I really have to learn not to work on Southern Delicacy posts when I’m hungry, because boy does that Coke in a bottle and pimento cheese sandwich look DIVINE!

For those who aren’t familiar with the deliciousness of pimento cheese, it’s a simple Southern staple typically made of sharp cheddar cheese, mayonnaise, pimentos and some simple seasoning, such as salt and/or pepper. Some folks like to get fancy and sub in or add onions, cream cheese, garlic or Monterey jack cheese. Works for me!

Aunt Sissy Si’s recipe for pimento cheese sandwiches via Design*Sponge (photos by William Brinson), pimento cheese sandwiches (photo by Horace & Gertrude via Southern Weddings)

According to this fun article on NPR by Wright Bryan (talk about a Southern name!), “Pimento cheese is so ingrained in the lives of many Southerners that we don’t realize our passion for the stuff doesn’t exist outside the region.” He wrote that perhaps the most “national” exposure for pimento cheese was its yearly appearance as a popular sandwich choice at the Masters golf tournament in Augusta. I think those green-jacket-wearing boys have the right idea! The yummy pimento cheese sandwich is traditionally served on cheap white bread. From a quick fix for children playing on a hot summer’s day to the after-church potlucks, pimento cheese has been firmly rooted in everyday Southern life for years and years.

Cracker spoons with creamy pimento cheese and spicy roasted bell pepper pimento cheese, both from Southern Living

Of course, like most Southern favorites, pimento cheese can be dressed up or dressed down. We love these creative presentations for a wedding cocktail hour!

Tupelo Honey’s pimento cheese – image by Margaret Houston for Garden & Gun

And how about this, y’all? Really love pimento cheese? We were tickled pink by the fact that you can actually join a pimento cheese of the month club. Seriously! It’s through Asheville’s famed Tupelo Honey Cafe, so you know it’s going to be delicious. Find out more here! If you’re not ready for a yearlong commitment yet, try your hand at their personal recipe, available here.

Banana pudding is a Southern Delicacy we have yet to tackle, but I’d say we’re about due, wouldn’t you? Perhaps Marissa will indulge us with a bit of history in a future column! In the meantime, enjoy these diminuitive scoops of this old-school Southern favorite. Yum!

Thanks so much to Landon Jacob for sharing!

P.S. Banana pudding instead of wedding cake

Landon Jacob is a fabulous member of our Blue Ribbon Vendor Directory!

When I travel (and I do travel, often!), I always make it a point to try the local delicacies. If the restaurant we’re eating at has a famous dish or drink – that’s what I’m ordering. So you can bet that if I was at The Brown Hotel in Louisville, I’d be ordering the Hot Brown!

I must admit, though, I didn’t know too much about this delicacy before I sat down to write today’s post, and I still have never tried it myself. Who’s in for a Southern Weddings field trip to KY?

Photos from Seven Spoons, One Lovely Life, and MyRecipes.com

I love the story of how the Hot Brown was born, so throw on your longest strand of pearls, your grandmother’s long white gloves and your favorite shade of red lipstick, and let’s head back to the 1920′s! Back then, The Brown Hotel drew over 1,200 guests each evening for its dinner dances (whoa!). Guests, dancing into the wee hours of the morning, would take a break from Charleston-ing and head to the hotel’s restaurant for a bite to eat. According the Brown Hotel, their resident chef, wanting to offer party-goers something besides the standard ham and eggs, devised an open-faced turkey sandwich complete with bacon and Mornay sauce. Voila – the Hot Brown was born!

If you’d like to try your hand at whipping up a Hot Brown, we suggest first heading to the Brown Hotel’s website, which lists the original recipe here. We also found a few fun variations of the recipe, including Hot Brown Cheese Grits and Hot Brown Biscuits. Yum! I think I might need to pop on my seersucker apron and start trying some of these!

For those who are more into aesthetics, we also found this neat version of the Kentucky Hot Brown at Stately Sandwiches. Kelly’s on a mission to make a sandwich for each of the 50 states, and the hot brown was her pick for Kentucky! You can see other states, including Southerners Louisiana, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia, here!

Image courtesy Stately Sandwiches

Do you have a Kentucky Hot Brown recipe? Have you tried the Hot Brown? Let us know in the comments below!

Still hungry? You will be after you read a few more of our Southern Delicacies!
Sweet Tea
Deviled Eggs
Chicken and Waffles

Betcha didn’t know that June 10 is officially National Iced Tea Day! And since here in the South we like our tea like we like our gentlemen – sweet! – we’re going with sweet tea in honor of this fine holiday!

When I was younger, every year we had a gymnastics banquet in downtown Mobile. It’s was so much fun to get dolled up (with giant bows, of course), and head down to the ballroom with friends. One of my favorite things about the banquet was the sweet tea in pretty glass goblets – it just seemed so fancy! I’ve since grown into an Arnold Palmer kind of girl, but I still feel fancy drinking out of a goblet! :)

A few fun facts about this delightful delicacy:
– In the early 1900′s, sweet tea was considered a luxury status symbol, since the main ingredients – tea, ice, and sugar – were prohibitively expensive. It seems strange now, but the ice was actually the most prized ingredient, since it had to be shipped in from afar.
– The oldest known recipe for sweet ice tea was published in 1879 in a community cookbook called “Housekeeping in Old Virginia” by Marion Cabell Tyree. Ms Tyree was a native Texan, and suggested making the recipe with green tea.
– In 2003, the Georgia House introduced a bill making it a “…misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature” to sell iced tea in a restaurant and not also offer sweet iced tea on the menu. The bill never went to vote, but I sure know a few folks who would have voted it through!
– In most Southern states, sweet tea has become such a signature drink that the use of the word “tea” is largely used to refer specifically to cold sweet tea, and not to hot or plain varieties.

Images from top to bottom: Kate Headley via Southern Weddings, Heather Forsythe via Southern Weddings, Ulmer Studios via Southern Weddings, Amy Rae Photography via Southern Weddings, and Sarah Kate Photographer via Southern Weddings

We love the idea of serving tea at weddings, whether with fun striped straws, in mason jars, or both! Sweet tea is a staple of sweet Southern hospitality, and is sure to make your guests feel right at home.

With lemon, raspberry, mint or all of the above? How do you take your tea? Will you be serving it at your wedding? Leave a comment below with your favorite tea recipe – we’d love to try it sometime! And, of course, however you take your tea, we hope it’s always sweet!

P.S. For more gorgeous Southern sips, make sure you check out this Pinterest board!

P.P.S. We can’t talk about sweet tea without mentioning the Sweet Tea Society! Are you a member yet?

I seem to be going all summery for my last few inspiration boards, don’t I? I assure you, I’m not trying to hurry spring along – I’m loving the mid-70s temps we’ve been having, and am most certainly not ready to leave them behind for the humid 90s we’ll have in just a few weeks!

Despite all this, I’m pretty happy with this inspiration board and color palette based around key lime pie. By the way, I think key lime pie is a candidate for a future Southern Delicacy post, don’t you?

P.S. Have an idea for a Southern Inspiration Board? Let me know in the comments and I’ll whip one up for you!

Details:

Key lime pie photo unknown; bar set-up with limes photo by Kate Headley; bride and groom portrait by Elizabeth Messina; Key West photo by Divine Light via Southern Weddings; green and white boutonniere photo by Aaron Delesie from a wedding designed by Lisa Vorce; mojitos with yellow and white striped straws photo by Adam Barnes via Style Me Pretty; shoe check photo by Kate Headley; lime sorbet from Whisk

P.S. Still deciding on your color palette and theme? Check out these options:
Blueberry Gingham
Lemon Squeeze
Merlot + Champagne Vineyard