A very southern luncheon

Paula Deen. To Kill A Mockingbird. Cornbread.

Yup, we went South and hosted a nap-inducing lunch for our friends back at home last weekend.

This meant firing up the grill at an unearthly hour of 5am in the morning. Crazy, nuts ... but we will probably do it again if you ask nicely. 

A homely chilled potato salad and crunchy 'slaw below made by Diana. I'm totally guilty of picking out the egg whites and bacon. 

I didn't have much of the coleslaw as it was too far away from me; that was probably a good thing - for the others. 

We also made a skillet cornbread with garlic chives and cheddar, yo! It was tantalizingly moist and crusty at the bottom and sides, thanks to a Paula-Deen-approved load of butter. I would like to claim credit for it but the truth is I had two extra pair of hands and an extra pair of eyes to supervise me. 

My sister made buttermilk fried chicken. While the batter didn't quite hold up, the chicken itself was incredibly juicy. The one hugeass breast I took made me re-consider my aversion towards breast meat.

Imagine this: One sunny afternoon, ratty oversized t-shirt and couch-potatoing with some re-heated fried chicken leftovers - that's one helluva way to get over the Monday blues, I'm telling you.

Vegans and vegetarians, please look away now! This slab of ribs was wiped clean faster than you could count the number of ribs there was to begin with. 

A thing of beauty that totally made dark eye circles with it. Frankly, I didn't bother to top up our knives supply as there was little need for it. True enough, everyone just dived in with reckless abandonment and used up all the available paper serviettes. Best Friends Forever. 

And for dessert, we had Popaganda popsicles, courtesy of Zee. I tried both the Mixed Berries with Shiso Leaf and Lemon Olive Oil. Artisanal, with a price tag to match =)