Living in North Carolina Mountains Getaway blog
Billy Graham is a famous evangelist preacher who’s home is in Montreat near Asheville. His wife, Ruth, passed away not too long ago. Anyway, Saturday night, the news said Billy Graham was admitted to Mission Hospital in Asheville for internal bleeding.
I road with my son over to the UNCA campus today. He is a senior now. The college starts classes today. Parking is a real mess. I attended classes several years ago, working towards a degree in history. Traffic wasn’t that bad then. However, now they have construction going on which if I am not mistaken has taken some of the parking away while they work on whatever it is they are working on. Anyway, we drove around campus a couple of times before we were able to find a parking spot. UNCA is a good college to attend. Unlike many other universities, most classes are limited to about 25 students. So, you get more individual attention from both your advisor and your professors.
when i first came to Asheville, everyone I knew had a garden. In their garden, most everyone planted yellow squash. Its easy to grow. The problem with growing yellow squash is that it produces way to much. So much, you cant give it away. You can freeze it, but the quality isn’t good after its frozen. The best way to cook it is the old fashion way, slice it, roll it in cornmeal and fry it in bacon grease. My mother, always cooked squash the healthy way, she’d boil it with onions. It doesn’t have much flavor that way. I prefer it country style.
When I first came to Asheville, some 30 years ago, I didn’t know how to cook that well. My ex-mother-in-law, taught me to cook country style. I still cook that way most of the time. Yesterday, I fixed some green beans with potatoes seasoned with bacon grease. My son, who is on a health kick, told me not to put the bacon in the beans cause it wasn’t healthy. I told him its not healthy, if no one will eat them. Truth is, green beans dont taste very good without the bacon grease. Country cooking starts with a seasoned cast iron pan. I like cooking in a cast iron pan. I just dont like cleaning them. You know, you aren’t suppose to wash them. It takes the seasoning out. You boil water in them. Scrape them out and wipe them. That just doen’t sound like its clean to me, so I always ruin the pan and wash it anyway. Even though, I know how to season a cast iron pan, I have never been able to get it right. So, I dont own one now. The best seasoned cast iron pan, is one that has been passed on to you by someone else.