Every Thanksgiving my mom, Scarlett, made pecan pie and my sister, Leraine, made chocolate pie. I always wanted a little bit of chocolate and, because it was Thanksgiving, I felt like I also needed the pecan pie. So I’d cut a sliver of each and put them together to make a whole slice of pie.

This Chocolate Chess Pecan Pie with a Sesame Cookie Crust is an ode to that memory, a flawless blend of those two already perfect desserts. It renders me speechless and that’s not something I’m known for. No suggestions necessary for this decadent and chocolatey (but not too chocolatey) treat. Just open her up and cut a slice.

My dad, Mr. John Currin Howard, has always been on a diet, and his diet of late revolves around not eating anything "white." No white potatoes, no white rice, no bread, no sugar. Dad makes some exceptions (mostly when no one is looking), but he openly cheats his carb rule when we have our Beer and Cheddar bread on the menu at C&F. It's kind of like a loaf of yeasty-sweet beer bread and a tin of cheese straws had a baby with crispy top and bottom and a moist aromatic crumb. 

To expedite his carb affair, Dad just tears off a corner (there's a lot of crispy cheese there) and goes at it. This approach is not recommended. At least warm the bread. But in my opinion the best life for this bread involves toasting individual slices and making a double-stuffed BLT.

The cheese ball is a cliché. I believe, however, that like the pig in a blanket and the baked potato, cheese balls are so clichéd they’ve actually become cool. Socially acceptable or not, when this thing is put out at a party of any kind, people hover over it like it’s a crystal ball. Nothing screams PARTY as loud as my Party Magnet Cheese Ball.

Blue Cheese haters beware...I am Gorgonzola Dolce and I am rolled up in here with Chevre, European butter, pecans, cream cheese and lots of other tasty stuff. I'm not a party hog but I'm no wall flower either.

Serving quality bread at Chef and the Farmer was a priority from the beginning. But Kim Adams, our pastry chef, who's been with us since day one, had no experience making bread and neither did I. We set out to master at least one style of loaf, and we did. We served rosemary ciabatta for four years to every diner whose butt landed in our seats. It bothered me that our bread service didn't match the regional focus of our other food. So I hatched the idea to make a bread with sweet potatoes, an ingredient inextricably tied to Eastern North Carolina.

This stuff is special - loaded with deeply caramelized onions it’s moist and chewy with deep flavor and a dark crust.

If you want a sandwich that will make you cry tears of joy, make the Elbow-Lick Tomato Sandwich from Deep Run Roots (page 262), and get a tissue.