Meet Lucy

Why you can trust my recipes

Every recipe on Southern Food and Fun is carefully developed, tested, and written with home cooks in mind.

I’m a fourth-generation Southern cook, professional writer, recipe developer, and cookbook author, and my experience in recipe development and cooking spans more than four decades. I’ve spent those years cooking, hosting, and refining recipes to ensure they work in real kitchens with ingredients people can actually find.

My work has appeared in national publications, and I hold a master’s degree in professional writing along with years of experience creating food content and recipes for readers across the country. As a freelance journalist, I also write content that is syndicated to the Associated Press Wire.

Most importantly, as a mother of three and grandmother of six, I understand what it’s like to cook for family, friends, holidays, weeknight dinners, and the everyday moments that matter most.

A lifelong Georgia girl, I grew up on a farm just outside the small town of Oglethorpe, right in the heart of Middle Georgia pine country. I was surrounded by strong country women who made family gatherings look easy and cooked from recipes that were rarely written down. They knew what to add by sight, touch, or taste. I still call my Mama to ask how to make a family recipe, and there are plenty of things I’ll probably never get exactly right.

Some of my earliest memories are of watching my Granny and my great-grandmother cook. From a very early age, I learned techniques passed down through observation, conversation, and countless hours in the kitchen preparing meals for family and friends.

We had cows, pigs, chickens, and goats, sometimes horses, plenty of hound dogs, and a crew of barn cats. We raised our own meat, and that’s what ended up on our table. Granny and Mama canned and froze everything they could get their hands on so we’d have it to eat all year long.

We were eating local, sustainable, free-range food long before anybody put those words on a menu, and it never crossed our minds that it would be trendy someday. It was just how we lived.

Those experiences shaped not only how I cook, but how I think about food. Southern food is more than a collection of recipes. It’s a way of connecting with family, preserving traditions, and creating memories around the table.

Pull up a chair

Southern food has always been about bringing people together.

I’m honored to play a small part in bringing these recipes, traditions, and stories to new tables and new family memories.

Whether you’re carrying on family traditions or discovering Southern cooking for the first time, thank you for being here.

Pull up a chair, stay awhile, and let’s cook something good together.