Elinor Allcott Griffith has stirred up these bona fides in home cookery:

A Southern culinary pedigree. She grew up in Chapel Hill, N.C., considered the “Southern Part of Heaven,” and can make a wicked-good Shrimp and Grits.

A Julia Child-schooled food enthusiast. Once a magazine editor at Reader’s Digest, she re-invented herself and leads cooking groups to places such as The French Chef’s former home in the South of France, and elsewhere. World-renowned restaurateur Danny Meyer even called her “the Julia Child of Chappaqua!” 

A skilled cookie-baking “grand” mother. Just no grandchildren yet. Instead, decades of tasty meals served up to her husband and two children; and grand-i-ose outpourings for friends of Friendship Bread, Lemon Bars and Morning Glory Muffins. 

Elinor Griffith is also the co-author of First Thing Every Morning (the book and boxed calendar are available from SimpleTruths.com and in bookstores) and The Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow: Legends and Lore of the Oldest Church in New York.