Boiling, bubbling
CLAY TWP — The Saturday cook-off could be smelled from a hundred yards away. Wood smoke. Baked beans. Stuffed peppers. Cobbler.
The contents of about a dozen cast-iron pots and pans of different sizes simmered, boiled and bubbled in several different fire pits in a backyard along Queen Junction Road.
“We actually started this last year,” said Ashley Young, an organizer of the event. “The rules are you have to cook in cast iron.”According to Young, what started last year as a family event has become an annual tradition.This year, it commemorated Young's mother Kim Hempfling. Hempfling died in March of breast cancer, according to Young.Young said October — breast cancer awareness month — seemed like a good time to hold the cook-off.“This was like her favorite event,” Young said.Though last year's event was mostly family, Young said this year's cook-off got a lot of attention on social media. The contest was open to friends and neighbors, as well as those who were part of the original event.With contestants arriving midmorning Saturday to start their recipes, judging was set for 4 p.m. Those who didn't cook, judged, with the winner taking home a trophy.That trophy will used year after year, according to Young. It will bear the signatures of every winner.Young said the roots of the event go back to a joke. Last year, the adults in the Hempfling family proposed a friendly cook-off. But Young's then-11-year-old nephew Ayden wanted to take it to the next level.Ayden won the 2019 contest with a steak recipe.This year, he made pumpkin spice Rice Krispies treats, topped with chocolate, M&Ms and sprinkles.“So I can win again,” Ayden, a student at Slippery Rock Area Middle School, said.“It gets really competitive,” Young said.But competition doesn't mean discord. Young said one of the reasons her family decided to have the event — and open it up to more people — was to grow closer as a community.“(With) all the negativity out there ... we just wanted to bring our family together,” Young said.Young's father, Rick Hempfling, said he knows how important it is to make time for family, particularly now. The pandemic can be isolating.“We do this kind of stuff a lot,” Rick Hempfling said. “The way things are going anymore, this is the way to do it.”Rick Hempfling said his family likes to switch traditions up. Past Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners, for instance, have been Mexican- and Italian-themed.Rick said Kim Hempfling was part of deciding this year's Christmas dinner concept: carnival food. Rick plans on making Italian hoagie kebabs.Young said next year her family hopes to have a pavilion built for events such as the cast iron cook-off.But in the meantime, they'll continue celebrating as much as they can as a family.“We don't turn anyone away,” Ashley said.Rick Hempfling said he advises anyone struggling to connect with others right now to go out and meet people.“Do stuff like this,” Rick Hempfling said. “Get together. Do different things.”
