What a treat to have this recipe from Holly Hollman.  Holly is a Spirit of Athens board member and Grant Coordinator/Communications Specialist for the City of Athens.  This is her mother's recipe for fried pies.  Enjoy!!

Momma Shirley’s Chocolate Fried Pies

By Shirley Hollman, St. Joseph, Tenn.

Chocolate Filling

1 ¼ Cup Sugar

1 Cup Milk

½ Cup Plain Flour

4 TB Butter

1 TB Cocoa

1 Tsp Vanilla

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan and cook until bubbly. Let cool.

Crust

Momma Shirley prefers using Texas Butter-Me Not Biscuits if you can find them. If not, use a butter flavor biscuit dough.

Roll out the dough and using a saucer, cut the dough into circles. Place chocolate filling in the center of the circles. Fold each circle in half and use a fork to mash the edges of the dough together. Fry in oil until golden brown.

YUM!!

Just in case you were wondering how to make your own toga...

This article was published in the News Courier on April 22, 2012.

In Athens, Ala., grease is the word...

By Kelly Kazek kelly@athensnews-courier.com

— In the South, “grease” was the word long before John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John claimed it. We found better uses for it than hair tonic, engine lubes and lyrics for the Bee Gees.

Have you ever heard of people eating “raw green tomatoes?” I didn’t think so.

Southern grandmas scoff at low-fat Pam cooking spray. Southern dads loosen their belts a notch in anticipation of Sunday dinner. Southern babies use country-fried steak to ease teething pain.

We know how to enjoy our food.

Sometimes our propensity to deep fry gets us into trouble. When Paula Deen the Butter Queen announced she had Type 2 diabetes, the rest of the world shouted “Ah-ha!”

And each time the obesity rate rises in Alabama, the state is on nationwide lists ranking how unhealthy we are.

And when our quiet, quaint little town of Athens, Ala., decided to hold an Athens Grease Festival, some news writers couldn’t help pointing out the folly of celebrating such unhealthy foods when one third of our population is obese.

You could almost hear them crying, “Oh, the humanity!”

Not this writer. As some of you know, I have a close, personal relationship with fried foods, which compete for my affections only with chocolate. Yes, my idea of perfect date is me and a fried MoonPie from the Dippin’ Dog.

So if outsiders try to criticize our Grease Festival, I am ready with a quick and profound comeback: “Oh, yeah?”

OK, while it may not sound like it, what I mean is, we have to use our brains. It’s not like chocolate-covered bacon and fried peach pies are everyday foods. We didn’t get fat by eating corn dogs at the fair. We got fat by eating corn dogs every day.

I think the festival is a great idea. On that day, we can unabashedly show our love for all things Southern, as well as all things Greek.

That means we can eat fried macaroni-and-cheese bites while wearing togas, which, if twisted just right, can be very slimming. At least, that’s what I’ve heard.

I know Southerners take enthusiasm for fried foods to extremes – “With God as my witness, I’ll never eat tofu again!” – but we also devise some of the more creative foods to fry.

I’m not talking about fried tarantulas, as in the Cambodian tradition, or Vietnamese fried silk worms. While I give them points for creativity, those foods are lacking in a thing we’ll call “presentation” and overflowing with that seasoning called, “ewwww.”

Vendors at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas take the prize for creative fried foods. There, you can find deep-fried peanut butter, jelly and banana sandwiches inspired by Elvis, and even deep fried Coca-Cola, which is actually fried cola-flavored batter covered in Coke syrup and served in a glass.

And just so you know, Time and Men’s Health magazines both list fried foods as cures for hangovers, so they can’t be all bad.

So as the September festival approaches, I ask that you take the lyrics to “Grease” to heart:

Grease is the word

It’s got gravy

It’s got meaning…

Oh, wait. Maybe I’ve been singing that wrong.

Any-hoo, see you in September!

The following article was written by Adam Smith and published in the News Courier on April 18. 

Ever been to Athens, Grease?

There's a new festival in town

By Adam Smith adam@athensnews-courier.com

— An Athens festival planned for the fall will celebrate all things fried, while also paying homage to the city’s namesake.

Downtown revitalization group Spirit of Athens will host the inaugural Athens Grease Festival on Sept. 29, and organizers are already reveling in the possibilities.

“We’re having so much fun with it and it’s going to be a fun event to work on,” said Trisha Black, SOA executive director. “I know I can’t come up with all the ideas and I’m trying to reach out to some folks who will want to embrace it.”

The idea for the one-day food festival was borne out of the city’s community image building campaign that kicked off last spring. Consultants with the urban planning firm Arnett Muldrow & Associates suggested the city develop a unified food festival.

“We wanted to have the fried food, but also celebrate the Greek origin of our name,” Black said.

The end result could be a downtown Square full of vendors selling everything from fried Twinkies and Oreos to gyros and yogurt. Black said other ideas have included staging opening ceremonies and the crowning of a Caesar Augustus. It may also give residents a chance to wear a toga in public.

Black said the festival would act as a fundraiser for SOA, which also assists with Art on the Square, Cars on the Square and holiday events. She added vendor spaces would be rented out, and live music may also be staged.

“We’ll be working with merchants and hopefully we’ll only have to close a minimal amount of streets,” she said. “It’s going to be something that people will be interested in.”

The next step, she said, will be to form a committee to work on the festival, but Black also wants plenty of public input. Those who want to offer up ideas are encouraged to post those to the SOA’s Facebook page. She said a website containing information about the festival is also in the works.

Mayor Ronnie Marks said he’s excited about the festival, which could bring in visitors from across the state and region. He said the Sept. 29 date also presents a good opportunity for a big event ahead of the annual The Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddlers Convention held each October.

“This is so neat and it’s another good opportunity for families to come to Athens,” he said. “I think it will be well attended, but I don’t know if I’ll be stuffing a bunch of fried food down.”

For more information on Spirit of Athens, visit http://www.spiritofathens.com.