>> They say you are what you eat, so I don't eat chicken feet, but I love me some of Grandma's pickled beets.
Well cut it up and put it in the pan, throw it over your shoulder and see where it lands.
Right here in Farmer's Kitchen.
Maters, taters, beans and corn, the cow's in the barn and the [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] sheeps been shorn.
Kids in the barnyard chasing Grandpa's chickens, chickens, CHICKENS!
Spices, slices cuts and dices, going to slash your grocery prices right here in Farmer's Kitchen.
Help you grow your garden good with recipes to suit your mood, try some grub you've never tried before.
Smash it with a wooden mallet going educate your palate, right here in Farmer's Kitchen.
In Tim Farmer's [MUSIC] Country Kitchen.
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] We gonna cook something good now.
>> Hello, and welcome to Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen, our 10th anniversary or birthday, you could say edition.
Now, [MUSIC] [MUSIC] as we get more viewers around the country, we'll get more questions, a whole lot of questions.
As a matter of fact, we're going to try to answer a few of those today.
And we're going to show you our timeline.
Now, I lost the use of my right arm as a young man.
I was serving in the Marine Corps at the time in a motorcycle accident, and I had to adjust to figure out how to do the things I loved.
One of them being fishing and hunting.
Now, over the years, with the help of a few friends, one of them named Bill Mitchell.
He brought in a magazine of a man shooting a bow with his teeth.
This was amazing to me, so I went and I got a piece of leather and I put it on my bow string.
Before long, I was shooting a bow.
Shortly thereafter, I started entering competitions and winning around the country, shooting for the IBO.
I started at Fish Wildlife as a fisheries fellow, loved my job, absolutely loved my job.
We would go out and we would manage state owned lakes.
Shock farm ponds help people with technical guidance with their personal ponds and lakes.
After a few years, I started shooting some video and started doing some hunting and fishing things on the side.
Next thing you know, I was talking to the outdoor channel.
At that same time, the former host of Kentucky Afield Dave Shuffett decided to move on to greener pastures.
At that point, I became host of Kentucky Afield in 1995, the oldest outdoor television show in the nation.
As host of that show, we hunted, we fished.
I thought about hunting and fishing maybe a little bit differently than a lot of people and hunting and fishing shows today.
It wasn't about the trophy.
It wasn't so much about the size of the rack or the size of the fish.
A lot of it was to bring fresh organic meat to the table.
When we did a deer hunting segment, it was most important to me to come back and say, OK, here's how to completely clean a deer efficiently not wasting any meat.
We did a deer processing video with my old buddy Sim Harp, and we showed how to take each part of that deer and make it the best we possibly could.
Then, through the years, I started meeting people who love to cook.
One of them was a professional chef.
He was a French chef.
Name was Raoul Dupris.
He was from Lyon, France, and he came here to visit his daughter, who was my neighbor.
We struck up a conversation as best we could with my limited French and his limited English.
One day he asked me if he could have a trout that he saw me bringing in, and he made this fantastic recipe.
I said something to his daughter, does he cook like this all the time, and then she told me he was too humble to say it, that he was a famous chef and made fantastic stuff.
So we started hanging around.
He started showing me recipes and sauces.
It was fantastic.
It was such a wonderful education.
He took me under his wing.
He showed me how to do things.
He showed me how to make sauces that accentuate flavors from various game recipes.
So I started cooking on television in 1995.
That was a long time ago.
Ten years ago, I started thinking about stepping outside of just the hunting and fishing world and doing a cooking show, not just cooking, but farming, gardening, stepping outside the kitchen and showing what it takes to bring food in.
Whether it be hunting, or fishing, gardening and having folks on to do things the old fashioned way.
I started thinking about a theme song about ten years ago, so I was mowing and it just popped into my head.
You are what you eat.
So I don't eat chicken feet.
I wanted the theme song to be kind of cartoonish kind of fun, but to show what we do on the show.
Our mission statement, per se.
So it began.
It was just me.
So we started having folks on like Bobby, Joe and Lois.
Then we started having Miss Helen on with her fried apple pies, and then we would do things in our own kitchen, such as canning.
We'd bring in stuff from the garden, and I asked Nicki what she thought about starting a show.
I would gradually try to get her to come on the show back in those early days.
It was just me standing up there doing stuff and having guests, and I would try to get her to come on.
And one of her early responses was as long as you do all the talking, I said, Well, Nicki, you got to talk to.
And she was very shy, very reserved.
So I would have her on occasionally, 2015, Nicki has a bad car accident breaks her neck.
She's home for twelve weeks.
I have to take off work for a long period of time to take care of her.
During that period of time, we started thinking maybe we should both be home.
I had almost 30 years in, I said, Well, why don't you come on and start doing the show with me full time?
She said, Well, I'll think about it.
Fast forward a couple of years, she retires from her job, and in 2018 she becomes officially the co-host of Tim Farmers Country Kitchen.
So when we first started, we did a lot of stuff outside on the patio.
Then we had our old kitchen.
Then we started cooking in the cabin.
A lot of people say, man we wish you'd go back in the cabin every now and then.
So today we're going to actually go back to the cabin and we're going to interview Mrs. Farmer and Kelli about the early days of the show and how fun it was to get this whole thing started.
So let's take a trip back to nostalgia land and go to the cabin.
[MUSIC] >> It's been a while, hasn't it.
Yes, since we've been up here.
Mm-Hmm.
One of the I remember now why we don't do as many shows up here in the summertime is it's so hot.
There's no air conditioning, just like the old days.
That's right.
But you know what?
As time has flown by, I look back on this ten years ago, we started thinking about this whole... What?
What did you think about me even doing something like this, a cooking show?
I figured it would go good because when you cooked on Kentucky Afield people loved it.
So I thought that would be great.
I like your idea because I was still working.
I'm like, Go for it.
Now, way early I would try to get Nicki to come on a show, and she says, No I don't do this, I don't do this TV thing.
I said, Nicki this is our kitchen.
It's not, you know, it's not a television show, per se.
It's just us cooking.
But what did you say?
Yes, but you would sneak me and you would act like you needed somebody to cut stuff or whatever.
Just come cut this up for me.
She said.
Please do all the talking.
I'd say as long as I didn't talk.
I can't do all the talking.
That's right.
I'm not.
I'm not a talker.
But before long, because Kelli's behind the camera.
And because we're in our setting in our kitchen, you kind of forget the cameras.
You kind of forget that it's a TV show.
And then now that we go out and we meet people who are from the show.
Right?
You kind of know who we're talking to out there.
And plus, I'm hungry.
I'm starving.
So just I want to eat.
So I'm good.
I'm good to cook.
So some of the questions that have been on the show was why wasn't anybody included in the title song, which I wrote almost to the day ten years ago and recorded in our studio?
At that time, there was no Nicki and there wasn't even Kelli at that time.
We had another producer who started out for a very short time.
And Kelli came back to Kentucky and she stepped right in and did a fantastic job.
Don't tell her I won't tell her.
So when I wrote the song, it was just Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen.
If I had to go back and maybe someday I will redo this.
I like the song.
I like it like it is.
I think we'll change it someday, though.
So anyhow, it turned out to be this family thing.
So looking back, are you glad we did it?
Yeah, I am.
This is fun.
I'm enjoying myself.
Now, we got to bring Kelli up here because she's been a huge part of this.
So ten years ago, she moved from Virginia back to here.
She came in, looked around.
She had her education in this field since she was a little kid.
She was interested in behind the camera.
The editing process.
She did some videos of you.
She's really good.
But don't tell.
Let's get Kelli on here to talk about the early days of Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen.
Here's Kelli.
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] She's behind the camera.
She worked really hard to make a good job.
What were your thoughts when I said, you thinking, OK?
He's doing a cooking show.
He's got the music ready.
Did you think that would be a cool job?
Yeah, because that's all I watched was cooking shows, so I was excited.
Now I got to say she's a great cook in her own right.
She does amazing.
No seriously, she has this over every now and then.
For somebody's birthday or something, she cooks these huge meals.
They're absolutely extraordinary.
I learned from the best.
It's genetic.
So we look back and you think about the early days.
Think about some of the early shows that you did.
What some of your favorite things that you've done over the years.
The hog killing that was so interesting.
I had never even >> seen that process.
So like the whole, we spent like that whole day doing it.
Yeah.
And that was just cool to see all behind the scenes.
Some stuff I didn't want to see, but it was still really cool.
I was like, I'd never experienced that because we're more city kids.
>> Yeah.
And you know, you think about this, the old timer said they use everything except for the squeal.
They did.
Everything was used.
So did you, did you find that, any did you get >> queasy or I didn't eat anything that day.
I will eat pork to this day.
I still love pork.
It was cool to see, but during it I couldn't eat it.
All right, go back.
What are some of the things you've worked on that you've enjoyed or people maybe that we've had on or things that we've done?
Obviously, your venison roast is my favorite recipe to this day.
I make it for everyone I did with the mustard, yes with the mustard and oh so good.
That was a happy mistake.
That was just stuff I mixed together.
I think I made it last night.
No kidding.
It's my favorite one, but I loved the chicken feet was so interesting to me.
I like all the weird ones and then the cow head tacos like those were just, I mean, stuff that you wouldn't just eat and at all you did.
And I didn't.
Now, when the eyeball popped in my mouth, I was like, OK, well, that's different.
It still was pretty tasty.
But even cow tongue we did that.
That was actually delicious.
I thought that was good smoked.
I like all the weird stuff, I guess.
>> So ten years.
Can you believe ten years has flown by.
You were in Busch Gardens doing stuff for them.
You came up here.
Did you think it would work?
What were your thoughts?
>> I never thought it wouldn't.
I just didn't know, like, I didn't know what to expect because I'd never worked for a TV show.
Like, I had done videos for them for like their online and stuff, but never.
I was excited it was fun, I've learned I feel like looking at our old stuff to now, how much we've just learned from filming is cool.
Now let me tell you something about her.
>> It took me years and years and years to gain the title executive producer.
I don't know for anybody as young as her has ever been co-executive producer of a television show.
And you know what?
She earned it almost immediately.
She came up with these ideas.
She came up with this.
She came up with that.
She learned the system that I had used over the years and added to that.
She's a perfectionist, so I give her that.
So what are some things you like to do the next ten years?
Cook.
>> You want to cook on the show?
No, not me.
Today?.
No, no, no.
I'm good.
I'm good.
I'm talking about for the show.
What would you like to do.
We'd love it, Kelli needs to cook on the show Nicki, what do you think?
I do like traveling, I think it's fun to see other places and go other places, but I just love eating all your food.
That's my favorite part of working the show.
>> So this is Kelli I would clap for her if I could.
I got you.
Great job.
Wonderful job.
I'm looking forward to the future.
Now, let's get Nicki back in here.
Do you want to cook you something for lunch?
Please.
I'm starving.
How about some catfish?
Sounds good.
Let's do it.
[MUSIC] >> We got chocolate on our peanut butter, my goodness.
And vice versa.
That's not going to be good.
Nobody will want to eat that.
I will.
I want to eat it.
Nobody will want to eat that.
There.
Papa may I please >> eat it?
Ohh that looks terrible.
Papa, we're going to have to spank your butt if [MUSIC] >> you don't let us eat that right Grandma?
With a metal spoon.
>> Let's think about this.
What are your favorite things that you like to watch and why?
On the show?
>> I love the grandkids.
Always, you know that and our parents.
I like when you document like you documented Dad which I really appreciate and I love watching the kids.
They make me laugh.
I watch them.
You catch me upstairs watching the kids all the time.
I knew >> the answer to that question.
They're hilarious.
You know, it's funny.
You know, we interviewed your dad.
Mm-Hmm.
I was sitting right there.
He was sitting right there.
We both knew that he was slipping.
Right?
And I thought, you know, I'm going to sit and talk with him and grab some things that he had talked about over the years.
I remember the ice truck, not the ice cream truck, but the ice truck that he talked about.
You know, that's not too many people are going to have a memory like that.
He was out in the country, but Papa Bill's is not with us anymore.
We have that.
I'm glad you did that.
We can go back and look.
And the grandkids, when they started, they were this big, now they're this big.
It's amazing.
It is.
You know what?
I promised a new recipe in an old, familiar setting.
Yes, you did.
So I guess we better get busy.
You know, our recipes to tell the truth are a lot of times happy accidents, right?
Or conglomerations of other things, other people's recipes that we add something here.
Add something there.
You're going to make a cold salad that's just absolutely delicious.
Easy to make your mom make something like this, Kelli makes something like this.
But we kind of have taken and hybridized it, you had a couple of new things.
That's right.
And we have this happy accident.
Tastes really good.
I'm going to take some catfish.
You love catfish?
I do love catfish.
If you don't like catfish, here's still a good flour cornmeal batter.
What's the problem that you have with catfish?
Most often is getting the temperature right inside and out and having the batter stay on?
Right?
But first, let's get the salad going Mrs. Farmer.
And this is simple.
Everybody probably does this salad.
Mayonnaise, I got probably two tablespoons here.
Our secret ingredient is chow chow.
And this is your mom's recipe that we've bottle.
That's wonderful.
People can make their own, or you could buy sweet pickles.
And I think that's what gives it the best flavor.
I love some chow chow or some people call it end of garden relish.
Couple of big scoops.
Mom makes this.
This is a little different from hers, but you can.
You can do whatever you want with your chow chow.
A little bit of ranch dressing, dry ranch dressing.
Just mix it up.
What is it about teaspoon, tablespoon?
And you know, you kind of taste it.
See what you like.
I like it a lot.
So simple.
I've already made my noodles, so we're going to add those in a minute.
I cooked them and I chilled them.
Just to box?
Half a box.
I didn't do a whole lot because it's just me and you.
Peas.
Did you already cook those.
I already cooked the noodles, the peas, no, the peas were just shucked and they're fresh and like, I could just, oh, those are fresh.
Sweet peas.
Love it.
Peas.
A little bit of broccoli in here.
It's like the edges of a little.
Sweet peppers.
I like those, too.
Yeah, those aren't hot, those are sweet.
I like them just for the color.
And it's nice to get a little crunch in there.
We had some of this yesterday and I ate quite a bit of it, Mrs. Farmer.
It goes good with your fish.
It does look a little cold Now, usually sometimes, here's a behind the scenes secret.
The day before we do something on the show we'll cook it to make sure that it's perfect for you.
And a lot of times over the years, things change.
My catfish batter recipe again will change in the next five years.
And every time I do something, that really thrills me.
I'll share with you.
Alright, something else we're going to add I have some uncared ham I got here the other day.
It's a couple of little pieces of meat and there would be good.
I like what you got going on here.
Yes, you, want me stir it?
Yes.
Thank you.
All right.
What next?
And I'm as I've already going to play in these.
My hands are clean.
Let's just add some noodles.
These are cold.
I already cooked them and kind of chilled them, because you don't want to put them in hot and mess up your salad.
Isn't that pretty?
This is beautiful.
That is so summery looking.
Isn't that?
All right.
Something that I thought of that would be great to add to this, but almost forgot the smoked cheddar cheese that's smoked white cheddar.
And let me tell you what, it really sets it off.
I can smell that cheese right now, and it just adds so much.
Now, if you want to put some fresh ground black pepper on there, Ohhh, I want to eat all that right now.
Set aside?
You want me to set it aside?
Yeah set it aside.
Remember when you did that to Natalie?
You want me to set it more aside?
Set it aside again.
>> Now you set this aside for five more minutes.
Oh set it aside.
Gotta set it aside.
What if I want to sit on that side?
Too bad.
What now?
Why do we set that aside?
It's because you have to let it sit.
So it can rise I think?
So set aside.
>> All right.
We like to fish.
Mm-Hmm.
That's what I did for a living for a lot of years.
Not too long ago, we got some catfish.
Here's Nickyi with a picture.
This was in Kentucky.
Lake.
That's right.
And here's me with a catfish.
I got in Florida.
And guess what happened to those catfish?
They ended up in our freezer?
That's right.
They weren't swimming.
They were just hanging out.
That's right.
So we love to catch fish, bring it into our kitchen and make a recipe which we can do here in a little while while we were fishing in Florida.
I was shooting tilapia.
Here's a little shot of that.
These fish were from six to eight pounds by the way, that was one of my favorite things.
That was fun.
Now you talk about fresh caught tilapia in a natural environment, now that Floridians don't like them that much because they're competing with the native fish, so they let us shoot as many as we want.
You had fun.
Oh, I think my shoulder went out.
Yes, you shot eight hours every day.
But while we were there, we were staying at a cabin and we brought our own food and we really didn't have all the ingredients for the stuff we would normally have.
And I came back from fishing and you said, I don't know how this is going to be, but I made this and it was absolutely delicious.
Combination of flavors are just spectacular.
Talk about your sweet potatoes real quick.
Our buddy Mac >> always gives us these cute little sweet potatoes.
So I've already boiled these enough because I want to slice them.
So you were out and I thought, What can I brought those with us?
What can I do with sweet potatoes?
Now this is not how we eat every day.
We try to eat healthy at least once a month.
Sweet potatoes Healthy sweet potatoes are healthy.
Yeah, with maple syrup at least it's 100% maple syrup.
Exactly, which is only tree sap, which is natural, which is boiled down.
So maybe this is healthy.
So what I did was I took an onion and I fried that with butter like, that's a good way to start.
Yes always butter and onions.
Then I'm going to slice his little sweet potatoes up into little slices, and we're going to brown that with some seasoned salt.
I just put that, so that's all I had to start.
Then I know it sounds crazy.
I added a little bit of white wine.
You know me with my white wine, and then I had a little maple syrup and let it crisp up on there.
And it's like little salt and pepper, it's like candy, salt, pepper.
All right, [MUSIC] >> let's talk about catfish, and let's talk about cooking it to get it right.
Temperature is the essence.
Now you think about getting it cooked on the outside and the inside.
That's kind of tough.
A lot of people think 350 degrees, they pop it in there.
It's done on the outside.
It looks nice and golden brown.
You take it out and it's still cold and nobody wants to eat mushy catfish.
My secret is, is start it at about 320.
Start it there and leave it there.
Maybe 335.
Max just let it slow cook.
That way, it can stay on each side longer and that heat seeps up into the fish.
Don't let yourself get locked into that 350 thing.
So I got a cup and a half of bolted cornmeal, which means finely sifted and about a half a cup of flour.
Some more cornmeal, more cornmeal.
Now, when you're making a fish batter, you really have to use the seasonings to make that seasoning come out or taste kind of bland.
>> So you got to this amount.
I'm going to probably go two teaspoons of salt in this probably go two teaspoons of black pepper, lemon pepper.
I'm going to go, I don't know, a couple of tablespoons yum tablespoon and a half.
It takes that to get that out.
Then I'm going to add some garlic, probably about, I don't know, teaspoon teaspoon and a half, then some onion powder.
I like that flavor as well.
The same there, a teaspoon and a half.
Cayenne.
You're going to be shocked.
You've got to get that flavor.
I'll have you pour this in here, if you will.
I'm going to use probably a teaspoon and a half.
You're going to find that when you use this cayenne in here, now if you put that spoon in your mouth, you'll be like, OK, I'm lit up.
But when you put it in your seasoning, it's way more subtle.
All right.
So now what I've done here is I've taken just for this small amount that we're fixin, I've probably got, I don't know, half a cup of buttermilk here and I've got two eggs, so I'm going to put my catfish and I'm going to really make sure that I get that egg and that buttermilk on there.
So it sticks to that.
And then I'm going to go right back into my batter and I'll liberally coat that to make sure that it's covered well.
I'm very excited about this because I had it yesterday and I ate >> two pieces.
It's good.
Yes, it is.
Now you see, that's sticking very nicely to that.
>> So that's how we want that to look now I really stirred up my spices in there to get that even mix.
So we should be good to go.
You ready?
I'm ready for the sizzle.
I've got just enough oil in there to come up on that.
I want the bottom side to cook first, then I'll cook the top.
What I do is generally three to four minutes per side.
Then I'll roll it over three or four minutes the other side.
And then for one more minute, I'll flip it.
I'm excited.
I'll let it sit >> and we're well on our way.
And again, if you had yellow corn meal, it's going to brown up a little bit darker.
But oh, my >> temperature, temperature, temperature.
That's perfect.
I never let that go above 350 degrees 335 to 340 max.
Both sides are done.
It's cooked all the way through.
We're going to let it sit for a minute to continue to cook until, OK, nice and beautiful.
But look at that, that's white corn meal.
It'd be a little darker if it was yellow.
We got your sweet potatoes now.
Those are the little white sweet potatoes.
They're good for you before you put all kinds of sugar on them.
We have our salad over here, so when we come back, we're going to a beautiful plate out in front of you Mrs. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Farmer, I want you to try that first.
Thank you, because I'm starving.
Look, how good that looks.
Oh my.
Is it good?
Oh wow, it's so light and flaky.
I could eat 20 of these.
You don't fill up on this.
It's like so light and delicious.
Isn't that good?
Wow.
Now [MUSIC] you really have to beef the spices up.
You did perfect.
In order for it to get that taste, to get a little bit of heat to get a little bit of the the tanginess of the lemon really gotta pour it to it.
Now, that seemed like a lot of pepper.
It seemed like a lot of cayenne pepper, but it's not hot.
Just taste it.
It's perfect.
That's perfect.
>> You did good.
You want some more of this?
I do need to make a couple more.
You do take a bite of that and I'll take a bite of this.
I was gonna try some with you.
That's a wonderful combination.
It's like candy.
You got the onions to get that depth of flavor and the salt and pepper with the sweet, the salt and pepper with your 100% syrup And this is just good.
This is just good.
You starve and you need to snack.
You see the set in the refrigerator.
Yeah, this is just >> it won't last long.
Mmm.
Mmm.
Mmm.
Mmm.
Hmm.
Recipes?
We have gazillions of them.
If you >> would like a recipe or say my recipes change from week to week and you say, what did he use that particular day?
Where would you go?
I go to Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen dot com, click on YouTube, subscribe right?
And you get all our recipes.
That being said, Mrs Farmer and Kelli, our 10th birthday, this is our celebration and air conditioning is to be the next celebration.
That's right.
But it's all about good times, good friends and really good eats.
Hope to see you for another ten years as we dig into this catfish.
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] >> Funding for Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen is brought to you by.
Amerson Farms Country Store.
Something for everyone in the family.
Jim's Express Car Wash. A Kentucky family-owned business.
Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center in Danville, putting patients and families at the center of our attention.
Gulf Coast Connection.
Seafood straight from the gulf to you.
Wilderness Road Hospitality.
Stanford Kentucky.
The Spine Center of Central Kentucky.
[MUSIC] Beef, it's what's for dinner.
Kentucky's Beef Producers.
[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] To order a cookbook emailed Tim Farmer C K at Gmail dot com.