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In addition to her cookbook, she's also written "Tar Heels, Red Clay and Antidotes," a compilation of true stories about growing up here.
"Around our house we are always hearing, 'Tell me a story.' The grandkids love hearing stories, so I tell them old family stories my parents told me," said Johnson.
"Whenever I remember a story, I go write it down and add all the details later. When I started this book, I had two blank books full of stories, plus notes on everything: magazines, paper bags, paper towels - anything. It began just as a memoir for the kids."
Here's an example of one those memoirs:
"My mother, Bertha Mae Ward Nations, was born May 21, 1903, on Dicks Creek in a log cabin. She remembered how her grandparents, David Hix and Arrie Ensley Monteith, never let the fire go out in their fireplace in all the years she could remember.
"Times were hard and matches were expensive. They lived up on the mountain where it was cool in the mornings and afternoons - even in the summer.
"They would 'build up' the fire in the mornings and 'bank it' later in the day, then build it up again in the afternoons when it began to get cool, just before sundown. Late in the afternoon they would take a shovel of hot coals from the fireplace and put it in the wood stove and build up a fire to cook supper.
"Some families kept a fire going for over a 100 years. When they moved to a new house, they would just take along a bucket of hot coals from the old place.
"On the few occasions when their fire went out, Bertha Mae's mother would send her across the mountain with an 8-pounds lard bucket to 'borrow some fire' from grandma and grandpa Monteith."
Johnson also writes about her mother attending Dicks Creek School when it was a one-room school and church combination. When her mother began attending at age 5, the school session only lasted three months a year.
When it was time for her to start school in 1932, Johnson tells how "around the last of August, just before school started, my mother would have us stand by the wall and measure the length of our foot with a straw from the homemade straw broom for new shoes. She would add extra length and then hope that we would not outgrow them before school was out the next year. We always went bare footed through the summer when school was out."
One of her most vivid memories as a youngster was the time when the chickens started dying.
Her dad had thrashed his oats out near the barn and the chickens ate lots of oat husks and got sick and started dying.
"Mama wasn't about to let all her chickens die," said Johnson. "My older brother John Henry and some of the other children helped and she cut the chickens' chests and craw open and washed all the husks out. She then took her needle and thread and sewed them up and most of them lived."
One of her favorite concoctions, Johnson says, is depression soda. "We would fill a glass with water, then half teaspoon of baking soda, a teaspoon of sugar, a few drops of vanilla, a few drops of vinegar and add a few slivers of chipped ice. The vinegar made it fizz like crazy and we'd drink it down while it tickled our nose."
A concoction her grandmother used for chest colds and flu was a mustard plaster. It consisted of one tablespoon of dry mustard, four tablespoons of flour and one tablespoon of oil. Mix together with warm water to form a paste. Spread on flannel or soft cloth and cover with another soft cloth. Apply to chest for 25 minutes.
Some grandmothers used to add onion to the mixture, too.
Johnson prefers her onions in cooking and invites you to whip up this recipe for the new year, especially if you are sated with sugar from the holidays.
"I hope that old-fashioned cooking will not become a lost art," she said.
Worried about ants in your pantry? Johnson advises sprinkling some of that cayenne pepper at their entry point.
Find more helpful hints in both of her books, which are available at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.
Vidalia Onion Pie
1 cup saltine cracker crumbs
2 1/2 cups thinly-sliced Vidalia onion
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sharp cheese, shredded
1/2 cup margarine
1 pie shell
3/4 cup milk
pepper
cayenne pepper
Combine 1 cup saltine cracker crumbs with 1/4 cup margarine, melted. Line 8- or 9-inch pie plate with buttered crumbs. Cook 2 1/2 cups thinly-sliced Vidalia onions in 2 tablespoons margarine until tender. Pour onions in pie shell. Add 2 eggs, 3/4 cup milk, 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper. Mix well,pour over onions. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup shredded sharp cheese. Add dash of cayenne pepper. Bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes.
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Mary Nations - 1932
Mary Nations Johnson