Happy Birthday Mable Washington!

Today we celebrate a woman who has set the standard for what the kitchen at Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-b-que is all about. Mable Washington has developed recipes for us, taught us technique, and more important, shown us that food—scratch-made with honest products and a loving touch is the most delicious, most soul and body nourishing food we can put in our mouths. The pies we serve bear her name and she teaches all of our cooks exactly how to make them. It’s safe to say that Mable is the matriarch of Jim ‘N Nick’s. She’s worked with us for over 20 years and seven of her children and one grandchild has come to work with us. And for all the praise we have received for the pies that bear her name, this endorsement of the Jim ‘N Nicks's family, to her own family is the highest honor or accolade we could ever receive. Thank you Mable for your wisdom and talent.

We love you Mable and wish you the happiest of birthdays today!

Sweet Magic on your Holiday Plate

Sweet potatoes are magic. You can bake, mash, roast and fry them. George Washington Carver discovered myriad uses for the tubers and their leaves including a way to pave streets with a derivative of the potato! Their orange flesh is beautiful, nutritious, versatile, and delicious. Sweet potato casserole is a simple recipe to prepare and a delicious way to brighten up a winter plate. Jim ‘n Nick’s Executive Chef, Drew Robinson, shares his recipe for sweet potato casserole here. Oh, and if time gets away from you, don’t worry, you can order a casserole from Jim ‘n Nick’s to serve at your holiday table or come in to the restaurant on Fridays and try it along side some pulled pork or bbq chicken.

Jim ‘N Nick’s Sweet Potato Casserole

For the filling:

5 lbs. sweet potatoes peeled and sliced into 1 inch cubes

3 ounces melted whole butter

2 eggs, beaten

6 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Boil the sweet potatoes in water until they are fork tender. Once tender, strain the water and discard. Place sweet potatoes in a bowl of an electric mixer with the remaining ingredients and whip on high speed for about two minutes. They should be smooth and fluffy. Place the whipped sweet potato mixture into a 10 x 12 baking dish.

For the Topping:

8 tablespoons brown sugar

7 tablespoons flour

3 ounces butter diced into small pieces

½ cup chopped pecans

Mix brown sugar and flour together in a mixing bowl. Cut the butter in until the mixture becomes coarse and crumbly. Mix the pecans into the topping.

Sprinkle topping evenly over the sweet potato mixture in the baking dish. Place the casserole in a preheated 350 degree oven and bake for approximately 30 minutes until the toping is golden brown and a knife or toothpick inserted in the filling comes out clean.

Thanks for Helping Us, Help Others!

Scattered throughout previous posts on this blog, are mentions of collaborations with charities and organizations that we believe do good work. Organizations like Feeding America, the United Way, the Low Country Food Bank, Fertile Minds Learning Garden and Junior Achievement. Visit our community page on the Jim ‘N Nick’s website (www.jimnnicks.com/community) and you will find links to these good agencies and more. Supporting them is important to us because they are part of our collective and they help all of us out—including you. For that reason, our company’s charitable giving efforts include you as well. You, the Jim ‘N Nick’s customer, help make it possible for us to do that good work. By eating at our restaurants, you help all of these groups and more. It’s not just big organizations that get our help—it’s local and it’s personal.

There are Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q restaurants in 28 different towns; some small, some large. In those 28 different towns are people who make up a community and those people are our people. Within those neighborhoods, are individuals who have hopes, aspirations, problems and concerns—we all do. Some of those hopes or problems are rooted in deep and troubling situations while some of them are cause for celebration. There might be families struggling with emergencies or illnesses or it could be a young farmer who wants to bring good food to schools and to the people. Could be a group who wants to celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit of food trucks and urban homesteading or folks who collect stories from food artisans, fishermen, farmers and cooks. The point is, each neighborhood is different and each neighborhood matters.

Southerners love covered dish dinners, potluck gatherings and church dinner on the grounds. Parades of revelers carrying casseroles and buckets of fried chicken, deviled egg plates and cake carriers to a community gathering get our heart racing and mouths watering. There’s good food of course, but it’s the combination of the food and the folks that make it great. That’s why, when we pack up the Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q rig to haul to a charity event, it means more than just a day’s work. We know we are going to get out and meet our community and the very people who have the hopes and the problems or the great ideas and celebrations. It’s the same in our restaurants when guests gather at our table. We want to know who is dining with us, and what their story is. Everyone is part of the community.

Thank you for allowing us to be part of your community and for helping us bring good food, good people and good work to the table.