Dinner at Miss Lady's: Memories and Recipes from a Southern Childhood

Until she graduated from Radcliffe in the 1950s, Landon spent every summer in tiny Greensboro, Ga., at the luxuriously appointed home of her paternal grandparents--known as ""Miss Lady"" and ""Judge,"" despite the former's married state and the latter's third-grade education. In keeping with petite Miss Lady's ultra-refined sensibilities, life in her many-gabled Victorian house was elegant and leisurely. Breakfast was served to her in bed, followed by dinner at 1:00 and supper at 7:00 in the rose-papered dining room, all painstakingly prepared and served by Henretta, the African-American cook. ""Food,"" claims Landon, ""...was not just something that assuaged our hunger while we concentrated on something else, but was a reality that lived in every moment it was prepared and eaten."" That reality must have lasted quite a while, for the sumptuous menus that follow each gracefully written chapter require a good deal of time to prepare, not to mention eat and digest. Heavy on eggs, butter and cream and calling for such ingredients as truffles or a pound of caviar, dishes such as Aunt Virginia's Terrine of Pheasant, Caviar Tart or Crab Soup are not for anyone counting fat grams or pennies. Still, there are recipes for such traditional fare as Country Ham, Beaten Biscuits, Peach Ice Cream and Watermelon Rind Pickle. Landon's memoir is a loving and poignant tribute to people and a way of life gone by. (May)