writing – not just sitting in meetings waiting for people to say “yes” to me. I’m no good to anyone when I have to wait for things to unfold. I’m not a patient person. Waiting is not my jam. And, for the record, neither are spreadsheets. I mean, dang. Who invented that noise?

I digress. My point is this: there is so much to do besides that, you know? To offset the slight misery it brings? Yes. Yes is the answer. And, after many conversations, invitations, emails and the like from people who have said “When are you doing another class?!” to “Can you come to New York and do a BMR dinner?” – I think I’m ready to start emphatically saying “YES” again. But not in a hustling kind of way. In a choosy and right way. Because, after much deliberation, Buttermilk Road *is* the core of why I cook. And saying “yes” to it, is not reactionary or a flight of fancy. It’s where my heart is. It came out of the sincerest part of my love for food. And it’s the best reason I can think of, at this moment, to say “yes” to something.

So. Here is the news. While I wait for the details of many things to unfold, as they do, I’m no longer going to let Buttermilk Road fall by the wayside.

As I work out the details of Buttermilk Road/OnTheRoad and our Online Bakeshop, to be shared this week, I wanted to go ahead and offer up our first series of classes:

Southern Baking Basics in New York City

As usual, our baking classes are limited to a small group to provide the best and most detailed approach to teaching. All materials will be provided and you, the student, need only bring yourself, a notebook and a pencil (and comfy, cooking clothes).

You will receive a confirmation email within 24hours from BMR, in addition to your paypal receipt. Your email confirmation will contain pertinent information, including location, regarding our class. Tickets are nonrefundable. As seats normally fill up quickly, I will keep a waiting list in the event a student needs to resell their ticket.

NASHVILLE MARCH BAKING CLASSES WITH LISA DONOVAN, 

SOUTHERN BAKING BASICS: SATURDAY, MARCH 28TH, 10AM-1PM

Come learn the secrets of a Southern Baker. Biscuits, pie dough, hand pies and her well loved Buttermilk Pie will be covered. Supplies will be provided and you get to take home everything you make. Seats will be limited to 12 students. $80/per student, all materials included. THIS CLASS IS FULLY BOOKED. 

FRENCH PASTRY PRIMER: SATURDAY, MARCH 28TH, 230PM-530PM

Students will work in teams as I discuss the importance of French pastry technique in my baking. Incorporating simple basics like tempering for pastry creams, fraisage for tart shells, browning butter for more complex flavors and making choux can help any baking bring their product to the next level. Seats will be limited to 12 students. $95/per student. All materials included. THIS CLASS IS FULLY BOOKED.

ALL PIE, ALL DAY: SUNDAY, MARCH 29TH, 2PM-5PM

We’re gonna get down and dirty about all things pie. Ingredients, dough, building techniques to include crimp styles, lattice styles and hand pies, filling (how to get the perfect fruit viscosity) and variations. Seats will be limited to 12 students. $80/per student, all materials included. THIS CLASS IS FULLY BOOKED.

YOU WILL RECEIVE AN EMAIL CONFIRMATION WITHIN 24HOURS FROM ONE OF US HERE AT BMR. 

Glad to be back. See you at the table!
Lisa and the Buttermilk Road Team

Forks in the Road and Spoons in the Thanksgiving PIES!!!

I had big plans, you guys. I had plans to ship pies to the corners of the world this year. But things change. Life happens.

There are many changes on the horizon for me. The biggest and most dramatic change for me is that on November 21st, I will be moving on from my post as Pastry Chef of Husk Nashville. When Sean called and offered me the job, my admiration for him and my desire to learn from him in a kitchen trumped my knowledge that the restaurant industry was not necessarily the easiest industry to sustain a family life, a writing career or a healthy physical state of being within. I did it anyway and it has been such a rewarding ride. I feel proud to have built the menus I built and so honored to have worked along side Sean – what I have learned from him as a chef and as a friend in this industry (and life at large) has been something that is invaluable to me. I’ll carry these last nearly two years with me in a really special way. But, finding a more sustainable way to both work and be with my family while I build my career is paramount to me in this phase of life. The graciousness with which Husk is sending me out into the world is so loving, kind and understanding. I’ll definitely miss my little corner of that kitchen.

In an effort to not jump from one intense work cycle to another, sending pies to London and Portland is not going to happen (Sorry Dylan and Rebecca and Lisa and all!). I’d really love to spend that Thanksgiving week simply and easily being with my family. But! So many folks are asking and, honestly, for me, knocking out twenty or thirty pies is nuthin’. Truly. SO, to my Nashville family at large, I’m taking a few pie orders to be picked up Wednesday, November 26th,  at a set time a location TBD amongst the orderers and myself. I’m keeping the options reaaaaaally simple. Each pie will be 10″, semi-deep dish and $35 each. If you prefer to have it delivered versus meeting us at the pickup time, I can deliver for an additional $10 to your home, within city limits. I’ll only take 30 orders max this time.

Your options are:

My traditional Buttermilk Chess Pie (as served at Husk)

Sweet Potato Buttermilk Pie

Bourbon Molasses Georgia Pecan Pie

SOLD OUT!

Please NOTE: Simply purchase the total amount and in the “Special Instuctions” field, make a note of which pies you’d like. You will receive notification and a personal receipt from me within 24hours. I’ll take the link down once I’ve maxed out.

And happy holidays guys!!!

 

XOLD

High Demand Classes: An August Southern Baking Class and Another Layer Cake Class!

Southern Baking Basic in Nashville, The Stables at Husk

Due to an incredible demand for two classes (the Southern Baking Basics Class and the Layer Cake Class), I have scheduled two more dates in August for any of you on the waiting list or for any of you that might have otherwise missed the boat!

This month has truly been some kind of damn fun. Sean and my pals at Husk have been allowing us to use the separate private dining house, The Stables at Husk, for our classes. It’s been a beautiful space to work out of. This weekend, one of our more intimate classes will take place at Sarah Gavigan’s POP! here in East Nashville so that we can have more access to oven space and fire and freezers and the like. All in all, I’d say that our location has been a really great tone setter for our classes and people have really enjoyed checking out these places outside of having classes in them. So, thanks to Sean and team at Husk and another thanks to Sarah for providing such great classrooms for us!

Please see below for the opportunity to sign up for our August classes!

 

Saturday, August 23rd, 2PM-5PM: SOUTHERN BAKING BASICS, ADULT CLASS

Come learn the secrets of a Southern Baker. Biscuits, pie dough, hand pies and her well loved Husk Buttermilk Pie will be covered. Supplies will be provided and you get to take home everything you make! Seats will be limited to 10 students. $75/per student, all materials included. NOTE: This class is partially booked again. There is limited seating available. Thank you!

RESERVE SEATS HERE!!

Southern Baking Basics in New York City

SUNDAY, August 24th, 130PM-530PM: LAYER CAKE SUNDAY

We’re going to continue the layer cake badassery right on through to August. We’ll make coconut cake. And caramel cake. And holy hell it’s going to be awesome. That is all. Seats limited to 8 students, all materials provided. $95/per student.

RESERVE SEATS HERE!!

The Alabama Lane Cake.