Last month we asked Hoptown Chronicle readers to send us their favorite Thanksgiving recipes and stories for a series we called “Tales from the Thanksgiving Table.”

As always, our readers really came through for us. You might say our Thanksgiving table overflowed with delicious food — and we weren’t able to squeeze every submission into the November series. 

So we saved some of the best holiday food for “Second Helpings.” Although they were sent to us with Thanksgiving in mind, all of these recipes work just as well for Christmas. And best of all, each comes with a good story rooted in Hopkinsville. 

Enjoy the bounty.

The essentials

Hopkinsville resident Bettye Shelton sent us recipes for some essentials in a traditional holiday meal, including Cornbread Dressing, Buttermilk Pie and So Easy Yeast Rolls.

Here’s what Bettye told us about memories of her family and the holiday meals:

Growing up as a child, we looked forward to the traditional holiday meal. Mom always baked a turkey that she roasted all night … We always had several visitors on that day, therefore we had very little turkey left over.

One of the traditions I remember, after the turkey was devoured, my sister and brothers would play a game to see which one of us would break the wishbone and make a wish for Christmas.

As I get older, I tend to stop and savor the moments of life more often. I have found myself more than once sitting at my table surrounded by my children just listening to their voices, watching their faces and catching their smiles. … At its best, this is a holiday about gratitude, about family and about possibility. It brings people together …

Cornbread Dressing

INGREDIENTS

• 3 cups crumbled cornbread
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 small onion, diced
• ½ cup chopped celery
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon dried sage, or more to taste
• Salt and ground black pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease a 7×11-inch baking dish.
3. Place crumbled cornbread in a large bowl.
4. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and celery and sauté until soft, 5 to 7 minutes.
5. Add sautéed onion and celery to the crumbled cornbread.
6. Stir in chicken stock, eggs, sage, salt, and pepper until well combined.
7. Pour dressing into the prepared baking dish.
8. Bake in the preheated oven until dressing just starts to turn golden brown around the edges, about 30 minutes.

I always looked forward to my grandmother’s Buttermilk Pie. 

Buttermilk Pie

INGREDIENTS

• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 heaping teaspoon cornmeal
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg, if desired
• 1 9-inch pie shell

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Beat eggs, sugar and buttermilk.
2. Add remaining ingredients.
3. Mix well and pour into pie crust.
4. Bake at 350 degree oven for 30-45 minutes.

This recipe has been handed down from my grandma, to my mother and now to me.

So Easy Yeast Rolls

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup boiling water
• 2 sticks butter (no margarine)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 packages dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 eggs, slightly beaten
• 7 cups plain flour
• 2 teaspoons salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Pour boiling water over butter and sugar. Cool to lukewarm.
2. Dissolve yeast in warm water, (not hot water) add eggs to yeast mixture.
3. Stir in 6 1/2 cups flour with added salt. Save other flour to roll out rolls. The dough will be soft and moist.
4. Place in a greased bowl over night.
5. Roll dough slightly thin; cut with a biscuit cutter and dip in melted butter.
6. Let rise until double in size and bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.

Mrs. Gaither’s style

Rebecca Snider Sprecher, who grew up in Hopkinsville and now resides in South Carolina, sent us a story about Jane Gaither. Hoptown Chronicle readers will be familiar with the family name. Her son, Gant Gaither Jr., was the subject of a “Snapshots in Time” column by Alissa Keller.

Sprecher shared this remembrance of the family and a special recipe:

There is nothing quite like coming across a recipe from a loved one. Like hearing a favorite song from the past, it takes you back to those days — and those people — instantly. This happened to me yesterday when I ran across Mrs. Gaither’s Orange Charlotte recipe, which had spent years languishing in my late mother’s recipe box.

“Miss Jane,” as we all called her, was my godmother. I didn’t know her well and in truth, I was a little afraid of her. But I definitely knew that in her day, she had been the social doyenne of Hopkinsville.

For starters, her husband, Dr. Gaither, was the only surgeon in Western Kentucky, performing operations on people’s kitchen tables. And secondly, she had the only silver punchbowl in town. If you were getting married or giving some other important function, you had to have Mrs. Gaither’s punchbowl on the table. She was known to entertain beautifully at their home on Main Street, and had the staff to do it. 

At the end of her life, she was living in Monterey with her daughter. When she was hospitalized with a terminal illness, her doctor took Miss Jane’s daughter aside and said, “I just love your mother. She’s so charming.” Taking one of Miss Jane’s perfectly manicured hands in his, he said, “Look at her hands! It’s like they’ve never done a day of work in their lives!”

Shaking her head and laughing, her daughter said, “I can assure you, doctor, they haven’t!”

I have never fixed this recipe and I have no idea if it works. But I’m going to make it this holiday season just for the fun of it, and to remember an era in Hopkinsville that is no more.

Orange Charlotte

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup milk
• Lady fingers
• Grated rind of 1/2 orange
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 cup cream

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Mix sugar and flour.
2. Add beaten yolks, milk, and butter.
3. Cook in a double boiler until smooth and thick.
4. Add orange juice and rind.
5. Cool slightly and add whipped whites.
6. Pour over lady fingers and serve with whipped cream.

Annie Payne’s kitchen

Anne Payne Nicastro, who now lives in Virginia, sent us this funny story recalling life with her grandmother in Hopkinsville. 

My grandmother, Annie Faxon Payne, was a good cook, despite the rather unkempt appearance of her kitchen on Alumni Avenue. We almost always had Thanksgiving and Christmas at her house.

She once shocked our family while my uncle was carving the turkey by regaling us with how she had gone in to baste the turkey in the middle of the night and the bird had fallen out of the oven and rolled across the floor.

I don’t really know where she got her recipes. I never saw her use a cookbook or a recipe card. However, at some point someone asked to write a few of her recipes down, so she did.

Here is a favorite, her Chess Pie.

Chess Pie

INGREDIENTS

• 1 stick of butter
• 1 1/4 cups of sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 scant tablespoon cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons vinegar

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Cream butter with sugar. 
2. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time.
3. Add cornmeal, vanilla and vinegar and beat well. 
4. Pour into an unbaked pie shell and bake at 350 degrees until slightly firm. Do not overcook.