Welcome to Nearly Southern, I’m Savannah: butter-enthusiast and blue and white china junkie. I grew up with a strong Southern influence, as my father and his family are from the Deep South. His family recipes are things like Cornbread Dressing, Pork and Beans, Fried Corn (like with back fat/skin on), and Sausage Gravy. My mother is from Deep South Texas, basically Mexico, as she grew up only 20 miles north of the border.

Vastly different cultures, but food is at the core of both. Although food is not considered a love language, in my family it is. It is a way of showing, expressing, and exchanging love with one another.

My love of food began at a very, very early age. I loved experimenting in the kitchen, never following a recipe, which drove my mother insane to no end. I was born in Dallas, but when I was two, my family relocated to South Texas near my family’s ranch and cattle feed yard. I began spending a lot of time with my grandmother, Mimi, in the kitchen learning family recipes like Red Velvet Carpet Cake, Sausage Casserole, Beef Ribs, Pico de Gallo, Tres Leches con Fresas, and Flan! Oh the Flan! So perfect and beautiful, with the perfect amount of unstable jiggle. Growing up only a few miles from the border, I soaked up the Mexican culture at a very early age and enjoyed very minute of it, crossing the border frequently for day trips. My favorite thing to eat as a kid? Fried Frog Legs (bascially a metaphor for my upbringing: fried in southern tradition and frog legs, a delicacy in Mexico). When I was seven, we decided to move back to Dallas, but the Deep South Texas culture stayed with me. I love anything smothered in Queso and if you pronounce the “g” in guacamole, I cringe.

After my beloved Mimi passed away suddenly in early 2018, I was looking for anyway to feel connected to her again. Wearing a favorite scarf or a piece of jewelry of hers felt nice, but also superficial. Then while my husband was watching the Masters that year, I asked him if he wanted a snack, and he gladly accepted. While I rummaged through the kitchen, I realized that I had all of the ingredients needed to make her famous Pico de Gallo. Though a spicy snack, it soothed my soul like a balm. This was the connection I had been searching for: in the kitchen, where we had made so many wonderful memories. I spent 27 years with my wonderful grandmother, and luckily she left me with recipes to keep me company of the rest of my life, and that I can pass down and share with my future children and grandchildren. That’s why we love food so much, right? It can taste good but is also brings the past, present, and future together at one table.

So here we go, this blog is a collection of sorts: maybe of tried and true family recipes, maybe new recipe failure, with a few new ideas sprinkled in and some tools I love, why (wine) not?

P.S. Here’s your pineapple, a symbol of Southern hospitality.