Ladies Night Out!

My "Southern Women" post got me a little behind in my normal blogging, but I a sure most of you don't mind. And if you do, oh well...its my blog. :) Anywho, a couple weeks ago, I was in charge of Ladies Night Out at church. I love to plan parties, events, or any other reason to get together, so this was right up my alley. I called in my partner in crime, Jackie Grimsley from The Casual Gourmet in Decatur. She has become like family to me as much as I am in her shop. We put our heads together and put together an idea to do an event where she would bring holiday appetizers for us to try and then give us the recipes AND explain how she gets everything to look so fabulous! I mean...who does that??? She is awesome! She also had a few little games where we had to guess what was wrong/missing from the table. Of course, no one could figure it out. The whole point of the game was to show us that no one can tell if something is missing or wrong on your table, so quit freaking out about it! All in all it was a great night and we all walked away with some great recipes and lots of laughs!!

Southern Women-Cooking

This post could actually be an entire book. In the South, we LOOOOVE food. Good food too! Not that fat free, no gluten, vegan crap. I mean real food. Cooked with bacon grease, fried or smothered. To be quite honest I haven't cooked bacon with anything that didn't turn out spectacular. It really should be its on food group. I digress....you see, food here is a reason to get together. We use it to celebrate life, death, holidays and football. You will not find a better spread of food than at an SEC tailgate on the quad at Alabama. We know how to eat!


Oh, and if there is a birth or death in a family, well, here comes the food. New moms in Alabama probably don't have to cook for the first 3 months of their child's life! Same goes for funerals. Many times you will here at church or some other social gathering..."Did you hear that Sara's grandmother passed away....I need to get a casserole to them." There is something comforting in not only being the recipient of the casserole, but also the one who prepared it. A lot of times, you don't know what to say when someone has a death. However, being able to walk in with a piping hot meal normally says all you need to. It says that you love them, and that if they need anything to call.

This year for the first time, I prepared Thanksgiving....ALL OF IT! I had Buzzy and Theresa over for a Thanksgiving meal and we had it all...from Turkey through pecan pie, I crafted it myself. Now, this was the first time that I had ever made a turkey and wasn't real sure how to do it. So, I called in reinforcements...John and Melinda. They gave me an awesome recipe and off we went. It took me, David, a flashlight and a "which end is the butt and which end is the head" discussion to get it finished, but finished it was, and it was beautiful if I do say so myself.

If you are interested in Southern Recipes, I highly recommend two cookbooks. Cotton Country Cooking, which was put together by the Junior League here in Morgan County, and White Trash Cooking. Yes, I am serious...White Trash Cooking is amazing. I will say though, you may have a hard time up north or wherever you are grabbing an opossum, or shooting a squirrel off your porch. I guess you could just use chicken... :)

Southern Women-Extra-Curricular Activities

Ahhh.....Southern Women and their hobbies....where to begin. One thing about being a Southern Lady is that just about anything goes as far as hobbies are concerned. We will find any reason to get together. From playing Bunco to throwing Baby Showers, we have lots of reasons to get together. As long as their is food and friends involved, we will find just about any reason to socialize. Most of these gatherings are centered around some sort of event, like I mentioned before, a baby shower, Bunco game, or SEC football party. If you want to get right down to it, they are just organized gossip sessions. You better be in attendance because we are usually talking about the one who didn't make it to the event. Here is another little "Southern" tip for you. You can say anything you want about anybody as long as you add these three little words to it. "Bless Her Heart." Those three little words change downright mean, spiteful comments to sounding like genuine concern for someone. For example you could say, "My gosh, Sally Smith has gained about 40 pounds!" That sounds kind of mean don't you think. Try this on now... "My gosh, Sally Smith has gained about 40 pounds, bless her heart!" Much better huh? That whole "bless her heart" thing works wonders, so try it on for size next time you are wanting to say something ugly about someone. Anywho, back to our extra-curricular activities. Like I said before, Southern Women, especially myself like to dress up all nice and spiffy. We can go to the fanciest events, gala's, fundraisers, etc. and then turn around and put on some camo, or our nice blue jeans to head off to the PBR semi-finals. (For those of you not familiar, that would be Professional Bull Riders). Here are David and I at gala....


And then here we are a couple nights later at the PBR Finals in Atlanta..


The point of all this is, in the South you can do just about whatever you want for your activities. From the nicest black tie event, to a down in the mud rodeo, we are up for it all. That is the beauty of living here...it really doesn't matter. And if someone has a problem with it, they are just a big ol' fat butthead.....bless their heart.

Southern Women-Fashion and Culture

This will be an eye opening post to several of you not from here. Fashion and culture is a big thing down here in the south. From matching your children for Easter Sunday, to wearing dresses and heels to SEC football games, to hunting attire, we know how to dress. I'll start with football.

Football here is a huge tradition. Oh, and on the day of the Iron Bowl, this state basically shuts down. Now, I had the privilege of attending THE UNIVERSITY....for the few of you that don't know, that is The University of Alabama, or The University as we call it because its the only University worth mentioning. Anywho, I remember countless football games in the scorching sun and blistering cold where we paraded ourselves out to the game in the finest Southern Couture. Don't even think about not wearing your team colors, oh, and houndstooth is a must. See examples below...














We even dress our little ones up in their school colors. So, comfort or not, we will be dressed for game day, heels and all!

Hunting/outdoor attire....now, this is a new couture for me. I am getting more into it, especially this year, but I consider myself a pro already. What I have decided so far is, just because you are in the outdoors doesn't mean you have to dress like a hobo. Case in point...my BOW event held a couple weeks ago. They all made fun of me for wearing my pearls, especially while firing large firearms, but hey, what do you expect? Take note on how the pearls actually bring out the camoflauge...




Please note that in order to lure a prospective deer to you, your nails must be perfectly polished, and you must apply just enough "Big Sexy Hairspray" so you neon orange hat doesn't sit directly on your head.




As far as footwear, when out in the wilderness, you must have proper shoes on. My favorites are my river boots. Snazzy enough to keep the snakes away...and lure the fish in!


So the moral of this lesson....always be prepared in the woods, water or wherever you may be. Dress appropriately for all occasions...and don't forget your pearls.

Southern Women

I interrupt this normal blog for a few posts about Southern Women. For those of you that read my blog and are not from the South, I hope this will give you a little glimmer into what we are really like here....the picture above has absolutely nothing to do with my post, but I just like it....well, I take that back. It is very "Southern" for sure...

The other day, we were riding in the truck (of course) when David made the following comment. "You are beautiful, sexy, redneck and trashy, and that is why I love you." Thank you...I think???? That coupled with my recent re-watch of "Sweet Home Alabama" starring Reese Witherspoon has put a weight on my heart. A weight to try and justify to you folks not from around here about this freak culture that we have in the South. No, we are not married to our cousins, and we don't re-live the Civil War every weekend like most people think. I think we, especially Southern Women, are a delicate mix of everything that is right in the world.....I will be breaking this post down into a few different sections. Tonight, we will start with language. We will move from that to fashion/culture, extra curricular activities, cooking and then on to anything else I deem appropriate for this venture. Or, I may get sick of it midway, and punt the whole concept. Its my blog and I can do that if I want to....

The Southern accent is something that is marveled by many, despised by a few and rarely imitated correctly. Any time that we travel outside of the South, I am amazed at the language barrier that I face with most people. They often say stupid things like, "Just say something....anything, I want to hear you speak!!" Other times, there is just total confusion. Case in point. When I was in Las Vegas for my bachelorette party a few years ago, I went up to a lady to get change for a $20.00 bill. After exchanging the normal, "Hello, how are you's?" I asked for change. She replied with an "Excuse me?" "I need to get change for this" I repeated again. She looked like I was speaking another language. I could understand her perfectly, I mean, we sounded the exact same. After several more failed attempts, I finally wrote down on a piece of paper what I was saying. "Ohhhh....you want change!" "Yes" I took my change and went on with my evening. Rather odd, I thought, but you would be surprised at how many people can't understand a Southern accent. I think about those goofy sounding Cajun's on "Swamp People...." I wonder if that is what I sound like to other folks?

Anywho, on our latest trip to Las Vegas, the photographer that took our photos kept commenting on our accents as well. You get to the point where you try to not even speak, for fear of being ridiculed. Well, anyways, he made a comment to me about my sweet little Southern accent and how he bet I could get anything I wanted just by asking...come to think of it, it does have super powers that way. Lets say I am trying to get out of a ticket, or need a little customer service with a product I have bought. That sweet Southern drawl has its advantages. I don't know how anyone with a northern accent could sound sweet...even if they needed to! :) I digress, the point is, I love this accent, wouldn't trade it for the world. And if you are going to try and fake a Southern accent, don't even bother. You just sound stupid.

Halloween Hoots...

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays of all times. I don't know why, but I just love seeing all the little kiddos dressed up and coming to the house. Well and on a selfish note, its a reason to finally have 5 pounds of candy in your house without people looking at you like you are a tons-of-fun. This year, the Darnell's graciously hosted the Trunk or Treat at their house on Saturday night. They have an awesome farm and lots of room for all the children, both big and small. I had the great pleasure of teaching some of the kids and their parents as well how to make Smores. Yummy!!! Those are in my top 5 as well. Nothing like biting into that gooey marshmellow and having it stick to your face, hands and hair. Anywho, here are some shots from our eventful evening!!