Experience the finest among North Carolina Vacation Rentals in Highlands NC at The Lakehouse on Lake Glenville in Cashiers

Tucked in a 100-year old train depot, between Cashiers and Lake Toxaway, is one of my favorite dinner spots – the Brown Trout Mountain Grille. Here, the Appalachian cuisine is complimented  by the burnished Chestnut wood walls and a fire burning in the river rock fireplace. It is often my first choice when I am at the Lakehouse and want to spend a relaxed evening at dinner with friends.

A Brief History of the Brown Trout Mountain Grille…
In the heyday of the early 1900′s when flappers filled the dance halls, Henry Ford’s Model T’s filled the streets and the Rockefellers, Firestones and Vanderbilts dominated the American landscape, a Blue Ridge Mountain paradise was born.

With their hoop skirts, hunting rifles and knickers, travelers from Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago and New York rode the rails from Asheville through the foothills and up the Continental Divide to experience a unique lifestyle that offered a delightful contrast to the big city hustle to which they were accustomed. The last stop on this enchanting journey was at the old train depot that is now the home of the Brown Trout Mountain Grille. It was from here, by horse drawn carriage, that visitors were transported with their wooden steamer trunks to the famous Lake Toxaway Inn across the road. The natural beauty of the majestic setting had been discovered and America’s “Little Switzerland” holiday venue was born.

Brown Trout Mountain Grille, Highway 64 between Cashiers and Lake Toxaway, 828-877-3474.

Published by the Great Smoky Mountains Association, Food and Recipes of the Smokies features the food and recipes common and popular in the Great Smoky Mountains before the national park was created in 1934. It covers the time from the Cherokee Indians, through the nineteenth and into the mid-twentieth centuries.  Nearly everything mountain people ate – both animal and vegetable- was by necessity gathered or raised by their own hands. In the words of Beuna Winchester, of Bryson City, North Carolina, it was this simple: “You ate what you raised and you raised what you ate”.

“My old hen, she clucks a lot. Next time she clucks, she’s cluckin’ in the pot. My old hen, she clucks a lot. Next time she clucks, she’s cluckin in the pot.”

It is the recipes from the 1920’s, ‘30’s and ‘40’s that I find most appealing. A couple of examples for dinner on Sunday’s are:

Chicken & Dumplings – Mrs. Ollie Lawhern, Maryville-Alcoa Times

One hen
Salt and pepper

Catch an old hen that is contrary about laying. Chop off her head, dress her, cut her up, and place her in a pot. Just cover her with water and place her on to simmer. When tender, season with salt and pepper to taste. You can leave her with the meat on the bones or take the meat off. Into the boiling pot liquor, drop dumpling dough a spoonful at a time.

Dumpling Dough

2 cups flour
3 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 Tbsp lard or vegetavle shortening
1 well-beaten egg
1 cup whole milk

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in lard or shortening and mix in egg and milk. Drop into pot liquor that cooked the chicken in. Cover and cook for 15 minutes.

Fried Chicken – Bonnie Myers, Townsend, TN

Young fryer, about two pounds
Grease
Salted flour

Slaughter chicken by wringing and breaking neck. Hold chicken upside down by the legs and pour scalding water over it. Pluck feathers. Hold chicken over a burning newspaper to singe thin growth of hairy feathers. Cut up chicken. Roll in salted four and place in hot grease in heavy fryer pan. Fry slowly, turning once or twice to brown evenly.

Whenever I visit  our mountain lake lodge, I always try to eat at least once at Happ’s Place Restaurant in Glenville where the meals expertly prepared by Kathy in traditional southern ways take advantage of the fresh bounty of local garden produce and fish from nearby mountain rivers and streams.