Tennessee foods (Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga: hardwood floors, floors, relocating to)

[mbmouse]

Originally Posted by shenandoah

I was just on the Pennsylvania board, talking to people who used to live in PA, but moved away - do they miss the area? Alot of what they talked about, I can sympathize with. But then, they got into local foods - now I know I'll have to have these things shipped down to me, otherwise I won't be able to survive!

Kielbasa - real homemade kielbasa - for New Year's and Easter dinners. Sauerkraut and kielbasa sandwiches - YUM!

Chipped ham sandwich - this is deli ham, sliced extremely thin, so that it's chipped off the loaf.

Homemade pierogies at the church.

Do all the Catholic churches, and fire halls sell fish dinners during Lent, in TN?

A real Primanti's sandwich.

Homemade nutrolls made by the old women at the Catholic churches and sold a few months before Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

blessings, Shen

Okay,....I just relived my childhood through your post LOL!!!!
I also grew up in anew england town with large catholic population and polish food was some of our staples. I remember all those lent dinners at the church and the peroggies....YUMMY!
I agree with Hiknapster, you can get them in the frozen section, but near as good. I never cared for the chipped beef but the rest I love.
I have been a parishioner at two different Catholic churches here and they both do soup suppers during lent on Fridays and such. But as Hiknapster said, there isn't as big of a Catholic population here so it doesn't spill out into the general community as much as it does up north but still have great things like that going on at the churches. We have a huge church and school here in Johnson City, St Mary's that does a lot but no pirogies gorge fest as of yet....maybe I will suggest it and see what happens LOL!

[Shenandoah]

Originally Posted by hiknapster

I FINALLY found someone that likes pierogies! There's a Polish food place in Oak Ridge. !

Thanks hiknapster!!!! Well, now I know where to go for pierogies. How about homemade kielbasa, too?

Hiknapster's right about pierogies - they are like ravioli, only with a potato cheese mix, or sauerkraut and potato mix inside. You can buy Mrs T's pierogies in the grocery stores in a pinch if you're desperate, but for good ones, you get homemade ones at a good polish church or restaurant. You serve them with melted butter and fried onions as either a side dish, or your main (meatless) meal.

I make my own haluski (fried cabbage and noodles with butter), so attention all haluski lovers, when I come down to live there, I'll make up a big batch of haluski, kielbasa and pierogies for you!

I see already that I'm going to have to pack my ice chest with all sorts of local things before coming down! That and arrange for some of this stuff to get shipped down on a steady basis! LOL!

Primanti's sandwiches are from a local Pittsburgh restaurant that has opened a franchise with places in Florida (for the locals who've retired there) and Texas (for the locals who've relocated there). Basically a REAL Primanti's (pronounced Purmanni's) sandwich is about a half a loaf of Italian bread split in half longways. You pile your lunchmeat on there, or make a cheesesteak style, but then on top of that, you pile french fries and cole slaw, then put the top half of the bread on, and there's your sammich! Only for the brave souls with a huge appetite! I once had a date who took me there, ate his whole sandwich, and when I could only eat 1/4 of mine, ate the rest of mine! If you google the name Primanti's Pittsburgh Strip District, you'll get info on it. I highly recommend this as a stop if you ever plan on visiting Pittsburgh. Best to go at midnite, tho. You get the true atmosphere of the place.

Nutrolls - ok, hard to describe - I'll add a photo to help the description. Hopefully it's there. Anyway - you roll out dough, spread a crushed nut mixture in a nut paste onto the entire roll. Then, you roll it up, put it in the oven and bake it. You slice off the ends and eat - YUM! You can also make it with poppyseed, apricots, raspberry spreads.

I just googled a place that's in the area that makes then and ships them, so I'm set for that!

Now, where is Pal's so that I can have chipped ham? Have you ever had a BBQ Ham sandwich? Get 1 1/2 lbs chipped ham, one bottle of regular Heinz or store brand bbq sauce, heat them up together in your sauce pan, and put on a bun, served with potato chips - YUM!

Ok - time for lunch! LOL!

blessings, Shen

[Shenandoah]

Originally Posted by mbmouse

We have a huge church and school here in Johnson City, St Mary's that does a lot but no pirogies gorge fest as of yet....maybe I will suggest it and see what happens LOL!

You'll have to ship down some old Polish ladies to make those pierogies! LOL! And the HUGE fish dinners - and not just the dinners, but the fish itself are HUGE. You can make 3 sandwiches from just one fish served on your plate! Battered dip cod or haddock.

There's a huge Polish and Hungarian population in the SW PA area, so we get all the good old country foods!

Chipped ham is basically a local food - and usually if it's found elsewhere, the store owner is from the Pittsburgh area. It's really good chipped ham if it's an Isaly's ham. You can serve chipped ham as a regular lunch meat, cold, piled up on your sandwich with either mustard or mayonnaise, or hot - cooked with bbq sauce on your bun as a sandwich.

Mix a little bit of relish with that bbq sauce and it's REALLY good.

MBMouse, you're invited to my Polish dinner when we move down! Along with whoever else wants to come!

blessings, Shen

[Shenandoah]

From what I hear, I think from JMT, is that there's a big Catholic church in Crossville. So, if that's the area we move to, I'll have to speak with them about holding those big fish and pierogie dinners along with their soup during Lent!

Where I used to work at in downtown Pittsburgh, there is a big 100 year old Catholic church across the street from my building. They not only served those fish dinners during Lent, they served them all year long, Wednesdays and Fridays. They realised it was a huge money maker for them, as they got the lunch crowd and dinners to go. And, I guess pre-Vatican II, Catholics ate fish on Fridays all year 'round, not just Lent.

I'm a convert to Catholicism from Baptist, 5 years ago, but even our Baptist church put on dinners every Wednesday evening.

I may see if I'll be able to get the old ladies at our Catholic church to ship me a dozen nutrolls before Christmas and Easter every year. Otherwise, I'll order them online from the bakery I found. Now, to find out if our local butcher can ship kielbasa! Either that, or go to the one in Oak Ridge that hiknapster mentioned. Now, to find good homemade pierogies in TN!!

Any old Polish ladies out there?? If not, then any entrepeneurial people out there with a desire to make pierogies and ship them to people who've relocated out of state and miss their home cooked food?
I just may have to learn how to make pierogies! Even tho I'm not Polish, my hubby is Hungarian, so maybe his sister's have the family recipe?

blessings, Shen

[alleycat]

I used to work with a couple of native Hungarians (still work with one); they'd have sausages shipped to Nashville from Chicago. They'd also bring back paprika from Hungary whenever they went back for a visit. By the way, are all Hungarians "tight with dollar", or is it just the ones who went through hard times? The two I know escaped from Hungary during the 1958 Russian crackdown.

Me, I'll just go to the fish fry and BBQ dinners that the Masonic Lodge up the street holds once a month.

[Shenandoah]

Originally Posted by alleycat

Me, I'll just go to the fish fry and BBQ dinners that the Masonic Lodge up the street holds once a month.

Good to know that there are fish fry's to go to!

I told my hubby that the Catholic churches down there only hold soup dinners instead of fish frys and he said 'That's It! We're Not Going! This is the Ultimate Heresy Amongst Heresy's!!!' Then he laughed. So, I told him that they have alot of BBQ restaurants, so he said 'Let's go RIGHT NOW!!!'

As for being tight with the dollar - yep, he is. And maybe he got that from his dad and mom - both first generation Americans from Hungary. I almost left him during our first year of marriage for certain things regarding his tightfistedness, but as in all marriages, Communication is key - so, I talked it over with him, got a few things straight, and things are much better. As with all things, in life there is a balance. We've got a home that's paid off after 1 year, but we can still enjoy life and spend money on a few luxuries.

blessings, Shen

[jabogitlu]

Ooh, nutrolls look good, and I think the concept is a lot like our pumpkin rolls, only with different ingredients.

Pal's Chipped Ham is probably nothing like the c.h. you've experienced but I think it's good, nonetheless. They seem to be local enough to northeast TN as I can't even find one in dadgum Knoxville!

[Shenandoah]

Originally Posted by jabogitlu

Ooh, nutrolls look good, and I think the concept is a lot like our pumpkin rolls, only with different ingredients.

Pal's Chipped Ham is probably nothing like the c.h. you've experienced but I think it's good, nonetheless. They seem to be local enough to northeast TN as I can't even find one in dadgum Knoxville!

Where do you find Pal's chipped ham?

And yes, nutrolls are very similar to pumpkin rolls, only not quite so cake-like.

blessings, Shen

[jabogitlu]

Well, it's a restaurant:

http://www.palsweb.com/default.htm (broken link)

Click on "Locations," -- I was right, it is *very* local to northeast TN / SW VA!

Edit- hmm, looking at the menu, looks like they've changed their chipped ham. It used to be CHIPPED, but now it just looks thinly sliced!

[Barbiego]

Just keep in mind that fish dinners here are catfish! We have given up going to any because I JUST AM NOT going to eat catfish! Wish they'd offer a choice of two kinds of fish.