Cooking Up Christmas Recipes For Alabama Hearths And Homes

By Susan Ray

While recollections of Christmas gifts from childhood may fade over time, the memories of food and gatherings with friends and family instantly return with the first smells of Christmas pine needles.

That holds true for Georgia native Amanda Wilbanks, author of “Southern Baked: Celebrating Life with Pie” and founder of the Southern Baked Pie Company. As a child, she began her Christmas Eve in the same magical way every year.

“Every Christmas Eve was spent at my Aunt Betty Jeanne and Uncle Bob’s house on Lake Burton,” Wilbanks says. “It was always a formal black-tie affair, and I remember as a young child getting dressed up in my red velvet dress with stockings and dress shoes. We would stand in anticipation at their front door, which would open to a dining table set with her exquisite china and fall in love with her Christmas décor, which included a tree in every single room.”

Aunt Betty Jeanne had an all-white dining room and would decorate it differently every year.

She loved to cook and entertain, which added to the magic of the season.

To read the full article, please visit the Alabama NewsCenter website.

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