Cornbread Supper

The late fall bounty from the London Ferrell Community Garden (tender fresh lettuces) and the Campsie garden (fennel, chives, mint, parsley, and toasted butternut squash seeds) led us into Thanksgiving week with proper gratitude. We also had a luscious platter of Middle Eastern goodness from Sahara. Late fall roses and double-blooming Korean lilacs formed the centerpiece. We enjoyed a cornbread casserole with Stone Cross Farm bacon and Blue Grass Parmesan , and an upside down caramel apple cornmeal cake that did not do justice to the wonderful Reed Valley Orchard apples involved. Israeli saffron couscous (veggie) cast a lovely yellow light. Spicy candied pecans inspired a left-behind love note from a young member of the group, who said, "The candied spicy pecans were so good. I would eat them every day if I had a box of them." Late arrivals were welcomed - both the people and the foods, which included a lovely pasta dish and a Black Bottom Banana pie from local favorite Miss...

Warm fall days, even with some light frosts, have not stopped the production in the Campsie garden or our great nearby big sister garden space, the London Ferrell Community Garden. With four beautiful, large, fragrant Abraham Darby roses on the table, we enjoyed the benefits of a group small enough to sit in one large oval and have deeper than usual conversations. We enjoyed these fine foods: Beets with radishes pomegranate seeds, & celery, lemon/curry dressing SPICY yellow curry with vegetables and tofu (and rice) Local tomatoes, grits eggs, sage; exotic olive oil, black pepper, salt Acorn squash (Lex), black lentils, tomatoes, goat cheese, parsley & home-grown herbs Homemade cottage cheese: pasteurized Kentucky milk, salt, nothing else Apple challah bread pudding with dulce de leche Bourbon sauce; Great Harvest Challah, Reed Valley Orchard apples, Kentucky dulce, Buffalo Trace Bourbon Reed Valley Orchard mixed apples: Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Brushy Mountain, York, ??? Ke...

Homemade, warm, delicious, especially all together: Brunswick Stew: Chicken, Lima Beans, Corn, Onions, Galic, Peppers, Flour, Broth KY Greens a la Kroger Dahl (not spicy) Pumpkin Ravioli & Sauce from Oliva Bella - Goat Cheese from Sappoo d'Italia Music (garlic) To Our Ears (corn) Vegetarian Honey Butter Cornbread, vegetarian, no gluten, contains dairy KY Black Skillet Cornbread, vegetarian tonight, not sweet, no gluten, contains dairy Dulce de Leche homemade, milk, sugar (organic) Walnut Turtle Bars (very crumbly!) Homemade CARAMEL SAUCE for Brownie Sundaes!

A beautiful meal! Here is how the providers described their dishes: Potato Soup with Sausage + Kale (contains beef, turkey, and pork) Rice Pilaf with Almonds, Peas, Raisins, Butter, Cinnamon, Cardamom White Beans with Fresh Sage and Garlic and Yukon Gold Potatoes Veg. Potato Soup w/Milk & Butter Brussels Sprout, Cherries, Balsamic Vinegar, s/p/canola oil, bacon w/o preservatives, etc. Apple Relish Kentucky Pear Pie Key Lime Pie New England Anadama Bread (cornmeal, flour, molasses) - vegetarian KY Black Skillet/Bacon Fat/Hot Water Cornbread - no flour/gluten Honey-Butter Cornbread - Vegetarian - (no flour/gluten) Homemade Butter - Local Milk, not pasteurized, not for pregnant people or those w/immune issues

Here we will mingle together photos and food descriptions tied to six excellent Cornbread Suppers, each different and each fine in its own perfect way -- just about exactly the way homemade cornbread varies happily batch by batch, and always satisfies. Late summer Cornbread Suppers featured many homegrown flourishes, none more astonishing than the biggest carrot ever seen - from a home garden just around the corner on North Martin Luther King Boulevard. The Campsie flowers keep coming, well into deep fall, and well after the first two mild frosts. Abraham Darby , our David Austin rose , blooms multiple times most years; in cool, wet 2009, one sturdy bush produced nearly continuous sweet-smelling, old-fashioned,apricot blooms from May through October. Which Suppers did the following dishes grace? No clue. All the little slips of paper from the six events have formed one super Smorga-family buffet now. Sweet potato & raisins in a cool sauce with couscous too Just About All Local Savo...

A spell of under-the-weatherness helped us fall behind in documenting each Cornbread Supper, but we are back on track with the real events, and have been for several weeks. Join us each Monday night, 6 PM, for cornbread and conviviality.

The hand that holds the dish made the crust from scratch, and improved the pie recipe, and brought the results to appreciative fans at the August 31 Cornbread Supper. About 25 people inaugurated the school season with dishes made from summer's goodness and lots of home grown and local ingredients. The little descriptive slips of paper left after the Supper included these tasty bits: Local tomato, basil, goat cheese, Italian olive oil and balsamic vinegar Zucchini, onions, basil & sage from the yard Veggie - green tomato salad Purple tomato pie Zucchini quiche Curry wheatberry salad Rice pudding with cinnamon [a cup of rice cooked in a quart of local milk for an hour, and then adorned further....yum] Cam's Appalachian Hot Skillet Cornbread "What We Had" Cornbread: (in the temporary absence of Weisenberger's White Unbolted Cornmeal): Stonecross bacon, Colonel Newsom's organic country ha, Elmwood Stock Farm eggs, Boyd Orchard corn, Homegrown hot peppers and h...