Meet Stacey and Courtney, a Dallas Mother-Daughter Duo
Hey, y’all! Welcome to The Southern Spoonful, your go-to spot for Southern recipes made with simple, real ingredients. We’re Stacey and Courtney, the mother-daughter duo behind this Dallas-based food blog, and we’re so glad you’re here!
We share this blog between us. Stacey develops and tests the food, and Courtney handles the travel and hosting side of things.
Our Southern Roots Run Deep
We’re originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, and we’ve been surrounded by Southern and Cajun cooking our whole lives. Growing up in Louisiana meant crawfish boils in the backyard, a grandfather who came home from the Gulf with nets full of shrimp, and Mardi Gras spreads that took three days to cook. Those family recipes, passed down through generations, are the foundation of everything we make today.
Life took an unexpected turn when we moved to Saint Louis, Missouri, just six weeks before Hurricane Katrina hit our beloved New Orleans. While we were there, friends and family constantly asked for our family recipes, which sparked the idea for The Southern Spoonful. We officially launched the blog in April 2021 and haven’t looked back since!
How We Cook
Here’s what makes us a little different from other Southern food blogs. We cook seed oil free. That means we use butter, olive oil, and avocado oil, and we never use canola, soybean, corn, or vegetable oil. If a recipe calls for a store-bought ingredient we can’t control, we’ll tell you right in the post.
We also don’t deep fry anything. Every recipe here is baked, grilled, roasted, or made on the stovetop.
Beyond the oils, here’s what we look for:
- Organic produce when we can get it, and local whenever local is an option
- Wild caught seafood, and never (we mean never) farm raised
- Grass fed dairy and good butter
- Vegetables and herbs from Stacey’s backyard garden all season long, then canned and dehydrated so we can enjoy them all winter
None of this is about turning Southern food into something it isn’t. A roux is still a roux! It’s just about knowing exactly what’s in the pan.
How We Test Our Recipes
Stacey makes every recipe at least three times before it goes on the site. Once to figure it out, once to write down real measurements, and once to follow her own instructions the way you would at home. If a cook time or a yield is listed here, we’ve hit it in a regular kitchen with a regular oven.
All of the photos are ours, too. We shoot the food we actually cooked and ate, which is why the plates don’t always match!
What You’ll Find Here
- Louisiana classics the way our family makes them: gumbo, jambalaya, red beans and rice, and shrimp scampi
- Southern sides: skillet cornbread, corn casserole, sweet potato souffle, and potato salad
- Bread and baking: sandwich bread, lemon poppy seed, pumpkin, cranberry orange, and a pie for every season
- Appetizers for entertaining: baked goat cheese, whipped feta, burrata with grilled peppers, and cucumber tea sandwiches
- Weeknight dinners: one-pot turkey lasagna, spicy rigatoni, chicken kabobs, and tuna burgers
- Drinks: spritzers, espresso martinis, and an easy matcha latte
- From-scratch staples: Greek yogurt, pickled vegetables, chutneys, and our own Cajun seasoning
- Hosting guides for gatherings we’ve actually thrown, with the menu and the timeline
- Travel, because so much of what we cook comes home with us from somewhere else
Our Life in Dallas
Today, we call Dallas, Texas home. Stacey lives in the suburbs with her husband, Bryan, and their two Maltese rescue brothers, Bentley and Cooper. Courtney lives in Dallas with her rescue Lab, Diesel, and her rescue cat, Eloise.
Texas has been so good to us. The growing season is long enough that Stacey’s garden runs most of the year, and Dallas has turned out to love hospitality just as much as New Orleans does. If you’re local and looking for a Dallas food blogger or recipe developer to work with, our contact page is the best place to start.
Featured In
We’ve been featured by Mashed, Tasting Table, Voyage Dallas, and D Home Magazine, and we’re grateful for every one of them!
Our Brand Partnerships
We work with a small number of brands each year, and we only say yes to things we’d already have in our kitchens, on our tables, in our homes, or in our closets.
That means food and kitchen brands, and also the home, lifestyle, and apparel brands you’ll see in our hosting posts and recipe videos. The linens, the glassware, the lamps, and what we’re wearing while we cook. We hold those partnerships to the same standard as the food ones.
Anything we’re paid for is labeled, every affiliate link is disclosed, and gifted products are named as gifted. You can read the full policy on our disclaimer page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who writes the recipes at The Southern Spoonful?
Stacey develops and tests every recipe. She’s entirely self-taught, learned to cook in her grandmother’s New Orleans kitchen, and has more than forty years of cooking behind her. Courtney writes the travel and hosting content.
Are your recipes seed oil free?
They are! We cook with butter, olive oil, and avocado oil, and we skip canola, soybean, corn, and vegetable oil. We don’t deep fry anything either. If a recipe calls for a store-bought ingredient we can’t control, we’ll say so in that post.
Where are you based?
Dallas, Texas! We’re both originally from New Orleans, and you’ll taste that in the food.
Is this a mother-daughter blog?
It sure is. Stacey is the mom and the cook, and Courtney is the daughter who talked her into starting all of this back in 2021.
Do you take brand partnerships?
We do, with a few brands each year. Food and kitchen brands, plus the home, lifestyle, and apparel brands that fit our hosting posts and recipe videos. Our contact page is the place to start.
How do I get your recipes?
They’re all free! The recipe index has every one of them, and our newsletter sends the new ones as they go up.
Join Our Southern Community
Whether you’re a seasoned home cook or just getting started, we’re here to help. Our greatest joy is hearing how our recipes have helped you make memories with the people you love.
Have a seat at our table. We are so happy ya’ll are here!
Looking for more? You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and TikTok.