In lieu of regularly scheduled programming, I’m excited to introduce you to Angie who I’ve been paired with for Adopt-a-Blogger. Angie’s blog is Southern Grace Gourmet, a wonderful food blog that started as a way for Angie to record her recipes and document her love of cooking. Definitely check it out, it’s a beauty!
Here’s Angie’s story:
I didn’t grow up cooking in the kitchen much. I stayed with my granny when I was very young and learned basics from watching her. My mother only made only about 20 dishes, so I never learned much from her, either. I grew up watching the Justin Wilson’s Cajun Cooking in black and white through snow on rabbit ears. I never knew about the trademark red overalls till years later. My favorite though was the Galloping Gourmet with Graham Kerr. I wasn’t a Julia fan, I couldn’t get past her posture and accent.
I started out working in a western retail store at 16. It was so boring there, and I really wanted to be in a busy restaurant. My mother was a cocktail waitress in her younger years, and I loved the idea of working in the party. My father and his former wife that had passed, owned a restaurant together with her parents. Although I rarely saw him cook, he did tell me stories of their restaurant. It was a steak and seafood restaurant. He made the best steak I’ve ever had. So I decided to try and work at a restaurant. Unfortunately our small town had only two: the traditional steak house and a Pizza Hut. I chose the Pizza Hut because I had friends there. I worked there nearly full time, mainly as a waitress and some as a line cook.
When I left home for college, one of the most exciting things was having my own kitchen. I started buying my own hope chest around age 14. It was packed full of kitchen items. When I left home, that’s about all I had, lots of kitchen things. While in college for dental hygiene, I was working 30-40 hours in restaurant/beach bars. I waited tables in the evening and cock-tailed through the night. I rarely had time to spend in the kitchen, but still enjoyed participating in potlucks with my classmates and dinners with friends.
From our restaurant and bar experience, my husband and I always envisioned the perfect beach restaurant. The decor, the food, the spirits. We always talked about if I had a restaurant I would do this or that.
Through the years, I have been experimenting more and more in my own kitchen. We redesigned and remolded our kitchen by ourselves. I spend a lot more time there since I have been staying at home with my son. I was having problems remembering my recipes, and was talking with a friend about organization ideas. I bought a computer application for storing recipes, but it became too cumbersome. I found more and more blogs through recipe searching, and decided to organize my recipes on the web.
Since starting my blog, I have made many great friends, and developed a love for photography and learned so much more about cooking. I hope to keep growing my blog and keep learning about new recipes and improve my photography. Even though my husband and I still have visions of the perfect restaurant, our experience and expertise is pointing us in a different entrepreneurial endeavor.
