Southern... or Not

There's an ongoing debate in my life that's been raging (and I mean it! ha) for the past few years... and while it's about something relatively trivial, I'm determined to get to the bottom of it.

The topic in question is how I became (or why I am now... either way) someone who can not and will not show up to someone's home without something from our kitchen ("kitchen" occasionally meaning our wine collection, I will admit).

My mom would immediately attribute this to being Southern. This is suspect as I have no recognizable trace of a Southern accent and have lived in places such as New Jersey and Washington, DC; but I did do most of my growing up in Atlanta and attended school in North Carolina. My main problem with this assumption is that it indicates that people not from the South don't do this!

Others would say it's just your run-of-the-mill manners. I am inclined to go with this theory. Many people who've never dipped a toe below the Mason-Dixon line also can not set foot in another person's home without some sort of tasty item.

But the truth of the matter... what I know lingers down deep in my heart of hearts... is that it is the perfect excuse to dig through cookbooks and find that recipe I've either never made or had long since forgotten about. It doesn't hurt that I also happen to think food makes the ideal gift.

My proclivity towards giving edible gifts (and not just of the hostess variety) started way back in high school... I remember baking up a batch of our favorite peanut butter and chocolate crispy bars and tying them up in a cute baggie as my friends' Christmas treat. I've never looked back so while I can't remember a thing about that holiday season, let's just assume they went over well (that's quite boastful of me).

Most recently Susan's zucchini bread has found its way into the hands of some of our friends. The best part about this bread is that the recipe makes two loaves... so while you might think "oooh, two gifts out of one recipe", I thought "oooh, one for them and one for us". Maybe I don't have this gift-giving thing down after all.