I consider Asheville, N.C., the most peaceful city in the Southeast. As soon as I get there, I feel a calmness fall over me, and I immediately embrace it. As someone who travels often for work, it’s a welcome change to visit a city and do absolutely nothing.

Still, even the laziest tourist needs breakfast. For grits and hot coffee, you can’t miss Early Girl Eatery on Wall Street. The waitresses are always friendly and the food is so satisfying. With minimal presentation and fresh ingredients, the local flavors really pop. Near the Farmer’s Market, the Moose Caf‚ reminds me of the home-cooking family restaurants my grandparents took me to, when I was a kid. If you’ve never had apple butter, generously slather it on the biscuits here and you’ll dream about it later. If I feel particularly indulgent, I’ll order the hearty chicken fried steak.

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A few weeks ago, with dreary skies looming over Nashville, a friend of mine introduced me to Crema, the newest coffee shop in town. Since it was mid-afternoon, I ordered a cup of decaf, but wound up with a decaf Americano - espresso and hot water. It was hot, bold and black, and by the time I finished it, I wanted more.

Rachel Lehman opened Crema earlier this year, and now that I’ve been back several times, I have to say that she’s always friendly in the mornings. (That’s a rarity in coffee shops.) She proudly follows the traditional Italian standards for preparing the espresso - ground one drink at a time, tamped with 30 lbs of pressure and extracted between 20-30 seconds. She also uses “naked” group heads, which means that the espresso touches less metal and results in a rich, creamy, foamy texture. “I’m a purist, and I believe that if the base of the drink isn’t phenomenal the rest of the drink will not taste good,” she says.

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From Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen

You won’t go to a southern picnic or covered-dish supper and not see deviled eggs. Garth and I grew up eating different versions of this dish, so both varieties are included here. Honestly, I never met a deviled egg I didn’t like, so these are both yummy to me!

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From Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen

I started making these cookies in the eighth grade, and they just might be responsible for my love of cooking. It wasn’t just that they are gooey and awesome, which they are; it was also that people complimented me on my cooking skills, and that gave me confidence. It later worked out in the singing thing, too! Exactly how chewy these cookies are depends on how big you make them. I make mine a little bigger than the recipe calls for because I like them soft in the middle. They are best served with a really cold glass of milk…or more cookies!

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Martina McBride is famous for having one of the most amazing voices in country music. But in more intimate circles, the world-class singer is also known as a world-class cook.

She has a kitchen that would make a gourmet chef proud, featuring a custom-built pantry and a cozy sitting area. She hosts dinner parties regularly, inviting friends like Faith Hill and Tim McGraw. And how does the Grammy-winning vocalist like to relax? By writing out her grocery list for the week.

While out on the road, McBride has been known to whip up some of her famous dishes (like white chili) for her crew in her tour bus kitchen — a welcome change from take-out or the catering table. If you want to sample her culinary creations, you’ll either have to wrangle a dinner invitation, or try one of her recipes, like the tasty Peanut Butter Incredibles below.

“This is a super-easy recipe, and you probably have everything on hand to make it,” says McBride, who will release a live CD/DVD on April 29. “Just beware, they are totally addictive!”

Peanut Butter Incredibles

2/3 cup butter or margarine
1/3 cup chunky peanut butter
2 Cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups fine graham cracker crumbs
1 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch morsels

Over low heat, melt butter or margarine in a medium saucepan and add peanut butter. Stir until smooth. Add sugar and graham cracker crumbs. Stir until well blended. Press crumbs into a buttered 9X13-inch baking pan.

Melt the chocolate chips and butterscotch morsels in microwave for a total of 2 1/2 minutes on high, stirring after each 30 seconds. Pour over crumb mixture.

Refrigerate until chocolate is set. Remove and cut into bars. Store at room temperature.

We had pot roast Sunday nights. It had to be a weekend night, because Mama was a teacher, and a roast wouldn’t get done until time for supper on a school night. Saturday night was steak-and-martini night for the ‘rental units,’ as we lovingly referred to our parents. The kids ate Vienna sausages and noodles with butter and Parmesan cheese from a can. I loved it. So anyway, that left Sunday night for pot roast.

It’s hard to pick one favorite thing about pot roast. I even liked the onions. They got really soft — you could almost see through them. Mama peeled the carrots, but left them long. I liked them when one part had been stuck up out of the broth. That part got really sweet and chewy — almost crisp — while the part of the carrot that cooked in the broth was soft and beefy tasting from the jus it had absorbed. The same thing happened to the potatoes — little waxy ones that mama peeled, so the outsides got crusty and brown.

The beef itself I saw little of. Daddy doled it out, morsel by succulent morsel, so tender and moist, it almost melted in your mouth. Poor Daddy, as head of a household of four women, he rightly believed that he deserved the Lord’s portion of protein.

I didn’t mind. My favorite part was actually the gravy. I called it juice. Mama didn’t thicken it, so it was really like a broth. Here’s the best part: the store-bought loaf of sliced white bread stacked high like the leaning tower in the middle of our knotty pine kitchen table. That’s what sopped up the juice like a delicious floppy sponge. That was before we learned that stacked white bread was considered white trash, and Mama moved on to popovers and even Yorkshire pudding, but the white bread was OK by me.

“Put some meat on that little girl’s bones, she’s bound to blow away,” that’s what Mama was told about me when I was little. Sunday night pot roast and that stack of white bread did the trick.

Pot Roast

Serves 4 - 6

3 lb. chuck roast
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup red wine
1 to 2 quarts beef stock
3 onions, peeled and quartered
4 or so small way potatoes, peeled and quartered
4 medium carrots, peeled (sliced lengthwise if really fat)

Preheat oven to 325. Rinse the pot roast and pat dry. Mix the flour with the salt and pepper. Dredge the roast in the flour mixture on both sides.

Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven and brown the roast on both sides. Remove the roast and add the wine, then 1 quart of the stock. Add the roast back in, along with the vegetables. Bring the liquid to a simmer, cover and place in the oven. Cook for 3 hours. Remove the lid and cook one hour more. Taste for seasoning before serving.

If you’ve never heard the term “meat and three,” you probably don’t spend a lot of time in the South. For the uninitiated, the label refers to a down-home restaurant that serves what some call “soul food” — a Southern-style meat dish with a choice of three vegetables. Typical choices include fried chicken, country fried steak, turnip greens, mashed potatoes and cornbread. Of course, you need to save room for homemade dessert.

One of the most delightful meat-and-threes is Miller’s Grocery, located about 30 minutes south of Nashville, in the tiny whistle-stop town of Christiana. For 75 years, Miller’s was an actual grocery store. In 1995, the building was restored and converted to a café, but it retained the look of a country store — and its original name, a tribute to longtime owner Stanley Miller. Antiques and collectibles line the walls. The worn wooden floors creak and the mismatched flea-market chairs squeak. Ah, now that’s ambience.

Smiling servers attend tables covered with checkered tablecloths, delivering heaping plates of catfish with hush puppies, fried pork chops, chicken and dressing, meatloaf, fried okra, pinto beans, coleslaw, and yes, even frog legs (a Miller’s specialty). Yet, the desserts may be the stars of the Miller’s menu. The cakes are moist and mouth-watering. Red velvet and caramel are my personal favorites, but Snickers cake is a real crowd-pleaser. And where else besides your family reunion can you get Mississippi Mud Cake? Other Southern classics like pecan pie, apple cobbler and banana pudding are just as irresistible.

For the full Miller’s experience, come in on Friday or Saturday night, when your meal is accompanied by live bluegrass, folk, country and Americana music. But make reservations — the room fills up fast. Same goes for the popular Sunday buffet, when you can sample several of Miller’s most popular dishes.

Everyone commits kitchen crimes. They will be forgiven as long as you stay in a sunny mood — and capitalize on learning a lesson from your mistakes, assures Paula Deen, the owner of two restaurants, author of seven books and host of two cooking shows on the Food Network. “Everyone who’s ever been hired in my kitchen has had something to teach me,” says Paula. For instance: “My staff taught me years ago how good sour cream can be in macaroni and cheese.”

For years, Paula used to fuss if family members didn’t cube potatoes to the exact size she wanted or slice vegetables as she thought best. Eventually, it dawned on her that persnickety perfectionism was a turnoff: Family dinners should be a source of positive feelings that cement the bonds of love, not referendums on each member’s ability to anticipate the chef’s exacting specifications.

“You gotta keep it fun in the kitchen!” exclaims Paula. The more fun the kitchen, the more likely it is that you will be able to inveigle someone else into chopping onions. (Michael and Paula share dishes, but also have a housekeeper.) “People don’t mind being in a place that’s fun! I can be so particular about the way I want things, but I’m really tryin’ to do better on that,” Paula confesses. “There’s more than one way to skin a cat and my way is not the only way.”

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I am not what you would call a breakfast enthusiast. Eggs, bacon, grits, even French toast piled high with heaps of syrup and butter do not appeal to my rather picky palate. In fact, nothing about breakfast makes my mouth water or my tummy rumble … until recently.

Pancake Pantry is a must when family and friends are visiting me in Nashville. However, I had never ventured out of my comfort zone to try the breakfast until now. Despite rave reviews and the droves of people wrapped around the building waiting in line, I’ve always been too nervous to order the breakfast. This time, I chose the sweet potato pancakes. Topped with cinnamon sugar and butter, I savored each and every bite. The flavors were skillfully blended to create a certain fluffy and rich, yet sweet taste. Don’t be discouraged if sweet potatoes are not your cup of tea. There are more than 20 different kinds of pancakes, from wild blueberry to orange walnut to Caribbean pancakes topped with bits of shredded coconut.

But you don’t have to take my word for it. Garth Brooks likes to frequent the Pantry and so does Lyle Lovett. When LeAnn Rimes has nothin’ better to do, she comes in for a hot bite to eat. Pancake Pantry owner David Baldwin says even Keith Urban often occupies a seat at one of his tables, but to his woe, only one seat. (He’s anxious to meet Nicole Kidman.)

For 47 years, Pancake Pantry has remained a staple of Nashville and for good reason. The delectable food is freshly prepared and the service is always friendly. Their hospitable atmosphere makes the customer feel as though they’re at a family gathering. Like their menu reads, “You are always welcome at our table.” I can proudly say the Pancake Pantry has converted this breakfast brooder to a flapjack fanatic.

See photos.

Kathy Mattea has been stretching the boundaries of country music for more than 20 years. With a new album, Coal, due April 1, she faces a long list of tour dates ahead. How does she maintain her spark and energy on a hectic schedule? Chalk it up to clean living.

“Basically my philosophy is ‘moderation in all things,’” says Mattea. ” try to take care of myself. I pay attention to what I eat and how I treat my body. Occasionally I have to stop completely and regroup, usually by going on a retreat or otherwise clearing my schedule in some way, kind of a ‘rebooting’ of it all.

“I lift weights a couple of times a week and I do some kind of aerobic exercise about three to five times a week,” she continues. “That can be running in the neighborhood with the dog, in the basement on the treadmill, at the Vanderbilt University track, or a run/hike in the woods at a local park. I try to change it up to keep it interesting.

“I try not to eat too much red meat,” she adds. “I eat mostly whole wheat bread. I try to have five to nine servings of fruits and veggies a day. I drink tons of water. And I’ll have a glass of red wine now and then. I eat lots of olive oil. I avoid saturated fats and try to eat as few processed foods as I can.”

Mattea has clearly done her homework where fitness is concerned. The classically trained singer is also a believer in natural remedies. “For a sore throat or sinus infection, I take a lot of vitamin C, drink lots of water and hot herbal tea, and gargle hot salt water as often as I can,” she says. “I also buy nasal saline at the drug store and keep it on hand. I use it in the shower, and especially at night before bed. I find it works wonders. It usually keeps the thing from settling in, and I can feel relatively normal in about 48 hours.”

Mattea is happy to share one of her favorite healthful recipes. “This is a fave of all my girlfriends, and is so easy and healthy,” she says. “I call it Tuscan Beans and Sausage — or Tally Beanie Weenies!”

Kathy Mattea’s Tally Beanie Weenies

Sauté one diced yellow onion in some olive oil. Then, sauté one package of flavored chicken sausage in the same skillet. (I like the ones flavored with sun-dried tomatoes, or feta and spinach, or mild Italian flavor. They’re low fat and have a lot of flavor.) Cut them into 1-inch slices first. You can add a little more olive oil if necessary.

Open three cans of white beans (cannellini, northern or any white bean — I like to mix them up) and rinse and drain them in a colander. Drain one small can of diced tomatoes with Italian spices.

Combine all in a casserole dish, tuck in 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary (rosemary lives year-round in my garden), drizzle the whole darn thing with extra virgin olive oil and bake at about 400 degrees for 45 minutes.

Yum! This is better the second day, by the way!