Fannie Flagg

Photo: © Suze Lanier

About the Author

Fannie Flagg’s career started in the fifth grade when she wrote, directed, and starred in her first play, titled The Whoopee Girls, and she has not stopped since. At age nineteen she began writing and producing television specials, and later wrote for and appeared on Candid Camera. She then went on to distinguish herself as an actress and a writer in television, films, and the theater. She is the bestselling author of Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man; Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe; Welcome to the World, Baby Girl!; Standing in the Rainbow; A Redbird Christmas; Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven; I Still Dream About You; The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion; and The Whole Town’s Talking. Flagg’s script for the movie Fried Green Tomatoes was nominated for an Academy Award and the Writers Guild of America Award and won the highly regarded Scripter Award for best screenplay of the year. Fannie Flagg is the winner of the Harper Lee Prize. She lives happily in California and Alabama.

Books by Fannie Flagg

The Whole Town’s Talking

The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion

Fried Green Tomatoes, Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven, and I Still Dream About You: Three Bestselling Novels

I Still Dream About You

Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven

A Redbird Christmas

Author Essay

DOTTIE NIVENS’S KENTUCKY BOURBON PIE

1 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup butter or margarine
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup bourbon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup pecan pieces
1 unbaked pastry shell fitted into a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine first three ingredients in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Cool slightly. Beat eggs, bourbon, vanilla, and salt in a large bowl; gradually add sugar mixture, beating well with a wire whisk. Stir in chocolate chips and pecans; pour into pastry shell. Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until set. Serve warm or chilled.

FRANCES’S MACARONI AND CHEESE

2 cups milk
3 tablespoons margarinee, melted
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 eggs, beaten
5 cups cooked elbow macaroni
2 1/2 cups (10 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
3/4 cup fresh bread crumbs (or cracker crumbs)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine first six ingredients in a bowl and beat until smooth, using a wire whisk. Layer half the cooked macaroni in the bottom of a greased 9-inch-square baking dish; sprinkle with 1 2/3 cups cheese and layer remaining macaroni on top. Pour milk mixture over macaroni; sprinkle with bread crumbs. Bake covered, for 50 minutes; sprinkle with remaining cheese and continue baking 5 minues longer or until set.

YIELD: 6-8 SERVINGS

– Found in Fannie Flagg’s A REDBIRD CHRISTMAS