- 5 months ago
In this episode of Biscuits & Jam, Sid chats with Katie Lee Biegel about her Appalachian upbringing, love of comfort food, and journey from West Virginia to Food Network stardom. Katie shares stories of her famous family's cooking, her early media spotlight, and the career she built on passion and hospitality. They also talk fried chicken, sweet tea, her favorite restaurant ever, and how she’s juggling motherhood, movie-making, and mealtime.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Well, Katie Lee Beagle, welcome to Biscuits and Jam.
00:03Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here.
00:06It's great to see you. Where am I reaching you right now?
00:09I am in Southampton. So we're here for the summer and having a great time. I'm looking out at a
00:17beautiful sunny day right now. And a long way from West Virginia. I just want to say at the top that
00:22I'm a fan of your podcast. And I love talking to a fellow podcast host. Although it's a little
00:32intimidating, because you've probably done a lot more of these than I have.
00:35Oh, stop. I don't think so. I'm only a year into it, almost a year into it. And I just have such
00:41a good time talking to people. I like getting to know people like getting to know their stories. And
00:46a lot of the people that I talked to on all on the table, because it's a food focused podcast,
00:51are my peers who I've had longtime relationships with. But I've found that sometimes when you've
00:58known someone a long time, there are questions that just don't get brought up that maybe when
01:03you're meeting somebody fresh that you would talk about, and learning about friends past and learning
01:10about what got them into food. And maybe it was the what their first food memory is, but just sharing
01:16those and making that connection. Because I think food connects people so much. And I look at Southern
01:23Living. I'm a lifelong Southern Living fan. I remember my great grandmother would subscribe to
01:28it. We all lived in the same neighborhood. She subscribed and then would pass it around the
01:33neighborhood of the family members. And the way that those recipes would connect us. And I think that
01:40that's such a big part of every culture. And especially in Southern cooking, it's recipes that
01:48are passed down. Those are the heirlooms. Yeah, yeah. Do you find yourself interviewing a lot of
01:54people from the South on your show? I haven't gotten to interview a lot of Southerners. No, I'll tell
02:00you who I really want to interview. And I think we're going to make it happen is Cartier Brown.
02:05She is one of my favorite Southern cooks. I follow her on Instagram. And I want to eat everything that
02:12she makes. Yeah, Cartier is fantastic. I've had her on Biscuits and Jam. And we've done a couple of
02:21events with her over the years. And she's just such a big personality. She's just, you know, comes from
02:28such a culturally rich place. And, you know, her food stories, they just sort of pour out of her,
02:36you know? Yeah, yeah. She's an incredible chef. Well, so are you. And you've been at this for a
02:43really long time. And I want to talk about where you came from for a minute and talk about West
02:51Virginia. You're from a small town. Yeah, yeah. I'm from Milton, West Virginia. That's where I grew up.
02:58It's a town of 2,200 people. And that's where my heart is. That's such a big part of who I am,
03:07the way that I was raised and being from a small town and the sense of community and just the way
03:14that people treated each other with kindness and respect. And so much of my upbringing there
03:22was food focused. My grandma was the most incredible cook on the planet that ever lived.
03:29I'm sure a lot of people say that about their grandmas, but mine was. And my great aunt Pat,
03:35who also lived in our neighborhood. Pat's an amazing cook as well. My great grandmother was in the
03:41neighborhood. Pearl. Pearl was a champion. What a great name. Oh, great name. She won blue ribbons for
03:50her angel food cake. She entered all these contests with her angel food cake and she would win every
03:56contest. She won her washer dryer. She won her stove. She won her KitchenAid mixer. Everything was
04:03from that angel food cake. So my grandpa also had an amazing garden and it was just all very food
04:10focused. And we didn't know it at the time, but we were eating what's trendy now. We will talk about
04:17farm to table. That was the way that we ate. And that was just because that's what people did.
04:22And my grandma and Pat would, in the summertime, they'd be canned and green beans, canned and tomatoes.
04:30And my grandma had a room in her basement. She called the junk room. And the junk room was like a big
04:35closet and it was kind of cold in there and real dark. And that's where she kept all of her cans.
04:41So all those mason jars full of everything that my grandpa had gardened and harvested
04:47would go down to the junk room. And then there was also the big coffin freezer with all the meat in
04:54it. And so that's what we ate out of. Wow. She'd say, go down to the junk room and get me a can of
05:00green beans. What was your grandmother's name? Dora. Dora. I mean, these names, Dora and Pearl. I love it.
05:08Great names. Great. Oh, my grandpa, he had all the best names on his side with the women.
05:13It was like, or no, I'm sorry. My grandma's side, Lakey, Lainey. And then my grandpa's side had Vivian.
05:21And who was it? There was one that made the chicken and dumplings that was so good. I think that that was
05:27Petunia. I mean, it was like all these great names. And then he had the men were Thurman and Delmas.
05:37Tellmas. Yes. Great names. Oh, those are the best. So Katie, you've been on this show,
05:47The Kitchen, for what, 10, 11 years now? It's been 11, 11 and a half years now,
05:54which is crazy. I mean, it's like dinosaur amount of time. Well, in television years,
06:02that's like a century. Yes. Yeah. So I always, I hold my breath every time waiting for a pickup
06:08because you just never know in this business. Well, so it's called The Kitchen. I want you to
06:15tell me about the kitchen that you grew up in, the one that is really kind of seared in your memory.
06:20And it might've been in your house or it might've been your grandmother's house,
06:24but kind of paint a picture for me of what that looked like.
06:27Oh, that's such a great question. I've never thought about the connection of The Kitchen,
06:32The Show, and then The Kitchen of growing up because it is such a big part of, I think,
06:38a part of everybody and their history. And I think that's why we called The Show,
06:42The Kitchen, because everybody wants to just be in the kitchen. You know, when you have a party or
06:46you have people over, you just want to hang out in the kitchen. And that was certainly the way that
06:50I grew up. So the kitchen that I remember the most is my grandma's because she was my babysitter.
06:55And my mom and I would go over there. My mom was a school teacher. We would go over almost every
07:01evening for dinner. We'd go to my grandma's. I tell my mom now how lucky she was. She didn't have
07:08to think about what was for dinner. We just showed up and somebody fed us, somebody fed us great food,
07:13but I would hang out in there. And my grandma was just such a good cook. She wasn't measuring,
07:19even when she would make biscuits, it was her hand going into the flour and scooping it out. And
07:25everything she made, she just had, she had the touch. That's what she called it. She said,
07:31people who can cook have the touch. And she really had the touch. So I just think of my best memories
07:40in there when we had holidays, it was always a buffet, just go in and serve yourself. And then there
07:47was a kitchen table and that's where the kids sat. So the kids sat at the kitchen table,
07:52the grownups sat in the dining room. And I loved sitting at that kitchen table with my cousins.
07:58We had so much fun. And then on weekends, on Saturdays and Sundays, my grandma always cooked
08:04a big breakfast and my aunt and uncle would come over. My mom and I would be there. The grownups
08:10would be drinking their coffee. And I liked to kind of linger and listen to what they were talking
08:14about. And here in the inside scoop of life and she'd make biscuits and gravy, or she'd make a big
08:22stack of pancakes. The food was just excellent. And it was this feeling of warmth and it wasn't fancy
08:31at all. It was a real humble kitchen, but man, that was the best place.
08:37So I think of, you know, this part of West Virginia being kind of Appalachia and, and I'm wondering if
08:43you feel a connection to kind of Appalachian traditions and, and Appalachian food and cooking.
08:52I do. I, I think that Appalachia is very distinct and has its own traditions and its own kind of cuisine.
09:00I loved growing up. Um, one of my favorite meals was a bowl of pinto beans, some kind of greens,
09:09whether it was collard, kale, dandelion greens, any of those that she'd cook fried potatoes and, um,
09:19cornbread. So we had homemade cornbread almost every single night. There was a new batch of cornbread
09:25made and it was the tangy cornbread, not sweet cornbread. So buttermilk. And she would heat up
09:32the cast iron skillet and pour the, the cornbread batter in there. So it would get real crispy
09:37and bake that. Um, and then we'd have chow chow and like all the good Appalachian food. Um,
09:46one recipe that I really love that stood out to me was baked steak and gravy. And that's a very
09:53traditional Appalachian dish baked steak and gravy, baked steak and gravy. So it's a cube steak. So
09:59like an eye round that gets put in the tenderizer, you dredge it in flour and then fry it up, make a
10:06gravy and then bake it for about two hours. And it's so tender. It just falls apart. So that was a
10:11recipe I loved with mashed potatoes. Um, but I think it was really just so much about homemade food
10:18and using what they had. And my grandparents both grew up without a lot of money. My grandma was
10:26very poor growing up. So I think that it was about, um, saving and she would make, she called them Logan
10:34County burgers because she was from Logan County, West Virginia. And it was, you know, very poor rural
10:42area. So she called her burgers, Logan County burgers, because she'd make them so thin to stretch
10:49the meat and they were delicious. And she put them on white bread. I mean, really it was a patty melt
10:53white bread with American cheese and that thin little burger patty. Now fast forward in 2008,
11:00the first New York city food and wine burger bash. I entered those burgers into the contest and made
11:08them. I made 1500 Logan County burgers. Oh my gosh. And I won. So I love that I won with her poor
11:18little burger. And I was against these chefs. They were chefs that put foie gras on their burgers,
11:23all this stuff. And it just goes to show that down home cooking rules every time.
11:29I mean, that is the best. I mean, I don't know if she was around at that point.
11:35She was. She was. So she got to celebrate that with you. Oh, that's great.
11:44I was so stunned when I won that contest and it was actually a kind of scandalous in the food world.
11:51New York magazine did a story on where these really burgers, because it was on white bread.
11:56I was like, come on people. But it actually kind of catapulted my career to have won the contest and
12:04to have had the, the press around it, the controversy. So it was those burgers. That's
12:10what did it. Oh, that's the best. We've got to track down that recipe, Katie. Yeah. Yeah. I'll send
12:16it to you. You go to college in, um, at Miami university. In Ohio. Yes. And in Ohio. And, uh,
12:25I'm, I'm wondering if that was a big kind of leap for you coming from a small town.
12:32Yeah, it was different. And it was the first time I'd left home and, uh, Miami is in a small town as
12:40well. It's in Oxford, Ohio, but Oxford was certainly bigger than where I was from. And it was right
12:45outside of Cincinnati. We thought of Cincinnati as really being the big city. And I was nervous to
12:51leave home, but I really thrived. And, um, I think that my mom made me feel confident that I could do it.
12:59And during that time I did a study abroad in Italy, which really changed my life as well. I think that
13:07that was really important. Yeah. You were in Florence, right? Yes. Yes. I was in Florence and
13:12that just furthered my interest in the culinary arts. And, uh, it was a great experience. Yeah. I studied
13:20journalism and pursued writing and, um, you know, I think, I, I think like getting out of your comfort
13:30zone is always a good thing. And that's something now as an adult, I try to do as often as possible
13:35to, to push myself to not always be comfortable. I studied in Florence too, by the way. Oh, you did?
13:42Yeah. And it really, and I ended up minoring in Italian and I just, I've forgotten all of it,
13:47but I, uh, yeah, that was, uh, you know, for a kid from Memphis, that was a pretty big
13:53adventure. And, and, uh, yeah. To see a place that's so old and so steeped in culture and just,
14:01you know, and the food culture there is just, you know, obviously.
14:06And your eyes open that there's this whole big world out there.
14:09Yeah. Yeah. You've always been interested in journalism and writing and you studied that in
14:16school and I mean, you've written a novel and you know, you're, you're a storyteller and, um,
14:26and then you've also got this interest in cooking and food. And I'm, you know, I'm wondering when you
14:30kind of figured out that those were connected. I'll tell you, I figured it out in college. I started
14:37reading food magazines like gourmet and food and wine. And, um, I started, and that was also the
14:46time that sex in the city got popular. And I was watching sex in the city and Carrie was a columnist
14:54and I thought, what if I could write about food? I love food. And I could be like Carrie Bradshaw in
15:01New York city and writing about food. And so that was really when I started thinking about it. And I
15:06started taking food science classes in college. And I also took a class. The other class that I think
15:13back to this is probably, uh, helped me the most in my career. I took a technical writing class.
15:19And one of the things we had to learn in technical writing was how to write a recipe. So I learned like
15:26the steps of how you write it, how the ingredients are supposed to be listed, the abbreviations that can
15:32be used, how you're supposed to lay out the format of the, um, description of, of how to, the process.
15:40So it's funny looking back at that technical writing was a required course for me. And I remember signing
15:46up and like rolling my eyes, like, why do I have to take this to learn how to write directions?
15:51Yeah. Well, let me tell you, there are plenty of chefs and brilliant ones that, that we work with
16:01all the time that do not know how to write a recipe. You know, they forget steps and they just say, Oh,
16:09just, you know, this is how it goes. And then, you know, it takes a little work to kind of get it into
16:14something that, that, you know, you could actually publish. I've heard that from other people. You're
16:21not the only one who's told me that. Yeah. You figure this out in college and not long after
16:27college, you, you married a rather famous musician. You married Billy Joel. Um, and y'all were married
16:35for five or six years or so. We were together seven years, seven years. So did y'all connect over food?
16:41He was very interested in food as well. And I moved to the Hamptons where I am now. And this area
16:49is so, um, rich with great ingredients. And it's funny because it actually reminds me of where I'm
16:56from in the sense that it is a small town and it is based around farms, even though it's glitz and
17:02glamour. Um, you can do that or you can do the other side, which is kind of like my days are filled
17:08with going to farm stands and, and going to the beach and having a pretty casual life and cooking.
17:14But so when I came here, which was right after college and I started working in a fish market
17:20and, um, it was here that I thought, well, let me try to start writing. And I got a column in
17:30Hamptons magazine and I was able to write about the food scene here. And this is where I started then
17:37pursuing my career and, and finding that, Hey, I can actually make something out of this.
17:43Well, and you've always, it seems like so much of what you've done, um, you can do anything. I mean,
17:51you can do any kind of recipe, but you seem to be really known for your comfort food recipes and,
17:58and that's, you know, kind of goes right back to your West Virginia roots. Is that fair to say?
18:04I think so. I think whenever you're authentic to, um, what feels like your true self, that that's
18:11when you have success. So I, I do, I love comfort food. And for me, that isn't just like big heavy
18:19food. It's also really fresh, um, farm fresh. Like I, right before we sat down to do this interview,
18:27I went downstairs and I made myself a chicken salad and tomato sandwich. And I had bought this really
18:34good. There's a girl out here. Um, it's called a big fresh bakery and she's making whole wheat
18:39sourdough bread. So I sliced that toasted it. And then I'd buy this chicken salad from the place
18:45called round swamp that makes the best chicken salad I've ever had in my life. And then I had
18:50from the farm, a big ripe juicy tomato. So I did a thick slice of that, but salt on it and then put it
18:57on that toasted sourdough with the chicken salad and I was eating it thinking like, gosh, is there
19:04anything better than this? So it's like, that's comfort food too. And then last night we had our
19:11neighbors over and I made, um, grilled tuna and I cut corn off the cob and sauteed it in some butter.
19:20And we had another tomato salad. I basically turn into a tomato this time of year. It was like I
19:27multiple times a day having tomatoes. So I did heirloom tomatoes and put some fresh herbs in there.
19:33I had an avocado in the fridge. So I put that in and some cucumber and then just a ton of vinegar
19:39and some extra virgin olive oil. And then I made a big salad as well. And it's like so simple.
19:46Nothing took more. I mean, the whole dinner I put together in about 20 minutes
19:50and that's comfort food for me. It doesn't have to be, you know, macaroni and cheese is comfort food
19:56too, but it doesn't always have to be like that big heavy food. Did you learn, um, how to entertain
20:05from your, from your mom or your grandmother, or was that something that you kind of just the,
20:12the sort of hospitality? It seems like it comes very naturally to you, but is that something you
20:17picked up from them? I think I learned the feeling of hospitality from the way that my grandma would
20:24make people feel when they were in her house of just feeling like we can relax and the etiquette
20:30police aren't coming out and like everybody just have a good time. My mom, when I was in high school,
20:37entertained more. And she was in a club where it was a film club. And so each person each month would,
20:44um, show a movie and have food and wine. And so when it would be my mom's month, I would always help
20:52her. I was like her caterer. So I started learning about, uh, appetizers and hors d'oeuvres and what to
21:00make and pairing with wine. So that was when I started to get interested in it. And then as an adult,
21:06I just really kind of gravitated towards entertaining. I loved having people over.
21:14I loved the experience. I will say like here in the Hamptons, the, the parties sometimes can be a
21:21little over the top and people can be a little snooty tooty. And I did not connect with that.
21:29And so I thought I got to do this my way. I want to, I want to socialize, but I want to do it in a
21:37relaxed manner. So I think that was kind of what pushed me towards entertaining was wanting to hang
21:44out with my friends, but not having to feel like this needs to be formal.
21:48Just do it on your own terms and your own style and have people come over and relax. And, and yeah,
21:55people just want to be comfortable. They're happy to be invited to your house. It doesn't have to be
22:00like some fancy schmance.
22:02You know, you've been on the kitchen for, as we said, you know, 11 years now, and you've got,
22:08um, so many people watching and you've got like a million followers, I think on Instagram,
22:15and you've got this big audience that you're reaching all the time. But,
22:18you know, so much of what you're doing is you're in a studio and you're not necessarily interacting
22:26with people, um, you know, in person, but I'm wondering what are some things that you hear
22:33from people when you do get the chance to do that, you know, when you're doing an event or,
22:38um, you're just, when you meet people that, that follow you and, and watch, watch the show.
22:44I love when I get to meet people who watch the kitchen. Sometimes I'll get a direct message
22:48from somebody and they'll say, I saw you at the grocery store today, but I didn't want to say
22:53anything. And I always write back and say, say hi next time, because you're right. Because we're
22:59in a studio, we, we don't have that face to face. And because so much of connection is social media,
23:04you're doing it through a device and not in person. So a couple of years ago, I co-founded a wine
23:11label called kind of wild. And, and I go out and do these wine tastings all the time now.
23:18So probably once or twice a month, I'll go to a wine store and I'll set up a table and I'll pour
23:22samples. And I love it because I get to connect with people and I get to talk in person. I get
23:28to hear about what people are making. If they try to recipe that they like, or I can recommend to them
23:35a wine to serve with what they're making for dinner that evening. So for me, when I get the
23:41opportunity to do that, I really enjoy it. And we've done a lot of these wine tastings now and
23:47it's really fun. And that's, that's what food and wine is all about. It's about talking and
23:51connecting. Well, you need to come do one of those in Birmingham. I sure would like to.
23:57We have to figure that out. Yes. Are you ready to do this rapid fire thing that we call the jam
24:03session? I'd love to. All right. Biscuits or cornbread? Biscuits. Although that's, that's actually
24:09like not a fair question because I love cornbread too. Well, and you just made that cornbread
24:15sound so good a couple of minutes ago. Well, I like cornbread. You got to have some molasses
24:21and put a little pat of butter in it and smash up the butter with your fork and then dip your
24:27cornbread in that. But I'm a biscuit girl throwing through. That's the first thing I ever learned
24:31how to cook. And it's my favorite always. All right. Red, white, or rosé?
24:37Another hard one. It depends on what I'm eating. It depends on what we're cooking. So right now,
24:42if I'm making burgers, I'm going to have Pinot Noir with a slight chill on it because I love a
24:47chilled red wine in the summer. If, and we have a great one, kind of wild from California. If I'm doing
24:55white, I am going for our Gruner Veltliner, which is made in Austria. And it's really
25:01bright and crisp. And I'm going to make a creamy zucchini pasta that I have with that. And if I'm
25:06going rosé, which I drink a lot of our kind of wild rosé, I'm probably going to make something
25:14barbecue, like barbecue chicken, because the spice and the fruitiness of the wine really play well
25:21together. Okay. So basically all three. Yes. Yes. I am an equal opportunity wine drinker.
25:26Okay. Mountains or beach? Beach. Even though I'm from Mountain Mama State, like we looked forward to
25:35our summer vacation at Myrtle Beach every year. And now I'm living at the beach and I love it.
25:41Oh, Myrtle Beach. You went to Myrtle? Yes. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We always,
25:45my grandparents, they had a camper that we would take and go camping at Myrtle Beach.
25:50Okay. That's a whole other story we got to get to sometime. All right. Barbecue joint or seafood
25:56dive? Oh, man, these questions are just too hard, but I'm going to go seafood dive.
26:02Other than The Kitchen, my favorite TV show about food and cooking is blank.
26:07Somebody Feed Phil on Netflix. My husband produces that.
26:12Okay. Easy answer. Yeah.
26:13Um, the best dog I've ever had was named blank. Well, my guy Gus right now, I love Gus, but I had
26:21a soulmate dog and that was Fanula. Fanula was my little black pug and she lived to be 17 years old.
26:29And that dog, she was my soulmate. What a great name.
26:34It's an Irish name. Yeah. Fanula. I actually tattooed her name on my foot.
26:39Oh, I love that. Um, all right. My idea of the perfect summer sandwich is blank.
26:46Oh, cushy white bread, lots of mayonnaise and a thick slice of the ripest, juiciest tomato with
26:53flaky sea salt. Yeah. That's, that's hard to beat, right? That's all. I just wanted tomato
26:58sandwiches every day. I mean, today I put some chicken salad on it, but tomatoes where it's at.
27:03It's all about the tomato. Okay. If I had to pick one desert Island pantry item, it would be blank.
27:11I guess beans. I love beans. And that would, you know, keep you nice and strong and healthy.
27:17Yeah. You can survive on those for a long time. And that's a good, that's the West Virginia girl
27:21talking. Yeah, exactly. If I have a cooking Achilles heel, it's blank. I don't like washing
27:27everything. Like I love produce and I cook so much produce, but the washing part is my least favorite.
27:34All right. Last one. The most Southern thing about me is blank.
27:38Ah, the most Southern thing about me is that I like to take to the bed,
27:43put on a house dress and lay in bed and watch TV.
27:49I love it. I love it. So Katie, um, you've got a, you've got a new movie coming out
27:56on the Hallmark channel that you, I believe you wrote and produced. And I think you're even,
28:03you have a cameo or you're starring in it.
28:05I do. Yes. I have a little part.
28:07It's called catch of the day. Um, and, uh, this must be exciting, um, for you. Um, so tell me a
28:15little bit about, you know, what this meant to you and what was the highlight of making it.
28:21I'm so excited about catch of the day. Um, it comes out August 30th and I had done one movie
28:29with Hallmark groundswell, which was based on my novel, but I didn't write that one. And I always
28:34really wanted to write a movie. So a few weeks after groundswell came out, I was reading an article
28:40in the New York times about Montauk, which is a small town at the end of Long Island.
28:47It was a commercial fishing town. That's kind of, well, it's changed a lot in the 20 years that
28:54I've been here. Now it's a trendy places, clubs, and it's just a, it's a different town. I don't
29:01recognize it from what it used to be, but I read this article about how so many of the mom and pop
29:08shops have been driven out, but that millennials were moving back to take over their family
29:13businesses to save their businesses from developers. So I started thinking about this one restaurant
29:21that I always loved called Dave's grill. It was my number one restaurant and they were pushed out
29:26of their space by a landlord wanting more money. So I was thinking about Dave's grill. I was thinking
29:31about this town that's changed so much and thinking about all over America, how mom and pop businesses
29:37are getting pushed out. And so I came up with the idea for catch of the day that is about a young
29:43woman named Sophie Monaghan. She grew up in Montauk in her parents' restaurant. Her dad had a restaurant
29:51and she left and moved to New York city and worked in a really fancy restaurant. Her father passed away,
29:57her sister took over and she gets a call from her sister the night that they get their four-star review
30:02saying, you've got to come home. You are the last chance for our restaurant. So Sophie goes home
30:09reluctantly. And of course she reconnects with her high school crush. His name's Cam Easton.
30:15What do you know? Yeah.
30:16Yeah. Right. And so it's a love story. It's a family story about the sisters dynamic. And it's also
30:23a story of what I think is happening all over the country with small businesses. So I'm really excited
30:31about it. I co-wrote it with Andrea Canning. If you know her from Dateline, Hallmark made the movie
30:37and I'm just super excited about it. And I got to be in it. I have a part, I play a food blogger
30:44and we filmed it last September. And so I can't wait for everybody to see it.
30:51Oh, that's great. That's very exciting. And, and it sounds like it could very easily just have been,
30:56have been said in the South too, because there's, there's so much of that happening
31:00in this part of the world.
31:02Many of the communities that are based on tourism, I think that that really is a struggle,
31:09staying open all year long. And then more and more of these developers just come in and take over.
31:17Well, that's very exciting about the movie and, and, uh, congrats and hope you're going to have a
31:23fun, uh, preview party or, or something. I need to invite some friends over.
31:30So, uh, Katie, I want to ask you about a recipe or two and, and, uh, there's one that,
31:36that jumped out at me. Um, a few months ago you made something called, I think it was sweet tea
31:43oven fried chicken. Oh yes. Yes. And it caught my attention because you said that your grandmother
31:51used to make a version of this. Um, and, uh, it seems like it was a, it was a hit on the show.
31:58So tell me about that recipe and what kind of inspired it.
32:02Yeah, this is actually my husband's favorite thing that I make.
32:05Oh, it is.
32:06Yeah. So she would make oven fried chicken and basically it's just, you take, she would do it
32:11in a big Pyrex dish and you put a stick of butter in the dish and you put it in the oven and let the
32:16butter melt. And in the meantime, it, she would use a brown paper bag filled with flour and shake it
32:22up. And then you put the chicken skin side down on that butter and put it back in and then flip it.
32:28So it kind of fries in the butter, but also it's the chicken fat renders from the skin and fries
32:33itself in the oven. So I thought, why not brine the chicken first to give it even more flavor.
32:39So I brine it in sweet tea overnight or four hours really will give you enough, but overnight's
32:46better. And then it gets like this wonderful hint of sweetness to it. It's so good. And it's such an
32:54easy recipe. Everybody goes nuts for it.
32:57Well, and if they've had, you know, other recipes of yours, that's, that's saying something. So there's
33:03a bunch of salt I'm guessing as well in the brine. I mean, that's the point of the brine. No.
33:07So what I do, because I didn't want to have to heat up the sweet tea to add the salt for the salt
33:14to dissolve and then have to cool it again. Cause I felt like that was just too many steps.
33:19So I put soy sauce in the sweet tea. So that gives the saltiness, but it also gives like this
33:26umami. Yeah. And so it just adds so much more flavor and it cuts out the step of having to heat up
33:33the tea to dissolve the salt. Oh, that sounds good. It's good. It's a good one. Well, it looked good.
33:39I can tell you that. Thank you. I mean, people think it's fried. It gets all nice and crispy and
33:45brown. Yeah. So it's even maybe a little healthier. Yes. Yes. A little bit. Another one. So you mentioned
33:53this is your husband, Ryan's favorite. Um, but there's another one called engagement chicken
33:58that you, uh, I think you did on the show and, and seems to have gotten. Oh, the marry me,
34:05marry me chicken. Oh, is it? Marry me chicken. Marry me chicken. Yeah. Okay. That's it. Yeah.
34:10Yeah. So yeah, that one seems like that, uh, had some kind of magical powers to it as well.
34:17Yes. The marry me chicken's great. Um, so that you make, uh, a sun-dried tomato sauce and cook the
34:25chicken in it. I actually just made it last week. I just posted it on my Instagram. I did marry me
34:31shrimp. So I thought for summertime, why not try the same technique, but with the shrimp. So you make
34:37this creamy sun-dried tomato sauce and cook the shrimp in it. And it was fabulous. Oh, that sounds
34:43good too. Yeah. He loves sun-dried tomatoes. You're cooking for, uh, another person as well these days,
34:51which is your daughter. Yes. She's my biggest critic. So yeah, I'm curious about like, is she,
34:58I'm sure that you want her to develop a real appreciation for food and cooking, um, and, um,
35:08to share some of the, you know, joy that you've gotten out of it. How's, how's that going? I mean,
35:14is she, um, is she developing, uh, you know, a real kind of palette or there are some things like
35:21she's thrilled to eat and I feel real proud of her. And then she still gives me a hard time on
35:26vegetables. Like I, I get tortured. Like if that kid ever eats broccoli, I will do a dance. I'd be so
35:33happy. Um, and meanwhile, like I love vegetables so much. Um, but she loves helping me cook.
35:40So I let her help me as much as possible. And Ryan has a small garden and she really likes helping
35:46him in the garden. Um, I got her one of those kids knives. That's a safer knife. And when I'm
35:53cooking a lot of times, what she likes to do is for me to give her ingredients that I'm using and a big
35:59bowl. And she cuts them up and she puts them all in the bowl. And it's kind of like, she's making her
36:03own concoction. And I give her a little thing of salt and give her the pepper grinder and maybe
36:10some vinegar and she's like pouring it all together and just making a mishmash. And on one hand, I think
36:17like, Oh, I'm kind of wasting these ingredients. But then on the other hand, she's enjoying herself.
36:21And if it gets her interested in food, I'm here for it. Yeah. I love that. And her name's Iris,
36:27which is such a pretty name. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm crazy about her. She's just the light
36:33of our life. Oh, I mean, of course. And, uh, but she's, she's got a long way to go. She's only what,
36:39she's five or six. She'll be five in September. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Very early in her cooking
36:45journey. She is. So does she have a connection to West Virginia? Um, I mean, is that something
36:51that you've been able to foster? Yeah, I've been taking her. We usually go about twice a year to
36:56see my mom and she loves going to see her Grammy. And, uh, we've taken her a couple of times to the
37:04Greenbrier in West Virginia, which I think is a really special place there, old hotel. And we like
37:11going there around Christmas. And so she enjoys that. Um, and I, I love taking her home and,
37:19and taking her to see where I grew up and see my friends that are there. Um, my best friend that
37:26I've had since I actually, we met at library story hour when we were four years old, she's still there.
37:32So to see my friend Alicia and her little girl, Josie, and let them know each other. And I think
37:38that's real important. Oh, that's great. That's great. Well, Katie, I just have one more question
37:43for you. Okay. What does it mean to you to be Southern? Gosh, that's a good question. I just,
37:48you know, it's funny. I never thought about myself being Southern until I left. And when I left West
37:53Virginia, I realized that we had a different culture and that, that I was Southern. And I just think of
38:01Southern people as caring about their neighbors and having a sense of community. And, uh, I have a
38:10real deep connection to where I'm from and I, I love it. And I, I hope that, um, I, I would really
38:21like to spend more time in West Virginia. I'd like to go back more and we can't ever forget where we came
38:27from. Well, especially, um, in the fall. Um, it's such an incredible place. I mean, just that,
38:34you know, that, um, it seems like that entire state is just kind of lit up with all the color,
38:41you know, West Virginia is the most underrated state in America. People got to get there more
38:47and see it. What a great place to go on a trip. And people don't realize that some of the best
38:52whitewater rafting in the world, hiking and just good people. And I'd say another thing for me that
38:58means to be Southern is absolutely the food. I think that it's some of the best food in America
39:04and, uh, I, I just love it. That's the truth. Well, Katie Lee Beagle, thanks so much for being
39:12on biscuits and jam. Thank you. Great to see you. You too.
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