A Family of Feeders

I come from a family of feeders. A long line of feeders. I've always known that I was a part of a group of women who tend to help people mourn and celebrate different circumstances of life with food but I never really had a name to put on what we do. Until I read a blog post by one of my favorite southern bloggers, Sean Dietrich of Sean of the South. Let me explain...

In my family, if someone is sick you feed them. Someone died? You feed their family. Someone just had a baby? You feed them. Food is the answer for any emotion. Sad? Feed 'em. Happy? Feed 'em!

Now I know that this isn't just an Appalachian thing or even just an American thing, but it's a part of MY Appalachia so I decided to write about it.

I grew up going to church and being around ladies who were all feeders but I really didn't notice it until my mom passed away. After my Dad had told my brother and I that she had died, my Great Aunt Lois arrived at our house to take us to my Granny & Pa's house (I was 14 and my brother was 17) . It took about 20 minutes for her to get us there. When we walked in the door there was food everywhere. Not only do they cook, they're also quick. News travels fast in small towns and even faster in a Baptist church. 

When someone is hurting I believe that most people realize that they can't take away the hurt but they find a million different ways to help ease the burden and pain.  

The women I know do that through food.


I don't know if you've noticed but it always tends to be what we call "comfort food." Why? Because they aren't just bringing you a casserole. They're hoping to deliver comfort as well. 

These meals aren't just for deaths though. Women in my part of Appalachia will plan a meal for people who have been sick, baptisms, and many other occasions. 

My church has a tradition where we always have a meal after a baptizing as a way of celebrating the occasion. Last Sunday, after a scheduling mix up, we realized that a family had all shown up to see their grandson be baptized and we didn't have a thing to feed 100+ people. 

I ain't going to lie...I panicked for a minute. Then after talking to my stepmom, we agreed that we could call in a pizza order after Sunday school. We called as soon as they opened (11AM). 

"Sorry, ma'am. We need at least a 2 day notice for anything over 20 pizzas." PANIC. My stepmom and I flew down the highway heading for town and called a local sandwich shop. "Sorry, there's no way we can have that many sandwiches ready by 12:30." PANIC. We called a local grocery store deli to see if they could help us out. NOPE.

After collecting myself and praying to the good Lord that He'd disable any hardworking law enforcement's speed tracking devices, I shouted, "We can make soup and sandwiches!!" At this point, it's 11:30ish and we still have to run into Walmart to buy the food and drinks, drive the 15-20 minutes back to the church, and get it all set up. Fix it, Jesus.  

I called my husband and prayed that the Lord would forgive him for answering his phone during preaching. He plays the banjo in the church band so I told him that we couldn't get the pizzas but we were figuring it out and to play lots of music...and STALL!

We tore through Walmart like our pants were on fire. We ended up buying pre-made subs from the deli, condiments, soup mix, chips, cookies, and drinks. Beggars can't be choosers. By some miraculous heavenly intervention, we didn't have to wait long in line to check out. 

We arrived back at the church at around 12, unloaded my car, sliced up sandwiches and filled up trays, made two huge pots of soup, put out the chips and cookies, filled up cups with ice, and had it all done by 12:30. I asked the Lord to bless our humble meal like he did the loaves and fishes and that's about the time we heard music and people started to trickle in.

Like I said, I come from a long line of feeders. And that's a good thing because I also like to eat.

I married into a family of feeders. Just about every Saturday evening my little family & my brother-in-law and his family have supper at my husband's parent's house. My mother-in-law does it so we can all spend time together. I look forward to it every week. 

A typical Saturday spread. My mother in-law is a professional feeder.

As if all of that food wasn't enough, she went and made a nanner puddin'!

Are you a feeder or happen to come from a family of feeders too? I'd love to hear from you! You can either leave a comment below or in the comment section on this post on Facebook. I really do read them all! 

I realize that it's been several months since my last blog post. I enjoy writing but I'm not always able to find the time. Life is hard sometimes. I'd like to thank all you faithful readers for sticking around and continuing to follow the Appalachian Mountain Roots Facebook page. I do try to post a quick snapshot of what is going on in my world at the moment or an interesting article over there to keep it active. It ain't much but the page continues to grow. Thank you. 

I hope to sit aside time each week to write now that the garden is petering out and we're back in our homeschooling routine. I enjoy writing and sharing a bit of my life and love of Appalachia and I thank y'all for being kind enough to read it!

New Year's Day Traditions & Superstitions

Happy New Year, y'all! Can you believe how fast this past year has went by? I've heard it said that the older you get, the quicker it goes and I believe it! I have been digging around trying to find some New Year's traditions and superstitions to share with you and only a couple of them were familiar to me with the most familiar being the tradition of eating black eyed peas, greens, and pork for the first meal of the new year.

I have practiced this tradition for as long as I can remember. My Granny Janice ALWAYS made this for our New Year's supper but would add coleslaw (I wouldn't eat greens when I was younger), stewed taters, & cornbread. Come to find out, there is  a story behind this southern tradition. 

During the Civil War, the Northern army would come in and take anything they could carry and eat anything they could eat. This included livestock and any grains they could use to feed them...but they couldn't take it all. After the smoke cleared, the remaining southerners weren't sure how they were going to avoid starvation. Luckily for them, Sherman's troops had left silos filled with black eyed peas. At that time, the North only used black eyed peas as feed for livestock. The Northern troops saw it as the thing of least value and since they had taken all of the livestock, what use would it be to the southerners? They didn't realize they were leaving the very thing that would keep the southerners from starving. From New Year's Day 1866 until now, the tradition of eating black eyed peas for luck continues. 

We always ate greens because they were said to represent wealth for the new year. The more greens you ate, the more green you'd have in your wallet. I'm still not sure there's any truth behind this but at this point, I'm not willing to chance it! Pork is said to represent looking and moving forward to the year ahead because pigs can't turn their head from side to side. This is the only one of the trio that I never knew! 

Now that you know all about that tradition, here are a few New Year's Appalachian superstitions:

• Immigrants from Wales believed that spreading ashes over the hearth on New Year's Eve could predict events for the upcoming year. If footprints left in the ashes headed towards the front door, someone would die. If the footprints went into a bedroom, there would be a new family member in the home. The shape of a coffin in the ashes predicted death and the shape of a ring foretold a marriage. 
• If a girl would like to know who she will marry, she can throw a ball of yarn out of her bedroom window at midnight on New Year's Eve, and say, "As I wind he comes" over and over as she begins winding the yarn back into a ball. If she is to marry, her future husband will hand the yarn back through the window to her. If no one appears, she will not marry.
• It is bad luck to hang up a new calendar before the first day of the new year.
• If there is no food in the pantry on New Year's Day, it is destined to remain empty the whole year.
• Well water is said to turn to wine at midnight on New Year's Eve.
• If a man enters your home first on New Year's Day, it is a sign that you'll have good luck all year. If it's a woman, the opposite is true.

I hope you have enjoyed these traditions and superstitions and I would love to hear any that you know. Please share them in the comment section down below and I hope each of you have a blessed New Year! 

*This post was originally published here at AMR on 1/1/16.

The Great Debate: How do you like your grits?

We woke up to snow this morning! I heard the weatherman mention that we might get some but I figured it would miss us as it does 9 times out of 10. As of right this moment (Friday @ 9AM) we've gotten at least 2" and it's still peppering down pretty good.

 Front yard on the left and backyard on the right. 

For some reason, snow makes me want to cook. I usually wake up a little easier (and earlier) once I notice that it has snowed. Just think of everything I could accomplish if I lived somewhere like Alaska. Ha! Anyway, I made some homemade buttermilk biscuits, scrambled eggs, turkey bacon (I know, it was on sale), homemade cherry, peach, and strawberry rhubarb jellies and jam, and grits. 

 Whoever said that Wheaties was the breakfast of champions 

must have never experienced hot buttermilk biscuits. 

Grits are a subject that we debate about in this house. I like mine a little thicker with cheese, my husband (Jason) likes his soupy with butter and sugar, and my son (Dude) doesn't like them at all. When Jason and I first got married, I remember fixing cheese grits just because I like them and we always had savory grits growing up. We sat down to eat and Jason got up to get some sugar. I was horrified to see him add some to his grits and he was horrified after taking the first bite and realizing that their was cheese in them. I told him that sugar is for oatmeal and cream of wheat, not grits. He begged to differ! I had never known anyone to eat grits with sugar. It's still something that we joke about whenever we have them. 

Now I'm curious to know how everyone else eats their grits. Do you like them savory with butter and salt or cheese? Or do you like them sweet with butter and sugar? Let me know! I'm sure he'll be checking for comments as soon as he finds out that I wrote a post about grits.

 One thing is for sure, you don't have time to discuss how you 
like your biscuits around here. Dude ate four before Jason 
was lucky enough to reach for the last one! 

Appalachian Apple Stack Cake

 "Who was that let you off at the gate," asked Olivia. 
"It was Miss Emma and Miss Etta," said Clay-boy, holding out a Mason jar of the Recipe. "They sent this. Said it was Christmas cheer."
"It's bootleg whiskey is what it is," observed Olivia.
"What do you want me to do with it, Mama?"
"I'll take it," said Olivia..."I can use some..for my applesauce cakes."
-Earl Hammer Jr., The Homecoming

When fall rolls around, most people jump on the pumpkin spice bandwagon. You can't throw a rock without hitting a product that has this flavor; pumpkin spice doughnuts, pumpkin spice pancakes, pumpkin spice coffee, pumpkin spice chocolate covered pretzels...you get the picture. I like pumpkin flavored items just as much as the next girl, but is that the first fall flavor that comes to mind when I think of fall cooking? No, says I. I'm all about the apples! Now I like apples year round but I want to make more apple recipes in the fall and winter months.

While there are many apple desserts that are common place in my part of Appalachia, none can be more rooted in our mountain culture than the Appalachian apple stack cake. Sometimes called by other names such as Confederate old-fashioned cake, Kentucky pioneer washday cake, and applesauce cake, it is traditionally made up of layers of pancake thin cake and filled with stewed dried apple filling. It is then refrigerated for at least a day or two to allow for the apple filling to saturate the cake. Doesn't that sound heavenly? I knew that this had to be on my family's Thanksgiving menu this year. Before I get into how I made my cake, I want to share some of the resourcefulness and a little history behind this regional delicacy.

As I've mentioned before, Appalachian women were very resourceful. They had to be! I think this dessert is a perfect example of that resourcefulness. Apples were plentiful throughout the mountains in Appalachia. A great way to preserve those apples was to dry them. I could write a whole blog post on dried apples, and probably will at some point, but won't get into that right now. Plain applesauce (or apple butter) can be used as a filing but dried apples offer a much richer flavor and was the choice of most mountain cooks. 

Most old recipes that I researched also call for sorghum molasses or honey. This was also a resourceful sugar alternative that was available in the area. The rest of the main ingredients (flour, salt, shortening/lard, eggs, milk/buttermilk, baking powder/soda) were also economical staples that most women had on hand. Unlike Mrs. Olivia, I didn't find any recipes that called for any "Recipe" but that isn't to say that some didn't use it. 

From what I've read, the history of this cake is debatable. Some credit James Harrod, an early pioneer of Kentucky and founder of Harrodsburg, as the one who introduced this recipe to Appalachia. Some try to give all of the credit to Tennessee. Regardless of how it got to Appalachia, it's origin is probably based on Eastern European tortes.  

According to the Encyclopedia of Appalachia, "The dried apple stack cake was a favorite pioneer wedding cake. Weddings were celebrated with "in-fares," where people gathered to party, dance, and eat potluck food. Because wedding cakes were expensive, neighbor cooks brought cake layers to donate to the bride's family, who cooked the dried apple filling. The bride's popularity was often gauged by the number of layers, but the average was seven or eight. Stack cakes were also at family reunions, church supper, Christmas dinners, and other large gatherings." The wedding history is my favorite idea associated with this cake. If I could go back and do my wedding over again, I'd choose this for my wedding cake. 

I've had the opportunity to sample different versions of this dessert at reunions, church potlucks, and other gatherings but this was my very first attempt at making one. Why? Anyone who knows anything about baking could look at it and tell that there's going to be quite a bit of time invested. A labor of love, if you will. 

I'm going to be honest. As I was rushing around to make other things on our menu I didn't devote as much time to making it as I should've. I did use the traditional dried apples and cooked them a long time to get them just right. The cake layers is where I slacked. Instead of getting my layers as thin as I should have, I decided to try to rush the process and only do six thicker layers instead of the 7-8 that I had enough dough to do. Don't be like me. Take the time to make the layers as thin as possible. The dried apple mixture can soak into thin layers MUCH better than thicker ones which makes it SO MUCH better. 

I'm also wanting to use a cast iron skillet instead of cake pans next time to see if it really makes a difference. I guess I could try cast iron cake pans if I had them but I don't. Almost everyone has a cast iron skillet or two and if you don't, why the heck not?! What do you make your cornbread in?! And don't you dare tell me that you don't eat cornbread. I don't need that kind of negativity in my life. Cast iron cooking will change your life. Okay, that may be a little dramatic...no it isn't. Life. Changing. 

As for recipes, I used one that I found online and there's no source to credit it to. Thank you, whoever you are! Just click right on the picture if you need to enlarge it.

And now you can see a few pics I took while making the cake:

Tips: You'll need to add water as they cook down. Keep adding and cooking until you get a applesauce consistency. I left mine a little chunky but not as chunky as they are in this picture. See that little chopper in the pic? That thing is super handy in helping the apples fall apart. This recipe says to roll out your dough and you can even see my roller (that my dear husband made me) in the pic. This is unnecessary if you're using cake pans or a cast iron skillet. Just flour your hands, pinch off some dough, and spread it into your flour and greased pan. Just use enough dough to make a thin layer over the bottom of the pan. You're going to think, this isn't enough, but you're wrong. Pat it as thin as possible or you'll end up with thicker layers like the ones in my picture with the canning ring. It looks pretty thin and they are thinner than the ring, but trust me, it should be thinner. There will be some rising so make it THIN and then the apple filling can saturate the layers better. If you decide to roll it, go for no more than 1/4" thickness. This recipe says to let stand at least 12 hours. I really don't think that is long enough. Store it in a tight container and put it in the refrigerator for at least a day or two. Trust me...and another benefit of that is, you can make it ahead of time! 

The finished product.  I'm still kicking myself over the layers 

not being thin enough but it was still delicious!

Have you ever had an apple stack cake? What do you call them in your neck of the woods? Leave me a comment and let me know. I loving hearing from y'all! 

Lettuce & Onions

This past weekend, we ate supper at my in-laws. We actually spend most Saturday evenings there. Its always a fun time to get together and catch up on whats going on with everyone. My mother in-law, Connie, always makes a big, country supper. Common items on the table, especially during this time of year, are fresh vegetables. At any given meal you're likely to see beans (pintos or green beans), potatoes (fried, browned, mashed), corn (on the cob or cut off and cooked up in a skillet), fried squash or okra, tomatoes, cucumbers, and one of my most favorite things: lettuce and onions. 

Mmm, fresh lettuce!

Lettuce and onions, also known as wilted lettuce or killed (kilt) lettuce, is a delicious southern side dish. While each family has their own way of making it, most of us can agree that fresh leaf lettuce, onions, and bacon grease are always involved. Those of you who happen to read this blog who aren't from Appalachia may think this sounds disgusting but I'm fairly certain that you'd like it if you'd try it! 

Making this dish is super simple. First, you're going to want to gather some fresh, tender leaf lettuce. Wash, pat dry, and tear up in to smaller pieces. Next, chop up and add some onions. Spring green onions always seem to taste the best but you can add a regular ol' onion and it'll still be tasty. Now you're going to want to get some bacon grease. You can fry you up several slices of bacon, remove when crispy, chop up the bacon, and then add it and the hot grease over the lettuce and onions and toss to cover. 

Now if you sprinkle on some salt and pepper, you would be ready to enjoy your lettuce and onions the way I grew up eating them. When I got married and ate this dish at my husband's Granny Stalcup's house, I noticed that it had a little bit of a sweet taste to it. She told me that she added a splash of vinegar and sprinkling of sugar to it. It was delicious! My mother in-law happened to add a splash of pickle juice (basically the same thing) to hers and it is delicious too. 

You don't have to add fresh grease if you happen to save your bacon grease. Again, some of you folks that aren't from these parts may find this odd. Trust me when I tell you that this is a long standing tradition in Appalachia. Many meals were stretched by warming up a little of that precious pork grease, adding some flour and milk, and pouring this delicious gravy over some biscuits or even meat and potatoes. Most people pour their clean grease (try to remove any bits of meat) in a Mason jar or grease can. If you happen to save your grease, just warm some up and pour over your greens. 

This grease can belonged to Granny Stalcup. 

After she passed, my husband and I chose this, 

a glass cookie jar that was never empty, and 

a coffee cup that Papaw Stalcup always used as 

little tokens to remember them by. 

This is what The Encyclopedia of Appalachia had to say about wilted lettuce: "Although its origin is obscure, wilted lettuce, also called killed lettuce, has long been a popular and valued food in the region. Because a variety of greens thrive for months in Appalachia, the simple recipe can be used for much of the year. As a stand alone dish, wilted lettuce can be served in lieu of a salad before a meal. As a side dish, it is commonly served with pinto beans. Wilted lettuce is not distinctly Appalachian or American; greens were cultivated and eaten in this manner in Europe for many years prior to the arrival of the colonists in the New World. The dish has also been found in some Native American diets."

Do y'all enjoy lettuce and onions? Does your family have a different recipe? 

A Sweet Lesson In Life

Today's guest post is by Jequeta Mullins Briskey. Jequeta was the youngest of 11 children and she grew up in Clintwood, Virginia. She didn't start writing until after she was married and most of her short stories and poems are centered around growing up in southwestern Virginia. She currently lives in northwestern Ohio with her husband, John, and they have 3 children, 8 grandchildren, and 5 great-grandchildren.  

A Sweet Lesson In Life

It started back in the early 50s when I was in the fourth grade. My dad decided that he would go into the strawberry business. He thought that it would be profitable and would bring in some much needed money for our family. Not only did he have the space and the know-how to plant the seedlings and bring them to life, but he also had the extra hands to help him with the task. Those extra hands would belong to me and my siblings.

He picked out a prime spot on our little mountain side farm and prepared if for planting, naturally with our help. I don't recall actually helping to do any of the prep work with the soil, the planting, weeding, and care of those tender plants but somehow they survived. The first year is never great for strawberries but the second year found us working hard at picking the nice red ripe fruit every other day. 

Most of those strawberries were for our personal use and we really enjoyed them. After working all morning in the blazing sun on our hands and knees, picking the fruit from those verdant green plants, one would think the last thing on our minds would be eating that fruit. But, knowing that Mom was in the kitchen baking an old fashioned strawberry pie for lunch would make our mouths water. These pies were not like the pies of today with their glaze and piled high with whipped topping. Her pies were made with sweetened cooked strawberries thickened with a flour mixture and poured into a handmade baked shell. They contained no topping and we never asked for a topping because in those days, we didn't know that anything of that sort existed. We accepted what we had and were thankful for it. 

By the third year, Dad's strawberries were producing in abundance. We started letting other people know that we had an excess amount of strawberries and that we would be willing to sell some of them. So, off we went to the fields early in the morning to pick the fruit. We had attained gallon buckets over the past two years in anticipation of this day. These buckets were most likely gallon lard cans or anything of that sort. Each of us would carry a bucket along and we would take what my Dad called a "swath" which was our individual portion in which we were to remove all the ripe fruit, leaving the green ones to ripen for another day. And we were cautioned not to step on the plants as this would likely damage them from producing again. 

Dad had told us that we would get paid for helping him with this task. We were allowed to pick one green berry for each gallon bucket we filled and he warned us that he knew our capacity for picking and he would know if we cheated. In one day, if we picked well and fast, we could make a dollar for picking ten gallons of berries, That was a lot of money for us in those days. We felt rich! We didn't think about how long it took for use to make that much money but just having the money was joy beyond compare. 

When we had filled one of the buckets we could pour them into a larger container to be carried down the hill to where our home was. This would eliminate several trips up and down the hill. Eventually, my brother rigged up a pulley system from the house to the top of the hill so we could hang a bucket of berries onto the pulley and lower them down to the house by way of a handle. This sure saved a lot of steps and time for us. 

Word got around our community that we had strawberries for sale and people started placing orders with us. Whether it was only one gallon or a huge order of twenty to thirty gallons, we could always fill those orders. Dad would fill the gallon buckets heaping full until the berries were falling off the sides. Then he would transfer the berries over to the containers our customers had brought with them, all the while he would make sure the customer helped him count the gallons so as not to short them on their order. And when it was time for them to pay up, the price was always $1.00 a gallon. In all the years we kept that business going, he never changed the price. Word got around that Dad was very generous and fair and that made more business come our way. Eventually we got to the point of selling thousands of gallons of berries each season.

Mom would never want the first berries in the spring. These were the ones that were bright red and huge. Just looking at them would make your mouth water. Most people would ask for those but not mom. She would always wait until the end of the season when the berries were smaller and a deeper red. Then she would ask for her share of the crop. These late berries had a sweeter taste. Sure, it took longer to clean and process them but it was well worth the effort. The jams and jellies she made from this fruit was the best and it was always a great treat to pull a box of sweetened berries from the freezer on a snowy winter day and taste summer sunshine. I think back on this now when I go out to buy strawberries for myself, might I say at a ridiculous price, and I try to choose the smalls berries in the bunch because I know they will taste the best. 

This business for us lasted about twenty years. By the time I graduated high school, there were no more children left at home to help Dad and his age had slowed him down. Eventually, he let the strawberry patch go but even after our crops had gone and we no longer kept it producing, we would get phone calls asking if we still had strawberries for sale. I guess Dad had a good idea after all. That business kept our family going for many years all for the price of a few plants, some fertilizer, and several strapping young kids capable of picking their share of red summer sunshine. Oh, the memories it brings for all of us. Thank you, Dad, for teaching us another lesson in life.

I hope y'all enjoyed Jequeta's short story as much as I did. She couldn't have sent it to me at a more perfect time because I've had strawberries on my mind for the past month! I agree with Jequeta...they do taste like summer. If you missed my post last week and would like to make some jam with all of the strawberries that seems to be poppin' up, you can find my post and recipe for Strawberry Rhubarb Jam here. Does strawberries taste like summer to you too? 

Family Heirlooms: Granny's Biscuit Cutter

Granny has been on my mind a lot lately. Most of you that read this blog via Facebook know that she passed away on April 25th. I feel like there just wasn't enough time for me to ask all the questions that I had about her life. Out of all of us, I believe I'm the one who was always probing for stories about what life was like when she was growing up and everything should could tell me about the rest of the family. 

When I was little, I always watched her flit around the kitchen as she prepared meals for us. When she'd make biscuits she'd use this little metal cutout that had a wooden handle. I thought that it was fascinating that she had a special tool just for cutting out biscuits because I remember my mom using just whatever she could find & it was usually the opening of a cup.

I don't know what prompted me to ask Granny where she got it but she told me that it had belonged to her mother-in-law, my great-granny Fannie. I always thought that was a funny name. She passed when I was around four or so and I remember being confused when she wasn't around. My Dad told me that they took her up to heaven. In my four year old mind, I pictured them packing her up in our big yellow Chevy Malibu and them driving up like Danny and Sandy did at the end of Grease! Ha! 

I asked Granny if I could have it some day. My Uncle Doug (my dad's youngest brother who is more like a brother than an uncle) overheard the conversation and told me that HE was getting it. Now, why in the world would a feller who never made biscuits want with an old biscuit cutter? From that point on, me & Uncle Doug would go back and forth over who was going to end up with Granny's biscuit cutter and Granny would just laugh and wink at me. 

Last week when the family was reading over Granny's will and wishes for her funeral, they came to a section written out for me. She left me a few things but the best part said, "I want Kim to have my biscuit cutter (ha ha, Doug)." She always had a great sense of humor! 

The Saturday following my discharge from the hospital, my stomach was still kind of queasy but I got to craving biscuits close to lunchtime. I got out Granny's biscuit cutter and got a little emotional using it. It has been used by three generations of Appalachian women (although I'm the fourth generation to own it) to make biscuits for their families. No amount of money could persuade me to give it up. 

I decided to send a message to my Uncle Doug to let him know that I was enjoying it. Here it is: 

Granny would've gotten a kick out of this!

The biscuits were good but the memories are better. I will think of her every single time I use it. My priceless family heirloom. 

Places To See & Things To Do: The International Biscuit Festival

Hey, y'all! It's so good to be home! Thanks so much for all of your kind words and prayers. I'm still trying to get my feet back under me but being home makes things MUCH better.

Now that spring seems to be here (ignore the cold and windy weather that just doesn't seem to want to leave WNC) there are festivals popping up all over the place! And I want to go to ALL of them. I was very disappointed that I didn't get to go to the cornbread festival last weekend but I found one that helped ease the disappointment: The International Biscuit Festival! Doesn't that sound like heaven?! I can't think of Appalachian food without thinking about biscuits.

A whole festival dedicated to celebrating those hot, flaky, buttery layers of southern goodness...heaven! This will be our first year attending and I'm counting down the days. You may be wondering what this festival is all about. Lucky for you, I've been speaking with Ms. Lindsey Collins, the event director. Lindsey says, "This is the Biscuit Festival's 8th year, and it has helped grow Knoxville's downtown community into what it is today." 

There is a section of the festival known as Biscuit Boulevard. "Several of the region's finest restaurants and bakers bring their Signature Biscuits for you to sample." Glory! According to their website, Biscuit Boulevard will be open starting from 9am Saturday, May 20th, 2017. The Boulevard runs along Market Street, just south of Market Square in downtown Knoxville. You can buy a Biscuit Boulevard ticket for just $15 and try FIVE different Signature Biscuit creations! Vote by placing the perforated tab of your ticket in your favorite Biscuit vendor's Mason Jar at their booth and help to select the People's Choice winner. Boulevard participants will also be offering a selection of other goodies for you to purchase directly. 

There will be some long lines so prepare to arrive early! Lines continue to grow throughout the day and the festival ends at 2PM. We're planning on getting there when the doors open!

Believe it or not, the Biscuit Festival isn't just about eating biscuits. Besides Biscuit Boulevard, there is:

• The Miss or Mister Biscuit Pageant 
• Biscuit Baking Contest
• The Biscuit Songwriting Contest
• The Biscuit Bazaar

If you'd like to find more information about any of these events and/or order tickets, you can check out their website: The International Biscuit Festival.

The festival was kind enough to team up with me to sponsor an Appalachian Mountain Roots giveaway! Tomorrow, May 5th, look for a giveaway post and follow the directions in the post to be entered. The prize includes 2 Biscuit Festival tickets and a handmade wooden biscuit cutter made by my very talented woodworking husband! 

$70 Value

We'll be wearing our "app-uh-latch-un" t-shirts so if you're at the festival and happen to see us standing in line, come up and say hi! I'll be writing a post all about it when we get back. I mean, who doesn't like a good biscuit?! 

Be sure to check back tomorrow and find the giveaway post so you can be entered to win the prize pack! 

Reckon Heaven Will Have Tomato Sandwiches?

My local produce stand opened this week! I was so excited. They posted a picture over on Facebook and they had some of the prettiest tomatoes which upped my excitement. I immediately started craving a tomato sandwich. If there had to be a perfect Appalachian sandwich, it would be the tomato sandwich. Anywhere for that matter! Since it's too early to have any homegrown tomatoes and since I refuse to make a sandwich out of what our local grocery stores try to pass off as tomatoes (they have no taste!), the produce stand is the next best place to get them. 

Now I firmly believe you need to have three essential items (not counting salt and pepper) to make the perfect mater sandwich. 

1. Real tomatoes. If they're not homegrown, get them from a local produce stand or farmer's market. 
2. Mayonnaise. I'm going to be honest, I was never a fan of the stuff until about 2 years ago. I mean I would eat it if it was on a sandwich or burger that I had ordered but I never added it to my homemade sandwiches. That was until I finally decided to see what the fuss about Duke's mayo was all about. GLORY! It was life changing. I can't make a sandwich without it now. Mayo is a very touchy subject in the south. I won't tell you what kind to buy but I will highly recommend Duke's. It was life changing!
3. FRESH white bread, also known as light bread in these parts. I understand that society is shoving the "white bread is the worst and has no good nutritional value" stuff down our throats but I don't care. If you're going to make a good tomato sandwich, it has to be with white bread. And it needs to be FRESH. I'm talking "stick to the roof of your mouth without even having anything on it" fresh. You know what I'm talking about! My favorite brands are Kern's, Sunbeam, and Bunny bread (in no particular order). I had just bought a loaf of Sunbeam so that's what I used. 

I like to spread mayo on both slices of bread, add some fairly thick slices of tomato, salt, and a lot of fresh ground black pepper. 

See that thumbprint I left in the bread? FRESH. 

Ah, glory, is there anything better?! Well, maybe a tomato biscuit. I wrote about them this past fall when I was enjoying the last of my parent's tomatoes. You can read about that HERE if you missed it. I'm sure my brother, the Mater Hater, will have plenty to say on this matter but I've never paid much attention to what he has to say anyway. ;)

As I was enjoying my sandwich, I started wondering if heaven will have tomato sandwiches. Heaven will be a perfect paradise and I can't imagine paradise without them. 

Do you like tomato sandwiches? How do you make yours? If you happen to be a local follower I highly recommend Peachtree Produce. Stop by and check them out! 

As Appalachian As Cobbler

I had a craving for something sweet this evening which is nothing new. It happens WAY too often. I was mentally going through what was in my pantry and I realized that I had everything I needed to throw a peach cobbler together: peaches that I had canned this past summer, flour, sugar, butter, and milk. Simple enough, right?

Those simple ingredients are something that most people have on hand at any given time and they are something that the early Appalachian settlers would've had too. Many of their old recipes were transformed because the ingredients needed were hard to come by. They "cobbled" together what they had, usually using canned, dried, or fresh fruits. 

Now I'm not saying that cobbler is strictly an "Appalachian " dessert but I think it's safe to say that you'd have a hard time attending an Appalachian get-together (reunion, dinner on the grounds, homecoming, etc) that didn't have a cobbler or two. It has become an accepted part of our food DNA. 

My peaches from this past summer.  

My granny and mom always used a super simple recipe that seems to be very popular online - One Cup Cobbler. It's called this because you need: 

• 1 cup of fruit (not drained - I used home canned peaches that I preserved with honey instead of sugar but you can use a can of store bought peaches too)
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup self-rising flour (or 1 cup plain + 1 tsp baking powder)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 stick of butter

That's it! Of course you can modify it a little here and there which happens to be what I did. This was what went through my mind after I gathered all of my ingredients...

Wow, one cup of sugar seems like a lot. Those peaches are already sweet so I'm going to half it. That'll make it a little healthier. I think I'll also add another can of peaches but I'll drain the second one. More fruit is healthier, right? Right! Maybe I should cut out some of the butter...who am I kidding? The butter stays! This sure is going to make a big cobbler. But there will be leftovers for a day or two! Right, you know good and well that you're going to end up eating peach cobbler for breakfast tomorrow morning. But it's okay because it has less sugar and more fruit! 

This is my struggle every time I make dessert, y'all. Every. Time. Enough of that. Let me tell you how I throw all of this together. First, preheat your oven to 350*. Unwrap your butter, put it in a 9x13" baking dish, and let that butter begin melting while you mix up everything else. Mix your milk and sugar together and then mix in your flour a little at a time to avoid it clumping up. I also add a little cinnamon but that's totally optional. Once your butter has melted, remove your dish from the oven and pour your batter into it. If you're using one can of peaches, just pour the whole thing over the top. If you decide to be healthy *ahem* and add more fruit, drain your second can. Do not stir. Bake for 45 min to 1 hour. 

Hot from the oven! 

Most southerners enjoy a big scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream on top, but I'm trying to be healthy. ;) Strawberry rhubarb is my favorite kind of cobbler but I didn't have either on hand and went with the peaches. What's your favorite kind of cobbler? 

New Year's Day Traditions & Superstitions

Happy New Year, y'all! Can you believe how fast this past year has went by? I've heard it said that the older you get, the quicker it goes and I believe it! I have been digging around trying to find some New Year's traditions and superstitions to share with you and only a couple of them were familiar to me with the most familiar being the tradition of eating black eyed peas, greens, and pork for the first meal of the new year.

I have practiced this tradition for as long as I can remember. My Granny Janice ALWAYS made this for our New Year's supper but would add coleslaw (I wouldn't eat greens when I was younger), stewed taters, & cornbread. Come to find out, there is  a story behind this southern tradition. 

During the Civil War, the Northern army would come in and take anything they could carry and eat anything they could eat. This included livestock and any grains they could use to feed them...but they couldn't take it all. After the smoke cleared, the remaining southerners weren't sure how they were going to avoid starvation. Luckily for them, Sherman's troops had left silos filled with black eyed peas. At that time, the North only used black eyed peas as feed for livestock. The Northern troops saw it as the thing of least value and since they had taken all of the livestock, what use would it be to the southerners? They didn't realize they were leaving the very thing that would keep the southerners from starving. From New Year's Day 1866 until now, the tradition of eating black eyed peas for luck continues. 

We always ate greens because they were said to represent wealth for the new year. The more greens you ate, the more green you'd have in your wallet. I'm still not sure there's any truth behind this but at this point, I'm not willing to chance it! Pork is said to represent looking and moving forward to the year ahead because pigs can't turn their head from side to side. This is the only one of the trio that I never knew! 

Now that you know all about that tradition, here are a few New Year's Appalachian superstitions:

• Immigrants from Wales believed that spreading ashes over the hearth on New Year's Eve could predict events for the upcoming year. If footprints left in the ashes headed towards the front door, someone would die. If the footprints went into a bedroom, there would be a new family member in the home. The shape of a coffin in the ashes predicted death and the shape of a ring foretold a marriage. 
• If a girl would like to know who she will marry, she can throw a ball of yarn out of her bedroom window at midnight on New Year's Eve, and say, "As I wind he comes" over and over as she begins winding the yarn back into a ball. If she is to marry, her future husband will hand the yarn back through the window to her. If no one appears, she will not marry.
• It is bad luck to hang up a new calendar before the first day of the new year.
• If there is no food in the pantry on New Year's Day, it is destined to remain empty the whole year.
• Well water is said to turn to wine at midnight on New Year's Eve.
• If a man enters your home first on New Year's Day, it is a sign that you'll have good luck all year. If it's a woman, the opposite is true.

I hope you have enjoyed these traditions and superstitions and I would love to hear any that you know. Please share them in the comment section down below and I hope each of you have a blessed New Year! 

A Couple Of Recipes For All Those Thanksgiving Leftovers

Is there anything more wonderful than leftovers? Probably, but they're still ranked high on my list of favorite things. And if there was a ranking of favorite leftovers, Thanksgiving leftovers would be in the number one slot! As much as I love them, I do find myself wondering how I can put a twist on whatever I have to work with. Make do with what you've got! If that ain't Appalachian, I don't know what is.

With Thanksgiving being my favorite holiday and in preparation of a fridge full of leftovers, I have decided to share one tried and true recipe and one I plan on making as soon as I get my hands on some of that turkey: Turkey Corn Chowder and Turkey-Cranberry Monte Cristo Sandwiches.

Lets start with the Turkey Corn Chowder. It is AMAZING. I ran across this recipe here a few years ago and make it several times a year. What could be more perfect than having a recipe that uses leftover turkey, mashed potatoes, AND corn?! The original recipe calls for 2 cans of corn but we always have corn that we've put up from our garden. Use whatever you have! 

Turkey Corn Chowder

• 2 slices of cooked bacon, chopped 
• 1 onion peeled and chopped
• 1 quart milk 
• 4 cups cooked mashed potatoes
• 3 cups cooked turkey, cut into chunks
• 2 cans corn (again, I use about a 1 1/2 cups of our corn)
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro (optional) 
• salt & pepper to taste

1. Using a 4-5 qt pan, cook your bacon over medium heat until it's crunchy. Remove when done & keep your grease in your pan.
2. Add your chopped onion and cook until it is translucent.
3.  Stir in milk, mashed potatoes, turkey, corn, cilantro, salt & pepper. Bring to a simmer, stirring often.
4. Cook for about 10 minutes or until heated through.
5. Serve immediately & garnish with bacon.

Now for the recipe that I'm looking forward to trying as soon as possible. I found this recipe here a couple of months ago and have been chomping at the bit to try it. I'll give an update on how they turn out soon. **Update (11-25-16): Sweet mother of Abraham Lincoln, these things are GOOD. Possibly the best sandwich that I've ever had. You can easily half the recipe. Give them a try!

Leftover Turkey-Cranberry Monte Cristo Sandwiches

(Makes 8-10 sandwiches)

• 1 loaf very soft French bread, sliced thick
• 1 1/2 cups cranberry sauce
• 12 oz thinly sliced Muenster cheese (you can sub with any cheese)
• thinly sliced leftover turkey
• 3 large eggs
• 2 cups whole milk
• 4-6 tbsps butter
• powdered sugar

1. Spread each slice of bread with cranberry sauce. 
2. Layer your turkey between 2 slices of cheese or 1 slice cut in half on the cranberry sauce and top with another slice of bread, cranberry side in.
3. In a shallow pie plate, add eggs and milk and beat with a fork until well combined. Soak each side of your sandwich in the egg mixture...you want the bread saturated but not soggy.
4. Over medium heat, melt a couple tbsps of butter in a nonstick skillet. Cook a couple of sandwiches at a time until the bottoms are golden brown, 3-4 minutes. Flip sandwiches and do the same for that side.
5. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Please come back and leave me a comment if you decide to give one or both of these recipes a try. I always like to read the comments of more than just whoever is sharing the recipe and I'm sure that future readers would too. I hope y'all like them! :)

Phrases Of Appalachia: Eating High On The Hog

The phrase "high on the hog" originally came from the fact that the wealthy ate the the best cuts of meat from a pig - ham, chops, and loin. The not so well to do folks ate the lesser cuts - side pork, spare ribs, and just about every other part of the pig. 

This phrase has come to not just refer to pork but to eat well in a general sense. Example: Leroy cooked enough prime rib to feed an army. We sure did eat high on the hog!  

It is also used as a way of saying that someone is doing well in life or living beyond their means. Example: Jimmy sure seems to be living high on the hog since winning the lottery. What does an old country boy need a private jet for anyway?

I've heard it used both ways in my part of Appalachia. I've even heard a few people use "low on the hog" to mean that someone isn't doing so well in life. 

This picture was taken during a 1980 something Thanksgiving. I'm not sure who's idea it was to take our picture with the remains of the turkey instead of the whole thing but you can tell that all of us must have eaten high on the hog that day. You don't mess around with a thing like picture taking when it comes time to eat! 

Me & the Mater Hater. :)

Since Thanksgiving is fast approaching, I'd like to know what some of your favorite Thanksgiving foods, traditions, and memories are. Do you spend the day eating high on the hog? Let me know in the comments & I might just choose a few to share in a Thanksgiving post next week! 

Have You Ever Eaten Leather Britches?

Last week, I was in need of some comfort food. Whew, what a week it was! My husband was in Costa Rica for work and since it was just my son and I to cook for, we started the week off with simple suppers of a sandwich, soup, or takeout. That lasted until about Wednesday and I was ready for some REAL food. I decided on a menu of chicken 'n dumplins, sourwood honey glazed carrots, and leather britches. 

Some of you may be wondering, "What in the world are leather britches?!" No, I didn't cut up and cook a pair of leather pants. Leather britches are what people in my part of Appalachia (western NC) call dried green beans. As you can see from the picture below, dried green beans are wrinkled and brown...much like what a pair of wet leather pants end up looking like once they've dried. These dried beans are also called shuck/shucky beans and fodder beans in different parts of Appalachia.

 Long before canning jars and freezer bags, people needed a way of preserving food for the winter and most vegetables and fruits were dried. Beans were a main staple to be "put up" because they provided a great source of protein throughout the winter months. 

According to the Encyclopedia of Appalachia, "Two drying methods were commonly used. For both, the bean was harvested when mature but while the pod was still edible. The first method involved stringing whole, unbroken pods, like stringing popcorn for Christmas garlands. Using a big darning needle, the processor carefully inserted strong thread between the two middle beans in a pod. When the string of whole beans was three to four feet long, the thread was knotted and the string of beans hung to dry, traditionally in such places as the porch, from roof rafters, or on a wall behind a wood burning kitchen stove. The beans slowly dried, turned straw colored, and shriveled. After drying, they were stored in cloth sacks or, more recently, in glass jars or freezers."

I use the first method to prepare my beans and hang them up in a warm upstairs room. Once dried, I remove them from the strings and store them in glass Mason jars.

"The second method was to snap the pods into bite-size pieces, then spread them on white cloths and place them in a sunny place to dry. Many women chose to break their beans before drying because it was nearly impossible to pull the threads out of beans dried by the stringing method." My husband's Granny Bertha used this method but would spread the broke beans out on a cookie sheet and place it in the back window of her car until they were dried. 

I always remove the strings from the beans before I thread them up into the "garland." I use kite string but any good strong thread will do. I found that it took around 4 weeks for my beans to be completely dried but the time will differ based on the temperature and humidity of where you choose to dry them. 

When I'm ready to prepare the beans, I soak them in a bowl of water over night...just as you would any dried bean. 

The next morning, you'll notice that the beans have swelled back up to normal or close to normal size. Drain the water and add the beans to a pot. Cover the beans with fresh water and add a piece of fatback or bacon. Bring the beans to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until the beans are tender. 

The finished product! My husband kept rubbing in the fact that he was getting to enjoy some fresh, Costa Rican pineapple. I sent him this picture and told him that he could have his ol' pineapple because I was planning to eat "high on the hog" that night! ;)

I've had some people tell me that you can cook these beans in a slow cooker all day and I plan on trying that method out very soon. I'll let you know how they turn out!

I canned most of my green beans this year (white half runners and greasy backs). Even though canning has replaced the need for drying beans, I feel connected to my past when I string up, dry, and then cook a pot of leather britches. The intense meaty flavor and good memories they bring will probably encourage me to continue working up and cooking them for many more years. 

Isn't it amazing how a bite or smell of certain foods can transport you back to a different place and time? My great grandma Collett (Mamaw) always had leather britches for holiday meals. After my first bite, I was taken back to sitting in Mamaw's kitchen while she buzzed around making sure that everything was ready to be enjoyed by her family. Food seems to provide an express ticket to Memory Lane for me.

Have you ever had leather britches? Is there a certain food or foods that take you back to a different place and time? Please leave a comment and let me know. I'd love to hear from you!