If I may, I would like to begin today’s column with a question. How long has it been since you had a really good meal? In this respect, I am truly blessed as my wife Janis is an excellent cook. She came by it naturally! Her mother was an excellent cook, and she taught Janis to cook at an early age. Later, she and her late husband owned Pickles Gap Village, and they had a restaurant for many years, so she got some more experience here. During these years she also wrote four cookbooks, and they are still being used by many today. 

Now that we are retired, we eat out a lot and there are a great number of good restaurants here in Conway. Ever since I married Janis back in 2015, I have never worried about something to eat. She has an amazing ability, and I have heard her say a thousand times, “I will scratch up something” and scratch up something she does. It’s almost like she could take an old dish towel and turn it into a good meal. 

Yesterday afternoon she was in a cooking mood, and she fixed a meal for me that was “fit for a king.” There were eight different items on my plate. We should have gotten a picture of it. She had pasta, peas, fried okra, deviled eggs, sliced tomatoes, corn on the cob, slaw and corn bread, plus something to drink when I sat down to eat. The first thought that came to me was, “This is a meal fit for a king.” And I might add, meals like this are the rule and not the exception at our home. Now, you know why I am truly blessed.

At this point, let me tell you about a column that I have been holding up on writing for the past several weeks. This is a column about our new book titled “Keep Your Fork.” Over the years I have now written 11 books, including this one, and Janis has co-authored this one with me.  I can truthfully say that this one is the best. And this new book has 22 of Janis’ dessert recipes in it.

The first one is a recipe for “Possum Pie,” which has a sentimental value for us. On our very first date, when we began to see each other, we had lunch at a fantastic restaurant at Mather Lodge located in the Petit Jean State Park on Petit Jean Mountain. One of their specialties is Possum Pie and it is delicious. We now have this pie each time we have lunch there. So, it’s very sentimental and very special for us.

On a humorous note, we thought that going to Mather Lodge, which is about 40 miles away near Morrilton, no one we knew would see us. Wrong, the first person to walk by our table was Larry Malpica, a man Janis and I both know from Conway. Well, so much for being stealth. As it turned out, God put us together and we were truly meant for each other. As I have said many times, “She is the best thing that ever happened to me.” She has been feeding me those meals “fit for a king” ever since.

—

(Jim Davidson is an author, public speaker, syndicated columnist, and Founder of the Bookcase for Every Child project. For a personalized copy of “Keep Your Fork” send $25, which includes postage and handling and tax, to Jim Davidson, 2 Bentley Drive, Conway, AR 72034.)