Cover Story
The title of Danna Standridge’s latest cookbook proclaims that “happiness is homemade,” and that message is something she conveys in her recipes, stories, and social media presence. Standridge and her husband David, an Alabama state representative for District 34, believe in the importance of family togetherness–and, in many cases, that starts in the kitchen and dining room with homemade recipes and traditions.
Celebrating Alabama’s Cooking. Standridge shares family recipes and stories on her Facebook page (“Danna Standridge”) and YouTube channel (@dannastandridge8749) and through her cookbook Happiness is Homemade, Y’all, but her time in the spotlight started with Alabama’s official bicentennial cookbook published in 2019. Time to Eat, Y’all: Celebrating the Culinary Heritage of Sweet Home Alabama was Standridge’s first foray into publishing and came as a surprise to her. Its popularity, though, paved the way for Standridge to share her experience with Alabamians as they struggled through the 2020 pandemic.
As her husband’s assistant, Standridge often had requests from fellow legislators and other state officials for cards with his contact information. She decided to be creative and passed out recipe cards. “Then, out of the blue I got a call from the Alabama Department of Tourism, and I just assumed they wanted to talk to David,” she said, “but they said they wanted to talk to me. They told me that they’d heard I like to cook, and could they talk with me about a bicentennial cookbook. I immediately told them that I was their girl and that I love cookbooks.” In a subsequent meeting with tourism officials, publishers, and book designers, she laid out her ideas by telling them funny stories from her own family that revolved around favorite recipes and meals. “Write down those family stories, and author this book,” they told her. The book came out in conjunction with Alabama’s bicentennial celebration, with proceeds going toward care of the state capital building. It sold out through several reprints.
Then, when the Covid pandemic hit, Standridge’s husband told her she needed to do something to uplift people during the difficult time. “David really takes care of people in his district, and he had a real heart for what they were going through,” she said. “One day he came to me and said, ‘You’ve got to do something. These people don’t know how to cook during this time, and they need encouragement.’ So, I did it.” She got onto Facebook and began sharing stories and recipes. The first video was of her “Ugly Biscuits,” and people responded. Today, her Facebook page has more than 75,000 followers and her YouTube channel has more than 100 videos on recipes, exercises, and encouragement. She said that she sees her work on social media and in her cookbooks as a ministry. She said she hears from people regularly who are encouraged by her simple stories. “At a funeral after Covid I had a woman tell me that she was embarrassed because she’d gained 12 pounds during the time because she’d started making bread,” Standridge said. “I told her that we’d all been in a similar situation. During Covid, people were learning to cook at home. But they also were lonely and needed a way to deal with things.”
While growing her online presence, Standridge also released her second cookbook in 2020. Happiness is Homemade, Y’all was her own cookbook with her own stories and recipes, as opposed to the state cookbook. “The stories in the book mean so much to me,” she said. “They come from my family, my parents, my grandparents.” After Covid ended, she also began speaking to groups and churches with the goal of giving people hope. One story of encouragement she shares comes from her great grandmother’s life. “When I’m speaking to groups, I tell of my great uncle who survived being a prisoner of war in Germany,” she said. “My great grandmother was making biscuits for her family when she found out that he was coming home after 18 months in prison. And today, I have the rolling pin she was using at that moment.”
“Food is at the heart of everything we do,” Standridge said. Through her cookbooks and online activities, she tries to encourage people to discover their own family stories. “I want people to talk to their family and discover their history,” she said. “Until you go out and talk to people about it you don’t realize that not everyone prioritizes it. But you need to know the story of your family.”
Memories from the Kitchen. Standridge’s family stories stem from a shared faith, and many of them feature church in a starring role. She’d often sit in the kitchen with her grandmother Nannie Swan, trying to soak in all of her cooking knowledge. Known for such items as her chicken and dumplings, Nannie Swan rarely wrote down her recipes, and Standridge did everything possible to take notes and learn from her. Whenever there was a potluck or other food gathering at her church, Standridge said that word would spread about the chicken and dumplings dish. “When I’d sit by her in church, people would come whisper in her ear and ask, ‘Did you bring the chicken and dumplings?’” she remembered. After her grandmother passed, Standridge gathered with her aunts and cousins to determine how to recreate the famous recipe. While no one knew exactly how to make the chicken and dumplings, they made two different batches and had family members vote on which one was most accurate. “After the vote, we felt like we had the perfect recipe,” she said. Standridge often relied on Nannie Swan and the other women in her family to learn how to become a good cook herself. And today, she continues the tradition and passes her knowledge and experience to her children and grandchildren.
She and David are the parents of three children and five grandchildren; their oldest daughter’s family lives close by them in Hayden and others live in Mississippi. They focus on faith in their family and attend church as often as possible with their children and grandchildren. She’s proud that her teenage grandchildren participate in such activities as First Priority at their schools and enjoy church. “We both grew up in church,” she said. “I grew up in Oak Grove Baptist Church about 10 minutes away from Hayden First Baptist Church where we worship now.” When raising their children, Standridge said that the dinner table was the perfect place to share faith and stories. She encourages parents today to find time to eat and share together, even when their schedules are especially busy. “It can be an effort, but it’s important to sit down together when you can,” she said. “It’s the perfect time to talk about how everyone’s day went. You can also tell those family stories. You can also talk about spiritual things. It’s so important because they come to know they can discuss anything with you.” She also encourages parents to find opportunities for their children to spend time with their grandparents. “They learn who they are, what their family believes,” she said. ‘It grows those deep roots.”
Special Christmas Traditions. As the holidays approach, Standridge said the days offer special chances to build traditions, make memories, and show love. Many of them, obviously, can revolve around the kitchen or dining table. She and her family look forward to special meals and gatherings –including her mother’s tamales and her mother-in-law’s mocha punch. “My mother makes a huge pot of tamales, and we all race to get to the pot during our big Christmas get together. There are about 40 people there, so if you snooze you lose on her delicious tamales,” Standridge said. “And it’s not truly Christmas until we’ve had a mug of my mother-in-love’s mocha punch.” Standridge’s own food tradition with her children and grandchildren includes a Christmas Eve breakfast with Merry Christmas French Toast with homemade whipped cream and blueberry syrup, ugly biscuits, and a grandmother’s sausage gravy- all of which are included in her latest cookbook.
New Opportunities. According to Standridge, the opportunities that have come her way to minister to friends and strangers alike have truly been a Godsend. When she has speaking engagements and shares her stories, she often finds out that they are just what someone in the audience needed to hear. This reinforces to her that she’s right where God wants her to be. She plans on continuing to speak to groups and churches, as well as reaching out to followers and new friends on her social media platforms. There are also plans for new cookbooks. “I’ve had so many opportunities pop up and I’m busy doing things just about every day,” she said. “I can’t wait to see where the Lord leads me.”
-Cheryl Wray
