Charleston Academy of Domestic Pursuits

All American table setting. Red, white & blue centerpiece 🇺🇸 American silver poringers and American wood bowls for salad made from Ford Plantation trees. 🇺🇸 Silver American Julep Cups. 🇺🇸 American pottery plates. 🇺🇸 Peach Pie for dessert. 🇺🇸🍑

Absolutely thrilled by today’s announcement of the first 14 of 35+ authors who will be in town for Charleston Literary Festival in November! This 10-day event offers in-depth discussions of important ideas in the historic Dock Street Theater. Learn more about these authors and purchase Early Bird All-Session Access Passes through link in our bio…

Magic in Charleston during Spoleto! YoYo Ma plays to a sold out performance in the Gaillard. The following morning he plays in Wragg Park, just because!

Look who showed up for coffee ☕️

The light was perfect for the first 2024 Pop Up. Thank you for photos and

Some of my favorite memories on a recent trip to Morocco with .phillips11 were the narrow alley ways in the medina and the hammam’s. Our faces glowed after the hammam. The woman scrubbed my body with her hand in a mitt, her hand so large that it covered my thigh from hip to knee cap, half my back, my whole stomach. Her hand pressed down in slow circles and made my body feel pain and protected, cared for as an individual and also as part of a community. Maybe it was the history in the rooms where women have been washing each other for centuries seeping out, a place that is a safe to strip, your clothes, your burdens, to been seen and know you are not alone with your own struggles and joys. That’s what Africa and the Middle East make me feel. Whatever we are experiencing others have too, for centuries. It has been felt before. In America things are less seen, hidden behind doors, like nursing babies and sickness. So, when it’s our turn we often live it in loneliness.
She poured the warm water over my back and chest and legs to wash me before she rubbed black mud on my skin, but I felt something else washing over me. Maybe it’s something I wanted to feel. Her hands on my body, over my back and legs made me think of a mother showing love to her children, what I did with my children but my own mother wasn’t able to do.
After the washing the women gather around a low round table to talk and eat and share. They eat with their hands, touching their food with their fingers, not with forks. They sit and share and wait for their tangia’s to finish cooking in the space below the Hammam, the place that heats the floors so when you lay on the floor and wait, with the black mud and salt on your skin, your body heats up and then all of a sudden, enough. It’s time for the lady to come back and finish by washing your hair and combing it through, once again her hands making you feel better than when you walked in.

A trip to Cuba with .phillips11 and was a once in a lifetime experience. Autumn dives into the culture and leads writing workshops. Transformstive!

An unforgettable wedding breakfast in Tepoztlan Mexico 🇲🇽

Moonlight on St Phillips Street

How to move up from the children’s table at big family dinners? Jim Harbaugh says he can sit at ‘big person’s table’ with family after CFP win. 😂🏈

Another wonderful birthday party. Thank you and Jack and birthday girl Autumn. 🎉

More Christmas breakfast pix

Christmas Breakfast Pop Up Year 3. Rain shortened the pop up but it was the most memorable ever. 🎄

Is there a foodie or fantasy lover on your list this year? My newest book features original stories from Bernard Cornwell, author of the acclaimed The Last Kingdom series, and original recipes from my own kitchen. Place your order soon for holiday gifts! Link in bio ✨🕎🎄🎅🏼

Chilly Charleston days call for a cozy bowl of oyster stew. Featuring local mushrooms and a smattering of herbs, it’s sure to please family and guests alike. The recipe’s in my new book—link in bio. Eat like Uhtred!

Happy Thanksgiving 🧡🍽️✨

Want to elevate your holiday desserts? After plating, top your favorite pie, cake, or bread pudding (pictures) with a dollop of freshly whipped cream and these spiced walnuts. Sub hazelnuts for a fun French twist. The best part is it’s dairy and gluten free! Eat like Uhtred! Link in bio.

Sorry turkey: this might be your week, but nothing impresses guests quite like quail. This pan-braised preparation is featured in my new book. Link in bio. Eat like Uhtred!

It’s here! My new book, Uhtred’s Feast: Inside the World of The Last Kingdom, is officially available for purchase in the U.S.! It features original recipes inspired by The Last Kingdom series by Bernard Cornwell. Link in bio 🍽️

Today’s the last day to pre-order my latest book, Uhtred’s Feast. It’s our collaboration to bring to life food from The Last Kingdom series! It was a joy to make and I’m so happy to share it with you. Check it out—link in bio!

It’s here! Uhtred’s Feast, my book with Bernard Cornwell, will be published Tuesday. Here we are discussing with a packed house at Charleston Literary Festival. Pre-order today, link in bio.

A feast! For the imagination… 11/14/23

A freezing cold Pop Up. Creating a temporary dining room on city property is one way to create community. 🥰

JMC turtleneck & I strolling on Church Street 💜

“When the First Lady of Virginia, Suzanne Youngkin, and her husband, Governor Glenn Youngkin, moved into the Executive Mansion in 2022, one of the first things she did was transform its walls.

As one might expect to find in the country’s oldest continuously occupied Executive Mansion, the rooms were lined with paintings of Virginia statesmen and Virginia landscapes set in heavy gold frames. But Mrs. Youngkin saw things differently. She wanted a broader, newer story to be told about the Commonwealth of Virginia through the work of living as well as historic Virginia artists, and she wanted to reopen the Federal-style landmark, designed in 1813 by prominent architect Alexander Parris, which had been closed to the public since the pandemic.

Mrs. Youngkin asked Judy Boland and Ann Goettman, who sit on the Citizens’ Advisory Council on Furnishing and Interpreting the Executive Mansion (CAC), to realize her vision by creating the Art Experience (https://www.executivemansion.virginia.gov/art-experience/). The duo was an interesting choice: Neither one is a museum curator. But while Boland’s background is in psychology and Goettman’s is in marketing, both are passionate about art. Although the women were not well acquainted at the time, they found themselves agreeing on which artists and paintings to suggest for the first exhibition, Spirit of Virginia….”

Read more about Influencing through the Art Experience in the September issue of now on the blog! 🔗

“Another cultural connection to nature that I read about and incorporated in a way is the Japanese custom of shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing, an eco-therapy that emerged in the 1980s designed to encourage people to reconnect to and protect the country’s forest. For me, that translated into being more observant of nature that surrounds me in my coastal ecosystem, cultivating quiet, contemplative time as I walked along the vast vista of the water under expansive skies. My area may not have forests to stroll through daily, but I could still bathe in nature and absorb the therapeutic benefits to mind and body.

“Although walking has been a formative aspect of my life and part of my routine for a long time, implanting these customs from other countries has given new meaning to my daily practice.…”

Read more about The Power of a Good Walk in the August issue of now on the blog 🔗

“Now that every entertainment event has a red carpet, fashion has become a Who are you wearing?’ moment. But whenever I hear that clichéd question, I wish the answer would be, ‘I am wearing the artistry and craftsmanship of hundreds of people, created with centuries of tradition.’ If you want to see what I mean—if you want to understand how the exquisitely skilled work of so many people behind the scenes ends up on the red carpet—the best place to start is by watching Dior and I, the 2014 fashion documentary that gives us a behind-the-scenes view of the fabled couture house….”

Read more in the July issue of on the blog 🔗