In the Bloglight: Angie’s Southern Kitchen

eat.drink.MISSISSIPPI
April / May 2013

Mississippi native Angie Sarris has amassed quite an impressive cookbook collection since she began cooking as a young girl. In fact, she estimates she has over 2,000. Her massive collection means she
isn’t likely to run out of ideas for her blog, “Angie’s Southern Kitchen.”

Angie comes from a long line of cooks. While growing up in Laurel, her grandparents loved to entertain
and she has fond memories of large crowds showing up for Sunday lunch after church, fish frys, or casual meals with family friends. Angie and her husband moved to Atlanta, Ga., shortly after getting married and once on her own, she started working on her own style of cooking.

The biggest challenge she faced as a newly married cook was combining her Southern roots with her husband’s Greek lineage. She began learning how to prepare some of the most popular Greek dishes, but soon learned that Greeks are very different from Southerners.

“Greeks are like Italians – they think their grandmother’s food is the best,” Angie explains. “Well, I did not have a Greek grandmother to be loyal too. I would try all the different family member’s dishes and I was free to like the one that TASTED the best.”

Angie began picking her favorite aspects from certain recipes and combining them to make her own unique Greek dishes. While she was met with resistance at first, she now gets rave reviews from her husband’s family.

“You know they liked it when they ask for the recipe,” she adds. “Success!”

In July 2011, Angie launched her blog as a way to organize her recipes and share them with family and
friends.

“I am always changing a recipe trying to get it just right. I needed a way to keep up with my recipes and journal what I wanted to keep. But when I would go back to it I could not remember which one we liked, did not like, or where I put it,” she says. “I was always having someone request a recipe from me all the time. It would be hard for me to go back and put my hands on it with all the recipes I have. Then I decided, hey I am going to do a blog and just journal what I cook, what I really like and want to repeat. Then my friends can follow along and visit when they want and it is there for them as well.”

Angie continues to see success with her blog and loves to receive phone calls, emails and packages from
her readers. In addition to cooking, she also enjoys traveling. However, she will admit that there is no place like the South.

“I have to say Southern is still the best the world has to offer. I am happy to say Southern food has a
new appreciation in the food world. I am proud to be from the South. I know how to shoot it, clean it,
cook it and put on a soiree you won’t soon forget. That is being a real Southerner to me.”

As for her library of cookbooks? Well, she’s still adding to her collection.

“How can you have too much of something you love?”

Angie’s Southern Kitchen
http://www.angiessouthernkitchen.com