Get Ready for National Southern Food Day

I had no idea that January 22 of every year is a time to celebrate "Southern food" which refers to the USA's "southern" region. Even though I reviewed this cookbook on Amazon months ago, I scheduled it to go live for you all in preparation for this fun food holiday. Before I talk about it, let's get the legal stuff out of the way. I was sent this book, Love Language of the South: A Celebration of the Food, the Hospitality, and the Stories of My Southern Home by Stacy Lyn Harris, for free to check out and write a review of it on Amazon. If you follow the links I provide for the book, Amazon will give me a tiny amount of money (think pennies) as an affiliate. However, my reviews are always objected and focused on chocolate on this blog.

I'd never heard of Stacy Lyn Harris or her show, so I came to this cookbook hoping it would be an excellent collection of recipes and some great information about what, if anything, makes "the South" unique. I'm still wondering what makes "the South" unique because I didn't see anything that couldn't be claimed for the Midwest, small towns, or general rural areas. Sure many of the recipes were new to me, but what makes them specifically an example of Southern cooking?

The recipes and the biographical sections that precede them were sometimes directly connected, but also sometimes not. If you are a fan of Harris and watch her show, you probably would find all of that more interesting than I did. She isn't a bad writing, her words felt welcoming and easy to read, I just didn't care that much. 

The chapters varied in length greatly as did the subsections. The recipe directions fall into the paragraph style instead of direct and concise which can be a challenge if a dish is new to you or uses techniques that are new for you. Each recipe has a photo of the finished dish which is a big plus in my opinion when it come to cookbooks. Sadly only three recipes had chocolate or cocoa powder in them –  Kitchen Sink Icebox Cookies, Cappuccino Cake, and Mississippi Mud Cake. Because of various food intolerances and bad teeth, I could only try the cookie recipe unless I wanted to eat the entire thing myself.

I liked the two appendices – one with recipes by course and one of meal ideas listing a few recipes that pair together. There is also a traditional index if you want to search by ingredient or name of recipe.

If someone you love or you yourself are a fan of Stacy Lyn Harris, this is an excellent cookbook. If you are looking for chocolate recipes, not so much.