Diamond | Love Your Neighbor - River City Diner

What a blessing to have been raised in Memphis by a country cook who knew what she was doing. Good cooking was just a way of life in our household and among our extended family. My mother prepared the best fried chicken in Tipton County according to my aunts, uncles, cousins, and great aunts & uncles; I have no reason to doubt their words of praise. I saw at every family reunion whose chicken was the first to go.

And my mother wasn’t the only good cook in our house. My daddy was a master at the grill and could throw together a variety of tasty snacks inside as well. He specialized in oyster chowder & Bleu Cheese Dressing; and sitting down with Daddy as we built snacks of smoked oysters, cheeses, crackers, olives, and anything else he could scrape together was a banquet in itself.

Bacon Explosion #2

Mar 4, 2026 | Food, grill, Meat, pork, smoker

Sherry asked me to cook something, and I said, “But we have nothing to work with.” She knew better and invited me to figure out something. I love it when she does that. I roasted most of the vegetables in a dry skillet. Toward the end, I did drizzle a bit of olive oil...

Bacon Explosion

Mar 4, 2026 | Food, grill, Meat, pork, smoker

Sounds weird, eh? My little brother turned me on to this. It's a lot of work, but is worth the effort just for show if nothing else. Oh, and it IS tasty. The New York Times featured this recipe recently, as did Good Morning America Update (February 1, 2009 - Super...

Building Dwayne’s Ribs

Mar 4, 2026 | grill, Meat, pork, smoker, Southern

Dwayne does almost as good a job on ribs as Daddy used to do. He’s a pretty good cook, as is his son, Eli. They get it honest.. Ingredients 2 racks Pork ribs2 cups Pineapple juiceDry Rub for RibsApple ciderCooking Oil Instructions Rub ribs down with spicy BBQ rub and...