Heritage Festival Demonstration

This past weekend I had the pleasure of cooking for the Cape Fear Botanical Garden's Heritage Festival. It was a fabulous weekend, the first real cool weather we had in NC, which made the fire that more comforting. There were many different demonstrations and activities- butter churning, tobacco tying, candle making, the general store was open & more!
Saturday's menu was simple- Chicken noodle soup. The chicken noodle soup is a easy recipe you can find here- its a go to for an easy meal!

The morning started well, after fighting to get the fire started on a very damp morning. I did have a few volunteers from the site helping as well. We started by getting the chickens in the pot and chopping vegetables. The recipe does not call for carrots- but I like them in my soup, and they add some color! 

Everyone is amazed when I start making noodles on site during demos. It is something that everyone enjoys watching- they are SO easy! Mix, roll, cut, dry. And only 4 ingredients! 

After removing the chicken and taking it off the bone- add chicken and noodles to the pot-and I had a BIG pot! 

The soup turned out great! 

Sunday was even cooler than Saturday- which made me the popular demo for the day.I had hot apple cider ready all day! On the menu with cider- fried sweet potatoes!  

Cider & boiling sweet potatoes

Directions for Cookery and its Various Branches, Eliza Leslie, 1844

These fried sweet potatoes were a hit! It is always a good idea to cook what is in season- and right now sweet potatoes are coming out of the NC fields by the truck-load. For more on sweet potatoes- click here.  I was all by myself on Sunday- so the simple menu really helped, but also reminded me of all of the hard work that is done with cooking. 

I did manage to snap one photo of myself! 

Look for a wrap-up of my Bentonville Fall Festival in a few weeks!