Over the past 30 years I've been so privledged to call my not-so-little part of the South: Texas, home. While I was born in Mexico City, it is because of the generosity of the Thompson Clan that I have been blessed to recieve an education, opportunities, and even the chance to meet the man I am so proud to call my husband. Yet when I've met people from outside of the South I always end up being asked the same questions about "Aren't you curious about your 'true' heritage?" What is so hard to explain to those who aren't brought up among the glorious scent of magnolias, pecan pie, or listening to songs sung by our elders as we climb on top of the roof to check on the sun tea, is that the Southland is it's own culture and the stories passed from each generation to the next are a challenge to each of us to add to those fabulous sagas with our own lives.
From Grandad's lime ice box pie recipee to mom's perfect acorn squash or Dad's baked chedder cheese grits, we are brought up in a world of flavors where Tex-Mex, Cajun, Bar-BQ, Creol, Southern Soul Food, and Southwestern combine, where music from Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson and Stevie Ray Vaughan were played in Deep Ellum (Dallas) to Bourbon St. (New Orleans) and Beale St.(Memphis).
And of course, no meal or song is considered complete without an extra helping of tall tales which teach us to recognize strength as beauty and charm as a necessity.
Having been blessed to travel to so many places in the world, where people repeatedly asked about the culture here in the South, I realized I should attempt to articulate the sights, smells and tales that continue to win my heart over and over again.
Here you will find recipees, short stories, profiles of inspiring southern women and more. Please come back regularly to check in on what's new!
Welcome, and thanks to ya'll for checking this webpage out!
"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any. "
~ Alice Walker ~
(Georgia)
"Southern women and kudzu have a lot in common. Both are practically indestructible, thrive in Southern soil and both refuse to be controlled by man."
~ Ronda Rich ~
(Georgia)
Click the steel magnolia to learn about some inspiring southern women!
Click the steel magnolia to learn about some divine dinning spots in the Southland that capture its true flavor!
Click the steel magnolia to learn about some books that capture the culture of the south!
Click the steel magnolia to learn about some movies and plays that capture the culture of the south!
Click the steel magnolia to learn some favorite southern recipees!
"Whether we are decendents of plantation owners, farmers, slaves, moonshiners, tenant farmers, craftsmen, riverboat captains, or merchants, we are the daughters of the South, the emodiment of moxie, determination, and tender femininity. Molded by history, wedded to tradition, committed to the future, we tackle life with a customized and paradoxical blend of toughness and kindness. Common threads of charm, strength, and resilence are woven carefully through the South's cultural fabric, weaving together women from different races and economic levels...Southern women brazenly attack the storms of life."
- Ronda Rich in her book:
"What Southern Women Know (That Every Woman Should)"
"Within the South itself, no other form of cultural expression, not even music, is as distinctively characteristic of the region as the spreading of a feast of native food and drink before a gathering of kin and friends."
- John Egerton, in his book:
"Southern Food, at Home, on the Road, in History"
"All of my life I have always had the urge to do things better than anybody else."
~ Babe Didrikson Zaharias
"Sweet Jesus, why must this brisket haunt me? I can't thank the good people of Austin enough for pointing me to this treasure!"
Northerner from Omaha, NE
on Smitty's Bar BQ in Lockhart, TX (Photo at right)
"Way down South in Dixie
(Break the heart of me)
Love is a naked shadow
On a gnarled and naked tree."
~ Langston Hughes
Click the steel magnolia to learn about some music that captures the culture of the south!
"There's something about the Southland in the springtime,
Where the waters flow with confidence and reason.
Though I miss her when I'm gone
It won't be too long
Till I'm home again to spend another season."
~Indigo Girls
"Smile! It increases your face value."
~ The Character of Truvy in Steel Magnolias
"A high station in life is earned by the gallantry with which appalling experiences are survived with grace. "
~ Tennessee Williams
At Right:
(B.B. King of
New Orleans Albert King, and
Stevie Ray Vaughan of Texas, play
together)
At Left:
Norah Jones
(from Dallas, Texas)
At Right:
Scene from:
"Rabbit Foot
Blues" a musical touring Europe based on the life of Blind Lemon Jefferson a famous blues musician from Dallas, Texas
Southern Cuisine:
Click on one of the following to be connected to information about the southern states that boast these fabulous flavors:
Tex-Mex
Cajun
Creol
Southern Soul Food
Southwestern
Texan
At Left:
Southern Favorites!
At Right: A recipee and demonstration of how to make
Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie (can be made without the bourbon).
At Right:
Maya Angelou reads her poem:
"I Rise"
Click photo to read my personal southern tale.
"Very few things really seek knowledge in this world. Mortal or immortal, few really ask. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds - justifications, confirmations, forms of consolation without which they can't go on. To really ask is to open the door to the whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the questioner."
- Anne Rice (Interview With A Vampire)