In my young adult years, I had a hard time being seen for who I was.
I was always identified by where I grew up, whose sister I was or who I hung out with. Although I loved those aspects of myself, I was more.
As years went on, I had to make choices for my happiness. Choices often opposite of what I thought was expected of me. That meant becoming vulnerable to change and criticism.
That shift came with a yearning to experience more of what life had to offer. I began to look outside the walls put in place by others and myself to live a life God wanted me to live.
I began to capture these experiences in my writing. This became a way for me to purge, process and heal.
This blog is that journey and it continues. A journey full of love, tears, pride and lots of laughs.
Thanks for joining me.
Good Housekeeping Cookbook Brings Unexpected delight
This 1963 cookbook includes useful information like a glossary of cooking terms, meal planning for hosting a dinner party, and a guide for storing and cooking different cuts of meat. But it is a reminder of a certain type of woman heralded in the 1960’s. For example, in a section titled, “Family Weight Watching,” a suggestion to mothers with teenage daughters reads:
remind them they ‘re preparing for marriage and motherhood. A girl who enjoys being a girl, who looks like a girl…stands the best chance of having a whirl.”
The Soup
Okra is one of the main staples of the diet of South Carolinians. One of the many foods America inherited from the enslaved West Africans on the Middle Passage, okra is a thickener in many soups and stews, like gumbo. Okra is rich in vitamins C and K, fiber, protein, and antioxidants.
Okra can be prepared many ways including grilled, deep fried and pickled. I prefer to eat it sliced, tossed in olive oil with seasoning and cooked in my air fryer.
The Lowcountry is Alright!
I know six months any place is like a honeymoon phase, but I am just going to embrace the southern life. Those living here may say, “She ain’t lived through the summer heat yet.”
Facing Our History
Recently, my husband shared an article from a friend who lived in Atlanta with the headline, “Within 12 hours, 14 young people were harmed by gun violence in Georgia.”
It’s hard to settle with the statistics related to the impact of gun violence in the United States. Each day, there is a report of the shooting in the local news. It saddens me that freedom looks like the right to carry an automatic weapon.
This article prompted a question: How can we cease to find a way to curb gun violence but continue to be riled up against a curriculum in schools that shares all American history?