The pandemic, protests and counter-protests, and all the political chatter are very important as regards to this country’s future, no doubt. But distractions are also important, so let’s not be so one-dimensional that we are unable to escape from all that kind of stuff and just enjoy late summer and fall and all it has to offer in these wonderful mountains.
Like tomato pie.
The August-September issue of Smoky Mountain Living featured a cover shot of a tomato pie and a recipe from Bryson City’s Ann and Jim Casada. Since the issue came out, we’ve heard from many subscribers that the image and the accompanying story and recipe were great reads during a time when most of us have been swamped with serious, sometimes sad, news.
Casada’s grandfather is quoted in the story with a simple dictum to all gardeners and to all who just enjoy fresh veggies: “I can’t imagine making a garden or passing a summer without plenty of maters.”
Indeed.
I’ve never been much help when it comes to cooking. My mom was fantastic with traditional Southern recipes and that’s what I was raised on. I say recipes, but she never used instructions written out from books or on index cards. She just got out her spices and the ingredients and went to work.
While single, I thrived for years on canned beans and tuna, cheap deli meat sandwiches, and Campbell soups. Once married, my wife, Lori, for the most part did not want me in the kitchen except to help with menial tasks like opening cans, chopping veggies, or cleaning up after one of her 30-minute gourmet meals that our children and I were lucky enough to have almost every night.
Now it’s just the two of us. A week ago I got ready to leave work knowing we had about a dozen fresh tomatoes from a friend’s garden sitting in the kitchen. I had been working on this issue of Smoky Mountain Living and the most recent edition—with the tomato pie staring back at me on the cover—sat on my desk. I ripped out Ann and Jim’s recipe, hit the grocery store, walked in the house and got to work in our kitchen. Before I could ruin the Phyllo dough or make a mess of the ingredients, Lori arrived home—surprised at my efforts—and helped me finish things up. In the oven it went.
I shocked myself, really, because it was fantastic. We ate the entire pie that night, sharing laughs about my newfound culinary expertise. Right. It’s actually Ann, Jim and Lori who walked me through this effort. Without the input from all of them, there’s no telling what might have happened that night in our little kitchen.
As we work on this issue of Smoky Mountain Living, Ann and Jim are back with apple recipes suitable for fall. There’s also a great story about DuPont State Park near Brevard, N.C., and its plentiful waterfalls, a new take on the old Sasquatch story that seems to resonate with people of all generations, and a discussion with a man who has turned his gaze toward the heavens and become a devoted stargazer in retirement.
So turn off the TV or power off the electronic device. Visit your garden or a farmers market and share a new dish with a friend or loved one, splash around at the base of a secluded, cool waterfall, or go find a dark overlook atop some mountain and turn your gaze heavenward. The magic in these mountains is there for the taking.
—Scott McLeod