Anyone who spends any time in Kentucky will tell you that you can't travel and enjoy the scenery or visit family or friends without a bite to eat. No matter where you go or what you do in the Bluegrass State, it's not a gathering unless you share some food and drink.

At a Kentucky foodways event sponsored by the University of Kentucky Special Collections Library, panel moderator John van Willigen reminisced about one of the first meals he was served when he visited Kentucky. One Sunday afternoon in a friend's south-central Kentucky home, van Willigen had the opportunity to stay for dinner. He described on the table a platter of fried chicken that was hot and golden-brown. But it wasn't this platter of chicken that impressed him. It was the side dishes that surrounded the platter of chicken-much of it from the garden that grew just outside the back door or from the jars of food preserved from last year's garden bounty-that made the meal. Sliced red tomatoes, green beans cooked with ham, steamy corn pudding, flaky biscuits, and thick-sliced sweet pickles, all piled high in bowls and strewn across the table, as the supporting cast for the chicken.

When I look back, that's pretty much the way most meals that I remember were served, too. Our large family ate dinner together almost every night of every week. My mom cooked meatloaf, roast beef, or pork roast and then on the side served the fresh stuff�sliced red or fried green tomatoes, sometimes tomato aspic, green beans, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, bread dumplings, corn pudding, pickled beets, red cabbage, baked beans, watermelon balls, or cooked apples....

-from the Introduction