A Taste of the South

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - A few years ago, we took you to Covington County and introduced you to Brenda Gantt. That was a few million Facebook follows ago and not only has Miss Brenda garnered a huge audience, but she’s also inspired some like-minded people who love the traditions of Southern cooking. Which leads us to Dothan.

Step inside Kathy’s Southern Kitchen.

“I was on Facebook one day and I saw this lady. Her name is Brenda Gantt,” remembers Kathy Phillips. “She just captivated me. And I decided I wanted to do it in my kitchen and be able to continue to teach people how to do simple recipes.”

Kathy’s father and grandfather were both horsemen. Her family helped launch the State Rodeo in Montgomery so, naturally on our day in her kitchen, we made a cowboy casserole.

Here’s how Kathy does it, “I love this because you can put it together in minutes and as you can see, I’ve got a hot cast iron skillet that’s smoking. That’s right where you want it to be, and I’ve got a pound of my ground beef, and that’s going right in.”

“While this is cooking, going to add about a half of a cup of the chopped onions. What comes next is a small can of tomato sauce. This is just a mild chili mix, and all of this is going right in. I’ve got a little bit of sour cream. Now you can eliminate the sour cream if you want to, but when this cooks with this chili, you will not believe how good it is. And we can’t have a casserole without cheese.”

“And I’ve got some red beans. You can add any kind of beans you want. Now this is a half a cup of frozen corn kernels, and we’ve also got that, and that’s our next layer. Now this is a half-pound of frozen tater tots, and we’re going to top this casserole with these tater tots. Make sure that these are nice and golden brown, and it is bubbly in the center, and you’ve got yourself a cowboy casserole.”

If it seems as if Kathy’s Southern Kitchen is right where she belongs, Kathy agrees, “It’s honestly a dream come true for me. I was born in Dothan, and I absolutely love Alabama. I just feel like I was born here and God willing this is where I’m going to die.”