If you spend much time down here, you’ll soon discover how seriously we Southern women take our food. Just last week, my sister and I argued the merits of adding cocoa powder to pecan pie filling. Mom insists that  chicken must be soaked in ice water, dried,  battered and double-dipped in flour and then fried in a cast-iron skillet. The best potatoes for mashing are the golden skinned ones, but the red skinned ones make better potato salad. Mention virtually any southern dish–whether it’s collard greens or sweet potato casserole or divinity candy, and you’ll get all sorts of opinions on how to prepare it.

You can win this Southern Foodie cookbook in today’s 12 Days of Christmas Giveaway.

If you love Southern cooking or if you’re just curious about how we do things south of the Mason-Dixon, enter to win a copy of The Southern Foodie Cookbook from Thomas Nelson Publishers, today’s 12 Days of Christmas prize. The cookbook contains recipes, of course, but also the background on numerous Southern dishes and the cooks who prepare them. And a list of the best places to eat around the South. Just click here to enter: http://on.fb.me/Wzhv5H. Good luck, and good eating!