Monday, November 9, 2009

Small Town Food and Friends

Coker Creek isn’t big enough to be called a town; it’s really only a hamlet in the woods. We’re barely big enough for a public elementary school, and the students have to go “off the mountain” to Tellico Plains for high school. But if you want to feel a sense of community, Coker Creek School is fairly bursting with civic pride.

For the last few years, a major PTO fundraiser has been the November turkey dinner in the school cafeteria. Attending for the first time this year, we were served generous portions of turkey, cornbread dressing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, roll, tea, and a variety of cakes and pies -- and it only cost six dollars per person. It seems that every family in Coker Creek came to get some of this good grub to either eat there or take home. Betty ate there and bought a second dinner to share with her dog later in the evening. Her dog always gets some of whatever Betty eats.

Richard asked Greta how the PTO could make any money serving such a large meal for such a small price. Greta told him that most of the food is donated by local families. We sure enjoyed our share. I wish we knew who donated the food; I’d love to be able to thank them.

Adam and Josie ate with us, and Adam tried to swap the cake he got at the dinner for last piece of Richard’s caramel cake, which was at our house. He didn’t seem at all impressed by the fact that we were down to one piece because we had shared the cake with so many friends. We declined that deal, but we are trying to entice him and Josie to attend the upcoming Ruritan supper to try the chocolate malted cake that Richard will be presenting.

Mamie came in with her daughter Jean who, I’ve been told, was a wonderful quilter. Since Jean is beginning to divest herself of some her seventy-five years of accumulated possessions, I’m hoping to purchase some of her quilt tops to use as tablecloths. I reminded Jean of this, and she told me to stop by anytime. I'm looking forward to getting back from my trip, so I can sort through Jean’s work.

We also ran into Anita and her Italian mom, Evie, who makes the world’s best biscotti -- which we usually swap for some of our Cajun roasted pecans and bourbon balls at Christmas. Come to find out, Evie is going to celebrate her ninetieth birthday this spring. I’d better get on the stick and take her up on her offer to teach me to make biscotti. Times-a-wastin’ for me to learn all the secrets of these wonderful pioneer women.

With full stomachs, we went to Mamie’s to divest ourselves of our full trailer of Nancy’s gift of garden gold. After accomplishing this task, we harvested lots of turnip greens to add to the turnips from Deborah. And Jack wants us to come get some of his pumpkins before our trip. We may never get rich in money, but with our wealth of friends, I’m fairly certain we’ll never be hungry or homeless.