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While reading "VICTUALS: An Appalachian Journey, with Recipes", I was humming, tapping my feet, grinning, and "itchin' to get to the kitchen". Author Ronni Lundy and photographer Johnny Autry have wonderfully captured the essence and timelessness of the Appalachian region of America and the amazing spirit of its people. I was born and raised in the beautiful mountains of Virginia, where I still reside. This is the land of my mother and her family. My father and his family were from the hills of East Tennessee. I laughingly and proudly call myself a "Mountain-Billy". I have many friends from the proud state of Kentucky, and I long ago became enchanted by the marvelous mountain state of West Virginia. "VICTUALS" (the term is also plainly called "vittles") offers an inside look at an area of our country which is frequently stereotyped. It's a way of life where great poverty often exists alongside great pride. Appalachia is a country within a country where a violin became a fiddle, and the music and dance of Scottish-Irish heritage became known as "Blue Grass". It's where you fix up a "mess of kress", make apple butter outdoors in a big copper kettle over a wood fire, and you cook a pot of beans or a pan of greens with a ham hock or a hunk of fatback or side meat. Perfectly delicious and golden-crusted cornbread bakes in a well-seasoned and blackened old cast iron skillet. You wait, impatiently, for hand-cranked vanilla ice cream served with fresh seasonal fruit. Recipes include: "Karl Worley's Roasted Chicken & Dumplings"; "Mama's Mashed Potatoes"; "Killed Lettuce"; "Country Ham, Ramps, and Taters"; "Old-Style Vanilla Ice Cream"; "Real Cornbread"; "Buttermilk Brown Sugar Pie"; "Mountain Green Beans & Taters"; "Pork & Kraut in Cider Gravy with Noodles"; "Old-School Tomato Gravy"; and many more equally memorable recipes. Born in Corbin, Kentucky, RONNI LUNDY has long chronicled the people of the hills.

Book Copy Gratis Clarkson Potter Publishers via Blogging for Books