Food, Family and Caring for the Community

Laci Schuman of Southern EatsMeals To Go

Story and photos by Rishon Hanners

“It wasn’t until I came to Cullman that I ever even heard of Strawberry Pretzel Salad.”

Laci Schuman says she still has to introduce the community staple, Strawberry Pretzel Salad, to people that live as close as Birmingham. It was not a dish that she grew up around, and yet it played a leading role in the early days of her now thriving business, Southern EatsMeals To Go.

“On Facebook, I would literally just put out there that I was going to make one, if anybody wanted one,” says Schuman.

She would text her friends and ask if anyone wanted her to make an extra Strawberry Pretzel Salad for them. It grew from there. Between the Strawberry Pretzel Salad and her Homemade Apple Dip, people couldn’t get enough. That’s when she started thinking about what other dishes she could make that people would love as much as the Strawberry Pretzel Salad.

“A friend of mine and I got together and started talking about it, and there was just a need for good, decent food for families. We were all very busy with kids.”

Schuman’s daughters, Bailey and Logan, are now 19 and 15, but Schuman remembers struggling with a busy life, trying to feed her kids, attending school and sports functions, and avoiding the lure of the drive-thru.

The idea for Southern Eats came about from Schuman’s experience in catering, having a knack for cooking for friends and family, and taking inspiration from other prepared meals businesses, like Ashley Mac’s of Birmingham. With Southern Eats,

Schuman knew she could make a difference in her community and fill a need that hit close to home.

“We cooked out of my friend’s home for a year and we would meet in the St. John’s parking lot for pick up once a week. So we built our client base. We watched it go from a few friends to random people to a true client base before we ever even opened the doors here [Southern Eats].”

Schuman reached her customers through Facebook and by word of mouth. It only took a year of organizing meal pickups in the church parking lot for Southern Eats to find its permanent home in downtown Cullman.

Schuman remembers the hectic, but exciting opening week of Southern Eats. “It was 2014 when we started and it was the following March, actually the week of Easter in 2015 when we

2-15 oz cans Blackeye Peas (drained)

1-15 oz can Whole Kernel Corn

2- small cans Ro-Tel tomatoes

1 cup diced green bell pepper

1 cup diced yellow or white onion

½ cup diced jalapeno

Garlic, Pepper, crushed red pepper flakes to taste (optional)

Italian Dressing (we make our ownchoose your favorite Zesty Italian) opened, and that was unnerving. We literally rolled out an Easter menu and sold a bunch of food. I remember on Easter Sunday thinking, a lot of people are eating my food and I really hope it’s good.”

Combine all ingredients and let chill in the refrigerator! Serve with scoops or tortilla chips.

Schuman continues to be humbled by preparing holiday meals for a great number of families in the community. She creates special holiday catering menus for Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The catering is in addition to the Meals

To Go portion of the business, in which Schuman and her team keep a fully stocked 3-door freezer with casseroles, dips, rolls, sausage balls, soups and family meals year round. Plus a refrigerator where you can find six different chicken salads, pimento cheese, pasta salad, and “Cullman Caviar.” Schuman knows it is a big responsibility, but enjoys the challenge in creating meals and memories for families in her community.

Poppy Seed Chicken Recipe

4 cups cooked/chopped (or shredded) chicken

**boneless skinless chicken breasts, seasoned slow cooked on the stove.But you can cheat with rotisserie from the grocery deli**

2 (22.4 ounce) cans of Cambell’s Cream of Chicken condensed soup

16 oz container of sour cream Poppy seeds and pepper to taste (optional)

Crushed Ritz Crackers

¼ cup (1/2 stick) melted butter

Mix the soup, sour cream, poppy seeds, and pepper in a bowl until well blended. Stir in cooked chicken. In a separate bowl, mix the crushed crackers with butter. Pour mixture into a greased 9x11 pan and topped with buttered crackers. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

“It’s still a little bit unnerving whenever we do the volume that we do for holidays just knowing that [our food] is what they are having. There’s no backup plan, and there is a lot to be said about the trust that we have built there.”

Schuman didn’t always have her sights set on opening a food business. She grew up in Vestavia Hills and went to Auburn University, where she met her husband Justin through mutual friends. She later became a mortgage officer and then a stay-athome mom with little side jobs like renting bounce houses. But Schumann also grew up surrounded by a family of cooks and cooking. Great cooking came naturally to her. “I’ve always known how to cook. I was never someone that would say, ‘Oh, I can’t cook,’ or ‘I don’t know if I can do that.’” Schuman has always been the one in the kitchen cooking for friends and family. Once the idea of Southern Eats came along, Schuman never looked back.

“I kind of backed into it. Honestly, I really did, and now it’s second nature. I never really would have thought I would be working with food. I do think it’s important that everyone should work with the public and food at some point in their lives. I think it makes you a better human.”

Food and hardworking people were all around her growing up. She remembers her grandfather, Joe Dellaccio, making his “red gravy” or marinara sauce; a meal passed down through their Italian heritage, and grandmother, Katie, waitressing and cooking classic Southern food.

Schuman remembers her grandmother Vida Blackwell living just four blocks from where Vida

1 lb breakfast sausage

(prefer Dean’s mild)

1 lb lean ground beef

BAKED ZITI

(My recipe I developed in college)

1 lb Ziti noodles (prefer Barilla)

1 green bell pepper

1 zuchini

2 carrots (average size)

Mozzarella and Parmesan cheese

Equal (1:1 ratio) Spaghetti and Marinara sauces (your favorites)

Salt, Pepper, Garlic, Oregano to taste worked as a caterer with a Women’s League. Schuman can still recall the smell of the honeysuckle bushes in her grandmother Vida’s front yard, and Vida, “just cooking all the time.”

Dice veggies (pretty fine- can hide from picky eaters), saute in pan with butter in this order: carrots (4 minutes), add bell pepper (2 minutes), add zucchini till cooked. Set aside veggies, brown both meats in same pan, while cooking noodles according to package. Drain browned meat well. Combine veggies, meat, and both sauces in a large bowl. Sir in cooked/ drained noodles and cheeses (as much or as little cheese as you like). Pour the mixture in a greased 9x11 pan. Top with more cheese, bake in 350* oven for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly!

“I don’t know who she was cooking for. There was always just tons of food. That’s how that whole generation was. You would walk in and there was a hot meal somehow. You wouldn’t even tell them you were coming.”

THE BEST SAUSAGE BALLS (yields approximately 3 dozen)

Super simple 1-2-(almost)3 recipe

1 lb breakfast sausage (prefer Dean’s Mild)

2 cups shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese

2 ¾ cups Bisquick mix

Just enough water to bind- start with 2-3 tbs

Mix all ingredients well. Preferably by hand, it just seems to turn out better than with a mixer. Roll into balls to desired size, just be consistent so that cooktime is the same.

Place balls on a greased sheet pan, bake at 375* 16-20 minutes or until desired doneness.

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Schuman particularly remembers Vida’s cheesecake minis, cheese straws, and her chicken salad, which is a classic Southern recipe made with sweet relish and hard boiled eggs. You can find Schuman’s version in the refrigerator at Southern Eats labeled as “Baba’s Chicken Salad.”

“Baba’s chicken salad was actually Vida’s chicken salad; it’s just always been Baba’s to me.”

Baba is Schuman’s mother, Kathleen Dellaccio, who the chicken salad is so fondly named for. She passed in November 2020 after a month-long battle with COVID.

Schuman and family were not allowed to visit her during that time. It is still a raw loss that Schuman is reminded of daily, which makes Baba’s chicken salad, and sharing the memory of her mom, just that much more precious.

“She had nine grandkids, but about 900 other kids called her Baba. She was good. It only hurts when they’re that good. I was blessed.”

She honors her mother within her business and her dedication. Serving dishes that are a hark to food Baba was known for, like her Unstuffed Bell Pepper Casserole and of course Baba’s Chicken Salad. The family honors

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

Mini Twist Pretzels (chopped in food processor)

1 cup (2 sticks) Butter- melted

1 cup white granulated sugar

16 oz Container Cool Whip (or whipped topping)

2- 8 oz Cream Cheese softened to room temperature

2 cups white granulated sugar

4 cups chopped frozen strawberries

6 oz package Strawberry Jell-O

**prepared according to package with hot water.Use chopped frozen strawberries substituting for the cold water**

Combine pretzels, melted butter and sugar, stir until all pretzels are covered and shiny. Pour into a 9x11 pan (clear or Pyrex dish is ideal), press to form a crust. Bake crust at 350* for 10 minutes. Set aside and let cool.

With a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese till smooth, add sugar, mix till smooth, and stir in Cool Whip. Using the hand mixer, combine till smooth.

Layer the cream cheese mixture over the cooled pretzel crust, then top with the strawberry Jell-O mixture.

Baba as well, by showing up for each other just as Baba would have.

“She was our number one and we were her number one, no matter what happened. Her family was number one.”

Schuman carries on Baba’s legacy by making her family, her team at Southern Eats, and her community her number one priority. With every dish made at Southern Eats, Schuman shows her commitment to her family and customers by cooking them wholesome and hearty southern food, made with lots of love.

Good Life Magazine