Southern Plate Celebrates 1 Year With A Block Party!
July marks the one year anniversary of SouthernPlate.com and I want to thank you so much for all that you have given me! Southern Plate began as a hobby when I had a little free blog and decided to post some recipes, which then made the front page of the host site. I told my husband one day, “I bet if I got my own domain I could get five hundred readers!”.
During our First Year SouthernPlate.com received:
Over 18 Million Page views
Over 11,557 Comments
Woohoo!!! Do you know what this means? We’re all one step closer to my goal of feeding the ENTIRE WORLD homemade banana pudding! World Peace is close at hand, I’m tellin’ ya! Here are a few other accomplishments from the past year.
- Began writing weekly food column for Athens Courier
- Contacted by Southern Beauty Magazine and began writing for them
- Asked to blog for AL.com, Alabama’s largest website
- Became Southern Foods Expert for The FOOD Mag, with Southern Plate recipes featured on their website as well as in upcoming issues.
- Kraft Singles sent me to L.A. to help promote the Grilled Cheese Invitational (Limos all the way!)
- Invited to be a guest on the Darla Shine Show (The fastest growing syndicated talk show in the US) twice!
- Sponsored by Hamilton Beach, Pioneer Brand, Wilton, Southern Beauty Magazine, and others!
- Became a member of the RGN and Divine Caroline Network
- Twitter Following topped 4000+!
- Over ten thousand email and rss subscribers
- And many awards and honors that are listed here!
Just this past month alone, SouthernPlate.com had almost three million page views!
To Celebrate We’re Having A Block Party!
One of the things that thrills me to death is reading about Southern Plate or how folks are enjoying the recipes (and ramblings) on your blogs. To celebrate Southern Plate’s One Year Anniversary, I wanted to give us all a chance to visit with our neighbors and get to know each other better.
If you’ve blogged about Southern Plate (Whether it was a recipe or in general), join my block party! Please use Mr. Linky below to enter in your blog’s name and the url of your post so we can all come pay you a visit! If you’ve blogged multiple times, make multiple entries so we can come see them all! I’ll leave this up as the headline this month (and mention it often in my posts!) so everyone can take their time, mingle, and visit at their own pace!
Don’t have a blog? You can still join in on the party by leaving a comment below! Feel free to chat away on this thread. I have a few upcoming top ten lists for Southern Plate and I’d love to know what your favorite recipe and/or tangent on SouthernPlate.com has been! Or just comment below as a way of signing my virtual Anniversary card!
I am so very grateful to everyone. I know I say that a lot but I think it far more often than I say it so consider yourself lucky!
Gratefully,
Christy 
P.S. If I wake up tomorrow and find none of this really happened, it sure was a wonderful dream! 
Nothing was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson To submit your quote, click here.
Posted by Christy Jordan
on Jul 2 2009. Filed under Misc.
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LOVE your raisin bran muffin recipe! It impressed my future mother-in-law, so YAY!!!! Thanks for being so awesome!
Thank you so much!!! I love those muffins, too! I also love how convenient they are. As much as I enjoy cooking, making things easy first thing in the morning is always a plus!
Gratefully,
Christy
This is gotta be the very best cooking web site of them all,folks around here call me the “king of caseroles” thanks to Christy J..Harold..:)
I hope I’m the first to send CONGRATULATIONS. Your devotion to food, your readers, and to life are a sure recipe for success. Here’s to many more anniversaries. =-)
Oh Mary, you choked me up with this comment!!!
Thank you so much!
I did my part to help you out! After I found your website, I emailed it to all the women in my address book (who are all truly Southern Girls!) I love your website and I also live in Alabama. I am smack dab in the heart of peach country – Chilton County! I may not always agree with how you make some of your recipes (“that’s not how Mama made it” comes out of my mouth often) but I look forward to trying just about all of them. My sister even ordered the two of us copies of your cookbook after visiting this site! So keep up the good work!
Hey Lisa, thank you!!!! And Hey, every good Southerner knows that your mama was the only one who can make things the “right way”! I just hope to fill in the blanks when Mama isn’t around to show ya how!
Thanks to your sister, too! I appreciate the word of mouth so much, its the absolute best advertising! Hope you have a wonderful fourth!!!
Gratefully,
Christy
Congratulation on the aniversary of your great acheivement. Hope you have many many more to come. Love all your recipes. Pat
I am not sure what I enjoy more, the down home, taste wonderful, feel good recipes or the tangents. I feel as if I am sitting in your kitchen listening and watching as you create a meal for me to share with you and your family.
Which I would gladly do, including the dishes, if I was anywhere near your home. Until then I will have to look forward to your posts and wait for a technology wizard to creat “smell a vision”.
Congratulations to you and your family on your well deserved success.
Congratulations! I really enjoy your recipes. I am in Tennessee so a lot of the time they are memories of my childhood, and that is always a sweet break in the day.
Thanks for your hard work. You deserve everything that has come your way.
Hi Christy! Congratulations on ONE YEAR! WooHoo!
My favorite recipe is the Apple Dapple cake. All of Southern Plate recipes are awesome. Oh! I also dug into the fried corn recipe. Too many to choose from! I love all your stories and tangents. The good food and good writing is why I signed up for your email notifications of a new post. I didn’t want to miss anything!
Thanks for all you do!
Christy! I love your site and I just got my copy of your cookbook yesterday in the mail and could not put it down. It brings back so many memories of my own family (I guess us southern girls are a lot a like)! I had forgotten about the fire and ice salad that my mother use to serve every year when the garden would come in and I made it for her this year and we talked about all the happy memories of my growing up in a wonderful, Christian Southern Home and how proud my dad always was of his garden. (He passed away this past September.) Thank you for the memories and for all the dedication you put in to all you do. Happy Independence Day! Love ya’ll!
Christy,
I just love all your recipes (especially the sweets and the iced coffee), but your tangents are the best! I love reading about your vintage dishes and glasses and the meaning behind them. Keep writing, please.
By the way, I received your cookbook yesterday, and it is filled with good stuff. Thanks a million:-)
You make me laugh! I love your tangents the most! I was raised in Limestone Co and feel like I must know you because we have lived the same life in many ways! My favorite post has been about going on vacation in the pickup truck with a mattress in the back!! Fond memories! I love how you can put my memories into words and make them cool!
Love the recipes, love the ease of use, love the sense of humor. Keep those excellent recipes coming, and congratulations on your first year. Looking forward to receiving your cookbook and spending time devouring it. Oh wait, I better make some of the recipes and devour them instead. Best wishes for another wonderful year of success. ~Judy
Hi Christie!
Congratulations on your first year! I really enjoy your recipes as I married a Southern guy but never met his Momma! Oh boy, have I had a long learning curve!
One favor please, do you have a recipe for custard? The kind that is not too thin and not too thick? I have made every recipe but have not found one that is quite like what he remembers that his Momma used to make.
Dear Christy,
Congratualtions on touching over eighteen million people in just one year!! That’s a staggering number!
Oprah has won the hearts and respect of TV Land and you have of Blog Land! I wish you every continued success and a world of blessings as you brighten our days with your sincere and unbrideled passion for finding the kindness, goodness and fun in life, and for tickling our tummies with yummy foods that feed our family with delcious foods and the making of our own family memories!
Thank you for pouring your time, talent, love and energy into every post! You’re insipiring and amazing!
Blessings to you and your sweet family! Here’s toasting your continued and future success!
Cheers,
Maralee
You’ve come a long way baby!! Congrats to you Christy and wishing you many many more years doing what you love to do.
Christy,
I read your site EVERY DAY but have never commented. I do have one item I’d like to make a comment about. Mayor Dan’s column that you printed quite a while ago talking about his growing up years and his Mama’s cooking. He talked about “that round pedestal table where my big brother, my little sister, and I ate the best food in the world.” Well, I want you to know that I am his “little sister” and I still have that round pedestal oak table in my kitchen. We(Dan’s family and mine) have eaten around that table many, many times since I married years ago, and we still do! And everytime I sit down to that dear old table that my Daddy’s mama bought probably about 100 years ago from a friend “for 50 cents and a peck of peas”, I think about my Mama and Daddy, Bobby, Dan and me around that table and the wonderful memories flood my soul!
Thanks for the great recipes!
Okay, I began reading all the comments and ya’ll made me cry. I am relatively new to Southern Plate but instantly I knew it was something special and unique. Southern Plate really brought me back to my Southern roots- especially since I am out in California missing all the fun(lightning bugs, whipper wills, beautiful country, family oriented, Christian based, incredible food, thunderstorms, and the list goes on!).
Christy, you are a treasure because you bring it all alive on your page. I do feel as if I am right back there and can hear the whipper wills, see the kids peeking in to see when it will be ready, and smell the incredible food cooking! What you share about you, your family, and the times you have is priceless.
Thank you so much for letting the world into your world.
Thanks!
Emily
WHoo Hooo!!! One year! Congratulations! I just wished I had found your earlier. I have only been reading for a couple of months, but have enjoyed it every day. Your are truly blessed.
Julie
Christy,
Congrats to you for all of your hard work and dedication. I stumbled onto your site by accident,(I was looking for a recipe) and your link popped up! Well when it said “Southern” I was all over that; being from the south and all. I forwarded your link to my friends and sisters and we all have truly enjoyed your recipes and stories. All of which bring back wonderful memories of my grandmother and mom. Your recipes are to die for and I’m hooked on the laundry detergent recipe. I’ve given samples to friends and my boss who is now making it too. Keep the recipes and stories coming!
Vicki
I absolutely love all of the recipes that I have had a chance to try so far, but my ultimate favorite is the peanut butter brownies with the peanut butter fudge icing!!!! Oh my!! They are so wonderful. I made them for a family function a few weeks ago and have been getting requests for them almost daily now. Thank you so much for sharing with everyone and Congratulations!!!
Okay, so I love the Hoe Cake recipe! I cannot make homemade buttermilk biscuits very well at all! In fact, my husband makes better ones then I do. He grew up with very traditional southern food, so it has been nice to come to this website and learn how to cook some of them. While my husband does not care for the Hoe Cake, he will at least eat it and it ALWAYS turns out DELICIOUS!! I love the crunchy outside, but melt in your mouth inside
. Thanks Christy for this wonderful website!!!
I just love all your recipes. Thank you for your hard work and sharing all of your wonderful memories. You are a true southern girl that shares her love of family and cooking.
I made the Butterfinger cake for potluck last week and you were right, there was a stampede! Everyone loved it!
I didn’t mean for my link to say Fiesta Salad. It’s the right link, wrong title. LOL So if you wonder when you click on it. Glad to join the party!
God bless,
Amanda
Congratulations Christy!!! I just found this website a couple of months ago but it felt just like comin’ home!!! I love your family stories and recipes. I have told my cousin about this site and she’s hooked too!!! Keep up the good work……Tammy
My favorite recipe has been the Biscuit recipe. I always made hockey pucks until I found yours! Thank you for all the wonderful recipes.
I’ve made so many of your recipes it’ll take up half the page! And I have loved them all!
Would you hate me if I said I don’t like banana pudding? lol *hides*
Happy anniversary!
Shun! Shun the unbeliever! lol. if you don’t like banana’s, it’s a bust for sure. Lots of people don’t. Not a worry, Christy will still love you. After all, she still likes me.. I think…
Happy Anniversary! I started reading your recipes last year, during the apple recipes, on the B’ham News website AND have been hooked ever since! I’ve even purchased a cookbook for myself, but it became a real nice Christmas gift instead. So, I bought another one and have it “hidden” in our bookcase (grin with a little chuckle!)I made the Vanilla Wafer cake – everyone truly loved it! Of course, I had to share the recipe . . . and I made the cold brew coffee (yum!) and there are many others I hope to try very soon.
Christy, thanks for bringing so many warm and loving family stories to your readership as you make us “just pleased as punch” with the delicious recipes! Congratulations again Lady!
http://brittainy412.blogspot.com/2009/04/strawberry-pie-and-parenting.html
Here ya go, here is my Southern plate random chatter.
I haven’t written too much lately, been busy, but that’s ok!
I can’t believe its been a year, I have been reading the blog most of it. I am so Happy for you Christy!
I found your blog at the end of 2008 while looking for a recipe for Butterfinger Cake. I am an Alabama girl, born & raised. But *my* mama wasn’t an enthusiastic cook. When she does choose to cook, it’s always good, but she just doesn’t like to do it. Soooo … I didn’t get a good solid cooking foundation as a girl, but with the help of your blog & cookbook I’m making up for it now!
I’ve made your grilled chicken tenderloins, deep dish pizza, meatloaf, crockpot lasagna, spaghetti sauce, Meme’s mashed potatoes, doughnuts, simple pound cake, lemon meringue pie, marble cheesecake brownies, coconut cake, good’n'easy apple cake, chocolate velvet cake, butterfinger cake … I listed all these so you can see that I’ve really tried alot of your recipes! My absolute favorites are your sloppy joes (the family loves it), the coconut cake where you tell about your mama’s car accident (makes the house smell awesome!), and the chocolate frosting recipe (getting tons of mileage out of this one). Next on my list is the banana crumb cake, chocolate sundae cake, & sweet-n-sour green beans!
I’m hoping my kids will have many memories of good food, helping mama cook, and just hanging out in the kitchen.
Also, I bought one of those little flip recorders after I saw how good yours did on the California trip. Love it!
I said coconut cake above, but it’s the coconut pie that makes our house smell divine! I made one for a church function a while back and asked my husband if he wanted me to make one for us to eat. He said no, that’s ok. Well I thought I was going to have to beat him off with a stick when we started smelling the pie. Really, I was lucky to have gotten it to church without a piece missing.
Feeding the whole world with banana puddin’…. that’s a wonderful thought!! YUM!!!
Hey Christy!!!!!! Congrats I cant believe a year has already passed by. As you know Southern Plate was my first real blogging buddy out there in Blogepher!!!! You are still my #1 favorite blog friend and SP is still my favorite site. I have included my links above for all the Southern Plate Classics I have made. I can only say one thing about all the Mr. Linky Entries…………….. Can you say SP Stalker!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cant believe there were so many recipes until I started listing them. I left off a few I did not want people to think i was off my rocker crazy. Southern Plates Cookbook is in my special Cookbook Collection in my Hutch girl! and those are only for my faves!!! LOL you know I love you and Southern Plate we Southern Girls gotta stick together. I only hope one day i am in Athens so I can pay you a visit we would have so much fun just eating, cooking and talking. ((Hugs))
Eh? What’s the date?
Yay to Christy and SouthernPlate!!!!
A year goes so fast, I found SP in August just before my birthday when googling for a frosting recipe Google sent me to your peanut butter icing.
You know I am travelling through parts of the South later this year and honestly, you and SP have made me much more excited than I originally was. At first I thought “Ohhhhh…..can’t I just spend a few days in the South and then go somewhere else?” but now I’m so excited! I can’t wait for the REAL sweet tea, BBQ, biscuits and more! I said to my brother the other week “When I’m in away I’m going to eat catfish!” and I don’t even know if you eat catfish Christy, but I heard it on TV so you know….
I don’t know if he’s right or not….
He gave me this funny look and said “You already do eat catfish, it’s called cobbler”
I bought a big hunk of beef to roast in the slow cooker over the weekend. I hope it turns out as good as yours, even though you made it with pork.
Here’s to much more success!
Catfish… cobbler… *scratches head trying to figure out the connection*
Definitely two very, very different things around these parts!
I really don’t know, that’s what my brother told me. He said they have the whiskers like catfish. But I do know we have different names to fish over here to what you may call them. So possibly?
I googled it and it looks like they’re the same family.
Su, I’m on the road but soon as I get back I’m doing a catfish tutorial for you!
Catfish is the only “seafood” I eat! Lol
pond raised only, our river is a bit too polluted I’m afraid!
Hey, you know WAY more about the South than I know about Australia !
CJ
Oh my goodness, I just realized how that might sound. Nothing against the South!!!!
I didn’t mean it like that! lol
Congratulations on your first anniversary!! I love Southern Plate. I found it several months ago through SouthernSavers. I have tried so many of your recipes and they are all so good! My MIL has requested your Butterfinger Cake Saturday for the 4th of July. I will be making one tomorrow!! Thanks again!
Alisha
Happy Anniversary!! I adore your site and your recipes! My family is very happy with every recipe I have made. I’ve always wished I could live in the south and your tangents and stories let me pretend I do. I love learning about southern traditions! Thank you for you awesome website!! I will be making your boiled peanuts for the Fourth! Can’t wait to try them.
Take care
A year already! Time flies and all that jazz. I love your recipes, but I think just as much I enjoy “listening” to you talk. It always reminds me of Christmas with my mom, sister and sister in law, when we are standing around talking or cleaning up. We speak the same language as you! Plus, you might be the only person who goes off on more tangents than me! At least you come back to the original story. I tend to forget what I was started on by the time I end my tangent…or rather tangents of tangents.
Congratulations! I look forward to many more stories, more recipes and more fun in the years to come. Thanks again for all you do and the memories you cause.
I can so relate to a woman who wants to chat about food, her garden, those cute kids and, did I mention food? Happy Anniversary, Christy. Well done!
Happy Anniversary.
I think my favorite recipe is your grilled chicken tenderloins but then there is your super spaghetti sauce. The list goes on and on.
I just happened to stumble upon Southern Plate by accident… and look what’s happened.. we iz practically blood kin! Congrats one everything darlin. Beside you all the way and proud of you.
Hi Christy,
Happy Anniversary! This former northerner stumbled upon your blog when I was looking for some southern recipes now that I am a southerner. I enjoy reading your blog and the recipes. I am baking more since reading your blog and after many, many years of owning only a hand mixer, and inspired by all the recipes on your blog, have bought a brand new stand mixer.
Thanks, Karen
I visited my mother a few weeks back and we made your homemade laundry soap while we were together. We both love it!
Your whole site is wonderful. You’ve reminded me of recipes I hadn’t thought about since I was a little girl and shared some that are completely new. I’ve archived many of your recipes to post on my personal cooking blog when I get the chance. I don’t really share the blog with anyone much, but I’ve had a couple visitors. Mostly it’s just my way of keeping all my favorite recipes together in one place so I have access to them no matter where I am. Maybe this holiday weekend will be a good time to get caught up on all those recipes waiting to be posted!
Keep up the great work Christi! I hope this is just the first of many happy years I spend with you!
*hugs*
Congrats, darlin!
This is my favorite blog of all time since I discovered it about 8 months ago! I’m so happy for you! Here’s to another great year of friends, food and fun!
Smooches,
-Lindsay
You have got to be kidding????
ONLY ONE YEAR? I have used so many of your recipies and absolutely love them.
Sorry about using 2 posts………….I often send without finishing.
P. S. Please keep blogging. I love your site.
I just received my Southern Plate cookbook in the mail today!!I can’t wait to sit down and enjoy it. Thanks Christy…
Congrats Mrs.Christy on 1 yr. Your blog is the only reason I check my email I love following along with you in my kitchen each week with something new and exciting for me to make. Your blog is the reason I have a computer in my kitchen so I don’t have to run back and forth thanks so much
Congratulations and best wishes on your 1st anniversary! I stumbled (happily) on to Southern Plate when I was looking for a sweet tea recipe. I love your recipes ( I have to give some thought as to which is my favorite!!!) and the wonderful way you weave your many stories and memories around them for us, your many (grateful) readers! On my first visit to your site, I was immediately brought back to the special times (and food) from summers spent at my grandparents in GA. I live in the North but have strong roots in the South and love all things “southern”!
I’m looking forward to the delivery of the Southern Plate cookbook and am sure to sit down right away and read it cover to cover!
Thank you for the joy you put into all you do!
Bountiful blessings on this anniversary and the MANY to come!!:)
Christy,
I really enjoy reading SP and the stories about this great place you live in.
All the recipes and posts are explained with so much love and soul that we want to grab a plane and visit you, specially to know the new beautiful home!
Congratulations on this first anniversary and hope that will be many more to come!
Thanks for sharing your love for food with us!
I have posted about your Buttermilk biscuits…here:
http://mangiachetefabene.wordpress.com/2009/06/01/buttermilk-biscuits/