A Cookbook & Restaurant Guide Alabama Back Road Restaurant Recipes Cookbook (Sample) Do you find that the hardest part of cooking for your family is coming up with what to cook? Great American Cookbooks can help make that so simple with easy-to-follow, delicious-tasting recipes from hometown cooks across the USA. Our goal is to provide everyday recipes for the everyday cook. That is why we strive to select the best recipes using ingredients most cooks already have in their kitchen. Just to give you an idea of the great cookbooks Great American has to offer, here is a small sample of Alabama Back Road Restaurant Recipes Cookbook. Each book we produce is a full-color, top- quality cookbook with 200 to 300 wonderful family recipes. We also include interesting stories and articles that will bring you and your family hours of fun. Thank you for taking the time to view this Great American Cookbook Sample. A Cookbook & Restaurant Guide AnI¦a Musgrove Great American Publishers www.GreatAmericanPublishers.com TOLL-FREE 1-888-854-5954 Mountain Region Mountain Metropolitan Region Metrpolitan River Region Gulf Coast Gulf Coast Region Alabama is truly the Heart of Dixie. When I hear the word Alabama, my mind goes back in time to my childhood. I was born in Bessemer, and by the age of five, I was living in Healing Springs—one of the smallest bends in the road. People came from all over the world to drink from the springs, staying either in the world-renowned hotel located there or in cabins converted from ones workers had lived in when the place was a working plantation. Throughout the six years I lived there, I made fast friends with children from all over the world who came with their families to “get healed” at the springs. The rich iron content that made the springs “healing” was not to be used for every-day drinking. We used bluing in our clothes because the iron-rich water turned everything a nice shade of yellow (orange if the clothing stayed around long enough). I remember hauling drinking water from the artesian well about three miles from our house. I loved to go with Daddy to fill the jugs and get a nice cold drink straight from the well that was always flowing (it still flows to this day). Family vacations also meant enjoying time in Alabama. Each year we rented a cottage The Entrance to Healing Springs site which in Gulf Shores for the whole week of is on private property but open to the public July 4th to enjoy the sugar sand beaches. during daylight hours. It was as if I had died and moved to heaven. 7 We had fun in the sun, ran in the waves, and played in the sand. There was always a fair right down the road from the cottage where you could ride rides until you were so dizzy you had to stand still for a minute or you would fall down and make an idiot of yourself in front of that cute boy who was making eyes at you. In the daytime, there was crabbing on the seawall or deep-sea fishing; at night, cool walks along the shore. Oh, how I enjoyed those Alabama summers. One summer at home, I thought it would be fun to pick cotton. Luckily, a good friend’s father raised cotton. He quickly took us up on our offer to work. Let me tell you, picking cotton is not fun. It only took one row to change our minds, but riding over the hills and hollows in the cotton seed wagon was a lot of fun. Labor Day week, we would go to Granny Rice and Papaw’s summer place in Shelby County to spend the last few days of summer before school started back. We were given the job of pulling peanuts off the vines, because Papaw sold peanuts at the Farmer’s Market in Birmingham. He would back his big truck up to the yard, the back full of the vines that were gathered from the fields. We had to pick every peanut before we could race to the red clay river bank and dive in for a cooling swim. I remember spending many hours helping my Granny shell beans and peas and putting up homemade sauerkraut and beets and tomatoes. The only thing that can compare to dinner at Grandmother’s table was a delicious meal out at a local mom-and-pop restaurant. Many years later, married and living in Mississippi, my husband Leonard and I were notorious for weekend and day-long car trips. We would drive the back roads with no destination in mind other than seeing places we’ve never been or traveling familiar roads. Nothing is better than jumping in a car in the early morning with no particular place to go, watching the sun come up behind the trees, and just enjoying the beauty that God has created for us. One of the best things about those trips was stumbling upon a gem of a restaurant that only the locals knew about. We were open for anything—diners, drive-ins, 8 dives, little hole-in-the-wall places—so long as it was locally owned, but my favorite places in Alabama have always been any place that serves hot dogs. Hot dogs are still my go-to comfort food, and it seems like Alabama is the only place to get a steaming hot dog with sauerkraut. In this book, it is my goal to capture my love of Alabama, especially her food. I want you to enjoy traveling the back roads as much as I always have and, of course, to have the opportunity to stop in at a locally owned diner for a great meal. To make that easy, I’ve compiled a list of the favorite places to be found all throughout Alabama. And, because this book is meant for traveling, the restaurants are divided into regions—Mountain, Metropolitan, River, and Gulf Coast. At the beginning of each region, you will find a list of restaurants featured in that section. Throughout each section, the restaurants are presented alphabetically by city. I’ve told you a little about each one and what makes them special. I hope that you will find time to visit them and see for yourself how great the locally-owned restaurants are in Alabama. No time to travel? No problem. Each restaurant has shared some of their favorite recipes—it may be a recipe served in the restaurant or a family favorite they serve at home, but every recipe is delicious and presented to make it easy to make at home. Whether you are driving along the back roads or cooking at home in your kitchen, it is my sincere hope that this book brings you home to Sweet Home Alabama. Enjoy! State Back Road Restaurant Cookbook Series 9 Athens Hollywood Hickory Barn Bar-B-Que 12 Mud Creek Fishing Camp Restaurant 46 LuVici’s Restaurant 14 Houston Baileyton Chef Troy’s Talk of the Town Restaurant 47 Parkside Catfish Restaurant 16 Huntsville Cullman Cotton Row Restaurant 48 The All Steak Restaurant 17 Dreamland Bar-B-Q 118 Busy Bee Café 18 Madison Johnny’s Bar-B-Q 19 Greenbrier Restaurant 50 Danville Mentone The Old Cookstove Restaurant 20 Wildflower Café & Country Store 52 Decatur Moulton Libby’s Catfish & Diner 21 John’s BBQ 54 Simp McGhee’s 22 Muscle Shoals Falkville Garden Gate Café 28 Dutch Oven Bakery 24 Swamp John’s Restaurants and Catering, Inc. 55 Florence Brooks Barbeque 56 Cooley’s Corner Café 26 New Market Garden Gate Café 28 New Market BBQ 58 Singleton’s Bar-B-Que 29 Ole Hickory BBQ 60 Swamp John’s Restaurants and Catering, Inc. 55 Oneonta Fort Payne Charlie B’s 61 Ol’ Tymers BBQ & Blues 30 Rainsville Fyffe 50 Taters 65 Barry’s Backyard Barbecue 31 Red Bay Guin Fourth Street Grill & Steakhouse 62 Jimbo’s Bar-B-Q 32 Swamp John’s Restaurants and Catering, Inc. 55 Guntersville Roswell Crawmama’s 34 Dreamland Bar-B-Q 118 KC’s Coyote Café 36 Scottsboro Rock House Eatery 38 McCutchen’s Magnolia House 64 Top O’ the River 102 50 Taters 65 Hamilton Trinity Bama-Q Pit & Grill 40 Chief & Snoogie’s Hickory Pit BBQ 66 Dinelli’s Pizza & Pasta 43 Tuscumbia Henagar Rocking Chair Restaurant 68 Cabbage Bowl Restaurant 44 Winfield Burgers & More 69 11 Uncle Booger’s Pecan Pie 1 ⁄2 cup softened butter Hickory Barn 1 cup sugar 1 cup clear corn syrup Bar-B-Que 4 eggs, beaten 10047 Highway 72 West 1 cup chopped pecans Athens, AL 35611 256-729-9600 1 teaspoon vanilla extract www.hickorybarnbbq.com 1 deep pie shell (or 2 regular pie shells) Traditionalsoutherneatsandbbq.com Preheat oven to 350°. Combine butter Hickory Barn Bar-B-Que is a full-service and sugar. Add corn syrup, eggs, pecans barbecue restaurant offering on-site catering and vanilla. Mix well. Pour in pie shell of everything from whole hog and fish fries and bake 35 minutes or until set. Let to steak dinners. Hickory Barn takes great it cool (if you can wait) before you slice pride in their barbecue and competes in and serve. Great served warm with several cook-offs every year winning Grand vanilla ice cream! Champion at Jack Daniels plus many more Restaurant Recipe awards. They make everything in-house and from scratch including four barbecue sauces, delicious sides, and outstanding desserts. The restaurant is decorated with antique items—old Coke machines, signs, car tags, and dollar bills signed by everyone from Paula Dean to Ted Nugent, senators to country music stars.