Today a friend and I drove up to the Cornbread Festival in Pittsburg, Tennessee. I will say it was a lovely day for an event like this…it was sunny yet cool out side with a wonderful breeze. We enjoyed our drive up to the mountains. Got to Pittsburg around 10:00.
Pittsburg is a little town and it is quite sweet little charming place. It is right out side of Chattanooga which I will say I do love! I have been to the Cornbread Festival about 10 years ago and loved it. This is the first place I have ever had a cornbread salad, yep a cornbread salad. Oh my goodness gracious it was WONDERFUL!! The festival has grown to a large event.
The cornbread salad this year was good…but sorry ladies but it was not as good as the one I had all those years ago. The first one I had, the cornbread was in larger pieces, it has bacon, red peppers, green peppers, red onions, green onions, tomatoes, cornbread and dressing ~ I have come up with my own recipe of course. Which I will share later in the season when the tomatoes are really good.
They have a Cornbread Alley ~ these are all of the local organizations that compete for the winning dish for the Title Best Cornbread Recipe. They have sweet and savory items. You line up pay $4.00 and get to sample them all. This year the different competitors made the following:
Cornbread Pizza
Deep Fried Sweet Potato Tots
Butter Pecan Muffins
Raymond’s Pineapple Cream Cheese Cornbread Cake
Sour cream and onion Cornbread
Razzle Dazzle
Confetti
Toasty Hushpuppies
Rodeo Pups
Okay we loaded up our plates and headed to the shade and sat with a lovely group of folks from Alabama. We enjoyed getting to know them and talked about the food and local stuff. We tried all the different varieties of cornbread and we all agreed that we loved the Toasty Hush puppies with jalapenos made by the Lady of the Lourdes Catholic Church…they where spicy but great flavor!! Good job ladies!! Then the other item we loved was the Razzle Dazzle made by the Richard Hardy Memorial School Athletics and was being served by the boys scouts. It was a sweet cake with raspberries…now I was not wild about trying it…. why, I do not know…I just not wild about raspberries and cornbread not a combo I would plan on liking you know but ~ It was good really was and I would go back and get another one! Really!
The Festival had many things going on different bands playing, crafts, a kids corner, Lodge plant tour, cook-offs, car show, historic tours, carnival and food lots of food. It is a great food festival.
Note ** to the event planner ~ I would like to see more cornbread items ….but hey this is just my 2 cents. There was too many people ~ how do you solve this problem make the event longer perhaps.
This is Maggie the Mayfield Cow…isn’t she cute?
The most interesting thing to eat this year was a BBQ Sunday? Yea, that is what I said What? It is a cup filled with coleslaw…then baked beans, BBQ pork, BBQ sauce and a pickle. It was actually pretty good. No Photo ~ why you just can’t make that look good sorry tasted good! Moonshine pound cake ~ oh dear me!
We did stop at the Barn Nursery in Chattanooga what a wonderful place….one of the best plant and flower nurseries I have ever been too. If you are ever in Chattanooga stop by you will love it, no it is not food but it is a wonderful place.
The Barn Nursery
2410 S Hickory Street
Chattanooga, Tennessee 37407
423-698-BARN Phone Number
