Broadbents is piglicious!

Above, WKYQ air personality and celebrity judge “Dr. Jeff” presents Grand Champion honors to Barak “Beau” Choate of Kuttawa. Choate’s award-winning recipe for Broadbent’s Country Ham Croquettes is featured below. -Photo Furnished

Who would have known it was National Pig Day on March l ?
“Everybody is so tired of winter,” said Beth Drennan of Broadbent’s in Kuttawa. “I was just looking on the Internet about some kind of event we could have about bacon and found it.”
So, with less than a month’s preparation, the Pig-licious celebration was brought to Kuttawa on Saturday. Product samples and popular restaurant recipes were offered to guests, but the highlight of the event was the recipe contest, offered at midday.
Official categories of the Piglicious Cooking Contest & Hammy Awards consisted of unusually prepared dishes featuring either Broadbent ham, country bacon (any flavor), smoked country sausage, or any Kentucky Proud or Kentucky-made food.
Judges were Mike Mallory of WPSD -TV Channel 6 in Paducah and radio personalities, Greg Dunker of WKYQ and Allan Watts of WKDZ radio stations.
The dishes were separated by tables, according to required ingredient and anxious cooks looked on, as the judges appeared to enjoy themselves all around the four tables.
As Judges’ tally sheets were tabulated, either there was a tie, or they decided to have one more taste of several dishes, as they returned to several dishes for extra bites.
At the close of competition, with taste accounting for 60 percent and 20 percent awarded for appearance, the final 20 percent was for originality and creativity.
The applesauce nut loaf, prepared by Carol Carter of Kuttawa was awarded the prize for Kentucky Proud submission.
Its prescribed ingredient was Broadbent’s biscuit mix, tomatoes and okra submitted by Jean Hardesty of Kuttawa, received the award for using bacon as a main ingredient.
The sausage Brunch Braidî, both unusual and tasty, was submitted by Diane Cooper. The country ham croquettes with honey-mustard dip placed not only first in the ham category, but also was announced as the Grand Champion. It was prepared by an elated Beau Choate of Kuttawa.
That was a tough competition, said Mallory. “In barbecue judging contests, sometimes they slip you something that makes you wonder if they’re teasing you or seeing if you were paying attention. All of these dishes were great, and it was tough to decide which one was best.”
Dunker agreed: “Sometimes, in the barbecue contests, they slip you a kerosene cucumber, and that ís pretty bad, but these were all great!”
Just fix me up with a platter of that cornbread, and I’ll just take it on home,” said Watts. “All these were just great--the sausage bread, the pizza, the applesauce bread — it was all just great!”
After the festivities, the slicing room at Broadbent’s was returned to its regular activities, but for a brief time, it was the highlight of a sunny day that hinted that spring is near.
Petunia Pig, adorned in her signature piggy lights, bid her visitors farewell, as they departed with plates full of samples and recipe cards from the early celebrations of National Pig Day.