Porky Pirate Barbecue, Logan Martin’s newest eatery, is dropping anchor at Coosa Island.
Offering a bounty of smoked delights and hearty fare, the new restaurant is expected to be open in May after months of extensive renovations and improvements.
Owners Brandon and Amy MacDonald plan a soft opening around Cinco de Mayo, debuting a brand-new look, feel and dining experience at their waterfront location.
“We’re excited about this family friendly restaurant,” said Brandon. “It’s not a bar first and food secondary,” although alcohol will be served.
The menu is “scratch made and upscale” with most cooked on a fire. “We’ll smoke all our own meats out there. Our smoker holds 700 pounds of meat at time,” he said.
Chef Lee Wiggins
Inside, you’ll find a new, 54-seat dining area and full-service bar. Outside is covered deck dining, an open lawn and a rooftop patio with a spectacular view. The rooftop patio is available for private events. The lawn features a place for games, uncovered seating and even a pirate ship playset for the kids.
Their motto is “Island Vibes with a Southern Soul,” and from the sound of the plans, it’s an ideal descriptor.
They’ll have live music during the day on weekends, and the whole place is open and inviting, giving it a communal feel.
It’s not the MacDonalds’ first venture in the restaurant and hospitality business. Brandon owned seven restaurants in the Birmingham area. Amy managed one of the restaurants, and that’s how they met. They’ve been together for 16 years and have two daughters they home school. Brandon has a son who is a freshman at Mississippi State and is a counselor at Camp Cosby in the summers.
An entrepreneur by nature, Brandon said he can see a location or space and ideas start to flow, and a concept materializes. “I like designing or creating something and making it come to fruition.”
That’s the momentum behind the Porky Pirate – laid back, but exceptional food and service. Amy’s dad was a commercial fisherman, and she “grew up” on a shrimp boat. Fast forward, and they were keeping their own boat at Coosa Island.
The old restaurant space was available, and the wheels began to turn. He used his own experiences as a company director of operations traveling around the country to develop the menu.
It will have Texas style brisket like you would find in Dallas – “the same caliber.” There’s smoked pork, Carolina style, mopped during cooking with a vinegar sauce, pulled and then served with a mustard-based sauce.
Smoked wings and chicken will feature a white sauce. St. Louis ribs will be smoked with a dry rub.
Other dishes include catfish, chili lime dusted shrimp, smoked sausage and grits, reverse seared steaks, rum glazed salmon and three different smash-style burgers. A Caribbean-Southern slaw is on the menu, too. “We have unique takes on things,” he said, noting the creativity behind such dishes as fried Oreos and smoked bacon maple bread pudding or the bacon wrapped smoked honey buns and smoked bologna.
They have a full kids’ menu with healthier options than normal children’s fare, and on Mondays, they eat for free.
Island parties can be held on the rooftop, which seats 10-12 people, and it has fixed menus to choose from. Reservations are already coming in.
Weekly specials are planned, including Bingo and BOGO Tacos on Tuesdays and half price wings on Wednesdays.
And for convenience for busy lifestyles, they’ll feature a grab and go menu with dinners for four – meat and two sides, dessert and sauces – for $38. Smoked turkeys and hams will be available during the holidays.
Chef is Lee Wiggins, who was on the leadership team of Dave & Buster’s. While his specialty is desserts, he has extensive experience in catering.
The restaurant will be open seven days a week for lunch and dinner and on weekends, breakfast and brunch will be served in season beginning at 8 a.m. Plans call for being open year-round.
They’re even providing space on the patio deck for church services on Sunday. “You have to meet people where they’re at,” Brandon said, giving them a place to worship if they’re not into traditional church. He likened it to the church services held at the coast’s Flora-Bama that are growing in popularity.
“This will be more casual and less intimidating but give an opportunity for the Lord to touch your heart. We’re doing things the right way – putting the Lord first,” he said.
Amy agreed. The restaurant is a place to “break bread together – fellowship. We want this place to be a blessing to all those around us.”
Lake cabin central to generations of family, friends
Story by Scottie Vickery Photos by Mackenzie Free Submitted Photos
Anyone who knows Lyman Lovejoy – and the number is a large one since he’s never met a stranger – can testify that the real estate mogul who has called St. Clair County home for more than 50 years, has the perfect last name.
Granddaughter Niah gets an early start at the lake
Known as the “Mayor of St. Clair County,” Lovejoy loves people and radiates joy. Factor in his fondness for the water and being outdoors, and it’s no surprise that one of his favorite things is spending time with family and friends at his weekend home on Neely Henry Lake.
“If I don’t do a thing but sit right here and throw me a fishing line out there, I’d be fine,” Lovejoy said from one of three wooden swings hanging in his boathouse. “The view doesn’t get any better than this.”
There’s a lot of view to enjoy since Lovejoy’s three lots boast about 800 feet of sparkling waterfront. “Over the years, a lot of people have asked me if I would sell the place,” he said of the A-frame cottage and 3 acres surrounding it. “The answer is no. My kids and grandkids have known this all their lives. It’s not for sale.”
Another generation is learning to love lake life, as well. In addition to his two children and six grandkids, the 84-year-old Lovejoy now has two great-grandchildren.
Chances are, they’ll learn to ski much like their parents and grandparents did. Lovejoy taught them all in an untraditional manner. Before they were ready to test their new skill behind a boat, Lovejoy gave them skis and a rope, and he ran down the riverbank, pulling them along. “I did that until they were ready to get behind the pontoon,” he said with a grin.
When the family gets together, it’s a pretty big crowd, but Lovejoy said he and his special friend, Sheila Moore, love hosting them, as well as friends, church groups and anyone else who wants to join the festivities.
“There’s always room for more,” Lovejoy said. “We’ve grilled many a hamburger here, and we just love to sit and eat and talk.”
His eyes light up with the memories – the ones he and his family have created, as well as the ones he has from his childhood in Clay. “I grew up with camping, Boy Scouts, fishing,” Lovejoy said. “I’ve always enjoyed being around the water and wildlife.”
Born for it
Lovejoy’s affection for the outdoors comes naturally. Growing up, his parents, Sim and Lucille Lovejoy, were caretakers at YMCA Camp Cosby. As superintendent, his father “kept everything going” at the camp, which was originally located north of Trussville before moving to Logan Martin Lake in 1972. As a result, Lovejoy spent many a summer lifeguarding.
A-frame cabin he’s had for 40 years
After graduating from Hewitt High School, now Hewitt-Trussville, Lovejoy got a job with an office equipment company before he and his late wife, Catherine, decided to get their real estate licenses.
They bought an office in Odenville, moved to St. Clair County, and Lovejoy has been here ever since. He now lives on a farm in Ashville, about 15 or 20 minutes from his lake home. Lovejoy Realty specializes in selling land for recreation, hunting and farming, as well as residential and commercial development, home sales and new construction.
It’s hard to know what Lovejoy has enjoyed most – his career or the place where he developed it. Either way, whether he’s closing a deal or simply telling a visitor about the virtues of “a quiet life” in the southern tip of the Appalachian Mountains, Lovejoy is always selling St. Clair County and working to make it better.
“I’m probably the only one in the county that’s got every commissioner, councilman and mayor in my phone, and I work it,” he said. Lovejoy has served on the St. Clair County Economic Development Council and is a former chair and member of UAB St. Vincent’s St. Clair. A past member of the Alabama Real Estate Commission, which is a gubernatorial appointment, Lovejoy is active in his church, First Baptist of Ashville, and has held leadership positions in the St. Clair Association of Realtors.
“There’s not a better place anywhere,” he said. “Folks have been good to us here.”
Down by the water
Although Lovejoy has made many real estate transactions, one of the best ones he made was when he and his wife bought the cottage in the Shoal Valley Creek area of Neely Henry almost five decades ago.
“A couple came in and said they wanted us to sell their house on the river,” he recalled. “We’d been wanting to get a place on the water, so we said, ‘We’ve got to get that.’”
The 2-bedroom, 1-bath A-frame came with two lots, and a year or so ago, Lovejoy bought a third lot next door. “It’s real simple, but it’s all we need,” he said. “We have 30, 40, 50 people out here sometimes. I love it.”
Guests to the home walk into a cozy den that’s painted a bright white and has two sofas and several oversized chairs. There’s a basket of board games, which have gotten years of use, and a small kitchen, dining area and bathroom.
Upstairs are two small bedrooms – one with four twin beds and another with two. Navy and white striped comforters provide a nautical feel and contribute to the homey atmosphere.
“Most of the time we don’t even make it up to the house,” Lovejoy said, standing at the door of a large, free-standing screened porch that he eventually added on the property. “This is about as far as we go unless we’ve got to go to the bathroom.”
Lyman on boat with granddaughters, Tori and Bree Camp
The “cooking shed” has plenty of seating around a fire pit table, and Lovejoy built benches and ledges all around three sides of the outdoor living space. The fourth side is home to cabinets he made, as well as a sink, microwave and refrigerator. A collection of rods, reels and fishing gear is tucked away in the corner.
Lovejoy and Moore believe that the best part of entertaining is the fun and fellowship, so they make it as easy as possible. The menu is usually hamburgers and hotdogs with sides like potato salad, slaw, baked beans, chips and fruit. “There’s always plenty for everyone,” Lovejoy said. “We can seat about 50 in here,” he said. “We have a lot of fun.”
When they’re not eating, they’re playing. A shed next to the screened room holds all the toys – skis, tubes, floats, fishing poles, kayaks, a water mat and an assortment of life jackets for every age and size. “We’ve got them from infant size on up,” Lovejoy said.
Fishing is another big draw. “We’ve caught some 15- and 20-pounders,” he said. “We’ve caught carp, crappie, gar, catfish, bass, you name it.”
The dock and boathouse area is one of Lovejoy’s favorite places. He recently spent a breezy afternoon there with Moore and Herschel Morgan, a childhood friend who stopped by for a quick visit. “We’ve known each other all our lives,” Lovejoy said as Rascal, his 12-year-old mutt, jumped up to join them. “Look at us. We’re just three old dogs sitting on a swing.”
The two bantered back and forth, reminiscing, laughing and catching up on each other’s lives. When Moore got up to put something away, Lovejoy, just four weeks out from knee replacement surgery, was quick to quip, “We’d help you if we weren’t crippled.” Not to be outdone, Morgan quickly added, “We’ve got over 100,000 miles on these legs.”
For Lovejoy, it was a perfect afternoon: laughing with friends, sharing a beautiful view, and enjoying the peace and quiet. “A good portion (of the lake) is owned by Alabama Power, so it’s very sparsely built,” he said. “On a really busy day, there might be a few boats. It’s pretty quiet here.”
So what would it take to make Lovejoy leave St. Clair County and his slice of heaven on the water? “They make ’em about 6 feet long and it’s got a lid on it,” he joked. “If it’s a pine box, that’s OK, as long as it’s well-made.”
And since he doesn’t like any surprises when it comes to making a sale, he was quick to disclose an additional caveat. “And one more thing,” Lovejoy added, “I want a Cadillac hearse.”
Recipes for lake gatherings
Courtesy of Sheila Moore
Georgia Cornbread
Ingredients:
4 eggs, beaten
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups chopped pecans
1 ½ cups self-rising flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 dish. Beat eggs, oil and sugars. Stir in pecans, flour and vanilla. Bake 30 minutes and let cool in dish for 10 minutes on a rack. Serve with whipped cream or enjoy as is with a cup of coffee.
Chicken Spaghetti
Ingredients:
2 cups canned chicken
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can Rotel tomatoes (do not drain)
1 cup sour cream
8 ounces of spaghetti, cooked
Parmesan cheese
Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients, except for cheese, with the pasta. Cover casserole with foil and bake for 30-40 minutes. Add cheese to top and return to oven until cheese is melted.
Iconic cooking competition returns to Noccalula Falls
Story by Scottie Vickery Submitted Photos
The first time Tony Skiroock heard his name announced as Grand Champion of a national barbecue competition, the moment was as sweet as some of the sauces the judges undoubtedly licked from their fingers.
The fact that it happened in Gadsden at the annual Smoke on the Falls BBQ Competition, which will host its 16th contest April 11-12, made it an experience to savor even more. That’s because Skiroock’s mother, Frances Owens, grew up in Gadsden, and the grill master, who lives in Illinois, visited her hometown every summer as a child.
It’s where an aunt first introduced him to pit barbecue at the tender age of 6, and he was hooked after his first bite. Skiroock said he looked at his aunt and immediately asked her if he could move.
Lake life and barbecue is a perfect combination, and if you’re looking to see how some award-winning pitmasters do it, you won’t want to miss Smoke on the Falls, held at the Noccalula Falls Park Campground, this year.
Up to 72 teams from all over the country will compete in the backyard and professional divisions, and the event will also feature a Kidz-Q competition. On Saturday, there will be a variety of vendors offering unique goods and treats, and the Tim Roberts Band will provide live music starting at 2:30 p.m. before the 4:30 p.m. awards ceremony.
“It’s a lot of fun. We’re pretty proud of Smoke on the Falls,” said Janet Tarrance, special events director for the City of Gadsden. Known as the Barbecue Queen, Tarrance brought the competition to Gadsden and has spearheaded the event ever since.
Featured on the Food Network, the competition is sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society, the world’s largest organization of barbecue and grilling enthusiasts. KCBS, which has some 16,000 members worldwide, sanctions more than 400 barbecue competitions.
Three years ago, Smoke on the Falls added the Kidz-Q contest, allowing young chefs in two age groups (5-9 and 10-15) to show off their skills, with a little help from their parents. This year, the younger crew will cook hamburgers while the older kids will strive to grill the perfect pork tenderloin.
In the adult competition, participants in the professional division must cook four meats: ribs, chicken, brisket and butts. The backyard competitors will focus on chicken and ribs. There’s also a sides competition for interested professional and backyard teams, who can offer up their best grilled pizza and desserts.
While there’s plenty of fun to be had and lots of vendors offering mouth-watering wares, don’t go to the event expecting to eat your fill of everything on the grills and in the smokers.
“Some do give out samples, but their ultimate goal is to chase the points and win the prize,” Tarrance said.
Skiroock, whose team We Will Rock ‘Que, was named the Grand Champion at the event the past two years. He has been competing since 2016, he said, noting, “I’ve only started figuring it out.”
He started out watching BBQ Pitmasters and “tried to mimic what I saw,” before taking some classes. After tweaking ingredients, trying out different grills and smokers, and experimenting with cooking times and temperatures, “I finally started hearing my name called,” he said. “It’s a serious hobby.”
Tony Skiroock and son Daniel with the winnings
It’s so serious, in fact, that KSBS hosts full-day classes before judges, who are from all over the country, can be certified, said Tarrance. Although they’re not paid, there are other benefits to the job.
“A judge can gain 5 to 10 pounds in a single barbecue competition,” she said.
The Noccalula event has earned high marks from the KSBS, which selected Gadsden to be the host city for the KCBS World Invitational Championship, its largest competition, in 2022.
The Gadsden competition was chosen after being one of five competitions that Michael Symon, chef and restauranteur, selected to be featured on his Food Network show, BBQ USA.
The judges and competitors may take things seriously, but there’s lots of fun to be had. That’s evident in some of the team names that have competed in Smoke on the Falls. There’s Smoke Me Silly, Cool Hand Cue, Rooters-n-Tooters and Kick ‘Em in the Butt BBQ, to name a few.
In addition to Wine Me, Dine Me, Swine Me, other competitors have included the Dixie Pigs & Chicks, Bar-B-Queterie, Big Fluffy, and Swinging Pig Meat.
Skiroock said he’s enjoyed being a part of the competition world and meeting the other barbecue enthusiasts. “They call it the barbecue family,” he said. “We’re watching each other on Facebook, and we’re all happy for each other when they win.”
To a point, anyway, “It’s just like an Alabama/Auburn game,” Tarrance said. “These people come to win.”nity,” Housh said, pointing to the early vision of Woods. True to that mission, LakeFest has generated more than $500,000 for over 30 different nonprofit organizations over the past 15 years.
Recipes from Tony Skiroock
Pork Ribs
Ingredients:
Pork ribs (St. Louis trimmed or Baby Backs)
Salt, pepper, and garlic barbecue rub
All-purpose barbecue rub for pork
Light brown sugar or turbinado sugar
Honey
Unsalted butter or squeeze “butter”
Pepper sauce
Apple juice
Kansas City style barbecue sauce
Directions:
To prepare the ribs, trim off any excessive fat on the meat side of the ribs. If the membrane is still on the bone side of the ribs, remove it by slipping a butter knife under the membrane, lift it away high enough to slip your fingers under and pull the membrane off. It can also be scored with a sharp knife and left in place.
Sprinkle a basic salt, pepper and garlic rub on both sides of the ribs, then sprinkle both sides with your favorite all-purpose barbecue rub. Press the rubs into the meat, then place in the refrigerator for an hour or until the rubs look damp having absorbed some of the moisture from the meat.
Prepare your grill or smoker to run at 275-300° using indirect heat. Place the ribs, meat side up, on the grill and cook for one hour. Spritz with apple juice every 20 minutes.
After an hour, roll the ribs meat side down and cook for another hour, at which time the rub should have set into a nice “bark” that doesn’t smear with your finger.
Prepare a wrap with two layers of aluminum foil, long enough to cover the rib length plus a few inches on each end. Spread onto the foil ¼ cup of sugar, a drizzle of honey, a stick of butter cut into five planks (or a hearty drizzle of squeeze butter), a line of pepper sauce, a shake of barbecue rub and ¼ cup of apple juice. Place the ribs on the foil, meat side down, and fold the foil tightly around the slab.
Return the rib packet to the smoker.
After about an hour, the rib packet should start to feel floppy when lifted. You can open it up and check for doneness. The bone tips should be exposed by about a half inch, and a toothpick should slide easily into the meat. The slab should be floppy but not fall apart, unless you want them fall-off-the-bone tender, which might need about 90 minutes wrapped.
Gently heat the sauce in a saucepan, stirring regularly. Add a few squeezes of honey and a splash of apple juice to thin the sauce. Carefully open the rib packet and place the ribs on a cutting board. Brush the top and bottom with sauce, add a final shake of barbecue rub and return the ribs to the smoker for ten minutes to set the sauce.
BBQ Chicken
Ingredients:
Chicken thighs, bone in and skin on
Chicken wings
All-purpose barbecue rub
Unsalted butter
Kansas City style barbecue sauce
Apple juice
Honey
Directions:
To prepare the thighs, trim off any dangling skin or meat. With the wings, cut off the wing tip and, if desired, separate the flat from the drumette. Sprinkle all sides of the chicken with your favorite BBQ rub.
Prepare your grill or smoker to run at 300° using indirect heat. Place the chicken on the grate. After about an hour, the skin should be slightly browned and the meat firm.
Typically, at this point, the internal temperature of the chicken will be around 145°. Prepare enough half-size foil pans large enough to contain chicken pieces in a single layer. Place a stick of butter, cut into planks, in the bottom of each pan. Place the chicken, in a single layer, in the pan and cover tightly with aluminum foil. The butter and heat creates a steam bath that renders the fat in the skin, yielding bite-through skin.
Return to the cooker for an hour, rotating the pan after 30 minutes.
Gently heat the sauce in a saucepan, stirring regularly. Add a few squeezes of honey and a splash of apple juice to thin the sauce. After an hour, the chicken’s internal temperature should be around 200-208°, super tender and juicy. Dunk each piece in the sauce and return to the smoker for about 10 minutes to set the sauce.
Talladega is known the world over as a place where racecar drivers put the pedal to the metal.
But on March 15, hunters and anglers will put the metal – pots and pans to be exact – and meat to the flame, all part of the Alabama Wildlife Federation’s regional cook-off at the Talladega Superspeedway.
The winner advances to the state finals.
Proceeds from entry fees and ticket sales, where hungry patrons can feast on some wild game delights crafted by teams of backyard chefs, go to benefit AWF’s many wildlife education and conservation efforts.
Think grilled quail, flounder stuffed with shrimp and crab and covered with cream sauce, or a grilled venison roll. If your mouth isn’t watering now, check your pulse.
The cookoff attracts more than just chefs, there are vendors galore
The event marks the 19th AWF cook-off for Talladega. But the genesis for the competition began in 1996, according to Tim Gothard, now in his 26th year as the federation’s executive director.
“AWF was talking about the fact that sometimes hunters and hunting can be put in the wrong light,” Gothard said. “What we know is that hunters and anglers properly utilize the fish and game that they harvest. It’s not a wasteful thing … We thought the cook-off would be a great way to show that. And it makes great and healthy table fare.”
Like the first day of hunting or fishing season, the cook-off would also be a social event, bringing AWF members together and spotlighting its conservation and education efforts. And it will generate funds to support those efforts, Gothard said.
Mobile hosted the first cook-off in 1996. Now, the Talladega event is one of 14 regional cook-offs culminating in the state championship later this year.
Regional winners will compete for a $1,000 grand prize and bragging rights as AWF Wild Game Cook-off State Champion for 2025.
Like the popularity of TV cooking shows, these AWF events have exploded in popularity. For example, at that first event in Mobile, five or six teams competed and 100 to 125 folks attended. Now the competitions have become a major event on the calendar. Folks want to be there. And, in every competition town, corporate sponsors are hooked.
“Coming up, at the Talladega cook-off, we will have over 1,000 people at that cookoff and probably 30 to 35 cook teams,” Gothard said. “It has grown absolutely dramatically over the years. Probably in the last 10 years, we have doubled the amount of people that come to those events, the revenue that’s generated to support our conservation projects … It’s just been amazing.”
As for the corporate backing, they provide the largest revenue stream.
“It’s a great opportunity,” Gothard said. “If you’re a sponsor, you’re going to get a bunch of tickets that you can use to reward employees, clients, potential clients and friends to come and enjoy the same great food and the same great atmosphere and camaraderie that we see.”
AWF employees will be on hand to talk about the organization’s work and mission. But make no mistake, food – dishes featuring venison, feral hog, quail, and other varieties of game and fish – is the focus.
And this isn’t just a bunch of guys cooking on the truck tailgate, Gothard said.
“They take great pride in what they prepare,” he said. “And I will guarantee you this: There are restaurant quality dishes that you’ll find at every cookoff that we do. And when you come to that state cook-off, and the teams come to compete for the state championship, every one of those dishes are restaurant quality.”
The secret sauce in the cook-offs’ success? “The format that we do allows people to sample the food,” Gothard said. “We’re not providing them with a meal. But they have a wide selection of dishes that they can actually taste.”
While the boom in cooking shows and in turn, the growth in folks wanting to cook great food at home, have played a part in the cook-off success, there’s a dash of something else beyond great tasting food created from Alabama fish and game.
“More than anything else, we have a large membership across the state and it’s an opportunity for them to get together with likeminded people and really enjoy a night that’s really celebrating the hunting and angling outdoor pursuits that we are all involved with and we appreciate and enjoy,” Gothard said.
“ The social atmosphere, that camaraderie and that uniqueness are the things that in my mind have made the wild game cook-offs so popular and really fueled their growth over the last 10 years, in particular,” he said.
Statewide, more than 100,000 Alabama schoolchildren benefit from AWF’s efforts. And that’s a small part of the story.
Talladega Superspeedway has plenty of room for an event this size
AWF has done five oyster restoration projects in Mobile Bay. It’s been able to add scientists to the AWF staff to work on issues like restoring fish and game habitats. The wild game cook-offs provide a portion of private sector funding for what AWF calls its “on the ground and on the water projects. All told, AWF is making a $1 million investment in these projects and more.”
The Alabama Outdoor Classroom Program gives kids the opportunity to learn math, science, social studies and language arts outdoors in a wildlife habitat and against a wildlife backdrop. AWF has four outdoor education specialists crisscrossing the state to serve in schools.
Close to home, the program worked with Munford Elementary.
“They’ve accomplished a tremendous amount,” Gothard said. “And our wildlife biologists have collaborated with private landowners in that entire (Coosa) region for 20 years helping them develop plans for managing their property so they can have quality wildlife habitat and populatons.
“When you have that, the impact spills out beyond the landowners’ property. It helps ensure that we have good wildlife habitat and populations all across the state.”
It’s part of a scientific, systematic approach to game management, Gothard said. And funds from the cook-offs fuel the effort.
“(The cook-off) is a significant source of revenue to help us do conservation work in this state,” Gothard said. “It makes a big difference.”
The cookoffs reveal something about hunters and anglers, who may guard their favorite hunting and fishing spots like state secrets.
But they’ll brag about a recipe as they might a trophy buck or bass.
“They definitely enjoy sharing with other people how they prepare dishes and how good it tastes,” Gothard said. “That is something hunters and anglers love to do.”
Over the years, Gothard has sampled a slew of savory fish and game dishes. But one some 12 years ago at the Talladega cook-off hooked him.
“There was a team that won the Talladega cook-off with a bluegill fish taco,” Gothard recalled. “This was before fish tacos were a thing. I grew up, you caught bluegill, you fried them whole and picked them with a fork. It tasted great, but it was work.”
The taco chefs took a fresh approach.
“They had de-boned all the meat, cooked it up and then flaked it. That was the meat in the taco,” Gothard said. “It absolutely blew me away.”
For Gothard, every team makes an impression.
“The thing that really impresses me and captures my attention is how (teams) take (fish and game) and turn it into a dish that I hadn’t really thought about.”
The cook-off isn’t only a celebration of conservation, Alabama’s hunting and fishing heritage or culinary creativity. The competition is about pride, with teams coming from as far away as Texas.
“Those cook teams are going to take a lot of pride in telling you what their dish is, how they made that dish,” Gothard. “And you’re going to see them light up when on the spot, someone tastes it and says, ‘Man, this is awesome.’
According to its website, the Alabama Wildlife Federation is “a dynamic, citizen-based conservation organization with over 25,000 members and supporters dedicated to creating and promoting a balance between use, management and protection of Alabama’s wildlife and related natural resources through education, community involvement, and boots-on-the-ground assistance.”
The organization’s focus is in three major areas: conservation education, resource stewardship and celebrating the state’s hunting and fishing heritage. Founded in 1935, AWF is celebrating its 90th anniversary. l
Editor’s Note:For more information on the AWF and the cookoff, visit AlabamaWildlife.org.
Celebrating three years of success on Risers Mountain
Story by Roxann Edsall Photos by Mackenzie Free
The party on a hot fall day was to celebrate an anniversary. There was music, food and wine. The guests lifted glasses to toast a winery that has become an active part of their community in Alpine.
Lee and Lisa Moffett opened Novi Vineyards and Winery on the side of Risers Mountain three years ago, after spending nearly seven years in preparations. In those years, Lee says there were many lessons learned and blessings received. “We’ve learned somewhat on the fly,” said Lee. “I’ve hired various consultants to walk us through the process in the vineyard and in the making of the wine. I’ve learned a lot.”
“We started making wines for ourselves at first,” said Lisa. “Then Lee started taking classes online through the University of California Davis. He’s also gotten advice from many winemakers over the years.” The two have taken that advice to heart and built a winery with a family atmosphere and a menu of wines unlike most produced in Alabama.
One of the first lessons learned was that they didn’t need to grow muscadines. “That market is well covered in Alabama,” Lisa explains. “Most wineries in our state make sweet wines. We decided we wanted to be different. We chose to focus on growing French hybrid grapes and making dry wines.”
The French hybrid varieties they grow have been in the ground for nine years now and produce Norton, Lenoir, and Blanc duBois grapes. Since it takes roughly three pounds of grapes to produce a single bottle of wine, they work approximately 1,500 vines, which produced about 4,000 pounds of grapes this year.
Volunteers and family members did the harvesting in late August. “It was a good time, a little hot, but a good time,” Lisa recounts. “I love how supportive our community is. They heard it was harvesting time, and 25 people came to help.”
Pete and Michelle Bond are from Chelsea and say Novi is their favorite place to hang out. “It’s the best winery owned by the best people,” says Michelle. “I recently went through chemo, and throughout the process of losing my hair, Lisa still recognized me, even with different wigs.” Pete echoes the sentiment, saying the Moffetts take the time to get to know the names of their guests.
Brett Metcalf grew up in southern California but recently lived in Spain for four years. He moved to Hoover in 2022 and recently found out about Novi Vineyards and Winery through a friend. His travels have exposed him to many wine tasting opportunities, and he gives high praise to this local business.
Hoover resident Brett Metcalf (top left) enjoys wine and charcuterie with friends
“This is my second time here. Lee and Lisa are special,” he says. “They treated me like family even the first time I visited. And they have a great wine flight!”
A health crisis caused the Moffetts to reassess their family life and work situations. After making the decision to recenter their focus on health and family, they bought land and began the process of planting the 10 acres as a vineyard and developing plans for the winery. Lee had been sick for close to 15 years, fighting recurrent renal cell cancer.
“That’s actually how we got our name. Novi is the Latin prefix meaning new. Our family was weary,” Lisa recounts. “This place, and our family coming together to work it, gave us a new breath. It was therapy.”
Lee adds, “I’ve always enjoyed the land and being out in the woods. I have fond memories of my grandparents’ farm. I’ve since learned that it is hard work.” Lee is an engineer by trade and manages to find time for that work in addition to his tasks at the vineyard. Lisa is retired from a career in teaching.
The Moffetts have three children, all grown and married. When things get busy, it’s all hands on deck at the vineyard. Lee says July and August (before the grapes are harvested) are the slowest months, but the rest of the year there’s always something to do.
“We’ve just harvested and have the grapes fermenting in the vats,” explains son-in-law Ben Meadows. “Now is the busy season when it’s nice weather to hang out and visit the winery.”
Winter, he says, is filled with shipping gift and holiday party orders. Early spring involves pruning and preparing the plants and ground for new growth. Early summer involves managing the water intake, pest control and watching for mold and fungal issues. Summer is spent trimming the plants and mowing the property. Late summer brings the harvest back around and the cycle begins anew.
Much of the vinification is still manual. They do have a machine to de-stem the grapes and one to crush the grapes. They also have a bottle filler, which handles five bottles at a time. The corking, foiling, labeling and boxing is done one bottle at a time. Their output this year will be about 450 cases, and that, they hope, will help to push the business into the black this year.
Novi is also hosting dinners in the vineyard this fall and early winter. Local chefs cater the events and wine packages are offered to customers at their tables set up among the vines. “We discovered in the spring that people responded really well to dinners in the vineyard,” said Lisa. “We have several scheduled for November. If the weather is good in December, we may add more.”
They also have a unique event that is designed specifically for book lovers. It’s called “Pages and Pairings,” and is led by Nicole Conrad, an English Literature teacher. Conrad picks books to suggest to book club participants or avid readers and compares story elements and the character and nuances of the different Novi wines, ultimately pairing those books with specific wines made at the winery.
“A glass of Blanc du Bois, for instance, might pair perfectly with a light summer romance,” she explains. “We’ve done these three times already, and they’ve been very popular.”
Lee describes each of their wines as having its own unique characteristics. The Blanc du Bois, he describes as a very citrusy, fruity wine, comparable to a Sauvignon Blanc, but with a sweeter nose.
“The Norton is our driest on the palate,” he says. “It gives you an earthy, woodsy, smokey, fruity nose with hints of bourbon and leaf tobacco.” He describes the Lenoir, the third variety made exclusively with their grapes, as having a smokey, blackberry aroma. They also offer a red blend and a Cabernet Sauvignon.
Their wines are in two stores in the Birmingham area – Classic Wine Company in Homewood and Hop City in Birmingham. Thanks to a law passed in the State of Alabama three years ago which allows shipping of wine in the state, you can order from Novi online at www.novivineyards.com. Of course, you can also buy it in person at Novi Vineyards and Winery.
“There is a certain flavor profile that’s brought about by the minerals here in the soil that give it a characteristic flavor that you’re only going to find here,” Lisa says. “Terroir is a term that describes the influence of the terrain, the soil, climate and other factors where the fruit is grown.”
You can come check out the different wines at Novi every Friday and Saturday from noon until 5:00 p.m. They have a wine tasting room to help you decide your favorite or just get a flight and try them all. They also offer charcuterie boards to enjoy with a bottle of wine on the terrace overlooking the vineyards. Novi Vineyards and Winery is also available for weddings and other private events.
Come relax with friends and make new ones as you unwind in this relaxing homegrown, yet sophisticated winery. Lee and Lisa Moffett are building community and relationships one sip at a time. And they’re crushing it.
Among the VINES
Pottery, dinner & Wine under the stars
Story by Roxann Edsall Submitted photos
One of the most unusual events to happen near the lake community is happening this week in Alpine. It’s billed as three courses under the stars, but with a twist. Guests at the Nov. 9 event will be making a piece of pottery before enjoying a gourmet meal in the vineyards at Novi Vineyards and Winery.
Josh Miller, senior food editor for Southern Living magazine, is also a recipe developer and food stylist. He is serving as head chef for this special event, his first in collaboration with Novi Vineyards. He has done at least 20 similar events at the pottery studio and garden shop he runs with his partner, Lauren Scott.
“A friend and former intern at Southern Living, Nicole Conrad, was telling us about a book pairing event she did here with Lisa Moffett,” said Miller.
“She showed us pictures and we thought it was beautiful and were very interested in doing something with them.” Miller and Scott met with Moffett and connected immediately. The three talked through the idea and developed a plan.
The evening will start with a glass of wine and fellowship on the winery’s terrace. After everyone has arrived and had a few minutes to unwind, participants will move to the side patio for the pottery class and making the harvest bowl project.
Miller calls the project a “hand building” project, because it takes no special tools. “We have people who tell us they’re not creative, but we design these projects to be good for all levels,” says Miller.
“It’s a very forgiving project. If you make a mistake, we can help you smooth it out and fix it.”
The pottery students will simply mold a rolled-out sheet of clay with their hands to form a bowl, invert it onto a bowl shape, imprint the clay with a variety of items (lace, shells, herbs, leaves) and leave it to dry.
Miller and Scott will transport all the bowl projects to dry at WildGoose Garden & Pottery, their Trussville studio, after which they will paint and glaze them. Class participants will schedule a time and place to meet to pick up their finished pieces.
As participants finish their projects and set them aside to begin drying, Miller will lead them to the vineyard, where twinkling lights form a canopy above elegantly set tables.
The first course, a Roasted Shallot and Grape Focaccia and an Autumn Harvest Salad, will be served family style.
While guests enjoy the first course, Miller and his crew will slice and plate the main course – a Stuffed Pork Loin with Aged Sherry Gastrique Over Gouda Grits.
Dark Chocolate Pots de Crème with Crème Fraiche Whipped Cream and a Port Wine Reduction will finish off the meal.
Novi Vineyard and Winery’s Lisa Moffett will be handling the wine service for the dinner. Guests will be able to purchase wine by the bottle or wine packages to go along with dinner. Miller will suggest wine pairings with each course.
Giving a nod to the venue, Miller has included several grape components in the menu.
If you are late in finding out about the event, don’t worry. Miller and Scott plan to repeat this event later in the fall or in the spring.
Miller has graciously shared a recipe for Roasted Root Vegetables and Kale Salad, a dish similar to the harvest salad he will be serving at this event. He has also allowed us to reprint his Caramelized Stuffed Onions recipe.
Roasted Root Vegetables and Kale Salad
Photo by Shell Royster
Roasted Root Vegetables & Kale Salad
Serves 6 to 8
This vibrant fall salad can be made with any variety of hearty fall vegetables you like. Here we’ve chosen acorn squash, beets, sweet potatoes and shallots; butternut or delicata squash would also be welcome additions.
3 shallots, halved
2 red beets, peeled and quartered
2 golden beets, peeled and quartered
2 small sweet potatoes, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 acorn squash, halved, seeded and cut into ½-inch-thick slices
1 head garlic, top sliced to expose cloves
¾ cup olive oil, divided
2½ teaspoons kosher salt, divided, plus additional, to taste
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper, divided
¼ cup apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons maple syrup
8 cups torn kale
Chopped pecans, for garnish (optional)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper. Place shallots, beets, sweet potatoes, squash and garlic on pan; drizzle evenly with ¼ cup oil; sprinkle with 2 teaspoons salt and paprika and 1 teaspoon pepper. Toss to coat. Bake until vegetables are tender, 25 to 35 minutes.
Let vegetables cool slightly. Squeeze roasted garlic cloves into a small bowl; mash with a fork.
Stir in remaining ½ teaspoon each salt and pepper, vinegar and maple syrup until combined. Drizzle in remaining ½ cup olive oil, whisking constantly until smooth. Season with additional salt, if desired.
Place kale and half of vegetables in a large serving bowl; drizzle with half of dressing; gently toss to coat.
Top with remaining vegetables; drizzle with desired amount of remaining dressing.
Garnish with pecans, if desired.
Caramelized Stuffed Onions
Photo by Shell Royster
Caramelized Stuffed Onions
Makes 6 servings
Humble onions take center-stage in this fast-fix side dish. Stir the filling together a day ahead to make this recipe come together in a snap.
3 medium-sized red onions, peeled and halved
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
½ cup gorgonzola
½ cup panko
¼ cup softened unsalted butter
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, plus additional, for garnish
Honey, to serve
Preheat oven to 375°. Drizzle half of olive oil on a rimmed baking sheet, rubbing to coat. Using a small spoon, pry out 2 or 3 of the innermost layers from each onion to create a small well in the cut side of each onion.
If needed, trim opposite side of onions so they sit flat on baking sheet. Place onions on baking sheet, cut side up. Drizzle with remaining olive oil; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Turn onions cut side down, and place in oven. Bake 25 minutes until slightly tender. Turn onions cut side up; drizzle cut sides with vinegar.
Meanwhile, stir together gorgonzola, panko, butter and thyme. Remove onions from oven; spoon about 1 heaping tablespoon into each onion half. Return to oven, and bake until topping is golden brown, about 15 minutes. Drizzle with honey, and sprinkle with thyme, if desired. l
Recipes and images reprinted courtesy of Edible Charleston
When Erin and Brian Mooney opened Tre Luna Catering and later Tre Luna Bar & Kitchen, their motto became “bringing our table to yours.” That’s exactly what they plan to do when they cater the Evening at Harman Castle event on Nov. 8.
Tre Luna will be making this event an affair to remember as they cater a progressive, three-course dinner crafted by Mooney, “while enjoying complimentary valet service and immersive live music on every floor,” the invitation says. The dinner features an open bar with wine and signature cocktails and an opportunity to explore the castle’s exclusive amenities. RSVP required.
The Mooneys opened Tre Luna Catering in 2014 and as their customer and fan base grew, they opened Tre Luna Bar & Kitchen in Hoover in 2019. The focus is on providing simple, fresh, and house-made food for all of their customers, whether at the restaurant or at weddings, parties, fundraisers and other events.
Brian, the executive chef, was born in New York but got his start in the hospitality industry while working the grill in the summers at his father’s poolside bar in Boca Raton, Florida. His father sold the bar to two Italian brothers, and Brian’s passion for food and Italian cooking grew under their tutelage.
Erin, who has a passion for serving others, comes by it naturally. Born in Selma, she was raised in Birmingham and grew up in the food and beverage industry. Her mom’s side of the family owned an Italian restaurant while her father’s side had a butcher shop and grocery store.
The two met when Brian was working at a restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, and they moved to Birmingham so he could work for Frank Stitt at Bottega. That’s when he fell in love with Southern cooking and food.
When we asked the Mooneys to share one of their favorite recipes, one “simple and delicious” dish that they enjoy at home as well as serving to others immediately came to mind.
“We picked the Baked Oysters because they represent how much Brian and I love to entertain and share food,” Erin said, adding that the dish was inspired by her love of oysters and Brian’s love for Italian-inspired cooking and fresh seafood.
“When we entertain at our home, baked oysters are always a staple,” she said.
“We also order them with friends at the restaurant.”
Baked Oysters
Ingredients
¼ cup pancetta
1 cup blanched, squeezed spinach, chopped
2 Tbsp. finely chopped shallots
½ cup parmesan
1 pint heavy cream
¼ tsp. kosher salt
¼ tsp. pepper
6 fresh oyster
¼ cup bread crumbs, toasted
3 Tbsp. butter
1 lemon
Directions:
Place pancetta in a small skillet and cook over medium heat until browned and crisp, 7 to 8 minutes. Transfer pancetta and drippings to a medium mixing bowl.
In a small pot, simmer the heavy cream and reduce until the cream starts to thicken, about 5-8 min on medium high heat.
Stir in spinach, shallots, and parmesan into the cream and season with salt and pepper. Set aside and let cool.
Use an oyster knife to shuck the oysters, sliding the knife under connective muscle to loosen the oyster from the shell. Top oysters with pancetta-spinach mixture, Cook in oven on broil on the lowest rack until golden brown and bubbling, about 5 minutes. Serve immediately. Use lemon garnish and to finish.
Serving up compassion and confidence one plate at a time
Story by Roxann Edsall Photos by Richard Rybka
Tucked away inside the Gadsden City Library is a beautifully written story. It’s a tale of inspiration and impact, of dedication and determination, of encouragement and expectations.
And the authors of this unfolding story are a bunch of high school students who simply want to be productive citizens in their community.
Quesadilla ready to go
It’s still two hours before lunchtime, and a group of six students and their mentors quietly work in the kitchen prepping food and garnishes for the lunchtime crowd at Beautiful Rainbow Café in Gadsden. During the next hours, a handful of additional students hurry in, stashing backpacks and washing up to join in the preparations.
These are the stars of the Beautiful Rainbow project, a work-based learning program through Gadsden City Schools.
Offering an array of organic and vegetarian dishes, the café is staffed and run by students with significant cognitive disabilities. Menu favorites include the vegetarian crabcake on mixed greens, the grilled pimento cheese sandwich and the corn and poblano pepper quesadilla. All the ingredients are locally grown and sourced.
Inspired by his vision of a productive future for his students, Chip Rowan started the Beautiful Rainbow project out of his high school special education classroom housed at Litchfield Middle School. Combining his personal interests in food and gardening, Rowan guided his students in planting and nurturing a garden and used the experiences to teach his students graphing, reading, math and language skills.
Rowan had studied post-graduate employment levels for high school students who were graduates of the school’s Special Education program. He found that no graduate in the five-year study period had achieved employment or entry into a program that would lead to employment.
“I felt we were not getting good results in the program we were using, so I felt we needed to radically change our approach,” said Rowan. “We needed to teach them the things that the state required for graduation but needed to add things that would maximize their potential for independent living and community-based employment.”
The students learned to measure the plants in their garden, to graph specific variables like growth rates and to journal about them. “Several students who had been non-readers began to read functionally,” Rowan added. They used the vegetables they grew to start making and selling salads to teachers. The students later branched out into baking, offering sweet treats people could order online.
Talking to the customers
Encouraged by their success and armed with a grant from the Alabama Department of Education, Rowan developed a summer program for high school students with special needs, the only one of its kind in the area. They renovated space at the middle school to provide a commercial kitchen where high school students were taught culinary techniques. From that experience, they started offering lunches for community VIPs each Thursday.
Former Gadsden City Librarian Amanda Jackson was one of their VIP guests one Thursday, and she suggested the library clean out a space for the students to open a café. That was approved by the city, and in 2017, Beautiful Rainbow Café opened its doors.
In that time, the program and café have received countless awards, including one this past year from Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, who chose the café as the best work-based learning program in the state.
The awards are fine, Rowan says, but the real success lies in the successes he sees in his students. “We have 112 successes to be proud of,” says Rowan. “That’s how many students have been involved in the program so far. They can take the class for a semester, or they can stay in the program until we get them a job.”
Twenty one-year-old Candido Lucas, whose family is from Guatemala, has just graduated from the program and is now happy to be working at Publix. He says he learned a lot while studying and working at Beautiful Rainbow Café. “I like working with customers and cooking and greeting customers,” says Candido.
He loves to make the café’s grilled pimento cheese sandwiches. Nathan Melville lives just two blocks from the café and loves to eat them. Melville gives the food five stars and is equally impressed with how the business focuses on meeting the needs of the students. “I think it’s the way more businesses should be,” he adds. “Profit is important, but we need to be better to people.”
The program strives to meet the employment needs for each student who is graduating. “We try to match the student’s interests and abilities with employers who need those skills,” says Rowan. “We definitely court employers. The community is so important to this endeavor. They’re the potential employers who may be able to offer jobs to our students.”
To date, more than 50 students from the program have been paired with local employers. Two students have gone on to attend Auburn University and the University of Alabama.
Jamari Jelks, another of this year’s graduates, was extremely quiet and withdrawn when he started the program. “I didn’t know how to do anything then,” he says, then smiles. “Now I run the kitchen, and I can do anything.” He is about to start a job at Back Forty Beer Company.
Rowan says that giving these students work to do with expectations of quality and consistency meets an important human need – the need to be productive and to be independent. “They’re often segregated, and very little is expected of them. In this program, they have a whole new perspective and experience, which promotes a higher self-esteem,” he explains. “And we treat our students as adults, with respect.”
The students are paid minimum wage or above, depending on whether they have earned their ServSafe certification, with those salaries being administered by one of the program’s partners, the Community Foundation of Northeast Alabama. Additional financial support comes from the Daniel Foundation in Birmingham and from an anonymous donor.
The Beautiful Rainbow Café grosses about $70,000 per year in sales and boasts excellent reviews on Google and Happy Cow (a site for vegetarian and vegan restaurants). The café staff work to provide an upscale experience for patrons. Complementing the tasty offerings are beautiful fresh flowers or plants provided by the Etowah Garden Club. Members of the club bring flowers for the tables every Tuesday morning, even adding decorations for special occasions.
The success of Beautiful Rainbow program has inspired other organizations to work toward similar programs for their students. “Our program is pretty well known in the world of special education,” says Rowan. “The Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind is working on replicating the program there, as is Randolph County High School. Albertville High School has a similar program on a smaller scale. Today a group is here from Vestavia Hills to see if they could produce a similar program for their schools,” Rowan adds.
Katherine Gorham and Dr. Ammie Akin are part of that visiting Vestavia group. Akin is a former special education teacher and school principal and serves on the board of Unless U, a non-profit that supports adults with developmental disabilities.
Gorham is helping to start a special education parent advisory panel for their school system. “We would want to promote this type of program for Vestavia for vocational training,” she says. “We brought our administrators here because we wanted to show them an example of meaningful vocational training.”
Rowan is retiring from the program this year and moving to Spain. His interest in that country was piqued by his high school Spanish teacher. When his best friend from high school moved there, he began visiting and fell in love with the culture. He leaves the program in the hands of program veteran, Chef Chris Wood.
“There’s nothing like this anywhere else,” says Wood. “It’s both challenging and rewarding, and you just can’t put a price tag on the impact we make on the lives of our students.” Wood graduated from Culinard school in Birmingham with a degree in culinary arts but will be going back to school to add a degree in special education as he takes over leadership of the café late this summer.
The next chapter of this incredible story of determination and dedication is now being written, inspiring students and community alike. You can find them in the back of the library on South College Street in Gadsden. l
Editor’s Note:You can experience the cuisine at Beautiful Rainbow Café Tuesdays through Fridays 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
There’s nothing quite like a warm summer day by the water, and as far as Terry and Cheri Grabany are concerned, the warmer the better. In fact, 900 degrees is just about perfect – for making dinner in their lakeside pizza oven, that is.
Terry built the wood-fired oven by the water’s edge of their Logan Martin Lake home about seven years ago, and since then, feeding family and friends has been as easy as (pizza) pie.
“Pizzas are just so quick and easy to do,” Terry said. “I buy all the stuff, and everyone makes their own,” Cheri added. They’ve tried just about every topping combination over the years, and whether it’s brisket and veggies, Canadian bacon and pineapple, or just lots of cheese (their grandchildren’s favorite), every version has offered a slice or two of heaven.
“There’s nothing better,” Cheri said. So, what exactly makes it so good? In addition to enjoying the mouthwatering meal, “you get to be out here and see all of this,” Terry said, gesturing at the sunlight bouncing off the water and the trees and flowers dotting the shoreline. “It’s just beautiful.”
Fresh from the oven
Everything about their move to the lake in 2015 has been beautiful, in fact. Although they bought the lot and the single-wide mobile home that was on it at the time as a weekend retreat, it wasn’t long before the lure of full-time lake life became too strong to ignore. They made the move in 2021 before building their 3-bedroom, 2 bath cottage in 2022.
Since then, the lazy days of summer – and fall, winter and spring – have meant lots of time with family and friends. The focus is on food and fun, which is where Terry’s construction expertise has come in handy.
He’s worked in equipment maintenance for the City of Hoover for the past 24 years, and his building skills have served him well when it comes to the mechanics of making food for a crowd. He’s built everything from a 20-foot barbecue trailer used for Hoover’s Pig Iron BBQ Challenge and SEC baseball tournaments to a 12-foot oven used to make giant apple pies for the city’s annual Celebrate Hoover Day.
That’s why, when the Grabanys’ daughters asked Terry if he could make a pizza oven, his reply was a simple, “I guess.” He did his homework first, researching fireproof bricks and mortar and the best way to build the outdoor oven. “Most of the time when the girls ask, I make it happen,” he said.
The pizza oven gives Cheri and Terry one more option when entertaining. In addition to the kitchen, where Cheri handles the meal prep and sides, Terry built a barbecue trailer of his own. They’ve got two smokers, a grill big enough to cook 50 hamburgers at a time, and a boiler they use to make Cajun dishes.
“We feed people here,” Cheri said with a laugh. “It’s an all-day thing,” Terry added. “Whatever anyone wants, we’ll cook it. We’ll have barbecue for lunch and then fire up the pizza oven and put barbecue on pizzas that night.” S’mores, which they have discovered are even more ooey and gooey when cooked in the pizza oven, are the perfect end to lots of perfect lake days.
Meant to be
Owning a home on the water was always part of their future plans, but about 10 years ago, Terry decided he didn’t want to wait. Although the couple lived in Hayden, he started looking at properties on Logan Martin, where Cheri’s brother’s family and other friends and relatives live and where their daughter and son-in-law, Lindsey and William Weller, have since bought a home.
“It was always a retirement dream,” Terry said of buying a lake home. “I was raised on the Warrior River, and I always wanted to come back to the water.”
In 2015, Terry spotted a house near Stemley Bridge on Craigslist, but when he called about it, the owners said they already had an offer. The Grabanys asked to see it anyway, and they fell in love with the view. “I sat down in the swing (that is still on their pier) and looked out over the water and said, ‘I can do this,’” Cheri remembers.
The folks who had made an offer on the home missed the deadline, so the owners asked Terry and Cheri if they wanted it. “We wrote it up on a legal pad and a handshake,” he said.
“We just knew it was going to work out,” Cheri said. The house number was the same as their home in Hayden, where they’d raised Lindsey and her sister, Cory. And the cost of the house was just 97 cents more than the amount they had available from financing and the savings they planned to use.
In addition, when Cory told a friend from work about the house her parents bought, the friend realized that it used to be her family’s home. “We just knew God had his hand all over this,” Cheri said.
The Lord also provided a peaceful place for her to heal. Less than six months after buying their lakeside retreat, Cheri was diagnosed with colon cancer. A month later, she had a melanoma removed, and the next year doctors discovered she had a brain tumor.
Despite the three diagnoses, Cheri is cancer-free today and is grateful for all she survived. “Terry always says, ‘I wish it had been me,’ but I tell him I’m glad it wasn’t,’” she said. “He’s not a talker, and he wouldn’t go up and tell people everything that God did like I do.”
Details matter
The lake provided the perfect balm during the healing process and became a refuge during the COVID pandemic. In 2021, after Cheri retired from her bookkeeping job at Hayden Elementary School, they began thinking about moving to the lake full-time.
The decision got a lot easier to make in March of that year when “someone came and knocked on the door of our house in Hayden and asked if we were interested in selling,” Cheri said. “God had his hand in that, too.”
Terry’s prowess as sketch artist seen in Saban portrait
Not long after moving into the mobile home, “we had some pretty bad weather,” she said. “We had trees cracking all around us and I told him if I was going to stay here, I was going to need a house.”
Once they decided on a floorplan and some of the finishing touches, Terry, a pencil portrait artist, drew up the very detailed house plans. “I’ve drawn all my life,” he said, estimating that the portraits, which almost look like black and white photographs, take about 30 to 40 hours to complete. “I’ve just never had a designated space to draw.”
He does now, after recently finishing the attic space that includes a drawing nook by the window. The room, which has a ping pong table, television set and plenty of toys, gets lots of use when Cory and her husband, Caleb Townsend, and their children, Cora Jane and Case, head to the lake from their Gardendale home. “We’re trying to get them to move to the lake, too,” Cheri said.
Although Terry has created portraits of celebrities including Nick Saban, Lucille Ball and Adele, his favorite is the one he drew of Case. While Cheri loves that one, as well, she’ll always have a soft spot in her heart for the drawing of two puppies in a basket. “He gave that to me when we were dating. Actually, we had broken up, and he used that to woo me back,” she said with a laugh.
Special touches
While Cheri and Terry’s house is newly built, it’s filled with family memories and personal touches. Terry made the metal and wooden entry table that holds family photos and a 200-year-old vase that was Cheri great-great-grandmother’s.
A clock her great-grandmother received as a wedding present in 1906 has a prominent place in the guest room, and the images of two little girls that Cheri’s mother cross-stitched for Lindsey and Cory hang over twin beds in another.
Terry made the mantles for the fireplaces in the great room and on the screened porch, which both have an amazing view of the water. And the pizza oven and fireplace were made from stone that was at their Hayden home.
Although they both commute to work – Cheri now works at B&A Warehouse in Birmingham – they agree that making their retirement dream come true a little earlier than planned has been well worth it.
“I love being at the lake,” Terry said. “When you get home from work, it’s just so relaxing. It’s an instant calm when you walk out and see the water.”
Homemade Pizza
Ingredients
Pizza crust or dough
Pizza sauce
Cheese
Favorite toppings, including pepperoni, barbecue, Canadian bacon, mushrooms, bell pepper, onions, ham, pineapple, brisket, etc.
Directions: After a lot of trial and error, and in keeping with their laid-back lake lifestyle, the Grabanys have learned to keep things simple and use pre-made pizza crust and sauce. They provide a variety of toppings and let guests go crazy while creating their own pies. The pizzas bake about 10 minutes, and Terry uses a paddle to lift the pizza to the top of the oven at the end to ensure the cheese is melted well.
Barbecue Ribs
Barbecue Rub Ingredients:
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup paprika
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon cocoa
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Barbecue Sauce Ingredients:
1/3 cup honey
¼ cup barbecue sauce
¼ cup apple juice
½ cup apple cider vinegar
Ribs:
French’s yellow mustard
Parkay Squeeze
Apple juice
Brown sugar
Directions: Rub ribs on both sides with mustard and barbecue rub. Smoke for 3 hours on open smoke. (Terry uses peach wood, apple wood or pecan wood.) Put ribs in foil, add Parkay squeeze, sprinkle with brown sugar, and add a little honey and apple juice. Wrap ribs and smoke two more hours. Remove foil and smoke ribs an additional hour. Brush on barbecue sauce and enjoy!
The perfect place to make a home on Neely Henry Lake
Story by Scottie Vickery Photos by Mackenzie Free
Connections are a vital part of Tracci Cordell’s life. She treasures the links to her past as much as she loves introducing friends and co-workers to each other, enlarging her tribe as a result. That’s why her new home on Neely Henry Lake has become the perfect refuge, a place that anchors her to her roots and allows her to strengthen bonds with those she loves.
“I wanted to have a place where everyone could just come and hang out,” she said of the home she built last year on property her parents owned for decades in the Riddles Bend area of the lake. “I don’t have a lot of family here now, but my friends have become family. Every good memory I have growing up happened right here, and now I’m making more.”
Friends Rainbow City Mayor Joe Taylor (center) and Southside Mayor Dana Snyder get in on the kitchen action with Cordell
Connection has become even more important to Cordell in recent years. In a 13-month period from January 2019 to February 2020, she lost her husband, Ron; her sister, Terri Maddock; her mother, Gail Maddock; and Scott Reed, a cousin who was like a brother.
“You have two choices when something like that happens,” she said. “You don’t go on, or you can just choose to live. Before he died, my husband said, ‘I want you to be happy and let your light shine.’”
That’s why, when Cordell moved into her new home last June, one of the first things she displayed on the entry table by the front door were wooden blocks that read “Choose Joy Today.” A painting of her childhood home in Gadsden, a gift from her sister Tammi, is surrounded by pictures of her loved ones.
These days, Cordell finds joy gazing out her windows at the sunlight dancing off the water or gathering a crowd around the firepit. One of her favorite things, though, is hosting the yearly “sauce-a-thon” when she and a group of friends help make 100 quarts of her mom’s Italian Spaghetti Sauce, just like Cordell used to do with her mother and two sisters.
The recipe, in her mother’s handwriting, is so special to Cordell that she had it made into wallpaper for her kitchen pantry. “She’d been making it all her life, but after she started getting older and had had a stroke, I knew we needed to pay attention,” Cordell said. “After she died, friends started coming to help and then more friends came. It’s just a big fun time.”
Dana Snyder, the mayor of Southside, is one of Cordell’s longtime friends who has rolled her sleeves up for the big event. Their friendship, however, has yielded much more than just delicious Italian sauce. Cordell introduced Snyder to another friend, Joe Taylor, who is the mayor of Rainbow City.
“The first time I met Dana was when Tracci bummed money from me for her campaign,” Taylor said with a laugh. All three worked for the City of Gadsden at the time, and as their friendship has grown through the years, so has their commitment to the lake that is such a vital part of their lives and communities.
The vast majority – about 79 percent – of Neely Henry’s 339 miles of shoreline is within the city limits of Southside and Rainbow City. As a result, Snyder said that she and Taylor have become professional partners of sorts in addition to being friends.
“When we were both elected, we said we were going to work together,” Snyder said. “Early on, we said we were going to be partners.” Taylor agreed, adding that “everything we do is to help each city. This lake is critical to the life of this region. It has to be one of the paramount issues when it comes to planning.”
Establishing roots
When Cordell built her home on Neely Henry, one of t was the fulfillment of a dream her parents had more than 45 years ago. Richard and Gail Maddock bought the lot in 1978 and it became the family’s favorite escape. The property wasn’t cleared and there were trees and brush all the way down to the river, but that didn’t stop Cordell and her sisters.
“My mom would cut a place out so she could put her chair and we would play in the water,” she said. “We came here every weekend and had birthday parties here. Eventually my parents built a T-shaped dock for Tammi, Terri, and Tracci.”
Their father, Richard, died of colon cancer at 59, and after their mother and sister passed away, Cordell and Tammi began the process of cleaning out and making hard decisions. Tammi lives in Virginia and Cordell had a house in Southside at the time, but they couldn’t bear the thought of selling the lake lot.
“We were cleaning out and found some house plans that Dad had made,” Cordell recalled. “We looked at each other and Tammi said, ‘We can’t get rid of it.’”
They soon found another sign. “I was a spoiled Daddy’s girl, and he always told me he bought this lot for my birthday,” Cordell said. She didn’t really believe it until they found paperwork showing the purchase was made on February 28, 1978, Cordell’s 7th birthday.
Once the decision was made, Cordell sold her house and stayed with some family friends during the building process. After moving in, she filled her home with specials memories from the past that she wanted to carry into her future. She refurbished her great-grandmother’s kitchen table and hung a picture of a maple tree in its full fall splendor nearby. “That was my dad’s favorite tree in Gadsden,” she said.
Just off the kitchen is a hallway to the laundry room, which features a collection of dozens of black and white photos of her family members and friends. Her husband is there, as is her daughter, Kelsi, a flight attendant who lives with Cordell when she’s not working. There are pictures of her parents, her sisters, her uncle Ronnie Reed, and other family members, as well as a host of friends and her boyfriend, Barry Ragsdale.
“These are my people,” she said. “They are my tribe. They’re family, and they’re friends who have come family.”
Cordell also cherishes the painting of her father that hangs in her bedroom. “He was over purchasing at Gulf State Steel for a long time and he was a suit and tie guy at work,” she said. “He was a wannabe farmer, though, so he would come home and put on his overalls and John Deere cap and head outside to his tractor.”
The three girls gave him the painting, which was created by Elaine Campbell, a family friend and artist, for Father’s Day one year. “It cost $600 and we each paid $200,” said Cordell, adding that it felt like a fortune since she was in high school at the time. Today, though, she considers the painting and the memories it evokes to be priceless treasures.
Large island gives plenty of room to help cook or dine
She feels the same way about the wallpaper in her pantry. After finding the index card with the handwritten recipe for Italian Spaghetti sauce that her mother got from a neighbor in 1979, Cordell had cutting boards featuring the recipe made for family members. After scouring Etsy, an online site featuring handmade and vintage items, she decided to have the recipe made into wallpaper.
“I thought about just doing one wall with the wallpaper but then I decided that if I could do a wall, why couldn’t I do a whole room,” Cordell said with a laugh. “It makes me smile every time I come in here.”
Chances are, the fact that Cordell continues to make the sauce makes her mother smile, as well. “I have such wonderful memories of making this sauce with my mom and my sisters,” she said. “There are no Italians in my family. Why my mother started making this sauce, I have no idea. But I think she would love that we’re still making it.”
Sauce-making day has steadily evolved over the years. “We used to make it outside, but it’s too hot,” Cordell said. “It’s usually the opening day of dove season. The men are in the woods and we’re in the kitchen, but we make them core the tomatoes before they leave.”
Cordell only uses tomatoes from Chandler Mountain, and she gets 10 half-bushel boxes. The first step is to lay them all out on blankets and tables and countertops “to look for any bad spots you might miss,” she said. “One may be getting mushy, so you’ve got to get it out of there.”
The day is as much fun as it is messy. “We have a really good time talking and laughing,” Cordell said. “It’s family, it’s making memories, and it’s just what we do.”
Lure of the lake
The fact that Cordell and her tribe have a beautiful view of the water makes the day even more wonderful. “It just means peace to me,” she said, adding that Taylor weighed in on her decision to build. “He said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t sell that lot,’” she said.
He and his wife Rachel have called Neely Henry home since 2016 and he said that lake property is much harder to come by because so many people keep it in the family for generations. Snyder knows that firsthand. “It took us several years to find a lot,” she said, adding that she and her husband Chris plan to start building within the next year.
The cherished painting of her father hangs in her bedroom, a gift to him on Father’s Day from the daughters
“I already say I’m a river rat, though,” she said. “My grandparents had a house in Whorton Bend and we’d go there every weekend. My grandfather would take us fishing and for rides on the pontoon boat. My aunt had a paddle boat, and we would just disappear.”
The passion Snyder, Taylor and Cordell share for the lake and the whole region has helped cement their friendship. In addition, all three have worked in different capacities for the City of Gadsden.
Cordell worked in the human resources department for more than 20 years before Mayor Craig Ford named her planning and zoning administrator last July. Part of her new duties include helping to guide and implement “GROW Gadsden,” the city’s new comprehensive plan. “The one driving force behind this plan has been the Coosa River that runs through Gadsden,” she said. “It is one of our most talked about assets.”
Snyder, who worked for a private law firm for 15 years before earning an accounting degree, transitioned from private practice to civil service when she joined the City of Gadsden’s legal department in 2009. She also served on the Southside City Council for four years before being elected mayor in 2020.
Although the mayoral position is officially part-time, Snyder left her full-time job with the city after she was elected to focus on her new duties. “I knew I couldn’t get anything done with a full-time job,” she said. “I’m one of those people who wants things done today and not tomorrow.”
Taylor joined the City of Gadsden in 1995 and served as a commander with the Fire Department after running a landscaping business and serving in the U.S. Army as a paratrooper and then in the Army National Guard. He also remodels houses and has refurbished and sold nearly 150.
“This job is is everything I had done before all rolled into one,” he said of his role as mayor, which he took on in 2020. “Dana and I have both been civil servants, and that has helped us in our role as mayors.”
Both mayors have also developed comprehensive plans for their cities, and they agree that finding ways for more people to enjoy Neely Henry needs to be a priority.
“As the cities grow, both of them, we’ve got to provide more public access (to the lake) for people who don’t live on the water,” Snyder said. “The fact that we are on this lake is the greatest asset we could ever have,” Taylor added.
As the owner of a new home on the water and her new role at work, Cordell understands that concept more than ever. “I have really come full circle from growing up on the river to helping make sure it is being showcased as the jewel it truly is. It’s home, and I can’t imagine ever living anywhere else.”
Italian Spaghetti
(Tracci Cordell)
1 pint Wesson oil 4 hot banana peppers, chopped 3 pounds onions, chopped ½ bushel tomatoes, unpeeled and quartered 2 whole heads garlic 1 cup sugar ½ cup salt 4 12-ounce cans of tomato past 1 tablespoon oregano 1 teaspoon sweet basil
Optional: 1 to 1 ½ pounds of ground beef, Italian sausage or ground turkey, cooked.
Simmer the tomatoes and garlic for about 1 ½ to 2 hours; more if necessary. Drain in a colander and return to pot. Saute banana peppers and onions in oil until soft and add to tomato mixture. Add sugar, salt, tomato paste, oregano, and basil and bring to a full boil. Put into jars and seal. Yields 12 quarts of sauce with meat or 9 quarts of sauce without meat.
Italian Salad and Dressing
(Dana Snyder, Mayor of Southside)
Salad: Use a variety of greens, such as romaine, kale and spinach 1 medium red onion, sliced ½ cup grated parmesan cheese 1 cup pepperoncini peppers Kalamata olives Salt and pepper to taste Croutons
Italian Dressing: 1 tsp garlic powder 1 tsp dried oregano 1 tsp dried basil ½ tsp salt ½ cup extra virgin olive oil 2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
Mix all ingredients together in a jar with a lid. Shake vigorously until all ingredients are combined. Shake again before each use.
Carol’s apron says it all. Greek to you? Translation: Good Appetite!
Carol Pappas was in elementary school when a teacher asked the students which food they would want if they were marooned on a desert island. While the other kids’ answers were fairly predictable – pizza, hamburgers or chicken fingers – Carol’s answer was a little different. “I said I would want Greek salad,” she said.
A descendant of Greek immigrants, Carol said the salad, complete with olives and feta cheese, was a staple in their Birmingham home during her childhood. Although her love of Greek cuisine remains a vital part of her identity, her taste in food is not the only thing influenced by her Greek heritage. Her appreciation of community and life on the water stems from her family, especially her father’s side, as well.
“My dad was born in Kastoria,” a city in northern Greece built on Lake Orestiada, she said. “It was fate that I ended up here.”
“Here” is her lakefront home in Logan Martin Lake’s Pine Harbor, the neighborhood she’s called home for nearly four decades. Her love of life on the water, Pell City, and St. Clair County is so ingrained, in fact, that she is the editor and publisher of two magazines that celebrate all the area has to offer, Discover St. Clair Magazine, and this one, LakeLife 24/7®
“I tell everyone that I was born in Birmingham, but Pell City and St. Clair County is my home,” she said.
Greg Pappas with his famous baked lamb
A reporter for 40 years, Carol is much more comfortable being the writer, rather than the subject. It seems fitting, however, for the person who has penned so many stories about St. Clair County and its people to finally share part of her own. In the spirit of sticking to the truth, Carol’s principle for her career in journalism, it’s important to note that the original story planned for this feature fell through at the last minute. So after a little bit of arm twisting (okay, a lot), Carol agreed to share some of the things that define her: her Greek heritage, her love for family and friends, casual gatherings on the water, and the Greek style of cooking, which will always be her favorite.
“My (maternal) grandmother was a big influence in our kitchen and so was my mother,” Carol said. “Everything had a Greek flair to it. If we had baked fish, it was Greek style with lemon and olive oil. We had Greek salad nearly every night, and Sunday dinner was usually chicken or roasted lamb.”
Celebrating roots
Carol’s father, Ernest Pappas, emigrated to the United States with his father when he was 13, and he settled in Birmingham where they had relatives. Her maternal grandparents, Tom and Kaliopi Pappas, had emigrated, as well, and were raising their family in Indiana. Although the families were not related, they share the common Greek surname.
Vickie with one of her specialties, Baklava
After graduating from Auburn University and serving in World War II, Ernest returned to Birmingham “My father was on his way to a wedding in Chicago, and someone told him, ‘There’s this nice Greek family in Fort Wayne, Indiana. You should stop and visit them,’” Carol said. “It sounds strange, but that was the way of life for Greeks at the time.”
Ernest did, he met the family’s four daughters, and fell in love with Blanche. After they married, they made their home in Birmingham’s Crestwood neighborhood, and Ernest served as general manager and a shareholder with Home Baking Company.
They took pride in their Greek heritage and instilled it in their children. Carol and her siblings, Greg and Vickie, still hold the culture and traditions dear. Greg, in fact, owns Pappas’ Grill in Vestavia Hills, which he opened in 1992 after working at and managing other restaurants.
The restaurant’s sole chef, Greg cooks up favorite Greek classics such as Pastichio (Greek Lasagna), Moussaka and Stuffed Grape Leaves. Many are his family’s favorite dishes, while others are recipes he developed and perfected.
Although Vickie and Carol aren’t in the restaurant business, they both love to cook and are inspired by the meals that marked their childhood. “My mother made the best Greek Snapper,” Carol said. “It just melted in your mouth. I’ve never tasted anything like it.”
The dish was such as family favorite, it became known to the grandchildren as “Fish a la Yia-Yia,” since yia-yia is a common Greek term for grandmother. “I make it, but it’s not anything like hers,” Carol said.
Vickie mastered Spanakopita, a Greek pie with layers of dough to form the crust and filled with spinach and feta cheese, and she recently taught Carol to make it. “We made the crust from scratch, and the recipe was handed down from my grandmother to my mother,” she said. “I had helped my mother with it, but I had never cooked it myself.”
In addition to stews and fish dishes that were mainstays during her childhood, the family often enjoyed three different whole chicken meals. There was the Greek style roasted chicken, one with tomato sauce, and one stuffed with sauerkraut and rice, which was Carol’s favorite. “I later adapted that recipe because I wasn’t going to cook a whole chicken,” she said with a laugh. “I use chicken breasts and serve it over a bed of sauerkraut and rice.”
Carol said her mother helped start the Holy Trinity-Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Cathedral Greek Food Festival, which recently celebrated its 51st year. One of Carol’s favorite cookbooks, The Greeks Have a Recipe for It, was compiled by the ladies in the church, including her mother and the mothers of her friends. “They’re all the Greek people I grew up with,” she said.
It’s a tattered binder filled with recipes that is among her most treasured possessions, however. One Christmas, she had it reprinted and bound and gave it to members of her family. It features Greek foods based on the Mediterranean diet of fish, chicken, fresh vegetables, and olive oil.
“It’s a very healthy way to eat,” Carol said. “We never had a lot of fried food growing up; everything was baked or broiled. We never used any kind of batter. I didn’t have fried okra until I was in high school, and I had fried green tomatoes for the first time in college. It was a whole new discovery for me.”
A mother’s influence
Just as her mother was a big influence in the kitchen, Blanche Pappas also played an important role in Carol’s career path, which led her to St. Clair County. “I wrote a book report in high school and Mother read it,” she recalled. “She said, ‘You’re a really good writer. You should go into journalism.’”
Since the most common professions for women at the time were teaching and nursing – neither of which seemed like a fit for Carol, she took her mother’s advice. After graduating from Auburn, she took a reporting job with the St. Clair Observer, a weekly newspaper published in Pell City that later was sold and merged into the St. Clair News Aegis. After working in Birmingham for a few years, she joined the staff of The Daily Home as a reporter and became the Pell City bureau chief about five years later. She remained with the paper for 28 years, rising through the ranks before retiring in 2010 as editor and publisher.
Carol soon started Partners by Design, a multimedia marketing and graphic design firm, and serves as president and CEO. Graham Hadley, who was managing editor for The Daily Home, joined the venture and is vice president of the creative division and chief operating officer. In addition to publishing Discover St. Clair Magazine and LakeLife 24/7 Magazine, the company provides consulting, graphic design, photography, social media and marketing services.
The great room at Carol’s, which opens to the kitchen
One of the best parts of her journalism career, according to Carol, is that it brought her to Pell City, the community she is proud to call home. “Pell City was very welcoming to me from the very beginning, and I found that to be true of all of St. Clair County,” she said. “I never thought of myself living in a small town, but it’s been wonderful. Everybody watches out for one another, and it just has a good feeling.”
She moved to the area in 1985 and was fortunate to be able to rent a home on the lake. The water had been an important part of her father’s childhood in Greece, and Carol inherited her love of it from him. She visited Logan Martin often with friends during high school and college, and she has wonderful memories of her father teaching her to fish at Lake Purdy, near Birmingham.
“He missed the water, so they came up all the time,” she said of her parents. “Crappie runs through here, and he would sit and fish for hours. One day we were on the pier, and I told him about a house down the street that was coming on the market. Before I could ask him what he thought about me buying it, he said yes.”
In addition to giving his blessing, her father helped buy the first boat, Carol said. “We called it a recreational partnership,” she added.
Carol said it took five years to afford to renovate the house, but the result is a 3-bedroom, 2.5-bath home with a with two-tiered deck, a screened porch, and a stunning view of the water.
It’s a favorite gathering place for family and friends, especially for Auburn football games in the fall. “I used to have a bar towel that said, ‘You never know how many friends you have until you have a lake house,’” Carol said and laughed. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Carol is active in the adopted community she loves. She served as board chair of the Pell City Center for Education and the Performing Arts and was on the board there for 11 years and is a member of the Pell City Rotary Club. She is also president of the Museum of Pell City, housed in a 4,000 square foot suite in the Municipal Complex. The museum is a celebration of the city’s history, as well as the history of St. Clair County and Alabama.
Lasting legacy
It’s a fitting role for someone who has been shaped by her own heritage and family history. Although her parents are gone now, Carol said she would always be grateful for the values they instilled in their children and for her Greek heritage, which places high value on family, friends and community.
It’s why she shares her love for St. Clair County and its people through Discover St. Clair Magazine and her love for the water inspired LakeLife 24/7.
It’s also what helped to lead her home – to a house she loves with a view she cherishes and neighbors who have become family.
“Now that I’ve lived on the water, I could never live anywhere else,” she said. “No matter how bad the day might get, when you get home and look out on the water, it’s like being on vacation all the time. The sunsets are breathtaking, the water is calming, and it just fills me with peace. It’s a beautiful place to call home.”
GREEK SALAD
Dressing:
½ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
¼ cup wine vinegar
1 tbs. lemon juice
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. oregano
Place all ingredients in a covered container and shake well. Set aside until ready to serve.
Salad: In a bowl, place the equivalent of one head of lettuce or assorted greens
2 tomatoes, cut into wedges
1 cucumber sliced
3 scallions chopped or the 2 thin red onion slices cut in half rings
½ cut pitted Kalamata olives
½ cup Feta cheese, crumbled
Add dressing and serve. Serves: 4
TIROPETES (Cheese Triangles)
3 eggs
3 oz. cream cheese
½ lb. Feta cheese
½ lb. melted butter
½ lb. cottage cheese
1 lb. Phyllo pastry sheets
Combine cheese and mix well. Add eggs, one at a time. Cut each pastry sheet into 3-inch strips. (The pastry sheets come in a roll, so you can cut the roll into sections with an electric knife and then roll out section of strips as need. Keep a damp cloth over the unused portions to avoid drying.) Brush the strip with melted butter. Place one teaspoon of the filling on one end of strip and cover over to make a triangle. Continue folding from side to side in the form of a triangle. (Like the paper football from childhood) Proceed this way until all pastry strips are used. Place the triangles on a buttered cookie sheet. Brush tops with melted butter. Bake on 350 degrees until lightly browned, about 25 minutes. Makes about 75 pieces.
Notes: Uncooked triangles store well in a tight container in freezer with layers of wax paper in between each row. Simply pull out what you need, bake and you have a great appetizer for company! You can add thawed, frozen spinach to mixture halfway through and make Spanakopites for the remainder.
