Kendra Bailey Morris is at home in a vintage kitchen, surrounded by her favorite tools

Kendra Bailey Morris creates down-home dishes in her compact home kitchen, which, she says, refl ects her personality.

For The Accidental Chef, Kendra Bailey Morris, home is not only a place where she can experiment with new recipes or use her antique cast iron pots given to her by her grandmother; home is also a collection of well-placed accidental discoveries.
Morris has proven her flair for inventing culinary concoctions through her weekly column in this newspaper, in her “White Trash Gatherings” cookbook, and with appearances on national TV shows like TLC’s “Home Made Simple.” Throughout the 1955 Stratford Hills home she shares with her husband, Tim, Morris’s decorating ideas reflect the same artistic personality that has helped her achieve culinary notoriety.

“We’ve turned our basement into a retro-chic place,” Morris explains as she points to a faux fireplace made out of what was once a cupboard-size eight-track player. There are white circular mobiles hanging from the ceiling, a leather sectional sofa she found on eBay for $20, and a big white coffee table to pull it all together. “We’ve found everything for fabulous prices at yard sales and online,” she says with a smile.
As one might expect, her kitchen is designed for easy access to her tools, with open shelving for pots and pans, a magnet-strip knife holder that fits neatly under a row of cupboards, and nails for hanging her shiny copper cornbread-baking molds. Yet, it is in the living room that Morris keeps one of her favorite accidental finds: a waist-high wine refrigerator stocked with award-winning wines.

“I found a refrigerator filled with wine at an estate sale. The seller said ‘any wine older than 10 years, I’ll give to you for half off.’ There was a 1955 Gold Medal winner in there, so we made an offer,” she laughs.
Some might call Morris’s collection of decorative finds simply lucky. Others, however, would note that, like Morris’s meals, this kind of result happens only when you have the right ingredients of patience, discernment, and style.

Sugar Pumpkin Pie
MAKES TWO PIES
2 sugar pumpkins*
3 large eggs
1½ cups sugar
1½ cups evaporated milk
¾ stick butter, melted
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon ground cloves
2 unbaked pie crusts
One cup heavy whipping cream
Pinch of sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Cut off the tops of your pumpkins and scoop out all the stringy material and seeds and discard. Place tops back on pumpkins and set them in a baking pan filled with 3 inches of water. Bake until soft (about 1 to 1 1/2 hours). Pour off any excess liquid and let them cool. Then peel pumpkins and mash them well. You’ll have between three and four cups pumpkin meat.

3. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

4. Mix the rest of your ingredients (eggs through cloves) in a bowl (with a hand mixer or using a blender) until very well blended. Pour into pie shells and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for about 30-40 minutes or until your pies set. 

5. Whip cream with a little sugar in a mixer. Add as much sugar as you like according to your tastes.

6. Cut pie into slices and serve topped with freshly whipped cream. Sprinkle with additional cinnamon for garnish.

*A sugar pumpkin is a small, deep-orange variety.

Reprinted with permission from “White Trash Gatherings: From-Scratch Cooking for Down-Home Entertaining” by Kendra Bailey Morris (Ten Speed Press, 2006)