Interview with Christy from “Southern Plate”
“Southern Plate”
They say you can tell a Southerner by how they remember every experience based on what food they had.
“How was your trip?”
“Oh, it was wonderful. We had the best peach cobbler…”
History has wired Southerners to think this way. We relate our experiences to what was served, what was prepared… Celebrations center around dishes steeped in tradition and memories of Great Granny preparing her special rolls or pie.
I spent her childhood hearing stories from my great grandmother about a lifetime of sharecropping. They lived in little shack houses provided by land owners where, as a child, my grandmother planted and raised cotton in exchange for lodging and a few monthly staples such as a 25-pound sack of flour and dried beans. Still, their childhood was filled with memories of wonderful food, thanks to the tradition of great Southern cooks having been firmly embedded in the family root system generations earlier when they were among the first to settle the Tennessee Valley.
With a history of matriarchs who have been able to take ingredients they have on hand and not just “make do” but make magic at the dinner table, I’ve grown up learning to cook the traditional dishes held dear by my family. Fresh vegetables, cornmeal batters, generous helpings of flour, and tattered handwritten recipes are in my blood and in my kitchen.
My goal with http://www.southernplate.com is to deliver recipes from my own Southern heritage in a way that helps the reader to feel as if they are at their own grandmother’s side, learning the same way I did.
Some of these recipes have nearly been lost through the generations. I hope to preserve them, redistribute them, and make them part of our lives again.
Next to the recipes, feedback is the most important content of my blog. Without feedback from my readers, I have no way of knowing if I’m hitting on recipes they enjoy or hearing crickets! I also enjoy the sense of community feedback fosters when we converse back and forth through simple comments. I make it a point to respond to each and every comment left on my site.
Everyone in my family and all of my friends read my blog. In addition to that, I’ve made several new friends from my pool of readers. Really, I’d say everyone who reads and comments has become a friend.
I used to spend about two hours a day working on blog posts or tutorials to put on my blog. As Southern Plate has grown, I’ve had to devote much more time to it, which I love! I now spend about five hours a day working on my blog in some fashion. I really enjoy it but it does get hectic sometimes with two young kids under foot!
Sometimes the most difficult part of a tutorial is keeping the dish from being eaten long enough to take the photographs!
I really love technorati!
My readers keep me motivated and smiling. They are so encouraging and incredibly kind to me. As long a they enjoy SP, I’ll write it!
I am actually developing another one right now! Stay tuned!
