LAUREL, Miss. — In the South, family is held in the highest esteem, and nothing fosters family quite like food. Recipes and cookbooks are handed down from generation to generation, guiding each new heir into their culinary awakening. But what if a cookbook did more than just teach recipes? What if it taught a way of life?
With “A Taste of Home Town,” readers get more than just recipes — they get to experience Laurel, Mississippi, in their own home. Along with family recipes from the most treasured citizens of our community, such as Ben and Erin Napier, Parker Posey, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Lance Bass, Tess Holliday, Leontyne Price, Charlie Mars and more than 80 others, including honorary resident Matthew McConaughey, readers will also get the inside scoop on personal stories and history of Laurel. “A Taste of Home Town” takes readers on a cultural and culinary journey of Laurel and Jones County, giving them their chance to own a little piece of our small Southern town.
Through HGTV’s new hit home renovation series “Home Town,” hosts Ben and Erin Napier have shared the easy living and laid back nature of Laurel with viewers all across America — and they’ll be doing it all over again in Season 2! You could say Laurel is well on its way to becoming America’s unofficial-official “home town.”
If you’ve never seen “Home Town” or haven’t heard of Laurel, Mississippi, you’re probably not alone — but you are missing out. Laurel is the epitome of small town America: hard-working folks, Southern hospitality and a whole lot of talent and determination. As Erin Napier’s mother, award-winning author Karen Clark Rasberry, says in the foreword, “Sometimes, I honestly believe that Laurel, Mississippi, nestled in the piney woods about 90 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico, is the cradle of civilization… One has to wonder what is it about this home town of ours that made it a launching pad for such amazing talent,imagination and creativity… Laurel creates. It makes. It does. It sings, dances, writes, acts, builds, plays hard, and remembers from Whom all blessings flow.”
Set to release September 1, "A Taste of Home Town" is now available for pre-order, retail $29.99, and you can pre-order your copy here.
About the Author
“A Taste of Home Town” was written by the staff of The Laurel Leader-Call. Established in 1911, The Laurel Leader-Call has been serving as the hometown newspaper of Laurel and Jones County for more than 100 years. Although the newspaper has had many owners over of the course of its history, the Leader-Call was returned to its locally-owned hometown roots in 2012 when Gin Creek Publishing, which had been publishing The ReView of Jones County, purchased the Leader-Call name and subscription list and began publishing as The Laurel Leader-Call. In 2013, The Laurel Leader-Call made national and international headlines with their “Historic Wedding” story, and in 2014, they repeated this feat with “Kentucky Fried Hoax,” an investigative feature that exposed a national story as fraud. The Laurel Leader-Call is located at 318 N. Magnolia Street in downtown Laurel. Find them on Facebook or online at www.leader-call.com.