Danni's juke joint comfort food cookbook Modern-day recipes, ole skool flavas

Cook, internet personality, and author Rose (Haywood's Place Juke Joint Comfort Food, 2018) brings readers into a world of delicious food and good times. She starts by telling the history of juke joints as small "holes-in-the-walls" for people to share food, memories, and laughs, especially for African Americans in the Jim Crow South: "They were created to be hidden gems on purpose." Rose then takes this energy of sharing a meal among close friends and infuses it into her recipes: Jack and Pepsi slushies, pulled pork, yeasted drop biscuits with butta, cake mix cinnamon rolls, and bacon and cheese hush puppies with juke joint ranch dressing. Mouthwatering photography accompanies the recipes, which are written in easy-to-follow, numbered instructions. Overall, with this great choice for entertaining friends, readers can rest assured it will be a good time.

Raised in Birmingham, Alabama, where her father owned Haywood's Place, Food Network luminary and culinary internet sensation Rose knows juke joints. These hidden neighborhood gems, like her father's restaurant, were created by Black communities in the U.S. South to give people a place to gather and relax over food and drinks. Rose now draws upon those memories for her first traditional print cookbook, which delivers a wealth of soul-satisfying recipes. Her delightful voice shines through as she dishes up everything from real juke-joint-style drinks, like Rose's high-octane version of mimosas, to old-school culinary classics (mac and cheese; Club Meetin' Chicken Salad). Plenty of sides and sauces (such as a juke-joint spin on ranch dressing) as well as a tempting array of sweet treats (such as no-churn banana-pudding ice cream) are included. The recipes are written in an easy-to-follow format with a sprinkling of secret tips and tricks to help cooks along the way. VERDICT This is a splendid collection of recipes for truly flavorful, down-home Southern cooking.--John Charles