In honor of my mother, Martha Lee Lyles Wilson, born in 1922 in
Tula, Mississippi, to Eunice and S. T. Lyles. A woman who instructed me
not to put the wooden spoon back in the cake batter after I had licked it,
and who taught me, from that day to this, how to love. And in memory
of my father, Earl Raymond Wilson (1922–2000), who introduced me
to smoked oysters and baked quail, and inspired me to live
my life not only as a dreamer but as a doer too.

AMY LYLES WILSON

This book is for my family—my husband Bill, my son Bryan, my daughter
Kelly and her husband Randy, and my grandchildren Scott and Paige.
And in memory of two of the best cooks I have ever known: my mother,
Irene Foster, and my next-door neighbor Mary Burton Buckner.

PATSY CALDWELL