Lisa Carter's Blog, page 16

Snoopy’s—A Must-Do Eatery

As featured in Beyond the Cherokee Trail, here’s my favorite hot dog joint. Just so you know—dogs are on sale on Tuesdays and Sundays. See you there.

 

Snoopy’s— Okay, now I’m hungry.

For behind-the-scenes photos of Beyond the Cherokee Trail, visit https://www.pinterest.com/lisacoxcarter/beyond-the-cherokee-trail/.

Welcome to North Carolina—the home of Krispy Kreme.

What is Krispy Kreme, you ask?

Please, let me enlighten you.

Only the best doughnut, I’m talking the original glazed, yeast-raised, in the world.

Vernon Rudolph opened the first Krispy Kreme in 1937 in what’s known as historic Old Salem in Winston-Salem, NC. Today, Krispy Kreme is sold internationally in supermarkets, retail shops and convenience stores.

The Original Glazed is their best-selling product. But Krispy Kreme has a variety of yeast-raised and cake doughnuts for every palate and sweet tooth.

Linden brings a box of doughnuts for Walker and the guys working on the quilt barn trail. She probably bought the doughnuts at the flagship store in Raleigh on Person Street.

Every Raleigh resident, whether seven or seventy, knows the best Krispy Kreme doughnuts are to be had when the Hot Sign is On. And at the Raleigh store, you can watch through the glass-fronted window as they roll off the conveyor belt into a box just for you.

http://www.krispykreme.com/home

Get ‘em while they’re Hot Hours

• 6-11 AM and 6-11 PM (or closing)

549 N. Person Street

Raleigh, NC

And what do Raleigh citizens do for fun in February?

Raleigh residents take it a step further with the annual Krispy Kreme Challenge. Although not affiliated with the Krispy Kreme company, the charity race event raises money for the NC Children’s Hospital. Begun in 2004, runners eat one dozen doughnuts (let me break it down for you—that’s 2400 calories and 144 grams of fat). The one hour race originates at the North Carolina State University Belltower and concludes through scenic downtown Raleigh at the Person Street Krispy Kreme store.

Yeah, and you can imagine the results. Only the die-hard enroll. The rest of us just enjoy watching our fellow citizens puke during the five mile course. Eight thousand participated in 2013. Almost $200,000 was raised.

 

 

What’s your favorite kind of donut?

Cherokee Handicrafts and Keeping it Fun

The Qualla Arts and Crafts Cooperative is the largest and oldest preserver of traditional Cherokee handicrafts. Here I bought the Cherokee vase which sits on my desk.

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But it was deep in the Snowbird, just outside of Robbinsville at Hunting Boy Wood Carving that I acquired a Billy Welch turtle. BTW, I collect wooden turtles from all the indigenous people groups of the Americas. And as my husband says, only I could go to the Snowbird to research a book on the Cherokee and meet America’s top moonshiner, Jim Tom, from the Discovery Channel’s Moonshiners.

Not only do I write adventure, I live the adventure.

But that’s a story for another day.

Here’s a wooden bear similar to Billy Welch’s wood-carving at Hunting Boy. Next time I go, I intend to add this little guy—the bear, not Billy or Jim Tom—to my collection.

Other great Cherokee handicrafts—

 

 

An oldie but goody place to start educating yourself on Arts and Crafts of the Cherokee—

 

 

 

For more behind-the-scenes photos from Beyond the Cherokee Trail, visit https://www.pinterest.com/lisacoxcarter/beyond-the-cherokee-trail/.

My Favorite Cookie #Recipe—Hershey’s Cinnamon Chip Cookies

Sweet mercy . . .
Ingredients


3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 egg
1-2/3 cups (10-oz. pkg.) HERSHEY’S Cinnamon Chips, divided (I order these online)


2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup finely ground pecans or walnuts


Directions

1. Beat butter and brown sugar in large bowl until fluffy. Add corn syrup and egg; mix well.

2. Place 1 cup cinnamon chips in microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at MEDIUM (50%) 1 minute; stir. If necessary, microwave at MEDIUM an additional 15 seconds at a time, stirring after each heating, just until chips are melted when stirred. Stir melted chips into butter mixture.

3. Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; add to cinnamon chips mixture, beating just until blended. Cover; refrigerate dough about 1 hour or until firm enough to handle.

4. Heat oven to 350°F. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; roll in nuts, lightly pressing nuts into dough. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.

5. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden around edges. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

Enjoy.

For more recipes and behind the scene photos of Beyond the Cherokee Trail visit https://www.pinterest.com/lisacoxcarter/beyond-the-cherokee-trail/.

Cherokee “Come Thou Fount” 2 minute #video

Another favorite hymn of the displaced Cherokee on the Trail of Tears—the photos in this video remind me of my travels through the wildly remote and hauntingly beautiful Snowbird backcountry of North Carolina.

For behind-the-scenes photos of Beyond the Cherokee Trail, visit https://www.pinterest.com/lisacoxcarter/beyond-the-cherokee-trail/.

Easy Cherry Cobbler #recipe

Okay—for the purists among you, this recipe may not be for you. But if you don’t enjoy pitting fresh cherries and you need something yummy and quick because—well, you have a life—this is the cherry cobbler recipe for you.

And I think Marvela from Beyond the Cherokee Trail would heartily agree.

Ingredients:

1⁄2 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
3⁄4 cup flour
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
3⁄4 cup milk
1 (15 ounce) can cherry pie filling

Directions:

Melt butter in baking dish.
Mix sugar, flour, salt, and baking powder.
Add milk and mix well.
Pour batter into baking dish but do not stir.
Pour pie filling into batter—Drop by spoonful and dollop several spoonfuls in the middle and then divide the rest into the corners and sides. Do not stir.
Bake@ 350° for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until golden brown.

Enjoy.

For more recipes and photos, visit https://www.pinterest.com/lisacoxcarter/beyond-the-cherokee-trail/.

 

Fort Butler and the Trail of Tears

Located on a hill overlooking present-day Murphy, North Carolina on the Hiwassee River, Fort Butler was the headquarters of the Eastern Division of the U.S. Army overseeing the  forced Cherokee emigration.

On a late July day, my husband and I found the remnants of Fort Butler along Hitchcock Street near Lakeside Street in what today is a private residential neighborhood. Down the hill and overlooking the river, Cherokee Street follows the former Unicoi Turnpike along which the Cherokee were marched to Fort Cass, Tennessee and on to Indian Territory as depicted in Beyond the Cherokee Trail.

By early 1838 it became clear that most Cherokee would not willingly leave their land. After a deadline in May passed, the Army prepared for forced removal. Fort Butler was enlarged with barracks, officers’ quarters, offices, shops, kitchens, and other buildings.

The military removal of the Cherokee began in Georgia in late May, but reports of abuse and mistreatment of the prisoners caused General Winifred Scott, the overall commander stationed at Fort Cass, to halt operations until early June.

Southwest North Carolina was one of the most densely populated regions of the Cherokee Nation and was believed to be rife for violent resistance. Therefore, General Scott travelled to Fort Butler in order to personally direct the roundup of Cherokee in the North Carolina.

During the early summer of 1838 more than 3,000 Cherokee prisoners from western North Carolina and northern Georgia passed through Fort Butler en route, via the Unicoi Turnpike, to the larger internment camp at Fort Cass. Unlike the long imprisonment at Fort Cass, most of the prisoners spent only a few days at Fort Butler, although some remained for a few weeks.

Despite the housing development, one isolated clearing in a grove of trees gives a haunting reminder of the atrocities which took place here.

For more behind-the-scenes photos of Beyond the Cherokee Trail, visit https://www.pinterest.com/lisacoxcarter/beyond-the-cherokee-trail/.

My Real Life #Inspiration for the Characters of Beyond the Cherokee Trail

I don’t often share photos of what characters from my novels look like—what they look like in my head, that is. I prefer for readers to form their own conclusions, to utilize their own unique experiences and backgrounds in forming their mind’s eye view of my characters.

While I will leave the modern-day inhabitants of fictional Cartridge Cove like Linden, Walker, Marvela and Ross to your imagination, I will share the historical photos I found which somehow launched the full-blown characters who peopled the events of the Trail of Tears portion of Beyond the Cherokee Trail.

For more behind-the-scenes photos of Beyond the Cherokee Trail, visit https://www.pinterest.com/lisacoxcarter/beyond-the-cherokee-trail/.

Kweti

Sarah Jane and Pierce

The family portrait of Sarah Jane, Pierce, Dr. Hopkins, Jonathan and David

The grave

The real LilyRose, a photo shared by Garnet Redman

Leila Hummingbird

#Quilts from Beyond the Cherokee Trail

Here are some of the quilts featured in Beyond the Cherokee Trail—

The Cherokee Rose quilt is a quilt block I designed and created for the novel. The pattern is based on the legend of the Cherokee Rose. It is said that when the Trail of Tears began in 1838, the Cherokee mothers were grieving so much, they were unable to help their children survive the journey. So the elders prayed for a sign that would give the mothers strength. The next day a beautiful rose began to grow where their tears fell. The rose is white for their tears; a gold center represents the gold taken from Cherokee lands, and seven leaves on each stem represent the seven Cherokee clans. Even today the wild Cherokee Rose grows along the route of the Trail of Tears all the way into eastern Oklahoma.

 

This 1830s era quilt played a prominent role in Sarah Jane’s story of the Trail of Tears—With its pesky Y seams, this is a challenging quilt block. One day, I’d love to make my own Carolina Lily quilt.

Close up detail of Carolina Lily motif

Carolina Lily

This pattern was developed by Cherokee quilters in the NC and SC area in the 1930s. In the book, Cartridge Cove quilters adapt the pattern to reflect the Trail of Tears.

The Road to Soco quilt pattern

For more behind-the-scenes photos of Beyond the Cherokee Trail, visit https://www.pinterest.com/lisacoxcarter/beyond-the-cherokee-trail/.

North Carolina Quilt Barn Trails

In 2009, the Graham County Cooperative Extension started the Graham County Barn Quilt trail. The trail highlights the area’s history and creates a tourism activity.

 

 

I borrowed this idea in creating my fictional quilt barn trail in the Snowbird Mountains of North Carolina as featured in Beyond the Cherokee Trail. My quilt barns incorporate Appalachian and Cherokee quilting traditions.

Just like in real life, many volunteers from the fictional Cartridge Cove community had to come together to donate supplies, paint and hang the quilt squares on local barns in Beyond the Cherokee Trail.

 

 

The Graham County Trail winds from Stecoah to Robbinsville, and Yellow Creek to Snowbird.

 

For more behind-the-scenes photos of Beyond the Cherokee Trail, visit https://www.pinterest.com/lisacoxcarter/beyond-the-cherokee-trail/.