Carolyn Shobe:

I grew up in a poor working classhome in the South; my parents were in their 40s when I was born. Because my Grandmother Lila had migraines, my mother started cooking for their family of five when she was nine years old; she made certain my two sisters and I had marketable skills. She worked in a school cafeteria making $1800 a year. My father was disabled; cooking was her way of showing love. Consequently, my comfort foods are starchy, fatty, but delicious. I went to college 305 miles from home during the 1970s gas shortage; Mama always had fried
chicken and macaroni/cheese waiting for me with sweet tea and iced box cookies.