Felita Bunn’s grandma, Martha Sample, grew up on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. The Eastern Shore is a peninsula; a 70 mile stretch of land that divides the Atlantic Ocean from the Chesapeake Bay. Martha, a housewife, a housekeeper and an amazing cook, was married to Clifton Perry Sample, a farmer who grew and sold lots of fruits and vegetables. Among the crop on his nine acres of land, affectionately named “Bacon Hill”, he grew strawberries, watermelons, peas, turnip greens, and Virginia’s infamous “sweet” potatoes. There were several staple potato dishes, however, Felita’s front-runners are her grandmother’s delicious hot and crisp sweet potato biscuits drizzled with butter. Felita shares this number one pick with nostalgia and pride.
felita's eastern shore sweet potato biscuits
Ingredients:
- ½ cup shortening
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 ½ cups flour
- ¼ cup sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 cups hot mashed sweet potatoes
Instructions:
Step 1 – Boil the potatoes before mashing them.
Step 2 – Mix mashed sweet potatoes with shortening and salt. Let cool.
Step 3 – Add flour, sugar, and baking powder.
Step 4 – If the dough is too sticky, add a little flour sparingly.
Step 5 – Roll out on floured board and cut with floured biscuit cutter.
Step 6 - Bake in 450-degree oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with plenty of butter.
Michelle Erste’s family hails from the city of Lviv, Ukraine, located in the western part of the country near the Polish border. When her parents immigrated to the United Sates in their early 20’s, the city was part of the Soviet Union. Michelle’s parents, older sister, grandparents, and uncle all came together in 1980, just before the Soviet government shut down further immigration, and settled in Milwaukee, WI, before moving to Atlanta, GA, where Michelle was born. She and her two siblings grew up on a rich diet of Ukrainian staples prepared by their Babas, or grandmothers, like borscht (beet soup), pelmeni, buckwheat kasha, and kutleti (meat patties that look like hamburgers, but taste loads better). Today, her mom Anna, a civil engineer who owned Transportation Systems Design (TSD), a small engineering/surveying firm in the 1990s and early 2000s, carries on the tradition of feeding Michelle’s children, niece, and nephews all the Ukrainian food she can.
Message from Michelle: As a proud Ukrainian, the situation there is really hard to witness. If you are as moved by the struggle of the Ukrainian people as I am, please join me in donating to World Central Kitchen, which is providing ongoing aid and meals to homeless and struggling Ukrainians as the war continues into its third month. Click here to donate: donate.wck.org. Thank you!
Michelle's ukrainian borscht
Ingredients:
- 1 ½ - 2lbs. beef
- 3 medium size beets
- 1 large onion
- 3 large carrots
- 3 medium size potatoes
- Half of a small cabbage head
- 1 8oz. can of tomato sauce
- Garlic to taste
- Salt and pepper
Instructions:
Step 1 - Put beef into large pot and cover with water. Peel skin off one beet root and add to the pot. Bring water to boil and then lower heat to very low. Remove foam from the top and keep it on the low heat for 2.5 hours. Add salt to taste and keep cooking for another 20-30 minutes.
Step 2 – While beef broth is cooking, cut onions in small cubes; Shred carrots on large grinder; Shred beets; Slice cabbage very thin; Cut potatoes into medium squares.
Step 3 – When broth is ready, remove meat and beet from the broth and set aside. Keep pot with broth on small heat. Add potatoes.
Step 4 - In a large frying pan, heat vegetable oil and add precut onions. When onions look gold, add carrots. Mix and let cook for 5 minutes. Add beets, mix and let them cook for another 5 minutes. Add tomato sauce and cabbage. Mix everything, cover frying pan, and let it steam on low heat for 15 minutes.
Step 5 - In the meantime, cut beef into bite size squares and put it back in the broth.
Step 6 - Now add all vegetables from frying pan to the broth. Add salt and pepper to taste. You may add garlic too. Let it cook together for half an hour.
