Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2025 i Southern Living

THERE’S A BOOTH at the Red Stick Farmers Market in Baton Rouge where the star attraction is hibiscus. But it’s not the showy ornamental plant you’ll often see adorning Southern front porches. It’s roselle hibiscus, the smaller, bloodred flower with a fruit that’s long been used in a variety of culinary applications. Clinton, Louisiana’s Lena Farms began cultivating it in 2012, tapping into a rising interest in hibiscus teas and other products. Founder Judia Dugas stands over tidily arranged containers of dried hibiscus flowers (along with simple syrup, pepper jelly, chutney, and bottled and dried teas) all made with the versatile plant. Everything is grown and produced by Judia and her family on land that they have lived on and worked for five generations. Her customers fall into two camps:…

THESE PLACES can take on many forms—plush chairs in hidden corners, sunlight-soaked window seats, dreamy daybeds, or even unexpected landing spots like this banquette nestled in an often overlooked pass-through area. “When I think about a reading nook, I think about essentials for comfort for the task at hand,” says Birmingham designer Caroline Gidiere. “There are a few nonnegotiables for tucking into a good book.” Cozy Perch “It must be comfortable, so there should be a soft but supportive seat and good back support with a nice pitch,” says the designer (shown above), who chose a custom banquette that’s wrapped in Colefax and Fowler’s Sackville in Blue. Hard Surface “There should be at least one spot to hold a cup of coffee or tea and a place to set our…

Pumpkin Spice Texas Sheet Cake ACTIVE 25 MIN. - TOTAL 1 HOUR, 45 MIN. SERVES 20 CAKE Baking spray1 (15-oz.) can pumpkin puree1 cup vegetable oil1 cup packed light brown sugar½ cup granulated sugar½ cup whole buttermilk2 tsp. vanilla extract2 large eggs, at room temperature2 cups all-purpose flour2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice1½ tsp. baking soda1 tsp. kosher salt FUDGE ICING ½ cup unsalted butter½ (4-oz.) unsweetened chocolate baking bar, chopped3 Tbsp. whole buttermilk, at room temperature3 Tbsp. spicy, fruity cola soft drink (such as Dr Pepper), at room temperature½ tsp. kosher salt3 cups powdered sugarChopped toasted pecans 1. Prepare the Cake: Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 17 ½- x 12 ½-inch rimmed baking sheet with baking spray; set aside. 2. Whisk together pumpkin, oil, brown sugar, granulated sugar, buttermilk,…

We Want To Hear From You! Help us choose the South’s top destinations for a feature that will run in spring 2026. Tap here or visit southernliving.com/southsbestvote from now through September 9 to vote! *NO PURCHASE OR SURVEY PARTICIPATION IS NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Sweepstakes begins 12:00 AM ET 10/1/24 and ends 11:59 PM ET 9/30/25. Open to legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia, 21+. Void where prohibited. Subject to full Official Rules at dotdashmeredith.com/readersweepstakesrules. Sponsor: Dotdash Media Inc.…

Brighten Up To add a splash of color while maintaining a monochromatic look, Mark Thompson, (co-owner of Shoppe, a Birmingham garden store) incorporated a mix of purple-and-white pansies and violas, but any shades will do. Begin by breaking up the roots of two ‘Peacock White’ kale plants and pushing them into the soil at the center. Next, place creeping wire vines all the way around, tucking them in toward the outer edges. Fill in the remaining space with pansies and violas. “Use your pointer and index fingers to press each plant down into the soil really well so you get out all the air pockets,” he says. This helps with water flow, letting the roots absorb nutrients properly. Pique Interest Low-lift brassica plants make an impact and are known for…

BEFORE I WAS OLD ENOUGH TO RIDE A BIKE, my grandparents taught me how to string and break bushels of beans from their garden. We ate what we could each summer and then canned or dried all that our basement shelves could hold—enough to carry us through the long and snowy winters of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It’s hard to overstate the elemental importance of beans in Appalachian cuisine. My family, like many others, tended to rows of those that flourished in our climate, with colorful names like Rattlesnake, Pink Tip, Fat Man, cornfield, half-runner, cutshort, and greasy beans (which have naturally shiny green hulls and look as though they’ve been burnished with oil). I think of these heirloom legumes collectively as pole beans (or runner beans), though I understand…

WHAT WE’RE LOVING, SHARING, AND CELEBRATING Spiced Crabapple Jelly ACTIVE 45 MIN. - TOTAL 1 HOUR, 35 MIN., PLUS 2 HOURS COOLING AND 24 HOURS STANDING MAKES 4 CUPS OR 4 (8-OZ.) JARS 3 lb. fresh crabapples2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice (from 1 large lemon)3 whole cloves1 (3-inch) cinnamon stick3⅓ cups granulated sugar 1. Wash crabapples well. Cut each one in half lengthwise; remove stems. 2. Combine apples, 9 ½ cups water, and lemon juice in a 6-quart pot. Bring to a boil over medium-high. Reduce to a simmer over medium; stir in cloves and cinnamon stick. Cook, stirring occasionally and mashing apples with the back of a spoon, until most of the apples are broken down, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat; let stand 10 minutes. 3. Set a…

CERTAIN FOODS have the magical ability to transport you to a different place. When I was in college at the University of Georgia, our family tailgates were never complete without my mama’s Dawg Food Dip, a nod to Uga, the team’s bulldog mascot. One taste of this bubbling hot combo of Velveeta and Ro-Tel takes me back to a red-and-black tent on South Campus in Athens, where everyone crowded around a slow cooker for a last bite of the cheesy mixture before kickoff. Back at home in Birmingham, I have re-created her recipe for game days—but with a twist I picked up from my travels. I visit New Mexico’s Hatch Valley every fall to help family friends put up green chiles and then fly back with a cooler slam full…

BEAUTIFUL SPACES FOR A BETTER LIFE WHEN Trishala Bhansali needs a break from the day-to-day frenzy of running her New Orleans clothing-and-home goods shop, Lekha, she makes the 90-minute drive to her family’s Poplarville, Mississippi, farm. The place has been a cherished spot since she was young, when her parents bought the property as an escape—one where they could ride their horses over the rolling terrain and spend weekends introducing their children to the delights of wide-open spaces and fishing on the lake. They named it Shivpuri Farm. “When we were kids, we would go every Friday through Sunday,” Bhansali recalls. “I learned to swim there; I learned how to ride there. We would play croquet, soccer, and badminton, and we had a trampoline. There’s an awesome little rose…

ADVENTURES IN TRAVEL AND CULTURE PULLING into Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is special, so drive up slowly. As you cruise along the main drag, Franklin Street, you’ll approach the heart of the campus of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill). A leisurely pace will be rewarded by a canopy of ancient willow oaks lining the wide boulevard; they frame the sky, stretching their limbs out like old friends. On a clear day, it’s not hard to see why people here like to say, “If God isn’t a Tar Heel, why is the sky Carolina blue?” Soon, busy sidewalks emerge, filled with students in hoodies and UNC basketball T-shirts, backpacks slung over one shoulder, chatting between classes or ducking into coffee shops. More than just a college…

If you’ve ever made a caramel cake from scratch, you have a war story. Whether it’s your first attempt or your 50th, the fickle icing tries the patience of even the most experienced cooks. From grandmothers who’ve made it for countless birthdays and potlucks to professional pastry chefs and celebrated cookbook authors, most Southerners approach this beloved yet confidence-shaking dessert with a sense of trepidation. “It’s a heck of a lot of trouble,” says Anne Byrn, best-selling author of Baking in the American South. “But if you make a good caramel cake, you get to whine about how much trouble it was.” If you get it right—or even close—one bite of that sweet icing with a little balancing bitterness of almost-burnt sugar outshines any and all curveballs and cussing that…

IN OUR HOUSE, like many others, there are weekday breakfasts and weekend breakfasts. The latter is all about indulgence and slowing down. I look forward to an unhurried Saturday morning when I can flip pancakes in my pajamas or have people over for a big spread with a pile of bacon, a fruit salad, and a beautiful casserole at the center of the table. Weekday mornings, on the other hand, are about speed and sustenance. Everyone needs to eat something to fuel their brains and bodies before they race off to work or school. Some days there’s oatmeal or cereal with berries, and other days a toaster waffle is eaten in the car. Every so often, someone goes to the Dunkin’ drive-through and lets their kid eat a bag of…

I GREW UP IN GEORGIA in the late 1960s and early 1970s on barbecue pork that was doused in a ketchup-blushed vinegar sauce and hot dogs that were smothered with cinnamon-spiked chili and crowned with sweet slaw. By my thirties, I had learned to enjoy scooping up Ethiopian okra stew with injera and mopping up Indian collards with corn roti. For much of my life, whenever I talked about my favorite foods, I mentioned restaurant dishes like those. That changed in the late 2010s, as my wife, Blair Hobbs, and I got our son, Jess, ready for college. We realized that he didn’t know enough about my mother, Mary Beverly Evans Edge, whose life, cut short by alcoholism, ended 11 days before Jess was born. My memoir, House of Smoke,…

Appetizers Smoky Bacon Snack Mix, P. 116 Touchdown Dip, P. 26 Beverages Green Chile Lemonade, P. 26 Breakfasts Apple-Spice Breakfast Cookies, P. 115 Coconut-Pecan Breakfast Cookies, P. 115 Peanut Butter Breakfast Cookies, P. 115 Sausage Kolaches, P. 113 Skillet Huevos Rancheros, P. 112 Mains Blair’s Catfish Stew, P. 119 Cowboy Chicken Spaghetti, P. 110 Hot Pants Chili, P. 111 Late-Summer Minestrone with Pesto-Parmesan Croutons, P. 99 Slow-Cooker Barbecue Spareribs, P. 108 Sides Braised Pole Beans in Smoky Tomato Sauce, P. 96 Herbed Shell Beans and Garlicky Greens on Grilled Bread, P. 99 Old-Fashioned Pole Beans and New Potatoes, P. 96 Sweets Classic Yellow Cupcakes, P. 105 One-Bite Pretzel-Crust Bourbon-Pecan Pies, P. 28 Pumpkin Spice Texas Sheet Cake, P. 120 Ultimate Caramel Frosting, P. 105 Ultimate Caramel Frosting with Bourbon,…