Welcome to Appetite 4 History. As the tagline says, “History and Food. I’m not that deep.”

I like history. I like museums and big old houses, and graveyards, although not in June when the chiggers are out. I like genealogical mysteries and hope to someday discover if my great-great-grandfather really did have a second family in Oklahoma or Arkansas or Texas.

I like helping my friends learn more about their family histories and, for some reason, I have a knack for transcribing 19th-century handwriting. I like searching for deeds and wills at courthouses and reading books about well-known and little-known people and events from history.

I’m not a Ph.D., a professor or history major, and I haven’t used a footnote since high school. I’m a freelance writer with a journalism degree and an interest in (mostly, but not exclusively) American history. You won’t find anything too academic here, but I hope it will be interesting.

And I also like food. My favorite type of dining establishment is a cinder block barbecue or “meat-and-three” joint that’s surrounded by pickup trucks and police cars. My husband, John, and I have been known to drive hours out of our way for a maple-frosted doughnut at Ralph’s Do-Nuts in Cookeville, Tennessee, and when I’m really, really hungry, all I want is a hot dog.

I’m a cook, too, and will post recipes on occasion. While one of my favorite dishes to make is Country Captain, with its eternally long list of ingredients, I’m just as likely to post a photo of the cornbread I baked in my vintage Griswold skillet (a skillet I garbage-picked in my town’s historic district).

It’s pretty simple: I like history, I like food, and I want to tell you about both.