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Nicholson's cooking 'in style' now and in 1962

By Rose Hooper
Nicholson Nicholson Boiling hot grits with true yellow, homemade butter, scrambled, farm-fresh eggs, hand-rolled made-from-scratch buttermilk biscuits, summer-sweet wild strawberry preserves, country cured-in-the-barn ham - that's what Dot Nicholson served up for the governor, the senator and 12 other dignitaries.

All by herself she prepared the meals on a wood cook stove... and with the governor standing over her, watching how she rolled biscuits.

Talk about pressure. But Nicholson took it all in stride by cooking for these distinguished men just like they were family.

"I didn't fix them anything fancy; I mainly cooked just like I did at home," said Nicholson, who now lives in Cullowhee.

The year was 1962, but Nicholson's sharp mind recalls it as if it were yesterday.

"I remember not sleeping the night before because I was so nervous, but once I got into it, I enjoyed it," said Nicholson, who back then lived at Rock Bridge, next door to Jamie Clarke. Now deceased, Clarke was a state senator at the time.

Nicholson When the governor and 13 others in his entourage came to Canada community in 1962, Dot Nicholson cooked for them on this wood stove in Jamie Clarke's clubhouse. Jackson County Board of Education member John Reynolds helped out by stirring a pot of grits.

"Jamie brought Gov. Terry Sanford to the mountains to look at the Canada School," said Nicholson. "Jamie was always interested in the welfare of that school."

Nicholson, who was 30 then, remembered the governor arriving in "a long, black Cadillac - the biggest car I'd ever seen."

The entourage had worked up an appetite touring the rural mountain school when they arrived at Clark's rustic wood frame clubhouse to eat.

Nicholson was ready for them, dishing out heaping plates of food that completely covered the long dining room table. Throughout the three days the 14 officials were there, Nicholson kept piling food on the table.

"Each meal I'd make 48 biscuits - two pans of 24. Those men ate them faster than I could get them on the table," said Nicholson, known far and wide not only for her biscuits, but for her macaroni and cheese.

"Gov. Sanford - now he liked to come in the kitchen and watch me roll biscuits - his favorite thing to eat was blackberry pot pie," she said.

The experience was good for Nicholson, she said, because throughout the years she has been called on to help out with special cooking events.

Just this spring at the Greening Up the Mountains festival in downtown Sylva, Nicholson helped Promise Land Baptist Church with a fund-raising food booth.

"We fixed a poor man's lunch of pinto beans, cornbread, fried potatoes and coleslaw and ended up raising $500 for the church," she said.

A lot of things change over the years, Nicholson said, "but home cooking never goes out of style."

Dot Nicholson's recipe for Blackberry Pot Pie

(A favorite of former Gov. Terry Sanford)

Prepare biscuit dough by using White Lilly self-rising flour, buttermilk and Crisco shortening (the regular kind, not butter.)

Let sweetened blackberries come to a boil. Don't add much water since they will make their own juice.

Pinch off dough and roll it up in balls about the size of a plum. Drop balls in pan. Cover with lid. Dough will go down to the bottom of the pan then rise to the top.

Cook until tender; about 10 minutes.

"It cooks real fast," Nicholson said.

Back to Archive: 08/15/02.