Appalachian Thanksgiving Recipes and Stories of the Season

S10:E43. 11/11/2023

Appalachian Thanksgiving Recipes and Stories of the Season

Appalachian Thanksgiving recipes include sweet potato casserole and stuffing. Our feature interview is Mary Lynn Snyder originally from Harlan Kentucky. Mary Lynn remembers her mother Ruby's recipes and traditional ways of cooking.

Dee Dee Constantine, retired food writer for the Knoxville News Sentinel has a segment on tips on how to prepare venison roast and venison steak, and she shares a recipe for venison meatloaf.

Fred Sauceman’s Potluck Radio series - we revisit his segment on the annual historic event of turkey herding that used to take place in Hancock County Tennessee.

And I (Amy Campbell) share a story I recorded with my late father, who was an old-fashioned East TN medical doctor. He accumulated a lot of interesting stories in his 60-plus years of practicing medicine, and this story involves a turkey egg.

Links:

Mary Dee Dee Constantine: https://www.instagram.com/Skilletsister/?hl=en

Fred Sauceman - https://www.facebook.com/fred.sauceman/

Emi Sunshine (arranged our theme song when she was 9 years old) - https://theemisunshine.com/

This image comes from https://thegraphicsfairy.com/

Cast Iron Rescue, Rehab, and Cornbread with Dr. Katie Hoffman

S10:E41. 10/28/2023

Cast Iron Rescue, Rehab, and Cornbread with Dr. Katie Hoffman Cast Iron, and Cornbread, two staples of the Appalachian table. My guest is Dr. Katie Hoffman who describes how she and her husband Brett Tiller created a business called Vintage Kitchen, Cast Iron and Collectibles, and how they rescue and rehab cast iron and resell their finds at their cast iron pop up clinics that they conduct from time to time in Tennessee and Virginia. They call these sessions they hold “Cast Iron Clinics”. They sell cast iron and ship it all over the country and will also take in your old, sad, probably rusty and pitted heirloom cast iron, and will rehab it for you so it can be brought back to it’s useful life once again. Also, Katie is also going to let us know how she makes her cornbread in a cast iron skillet.

In Fred Sauceman pot luck radio series, he his subject is “Gritty Bread”.

Vintage Kitchen Cast Iron and Collectibles online links: Website: https://www.vintagekitchencastiron.com/ Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Vintagekitchencastiron/ Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/vintagekitchencastiron/

Fred Sauceman: https://www.facebook.com/fred.sauceman Senior Writer and Associate Professor of Appalachian Studies, East Tennessee State University; News Director, WETS-FM/HD at East Tennessee State University Johnson City, Tennessee

Wine Festival, Nov 4, Memphis TN as mentioned in the show: https://www.siptn.com/mid-south

Tennessee Farm Winegrowers Alliance: https://tennesseewines.com/about/

Emi Sunshine (musically arranged, and sang our theme song when she was 9 years old!) https://theemisunshine.com/

Dr. Katie Hoffman talks about the corn, cornbread and cast iron on this episode.

A cast iron pan that has been rescued and rehabbed by Katie Hoffman and Neil Tiller. Visit their site at:  https://www.vintagekitchencastiron.com/ 

A variety of restored cast iron from Vintage Kitchen Cast Iron and Collectibles online links: Website: https://www.vintagekitchencastiron.com/ 

Fried Pies with Dale Mackey and Iva Spoon Wilde

S9:E25. 07/16/2022

Fried pies! With Dale Mackey of Dale’s Fried Pies, Iva Spoon Wilde of Walland, TN, and fried pies at the annual Lord’s Acre sale in Hilton’s West Virginia by way of Fred Sauceman. ⁣

Dales Fried Pies:http://dalesfriedpies.com/

Fred Saceman:https://www.facebook.com/fred.sauceman

Great Smoky Mountain Heretage Center: https://www.gsmheritagecenter.org/

Cornbread and Cornbread Salad with Josh Lowans

S9:E19. 05/21/2022

Cornbread, Cornbread, Cornbread, and Cornbread Salad with Josh Lowans.

We are setting the table today with cornbread. I've assembled an all-star lineup of guests today to talk about this soul-satisfying staple.

• Karen Shankles has twice won first place at the annual National Cornbread Festival cook-off. Today, she shares her recipe for Festive Good Luck Corn Bread Skillet with us.
• James Beard Award-winning food writer Ronni Lundy lets us know how she makes her skillet cornbread that goes with a pot of soup beans. And she also shares with us what she calls her tao of cornbread.
• Food preservationist with deep family ties to the East TN mountains and mountain cooking Shannon Walker lets us know how he makes his cornbread and his thoughts on cast iron cookware and old ways.
• And “Mountain Man”, Josh Lowans of Salubrious Farms, Walland, Knoxville, describes a Cornbread salad recipe that his better half Meagan makes and is his family's go-to recipe.

Links:

Karen Shankles: She co-owns an accounting firm in Knoxville. Here is her Linkedin link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-shankles-45095054

Ronni Lundy: http://www.ronnilundy.com/

Adrian Miller: https://adrianemiller.com/about/meet-adrian/

Josh Lowans: On Instagram @joshlowans

Shannon Walker: On Instagram @newchilhoweevisions

National cornbread Festival: https://nationalcornbread.com/

Emi Sunshine (sings our theme song): https://theemisunshine.com/

Recipes:

Festive Good Luck Corn Bread Skillet. Karen Shankles shared this recipe that won the grand prize at the National Corn Bread Festival in South Pittsburg, Tennessee, in 2015. Link to Karen Shankle's prize-winning Festive Good Luck Cornbread Skillet recipe: https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/festive-good-luck-cornbread-skillet

Corn Bread Salad: This recipe is one that Josh Lowans shared with Amy. His wife Meagan makes this dish often for their family, and the recipe comes from her.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pan day-old cornbread (Josh recommends using Benton's bacon lard rendered from an entire pound of Benton's bacon. Megan prefers to use Three Rivers Cornmeal)
• 2 - 3 really ripe tomatoes, diced
• 1 can of pinto beans drained, not rinsed
• Fresh corn cut off of the cob
• Shredded cheese of your choice
• Ranch dip (make your own with herbs of your choice, sour cream, and mayonnaise)

To assemble, layer in this order:

• Crumble cornbread and place in the bottom of the serving container
• Layer pinto beans on top of the cornbread
• Layer cut corn over the beans
• Layer the diced tomatoes over the corn
• Layer ranch dressing (homemade)
• Layer of bacon (use Benton's bacon if you can get it)
• Layer Cheese on the top

Tips:

• Chill for 2 hours before serving.
• Don't use pre-made ranch dressing; it is too runny. Instead, Josh Lowans recommends using ranch dip and making your own. He suggests making it thick so the cornbread won't become soggy.
• This salad looks pretty in a clear glass serving container.

Homemade Ranch Dressing - There are countless recipes for homemade ranch dressing. Ingredients are Mayonnaise, Buttermilk, Sour Cream, Black Pepper, Salt, Garlic, and Onion; options include parsley, chives, and dill.

Tennessee Apple Butter Making in Appalachia

Season 8, Episode 34. September 11, 2021.

Tennessee Apple Butter Making in Appalachia

Today, we are setting the table with a traditional food of Appalachia “Apple Butter”. Each year in the fall time of the Mountain South, you can find pockets of people who get together, and cook down bushels of apples, sugar and sometimes cinnamon into this biscuit slathering favorite. It is one of those old fashioned foods that is still a favorite on dinner tables near and far, and makes a favorite gift for the holidays. Almost as important as the final product is the sense of community and preservation of culinary traditions that these “Apple Butter makings” preserve.

Our featured guest is Derek Blankenship who is an Orthapedic Therapist at an East, Tennessee long term health and heath care facility in East Tennessee. Derrick and his family keep a family tradition of making apple butter each year at this time of the year in Fall Branch, TN. The recipe that they use dates back to 1905.

Fred Sauceman - Professor of Appalachian Studies, ETSU, Johnson City, Tennessee with a 
And also Amy shares a recipe for “Apple Butter Pork Roast” by way of “All Recipes”.

And I (Amy Campbell) also share a recipe for “Apple Butter Pork Roast”, and Fred Sauceman shares a segment of Apple Butter making in the Mountain South, and a recipe for sausage balls with apple butter.

Links:

Fred Sauceman: -https://www.facebook.com/fred.sauceman?fref=ts

Fall Branch Volunteer Fire Department: https://fallbranchvfd.org/

Apple Butter Pork Roast Recipe

Serves 6, Cook time: 3 hours, Prep time: 15 minutes

This recipe was found on the website: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/60492/apple-butter-pork-loin/

Ingredients:

• 2, 2 pound boneless pork loin roast (for a total of 4 pounds).
• Seasoning salt to taste
• 2 cups apple juice
• 1/2 cup apple butter
• 1/4 c brown sugar
• 2 Tb water1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves


Step 1: Preheat oven to 350

Step 2: Season the pork loins with seasoning salt, and place them in a 9x13 inch baking dish or small roasting pan. Pour apple juice over the pork, and cover the dish with a lid or aluminum foil.

Step 3: Bake for 1 hour in the preheated oven. While the pork is roasting, mix together the apple butter, brown sugar, water, cinnamon, and cloves. Remove pork roasts from the oven, and spread with apple butter mixture.

Step 4: Cover, and return to the oven for 2 hours, or until fork-tender.

Derrick Blankenship’s whole family is involved with the canning of the Apple Butter.

Derek Blankenship and daughter making apple butter.

Canning the Apple Butter is a family event.