Down Home Delicious

After spending some time in Louisiana, I have come to the conclusion that Louisiana born cooks have an innate ability to make everything they touch taste delicious. Peggy Sholly is a good example.  Peggy has covered every kind of Louisiana, Tex-Mex, Italian and American food in her cookbook, Down Home Delicious®. If you want Beef Hash you can have it, and if you want Deluxe Prime Rib, you can have that too. I don’t believe that she has left a single delicious recipe stone unturned! Cornbread dressing, BBQ Baked Beans, and Italian Meatballs, Vintage Mexican Enchiladas…delicious, delicious, delicious.
You won’t find a better example of the melting pots of Louisiana and Texas than Peggy’s wonderful book. Lagniappe is also included in the book. You know…just a little something extra such as a list of pantry items, canned goods and substitutions.
It’s a wonderful book, try it, and let Peggy know how much you love it. Excuse me now, I’m on my way to devour Grandma’s Fig Cookies from Peggy’s recipe on page 201.

~ Linda Weiss, Food Editor,
South Carolina Homes & Gardens Magazine
Author – Memories From Home,
Cooking with Family & Friends

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Peggy Sholly is a woman who has figured out a few things about making folks happy. We humans celebrate with food and nobody celebrates food better than Peggy. Her new cookbook is full of wonderful Down Home Delicious® recipes that celebrate her Cajun roots, her Gulf Coast residence, and her affinity for the wild Rio Grande border country. The delightful illustrations demonstrate that Peggy does, indeed, know that the way to her man’s heart starts at the dinner table.

~ Mike Boren
Director of Big Bend Natural History Association
Big Bend National Park, Texas

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This is real comfort food. As a clinical psychologist who treats people who emotionally overeat, I always tell my patients, if you are going to eat to cope eat only the best and really enjoy your food – make an occasion of it and relish every bite! Inside Peggy’s cookbook are truly the best versions of our all time favorites. This is the best, its real comfort food.

~ Sheila H. Forman, JD, PHD
Author, Forensic Pathologist & Attorney
Do You Use Food to Cope: A Comprehensive 15-Week Program for Overcoming Emotional Overeating and Self-fullness: The Art of Loving and Caring for Your Self

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Down Home Delicious® is flirtatious and fun…there is a playfulness in the recipe names, and the gray box ideas, and in the recipes themselves. In addition to incredible recipes, it oozes love, passion and fun. Down Home Delicious® is flirtatious with the man, but also flirtatious with the family. Flirtatious and fun is not a concept in many cookbooks.  Furthermore, I get the feeling that the reward at the end of cooking is that the cook is having fun and is feeling satisfied just by the selection and preparation. When one looks at the illustrations, and evaluates which recipe to select, I see this grin on the cook’s face and in the cook’s heart…. That playfulness-flirtation creates a passion; actually SIZZLE is an excellent word that captures the essence of Down Home Delicious®.

The variety in the recipes is wonderful, unusual actually.  It’s the recipes plus the attitude that creates the sizzle of “bringing the family back home” or the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach to re-spark marriages.

~ Anne McKandles
Teacher, Midland, Texas

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Down Home Delicious® brings passion into cooking. For the first time ever I fell silent at the dinner table in order to savor every bite. Here you will discover the most mouth-watering flavors you have ever put in your mouth. You’ll look forward to cooking them all, over and over again.

~ Patrick Hammer
US Olympic Ski Team Meteorologist
and Meteorologist KSTP TV Minneapolis-St. Paul

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Peggy Sholly’s Down Home Delicious® breaks the cookbook mold for me. When I first received the book, I tried to flip through it quickly but found myself reading it like a novel.

What an enjoyable book! Its iconoclastic cover alone supports the old adage that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Its recipes certainly prove that truth. The chatty nature of the instructions along with the hostess suggestions and other treats provide a comfortable touch that makes me feel a good friend and I are working in the kitchen together.

When I hit the Lagniappe section, I found something I‘ve never seen in another cookbook—the history of some of my favorite foods and ingredients. Who knew? Add in the other sections——“How Long Will it Keep?”, “Talking Temperatures”, “Recommended Pantry List”, and “Basic Substitutions” and you have one of the most useful references any cook could ask for. Finally, I love the “Notes to Myself” section where I can note all my own little variations and substitutions.

~ Mary Voigt
Wife, Mother, and Career Educator
Alvin, Texas

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I purchased Down Home Delicious® before the holidays, and used some of the recipes for Christmas dinner. I received lots of compliments from the family. The recipes are wonderful with easy to follow instructions. The book has lots of charm, entertainment tips, and overall good looks. I keep my copy out on display. It also makes a great gift.

~Elaine Bargatze
Homemaker, Florissant, Missouri

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So many cookbooks nowadays invest so heavily in food photography you’d think you were buying a photo book about food instead of suggestions for great meals.  Down Home Delicious®– without focusing on photos – is faithful to its title by providing a wide range of inviting recipes.

~ Herb Strentz
Journalist, Urbandale, Iowa

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When I received an advance copy of the cookbook Down Home Delicious® first thing I did was read the entire book. Next, I shared it with a couple of trusted professional culinarians. It was then time to cook a few recipes. The food and the recipes were spot on.
Passion. The book is chock full of that intangible ingredient. The cover, the tips, the recipes, and the motivation to tackle such a project in the first place…Passion.

~ Pat Hooker
Executive Chef
Hyatt Regency, Minneapolis, Minnesota

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I gave a copy of Down Home Delicious® to my wife for Christmas. We started looking at it Christmas morning and couldn’t put it down. I have found recipes for dishes I enjoy making. More importantly, they are delicious to eat. A must buy cookbook.

~ Herb Hamby
Retired Foreign Service Officer
Modesto, California

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Down Home Delicious® should be in the non-fiction section of every book store. What a wonderful collection of recipes, folklore, history and information!  Peggy Touchtone Sholly has poured out her heart in this delightful tome which will thrill cooks and non-cooks alike.  We are delighted to offer this book to our guests in the Chisos Mountains Lodge gift shop.

~ Jerry Shafer,
General Manager
Big Bend Resorts LLC, Texas

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When I received my copy of Down Home Delicious® I was unbelievably excited. I am a huge cookbook collector and I love to cook. This book is the type of cookbook that we love in the South. My family has a wonderful chili recipe that has been passed on for years however this Super Bowl Sunday we decided to try the Cowboy Chili recipe from Down Home Delicious®. It was wonderful!!!!! We will continue to make this our new favorite chili. This book has everything from great recipes, helpful recipe tips, adorable illustrations and wonderful humor. I think that you will agree that this book will bring you back home and make you feel loved.

~ Donna Gartner
Houston, Texas

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I received my Down Home Delicious® Cookbook in December and used some of the recipes for my Christmas dinner. Everyone went crazy over my food. They all wanted the recipes.

If you really want to be a big hit with your friends get this cookbook and dazzle them with the greatest recipes on earth. I was amazed at how good food can really taste. Everything was so easy to make! Peggy uses everyday ingredients in her recipes; i.e., unlike some cookbooks that have ingredients that I’ve never even heard of.

~ Marian Boley
Homemaker and Career Banker
South Carolina

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Sweet Tater’umpkin Pie…Wow! What a tasty dessert for the holidays. This recipe tickled my taste buds. I will use it this holiday season and I know my guests will be asking me for the recipe.

~ Geraldine Harris
Homemaker
Walker, Louisiana