Love of cooking, heritage celebrated on the water
Story by Scottie Vickery
Submitted photos
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.
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.
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.
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.
