24 • Thursday, November 1, 2012
Keeping It Simple
Elizabeth Faught Uses Casual, Simple Approach to Cooking, Entertaining BY KEYSHA DREXEL
E
JOURNAL EDITOR
lizabeth Faught said the heart of her Vestavia Hills home is her kitchen. It’s where she spends most of her time and where friends and family gather to celebrate, relax and enjoy each other’s company over Elizabeth’s latest dishes. And as the leaves start to fall from the trees and the weather cools, Elizabeth’s kitchen becomes a warm and delicious refuge from long weeks and busy days. “It’s so comforting to turn on the oven, warm up the house and put together a nice meal for your family and friends,” she said. “It’s what I love to do.” Elizabeth has lived in the same neighborhood for 15 years and her in-laws live just up the street, so her kitchen is often a beehive of activity when the holiday entertaining season approaches. “I think we eat out about twice a year--once on our anniversary and once on my birthday,” she said. “We have friends over almost every Friday night, and then the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, we have a big turkey fry for all the neighbors on our street. “There’s always something happen-
ing in my kitchen.” That means Elizabeth has become a pro at putting together dinner parties, large and small, and chances are, she’s already got her next menu planned. “I love to entertain and we do a lot of it year-round, and it can get pretty hectic around the holidays,” she said. “But the key is planning--it’s all about planning.” Elizabeth said planning meals for family and friends is something she enjoys and finds therapeutic. “I guess I just love being in the kitchen and being creative. Every Sunday night, I start thinking about what’s going on during the week and I start planning my menus then,” she said. On most Mondays and Thursdays, Elizabeth starts preparing her evening meals in the early afternoon. “Sometimes, when we’re juggling school and work and extracurricular activities, I will whip up something in 30 minutes or less, but I really love those times when I get to start cooking early and my girls are sitting in the kitchen doing their homework while I cook and talk to them,” she said. Elizabeth and her husband, Jon, are the parents of three girls. Caroline, 20, is a junior at UAB and plays on the tennis team. Catherine, 15, is a dancer and counting down the days until her 16th birthday. The couple’s youngest daughter, Julia Ann, is 12 and a budding artist. Elizabeth describes her entertaining style as comfortable and casual, with food that focuses on simple, fresh, highquality ingredients. “I’m not a formal person,” she said. “I’m very laid-back when I entertain. People come and sit at the kitchen counter and talk to me while I cook, and it’s great.” That casual philosophy also extends to how Elizabeth sets her table, she said. “I like to light a few candles and
HOME Elizabeth said the key to pulling off a last-minute dinner party is to use what you have on hand and try to make dishes that are simple and savory. Journal photo by Lee Walls Jr.
keep my tablescape pretty simple, too. I’ll mix in seasonal items, but my goal is to have a table where everyone feels comfortable and they’re not trying to look through some huge centerpiece to talk to each other,” she said. Elizabeth works at The Cook Store in Mountain Brook and for the last several years has been collecting pieces of Earthborn Pottery made by Homewood native Tena Payne. She said she loves that Tena’s pottery blends function and form. “I think that’s why I love Tena’s work so much and use it so much it my home. The pieces are really more like works of art that you can use, that are functional and beautiful at the same time,” she said. Elizabeth said she uses Tena’s pottery because it can go straight from the oven to the table to the dishwasher and fits her attitude of keeping things simple when entertaining and cooking. “I think in the 22 years I’ve been married, I used my wedding china about two times. I love my china, but using it all the time--that’s just not who I am,” she said. Elizabeth said whether she’s making dinner for her family or entertaining guests in her home, her keys to success
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are the same. “I really focus on quality, fresh ingredients and not too many ingredients in each dish,” she said. “The simpler the better.” Elizabeth grows basil, chives, oregano and thyme just steps away from her kitchen in the backyard. She also uses rosemary from a rosemary hedge in her front yard that was inspired by a family trip to Ireland. “About six or seven years ago, we went to Ireland, and while we were in Dublin, we saw these incredible hedges of rosemary. They were so huge and beautiful and the smell was just amazing,” she said. “I knew I had to have one in my yard when I got back home.” She also tries to buy local food and support local farmers by picking up fresh produce at farmers’ markets such as Pepper Place. “There’s nothing better than having fresh ingredients to use in your dishes,” she said. “It makes all the difference.” Elizabeth said she likes to watch cooking shows on television and is constantly looking up recipes online, in cookbooks and collecting them from friends and neighbors. “I can remember being young and poring over cookbooks the way some girls would look at magazines,” she said. One of her most cherished possessions, Elizabeth said, is a spiral notebook filled with pages and pages of handwritten recipes that her husband’s grandmother gave her as a wedding gift. “It’s like a glimpse of her life to see these handwritten recipes and all of her notes,” she said. “I was so touched when she gave it to me when we were first married. And my husband loves that I know how to cook his grandma’s
favorite recipes.” Elizabeth said she plans to hand the notebook down to her daughters someday. “It means so much to me, and I will always remember when she gave me that notebook and we were living in a little one-bedroom apartment and I was teaching myself to cook her recipes,” she said. Elizabeth said her husband often likes to cook with her and is always looking up recipes on his iPad. While Elizabeth loves a good recipe, she said she is not afraid to make each recipe her own by adding or exchanging ingredients. “I like to change things up from the recipes I collect,” she said. “Sometimes I’ll substitute one ingredient called for with something that I already have that I think will work well or be interesting. You can’t be afraid to experiment.” While Elizabeth said she’s a cook, she’s quick to point out that baking is not her forte. “I can’t bake. I mean, I’m not absolutely horrible at it, but I just don’t enjoy it,” she said. Elizabeth said she thinks baking requires a lot more patience and precision and doesn’t allow for as much improvisation. “When you’re baking, you have to follow that recipe to the letter, and I think that is what makes it hard for me--I can’t experiment and change things up too much while baking,” she said. Elizabeth said her youngest daughter, Julia Ann, loves to bake and really enjoys spending time working with her mother in the kitchen. “She’s the only one of my girls who has really shown an interest in cooking. She loves to bake, so she must get that
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