Earlier this week, a woman on Instagram challenged her followers to write a letter to God, telling Him what they wanted in 2026.
The message got to me to thinking: What prayers do owners in Birmingham’s food industry have for 2026?
I posed that question to Kelli Caulfield, of PopUp Bar Bham on Morris Avenue in downtown Birmingham, during her Influencer Night event this week. As the DJ played Usher’s “You Make Me Wanna …”, which lured creators to dance floor to do Karaoke, Kelli shared her prayer: coverage and protection for others in the culinary community.
The Sleigh Baby, Sleigh from PopUp Bar Bham is made with white rum, coconut rum, lime, mint syrup and coconut cream. It’s topped with prosecco. (Photo provided by Kelli Caulfield)
When the corner store on his newspaper route stopped selling oatmeal cookies, Dennis Echoles didn’t get discouraged. He got creative.
He figured if he wanted one bad enough, he’d better make it himself.
That one choice turned into a long life of baking on the side. Today, at 71, the Collegeville native, is not only baking those oatmeal cookies but also cakes, pies and brownies that taste like home.
A homemade oatmeal raisin cookie from Amber’s Desserts. Founder Dennis Echoles has also made oatmeal Craisins cookies. (Photo by Chanda Temple)
Alabama food stylist Sally Wicker McKay and her mother, Amy Wicker, are winning hearts and bellies on Hallmark Channel’s new baking contest, “Baked with Love Holiday,” which airs on Monday nights at 8 p.m. CST.
Sally Wicker McKay and her mother, Amy, are competing on the Hallmark Channel’s Baked with Love:Holiday on Monday nights at 8 p.m. CST. (Photo: Hallmark Channel)
The show, which debuted on Monday, Oct. 27 and is hosted by Emmy-award winning actress, producer and entrepreneur Tamera Mowry-Housley, features two cooking challenges per episode. The judges are Irish Chef Anna Haugh and New York Times cooking producer Vaughn Vreeland.
On Oct. 27, the mother/daughter team won the hometown Christmas pie challenge with their peach pie, which Anna said was “really nicely baked. The spices are so important. That’s what gives it length of flavor and complexity. It’s brilliant.”
Sally, who is based in metro-Birmingham, said the peach pie recipe is something they’ve made over the decades for family gatherings.
“We may look calm on the exterior but the wheels are always turning in my head,” Sally said on the show.
Tamera Mowry-Housley hosts “Baked with Love: Holiday,” as Judges Chef Anna Haugh and New York Times Cooking Producer Vaughn Vreeland help pick a winner each week. (Photo: Hallmark Channel)
That’s the sound of ground turkey as Mellanie Frazier shapes it into hand-sized burgers.
Filled with fresh pico de Gallo and seasonings, it’s a familiar scene in her kitchen, where she’s made more healthful meals for her husband, three sons and herself since being diagnosed with breast cancer in January 2015.
“In the past, I’ve used purple onions, regular onions, bell peppers, Zesty Italian dressing and a little salt and pepper,” says Mellanie, 48. “Everybody seemed to like them.”
Mellanie Frazier (Photo provided by Mellanie Frazier)
That’s all Kimberly Callines wanted from Piggly Wiggly following her ob/gyn appointment at a Birmingham hospital in February 2022 . In fact, she wanted the meal so badly that she had made up her mind she was going to skip her scheduled mammogram right after her gynecologist visit and head down the street to pick up the Southern delicacy.
But as she stood at the elevator, ready to push the button to the floor that would take her to her car, she changed her mind when she heard God say, “Go get the mammogram.”
She followed orders and had the mammogram. The technician looked at Kimberly’s images and said, “Un-uhh. They may call you back for another mammogram.”
That call back set things in motion that forever changed Kimberly’s life. Additional testing showed that she had Stage 1 breast cancer.
Kimberly Callines (Photo provided by Kimberly Callines)
That’s what Marcella Roberts wanted to know after a routine mammogram and later a biopsy showed she had Stage 2, triple negative breast cancer, which is a cancer that is common in women of color and experts have more difficulty pinpointing what fuels it.
Marcella had no symptoms, no signs and no one in her family had had breast cancer. And even though breast cancer can show up without symptoms or a family history, Marcella still wondered, “So, how did this happen?”
But pretty soon, she had to put down that question and pick up the fight for her life.
Marcella Roberts (Photo provided by Marcella Roberts)
Six weeks after being selected as a co-host for a nationally-syndicated radio show in Dallas, Ebony found herself in the doctor’s office to investigate what felt like a hard marble in her right breast.
She was 35, living her dream but now facing her biggest test: cancer.
Ebony Arrington Steele (Photo provided by Ebony Arrington Steele)
Six weeks after giving birth to her second son, Kasandra Brundidge went in for what she thought would be a routine checkup. It wasn’t.
Doctors told her she had stage 0 breast cancer. A month later in November 2007, the cancer had advanced to Stage 2, Triple Negative.
For five years, she had been trying to get a mammogram. But every time she was to go in, she was either pregnant or sick. (She had experienced four miscarriages before her second son was born in September 2007. )
Her diagnosis was crushing news. But Kasandra was determined to fight the disease. She had 18 founds of chemo and then 32 rounds of radiation. Testing also revealed she had the breast cancer gene. In May 2009, she had a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.
Kasandra Brundidge (Photo provided by Kasandra Brundidge)
The year was 1991, and Germaine Robinson had just undergone a mastectomy. As doctors started to remove the bandages, questions filled her head.
“Would men be attracted to me?”
“How will my clothes fit?”
But soon, a 22-year-old Germaine had an epiphany that set the tone for the rest of her life: “If they can’t love me without it, then it wasn’t meant to be.”
Germaine Robinson (Photo provided by Germaine Robinson)
