How did you get interested in cooking?
I enjoy a good meal, and the fire station when I started had lots of great cooks.
What’s your favorite thing to cook at the station?
Breakfast!
What’s your favorite thing to cook at home?
Grilled or smoked food. My kids love it, and it puts us on the porch outside just relaxing.
Best cooking tip:
Season well. Most foods need it to bring out their best flavor.
Favorite restaurants:
Texas Roadhouse – I love a good steak – or Mikee’s Seafood at Gulf Shores – can’t beat it.
How are you preparing for Iron City Chef?
Just mentally prepping to make sure I don’t skip any steps or get stressed out. It’s just cooking.
Cobbler
Lee Currie said you can serve this dessert with or without ice cream. We vote for “with.”
He also said you can “stump your toe on the sugar and flour.” That’s a “country way of saying you can add a little more than a cup,” he said.
Ingredients
- 1 stick of butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup self-rising flour
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 large can of fruit filling or can of
- fruit in heavy syrup
Directions
- Put a stick of butter into a 9 x 12 glass pan or large cast iron skillet. Bake at 400 degrees until butter melts.
- Mix sugar, flour and milk and add to pan with melted butter.
- Add a large can of fruit filling or can of fruit in heavy syrup (Currie said he likes peaches), or mix fresh and canned fruit.
- Bake till golden brown.
What’s Cooking in the Iron City Chef Kitchen?
Here’s what the contestants plan to serve in the first round of this year’s Iron City Chef cooking competition.
Guests will sample each chef’s food and then vote for their favorite. The top two vote getters will move on to face each other in the finals.
• Lee Currie was choosing between two menus at press time: Boston butts with macaroni and cheese or meatloaf with mac and cheese and turnip greens. Either way, he’s adding fried cornbread. For dessert, he’ll make a cobbler.
• Alexander Glover will dish up pasta shells stuffed with beef, Italian sausage and cheese and topped with a red sauce. He plans to offer key lime pie for dessert.
• Edward Pegues will stir up shrimp and grits as his main course with banana pudding for dessert.
• Trey VanHooser will serve herb-roasted roulade stuffed with apple chutney, goat cheese and mashed potatoes with focaccia bread and, for dessert, bananas Foster bread pudding ϖ
Journal photo by Kaitlin Candelaria
