Being Dead Is No Excuse by Gayden Metcalfe

Being Dead Is No Excuse by Gayden Metcalfe

Folks in the Delta have a strong sense of community, and being dead is no impediment to belonging to it. Down South, they don't forget you when you've up and died--in fact, they visit you more often. But there are quintessential rules and rituals for kicking the bucket tastefully. Having a flawless funeral is one of them.

In this deliciously entertaining slice of Southern life (and death), inveterate hostess Gayden Metcalfe explains everything you need to know to host an authentic Southern funeral. Can you be properly buried without tomato aspic? Who prepares tastier funeral fare, the Episcopal ladies or the Methodist ladies? And what does one do when a family gets three sheets to the wind and eats the entire feast the night before a funeral?

Each chapter includes a delicious, tried-and-true Southern recipe, critical if you plan to die tastefully any time soon. Pickled Shrimp, Aunt Hebe's Coconut Cake, and the ubiquitous Bing Cherry Salad with Coca-Cola are among the many dishes guaranteed to make the next funeral the most satisfying one yet.

Even if you've never been south of Rochester, this book will charm, it will entertain, and it will give you all the ingredients required for the perfect Southern send-off.

Gayden Metcalfe is a native of Greenville, MS, where she has risen from holding several key offices in the Dirt Daubers, a pre-teen garden club, to executing various duties in the Greenville chapters of the Garden Club of America. She has served as the vice president of the Delta Council and publisher of Delta Wildlife magazine. She is married to Harley Metcalfe III and has two children. Being Dead Is No Excuse is her first book.

Charlotte Hays is a Delta native and former gossip column contributor at the Washington Times, New York Observer and New York Daily News. She lives in Washington, D.C.