A husband-and-wife team blends their Southern and Pacific Northwest backgrounds to create a compilation of family favorites like you’ve never seen them before.
By Elizabeth Bonner Czapski
When Cade and Carrian Cheney decided to spend their lives together, a beautiful union began between not only the couple, but also their distinctive culinary experiences. Carrian’s farm-to-table upbringing in evergreen Washington proved an unexpected match to the hearty Southern fare Cade grew up on in South Carolina. They started sharing their recipes on a blog with a mission to reinvent family dinner by focusing on the people behind the food.
Before long, readers from regions all over were clamoring for more of this collaborative cooking. The Cheneys furthered their venture in Our Sweet Basil Kitchen, compiling more than 100 of their most unique concoctions. “Cade and I both grew up in homes where cooking was important,” Carrian says. “For Cade, having a Southern mother meant food had soul. It carried memories and feelings. Cade and I have a family of our own now, and we’ve quickly realized cooking together means more listening, sharing, and connecting.”
When it comes to their recipes, Carrian says, “Everything is a little bit Cade and a little bit me.” Her penchant for fresh flavors pairs with his appreciation for tradition. “Southern food always has a backstory,” she explains. “We want our food to have a story as well, so we love to take familiar ingredients we grew up with and use them to propel new recipes and stories.”
Their novel takes span breakfast to dessert, from Breakfast Fruit Pizza with a Strawberry-Almond Granola crust (Carrian’s personal favorite) to Cade’s slow-cooked Carolina Pulled Pork, which they serve both traditionally and in a taco topped with bacon crumbles and fresh slaw. Other imaginative ingredient mashups include Peach Cobbler Baked French Toast, Cilantro Pesto Asparagus, Mango Chicken Salad, and Dulce de Leche Banana Cream Pie.
Southern classics aren’t left behind, but many appear in refreshed forms perfect for summer—try a familiar favorite like 7-Layer Salad, or keep things minimal yet delightful with Dill Pea and Cucumber Salad or Watermelon Salad. “When those hot months hit, find one of the many recipes that uses garden or farmers’-market ingredients,” Carrian says. “Serve up simple dishes that scream summer, and really let those bright, seasonal ingredients speak for themselves.”
From the cookbook’s organization to its ingredients, simplicity is an ongoing theme, interspersed with helpful tips, tidbits about family traditions, and sweet anecdotes behind recipes. “These really aren’t just recipes for us,” Carrian says. “It’s our story. While times have changed and life is a little busier, Cade and I have discovered that people still have their major memories centered around food.
“We want husbands and wives to stand side by side and create something delicious together, but more importantly, to connect again. We want parents to put down their phones, to-do lists, and expectations, lift a little one up on the counter, and feel those heartstrings wrap around them. We want this cookbook to be about the hands that create the food more than the food itself.”
Published by Shadow Mountain, Our Sweet Basil Kitchen is available at booksellers nationwide and on amazon.com. Continue reading for recipes on the following pages. Recipes reprinted from Our Sweet Basil Kitchen with permission from Shadow Mountain.
Dill Pea and Cucumber Salad
Our family loves to go on picnics. In fact, we have two baskets and three blankets so we can invite friends or family and enjoy an afternoon or evening relaxing on the soft grass while everyone chats and the kids play a little soccer or Frisbee. We’ve found a few simple, refreshing recipes like this dill salad that are perfect for those picturesque evenings—and even for the evenings when we bring out the squirt guns for an impromptu water fight. Everyone should let their inner child out now and again, right?
Greek Citrus Chicken
Here are three helpful tips that will make cooking chicken in a pan a breeze. First, set out your chicken 5 minutes before cooking. Cold meat doesn’t cook through evenly. Second, start with high heat, and add your chicken, then turn to low—that will provide color and allows for even cooking. When the meat has turned white halfway up the breast, flip it, and cook the other side until no pink remains.
Dulce de Leche Banana Cream Pie
Carrian writes, “My sister is quite a few years older than I am, so anytime we did something together when I was little, I felt incredibly special. On one occasion, we stopped at a restaurant for banana cream pie but somehow had only a checkbook with us when the waiter came with our bill. The restaurant wouldn’t accept checks. We were practically in tears and had to call our mom to come rescue us. Now, whenever I feel the need for banana cream pie, I just make this one at home. It’s a delicious mash-up of two of my favorite flavors.”
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