Celebrating the nouns of Southern living comes quite easy to me. Remember back during the holidays when I shared with y’all about receiving a surprise gift from my nephew and niece-in-law, Southern Living 50 Years: A Celebration of People, Places, and Culture?
I finally found time over this past weekend to sit down with a glass of sweet tea rimmed in fresh mint and take in some southern exposure.
Getting down and Derby in all the excitement of the Kentucky Derby is a Southern socializing-first weekend in May tradition.
As horseshoe good luck would have it, the floral department at the local grocery store put a slew of red rose bouquets on clearance Friday afternoon just in time for Derby Saturday.
I love when the clearance sale stars align.
Our Louisville meets Marksville crawfish boil shakes a dash of south Louisiana into the c’est si bon.
Boiled crawfish with traditional fixin’s thrown into the pot makes for good eating.
Potatoes and corn have never met a crawfish boiling pot they don’t love to be a part of, but don’t stop there.
Back when Dave the Builder was in the corporate world, we would host the annual crawfish boil.
One of Dave’s coworkers introduced our taste buds to a new way of boiling crawfish.
At first I questioned the addition of cabbage, smoked sausage, onions, lemons, whole carrots, mushrooms, celery stalks, and eggs to the seasoned boil, but quickly became a flavor convert.
The vegetables, sausage, and eggs boil to perfection in the seasoned water, picking up the unmistakable taste of the South.
I’ll say this about celebrating the nouns of Southern living- you learn and taste something new at every event, festival, and boil.
Blue and white is the classic color palette of choice of many Southern decoristas.
It is seen in the hydrangeas we plant, the china patterns we place upon the Southern dinner table, and the porcelain pretties we decorate house and home with.
Going up to the mountains (my Tennessee family calls all of Sevier County including Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, and Gatlinburg “the mountains”) is part of the landscape when we go home to East Tennessee.
I fondly remember the days of family style meals served at Trotter’s restaurant, wild wild west afternoons spent at Goldrush Junction, and the stories of Dolly performing on the Cas Walker radio show.
A proud daughter of Sevier County who has never forgotten the region, the town, and the county she calls home, Dolly Parton was recently awarded the FBI 2018 Director’s Community Leadership Award for the work done to raise money for those affected by the Gatlinburg wildfires in 2016.
For this, the music, the voice, and the local love, we will always love you, Dolly.
Antoine’s is Louisiana restaurant royalty-a French Quarter icon.
How gorgeous is this facade?
From pan to page, southern chefs and southern writers craft a delicious, unique, and enduring story.
Summer suppers give a Southerner yet another reason to host a get together, not that we need one.
I’m seriously contemplating changing my rule of KISS- keep it summer simple to KISSED- keep it summer southern entertaining delightful.
Field Pea-Tomato Salad With Lemon Vinaigrette
We celebrate everything summer from a good crop of garden tomatoes to a barbecue on the bricks music festival.
Courtyards, patios, and porches replete in lush greens fashion and shade southern exposure.
Chicken coops are a thing in the South.
People go nuts for these chic henhouses.
Planning, constructing, and styling is serious business, and rival that of the south’s most phenomenal architectural wonders.
Distinctive, indelible, delicious, gracious, hospitable, and charming customs, styles, and traditions influence, define, exemplify, and celebrate the nouns of southern living.
