"That's how I grew up, everything revolved around the kitchen if my mom was, who was the primary person cooking, we were all hanging in there with her and then in our family, sat as a family and had dinner," reveals Trisha Yearwood to Healthy Hollywood.
The country singer is bringing her love of cooking and Southern hospitality to the Food Network. Already the author of two cookbooks, Trisha now has her own cooking show, "Trisha's Southern Kitchen." "I thought a cooking show might be cool, but I don't want to stand behind a counter and just say, 'then you add a stick of butter,' but we integrated my friends and family. It became a chance to hang out with the people I love and then we accidentally got some food made."
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Trisha invites viewers into her Nashville kitchen and shares recipes passed down from her family. She's cooking up some of her favorite comfort foods, like barbequed chicken and mac & cheese, but hopes to add a healthier, lighter twist. "My challenge is to find ways to not lose the flavor and still have that comfort feeling and still have that connection with your mother or your grandmother. You know, back then, my mom would serve broccoli, but it would be smothered in cheese sauce."
Trisha started to give her recipes a healthy makeover after her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her mother passed away from cancer in 2011, but Trisha hopes to pass on her mom's new found love of healthy comfort food via her cookbooks and Food Network show. "She taught my sister and me how to make some of these things lighter. In seeing her want to be healthier as healthy as she could be, with what she was going through, [I am now adding] more fruits, more vegetables, and more grains."
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Trisha, who is married to country superstar Garth Brooks, does get a little help in the kitchen from her famous husband. "He's the guy that will come through the kitchen and say, 'I love this pasta salad, but can you add this or try that.' He's more of an experimenter in the kitchen than I am. But, he's also the guy that I can say, 'look, I've just made dinner for the last two nights. I don't want to cook today,' and he'll do it."
"Trisha's Southern Kitchen" airs on the Food Network on Saturdays at 10:30 AM. Or for more information, check out www.foodnetwork.com/trishas-southern-kitchen.
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