About « The Bama Steel Magnolia’s Bistro

About the Bama Steel Magnolia’s

Bistro

I am a collector…I am a cook. Yes, the two have met and co-fed each other throughout my lifetime. And, on top of everything else I am Southern and proud of it! Being Southern has certainly affected my cooking and marrying a New Mexican cowboy did, too! I’m East Tennessee born and Alabama raised and both are part of my heart no matter where life takes me.

My mother (Mom or Momma…she answers to both) is a true Southern belle…should would have given the Last Widow of the Confederacy a good run for the money. She started me on my culinary journey when I was a young girl…in elementary school. Momma’s approach to teaching her girls to cook was to allow us to cook fun stuff that was reward with praise from her and Daddy. (All GRITS…Girls Raised In The South have a “Daddy” and dollars to doughnuts they are Daddy’s girls.) We started out with cookies and cakes and other delights that make a child’s eye sparkle and puff their chest out with pride when they had accomplished the culinary feat of producing a warm batch of chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies, oatmeal cookies or a pan of brownies.

Another influence on me was my Aunt LaRue…known as “the” cook in the family. Even today we natter on from time to time about cooking, cookbook and recipes. Hers is about the only…if not my favorite…fried chicken. She and Momma both make the famous family recipe for chicken and dumplings.

Mom gave me my first cookbook…a Betty Crocker Cookie Cookbook. Years later she passed on to me her first cookbook, one I still have in my collection today.

Those books and my compulsion to collect (did I mention I can be a tad OCD?) started me on my road to cookbook and recipe collecting. I even have compiled my own cookbooks by placing my loosely collected recipes in binders…with dividers of course!

A few months ago I tackled the task of organizing some of my collection of recipes in one such binder. Up until that point they had been housed in manila file folders. As I shuffled through the hundreds of recipes I realized I had a gold mine collection of recipes and cookbooks…all waiting to be shared. My mind said, “Blog!”

And that is what The Bama Steel Magnolia’s Bistro is all about! I’ve shared some of my recipes and culinary adventures in my blog A Steel Magnolia is an Iron Butterfly but have since realized I have enough cookbooks and recipes which could take on a life of their own. Some of these recipes could even be considered “heirloom” recipes because of their age.

Here at The Bama Steel Magnolia’s Bistro I hope to share many of theses recipes…some I’ve tried and will tell you about and some in the collection that just look darn interesting…why else would they be there? I also hope to share some background on some of the recipes and foods and nutrition and my 34+ years of cooking experience. Along the way, I’ll introduce you to my husband…known as Tall & Handsome in my blogging and the rest of my family when applicable.

If your seeking a recipe please feel free to leave a question and I’ll be happy to go through my collection and see if it’s there…if not, I’ll try to track one down for you.

So, stop by, make you self at home, enjoy and…happy cooking!