Progressive Southern Foods LARALYNCARTER.COM When television host Lara Lyn Carter stands before a camera, she feels her late grandmother, Mittie, looking over her shoulder as she stirs and chops. The third generation of excellent Southern cooks, Lara Lyn helped her grandmother and mother in the kitchen before she could see over the top of the counter. Now Albany, Ga., native has updated the beloved family recipes she learned and is bringing them to a new audience through her Georgia Public Broadcasting show, Thyme for Sharing with Lara Lyn Carter, and her cookbook, Southern Thymes Shared. Thyme for Sharing with Lara Lyn Carter reflects her heritage of family and storytelling to explain how Southern meats and vegetables have come to define a region. The first four episodes of her show, which airs at 3 p.m. Saturdays on the Georgia Public Broadcasting network, take viewers to very different Southern locations to find the tales behind the recipes she features. On the Georgia coast, in the elegant dining room of the historic Jekyll Island Club where America’s tycoons once played, Lara Lyn samples shrimp-and-grits, noting the irony of a dish once considered a poor man’s breakfast food now elevated by today’s chefs to an art form. At Grey Moss Plantation, on the shores of Georgia’s Flint River, Lara Lyn cooks quail as she recalls going hunting with her father and brother when she was a child. “In Nashville, I ate chicken so hot I thought my teeth were going to melt,” she says. No surprise, considering this famous chicken recipe is said to have been developed in the 1930s by a scorned woman who wanted to inflict pain on her former lover. But it was during a trip to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home in Virginia, that Lara Lyn found true culinary inspiration to share with viewers. “I always think of Thomas Jefferson as the first foodie,” she says. “It was so exciting to look through his notes and see what he served his guests and how he paired vegetables from his garden with fine wines from Europe. People always think of sweet tea when they think of Southern food, but our forefathers were drinking wine that they made or that they imported.” Pairing wines and cocktails with Southern food has become the hallmark of Lara Lyn’s culinary style. For three years, she was host of the award-winning television show, Savor the Good Life, aired by the NBC and ABC affiliate for Southwest Georgia. Showcasing Southern cuisine, history and lifestyle, the program consistently outperformed national prime time programming and specials. With the new GPB show, she now shares her Southern heritage with the rest of Georgia. Lara Lyn Carter lives with her husband, Chris, and their three sons in Albany, Ga. Television Host Inspired by Stories behind Recipes for New Cooking Show Biography Thyme for Sharing with Lara Lyn Carter airs at 3 p.m. EST on Saturdays on Georgia Public Broadcasting statewide. Television Host Inspired by Stories behind Recipes for New Cooking Show
Transcript
Progressive Southern FoodsL A R A LY N C A R T E R .CO M
When television host Lara Lyn Carter stands before a camera, she feels her late grandmother, Mittie, looking over her shoulder as she stirs and chops.
The third generation of excellent Southern cooks, Lara Lyn helped her grandmother and mother in the kitchen before she could see over the top of the counter. Now Albany, Ga., native has updated the beloved family recipes she learned and is bringing them to a new audience through her Georgia Public Broadcasting show, Thyme for Sharing with Lara Lyn Carter, and her cookbook, Southern Thymes Shared.
Thyme for Sharing with Lara Lyn Carter reflects her heritage of family and storytelling to explain how Southern meats and vegetables have come to define a region. The first four episodes of her show, which airs at 3 p.m. Saturdays on the Georgia Public Broadcasting network, take viewers to very different Southern locations to find the tales behind the recipes she features.
On the Georgia coast, in the elegant dining room of the historic Jekyll Island Club where America’s tycoons once played, Lara Lyn samples shrimp-and-grits, noting the irony of a dish once considered a poor man’s breakfast
food now elevated by today’s chefs to an art form. At Grey Moss Plantation, on the shores of Georgia’s Flint River, Lara Lyn cooks quail as she recalls going hunting with her father and brother when she was a child.
“In Nashville, I ate chicken so hot I thought my teeth were going to melt,” she says. No surprise, considering this famous chicken recipe is said to have been developed in the 1930s by a scorned woman who wanted to inflict pain on her former lover. But it was during a trip to Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home in Virginia, that Lara Lyn found true culinary inspiration to share with viewers.
“I always think of Thomas Jefferson as the first foodie,” she says. “It was so exciting to look through his notes and see what he served his guests and how he paired vegetables from
his garden with fine wines from Europe. People always think of sweet tea when they think of Southern food, but our forefathers were drinking wine that they made or that they imported.”
Pairing wines and cocktails with Southern food has become the hallmark of Lara Lyn’s culinary style. For three years, she was host of the award-winning television show, Savor the Good Life, aired by the NBC and ABC affiliate for Southwest Georgia. Showcasing Southern cuisine, history and lifestyle, the program consistently outperformed national prime time programming and specials. With the new GPB show, she now shares her Southern heritage with the rest of Georgia.
Lara Lyn Carter lives with her husband, Chris, and their three sons in Albany, Ga.
Television Host Inspired by Stories behind Recipes for New Cooking Show
Biography
Thyme for Sharing with Lara Lyn Carter airs at 3 p.m. EST on Saturdays on Georgia Public Broadcasting statewide.
Television Host Inspired by Stories behind Recipes for New Cooking Show
Progressive Southern FoodsL A R A LY N C A R T E R .CO M
Wicker & Whisk is the product line of Southern Progressive Foods, which produces sauces and dressings created by renowned Southern cook Lara Lyn Carter. Her television show, Thyme for Sharing, airs at 3 p.m. EST Saturdays on Georgia Public Broadcasting statewide.
Wicker & Whisk Sauces, Dressing Bring Bold New Flavors to Southern Classics
Merlot Steak Sauce
The company’s first offerings include “These products grew out of the sauces I’ve served my
friends at dinner parties over the years. They often
urged me to bottle them and sell them, so I took their
advice and developed Wicker & Whisk.”• A rich, tangy sauce made with red wine
• Pair with steak, beef dishes and portabella mushrooms
• Can be used as a marinade
• 14.0 oz.
Port Wine Mustard
• A sweet and savory sauce with a bold taste
• Great for chicken, pork, or dishes that need an updated Dijon tang
• 8.5 oz.
Homegrown Herb Dressing
• A creamy garlic buttermilk dressing with rosemary, basil and pepper
• Use on leafy green salads or garden vegetables
• 12.0 oz.
L A R A LY N C A R T E R
Host of Thyme for Sharing and author of Southern Thymes Shared cookbook
How to UseLara Lyn’s sauces and dressings are more than condiments. They’re delicious ingredients in special recipes she created, such as Merlot Meatloaf, Pretzel-crusted Pork Chops and Twice-baked Potatoes. She hopes these recipes will inspire home cooks to try her products in their family favorites or create new recipes of their own.
Lara Lyn’s recipes are available at www.wickerandwhisk.com.
Where AvailableWicker & Whisk sauces and dressings are available in specialty and grocery stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, and Tennessee. Find stores at www.wickerandwhisk.com.
How to Use
Wicker & Whisk
Progressive Southern FoodsL A R A LY N C A R T E R .CO M
Wicker and Whisk Georgia-made products will be available in grocery stores and specialty food shops. For more information and recipes, please visit www.wickerandwhisk.com.
Born and raised in Georgia, Lara Lyn Carter is no stranger to Southern hospitality. Her strong Southern roots and affinity for cooking inspired her to create and host a new television show for Georgia Public Broadcasting, Thyme for Sharing with Lara Lyn Carter, which showcases cuisine and travel in the South. It airs at 3 p.m. EST Saturdays on GPB channels statewide.
Previously, Lara Lyn had hosted the award-winning Savor the Good Life television show, which focused on South Georgia life. In 2014, she added to her reputation as a knowledgeable Southern chef by publishing her first cookbook Southern Thymes Shared, a complete guide to entertaining. For more information, please visit www.laralyncarter.com
Thyme for Sharing with Lara Lyn Carter airs at 3 p.m. EST on Saturdays on Georgia Public Broadcasting statewide.
Wicker & Whisk
Progressive Southern FoodsL A R A LY N C A R T E R .CO M
Lara Lyn Carter, host of GPB’s Thyme for Sharing with Lara Lyn Carter and author of Southern Thymes Shared cookbook, invites us into her kitchen to share some stovetop secrets.
Q&A
What’s always in your refrigerator? Cheese, cheese and more cheese! I love cheese and making dishes with cheese. Everything’s better with cheese.
In your pantry?All kinds of flour and baking ingredients. I always want to have all the ingredients on hand in case I decide to bake a pound cake to take to a friend.
Your favorite herb?Rosemary, because you can use it in so many different ways. I grow my own rosemary and use the branches as skewers when I’m grilling kebabs. Just sharpen the end so you can thread your meat or vegetables on the skewer, which infuses that wonderful flavor into whatever you’re cooking.
What would you recommend cooking for a romantic evening?If it’s a romantic evening, you don’t want to be in the kitchen the whole time—you want to be enjoying a nice wine with your partner—so you want to make something delicious that you’ve prepped or cooked ahead. Casseroles are perfect, especially seafood casseroles. Most people love a buttery, rich seafood casserole or a seafood pot pie. Add salad and bread, and you have a lovely romantic dinner. Don’t forget the candles!
You have three boys. Did you have a hard time getting them to eat or try new foods? My sons are 19, 13 – and 2. My boys are so used to being experimented on when I try new recipes that they will eat anything – they are my best critics. The two older ones also like to cook. The 13-year-old likes to make anything with bacon, and my oldest son recently told me he wants to learn to grill the right way.
Any advice for parents trying to get their kids to eat new things?Let them cook! Start them young and don’t be afraid of letting them make a mess in the kitchen.
Children love to help. When my boys were young, I let them get in the kitchen with me, just like my mother and grandmother did when I was a child. I gave my boys butter knives, which are not sharp, so they could help me by “chopping.” And they learned to stir batter and scrape the mixing bowl. They learned to crack eggs, a lot of kitchen basics.
As they got older, I used our kitchen time to bolster the lessons on counting that they were learning in school. They learned to measure, which helped them understand fractions. Cooking is a wonderful experience for children to share with their parents.
Why did you decide to create a new line of products and what made you choose sauces? These products grew out of the sauces and dressings I served my friends at dinner parties over the years. They often urged me to bottle them and sell them, so I took their advice and developed Wicker & Whisk.
Our first sauces are Merlot Steak Sauce, a rich, tangy sauce made with red wine, and Port Wine Mustard, a sweet and savory sauce – an homage to my love of sweet and savory. I was inspired by the fact that so many people today are intimidated by sauces, but adding sauce to a dish makes it special.
On my website, I’ve posted recipes using these sauces to motivate people to add them to recipes they make all the time. For example, everybody has a meatloaf recipe. Top the meatloaf with my merlot sauce instead of catsup to give it a new twist. And jazz up pork chops with the Port Wine Mustard sauce.
Salads are such an important part of a meal so I created a Homegrown Herb Dressing that complements the taste of garden vegetables. It’s is a creamy garlic buttermilk dressing flavored with rosemary, basil and pepper that also pairs well with leafy green salads.
If you could have someone cook for you, who would it be and what would you eat?Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa. She cooks elegant food that’s not intimidating to the home cook. She is so inspiring! I would ask her to pick one of her favorite recipes so I could taste her preparation and learn why she loves it.
Who would you like to invite -- living or dead -- to a dinner party and why?I would choose two people. Julia Child, because not only was she an incredible chef who brought French cuisine to the American public, but she went through so much to get her book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, published.
The second person would be my grandmother whom we lost 10 years ago. She was a fabulous cook who had such an influence on me. We were extremely close. Her name was Mittie, and my family calls me “Little Mittie.” She would be absolutely ecstatic about what I’m doing now. She was my inspiration.
Thyme for Sharing with Lara Lyn Carter airs at 3 p.m. EST Saturdays on Georgia Public Broadcasting statewide.
with Lara Lyn Carter
Progressive Southern FoodsL A R A LY N C A R T E R .CO M
What’s always in your refrigerator? Cheese, cheese and more cheese! I love cheese and making dishes with cheese. Everything’s better with cheese.
In your pantry?All kinds of flour and baking ingredients. I always want to have all the ingredients on hand in case I decide to bake a pound cake to take to a friend.
Your favorite herb?Rosemary, because you can use it in so many different ways. I grow my own rosemary and use the branches as skewers when I’m grilling kebabs. Just sharpen the end so you can thread your meat or vegetables on the skewer, which infuses that wonderful flavor into whatever you’re cooking.
What would you recommend cooking for a romantic evening?If it’s a romantic evening, you don’t want to be in the kitchen the whole time—you want to be enjoying a nice wine with your partner—so you want to make something delicious that you’ve prepped or cooked ahead. Casseroles are perfect, especially seafood casseroles. Most people love a buttery, rich seafood casserole or a seafood pot pie. Add salad and bread, and you have a lovely romantic dinner. Don’t forget the candles!
You have three boys. Did you have a hard time getting them to eat or try new foods? My sons are 19, 13 – and 2. My boys are so used to being experimented on when I try new recipes that they will eat anything – they are my best critics. The two older ones also like to cook. The 13-year-old likes to make anything with bacon, and my oldest son recently told me he wants to learn to grill the right way.
Any advice for parents trying to get their kids to eat new things?Let them cook! Start them young and don’t be afraid of letting them make a mess in the kitchen.
Children love to help. When my boys were young, I let them get in the kitchen with me, just like my mother and grandmother did when I was a child. I gave my boys butter knives, which are not sharp, so they could help me by “chopping.” And they learned to stir batter and scrape the mixing bowl. They learned to crack eggs, a lot of kitchen basics.
As they got older, I used our kitchen time to bolster the lessons on counting that they were learning in school. They learned to measure, which helped them understand fractions. Cooking is a wonderful experience for children to share with their parents.
Why did you decide to create a new line of products and what made you choose sauces? These products grew out of the sauces and dressings I served my friends at dinner parties over the years. They often urged me to bottle them and sell them, so I took their advice and developed Wicker & Whisk.
Our first sauces are Merlot Steak Sauce, a rich, tangy sauce made with red wine, and Port Wine Mustard, a sweet and savory sauce – an homage to my love of sweet and savory. I was inspired by the fact that so many people today are intimidated by sauces, but adding sauce to a dish makes it special.
On my website, I’ve posted recipes using these sauces to motivate people to add them to recipes they make all the time. For example, everybody has a meatloaf recipe. Top the meatloaf with my merlot sauce instead of catsup to give it a new twist. And jazz up pork chops with the Port Wine Mustard sauce.
Salads are such an important part of a meal so I created a Homegrown Herb Dressing that complements the taste of garden vegetables. It’s is a creamy garlic buttermilk dressing flavored with rosemary, basil and pepper that also pairs well with leafy green salads.
If you could have someone cook for you, who would it be and what would you eat?Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa. She cooks elegant food that’s not intimidating to the home cook. She is so inspiring! I would ask her to pick one of her favorite recipes so I could taste her preparation and learn why she loves it.
Who would you like to invite -- living or dead -- to a dinner party and why?I would choose two people. Julia Child, because not only was she an incredible chef who brought French cuisine to the American public, but she went through so much to get her book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, published.
The second person would be my grandmother whom we lost 10 years ago. She was a fabulous cook who had such an influence on me. We were extremely close. Her name was Mittie, and my family calls me “Little Mittie.” She would be absolutely ecstatic about what I’m doing now. She was my inspiration.
Thyme for Sharing with Lara Lyn Carter airs at 3 p.m. EST Saturdays on Georgia Public Broadcasting statewide.
