South Pittsburg News

It might seem odd to compare an inanimate object with the living, but I can't help but equate the role of cast-iron cookware with that of being a grandmother.

Melanie McCoy, of Knoxville, Tenn., won the iron-skillet crown recently as the grand prize winner of the 2012 Martha White/Lodge Cast Iron National Cornbread Cook-Off with her recipe for Sweet Cornbread Shrimp Cakes With Mango Salsa.

My grandmother, Brenda Norman, was a proper English lady. She was dropped into the culture of Tennessee as a young bride when she and my grandfather immigrated to South Pittsburg.

The 16th annual National Cornbread Festival includes a 5K road race, festival activities downtown, cook-offs, entertainment, buttermilk chugs, dry cornbread eating, tours of the Lodge cookware plant and more.