Staff photo by Cindy Burnham Sue Kimball's Kentucky Derby party at her home in Gates Four always featues a jam cake with caramel icing. Kimball says she learned some tricks for making good mint juleps from a man named George Boone that she met in Kentucky at a meeting of the Robert Penn Warren Society. Also, he said to use native honey, instead of sugar to mix with the bourbon, crushed ice and a little water. She has also collected and inherited enough silver and china to use to serve all her guests in style. She sets up tables with red or white cloths and napkins inside and outside her house.
Guests serve themselves from a table laden with traditional Kentucky food.
Kimball does most of the cooking, but when guests offer to bring a dish she ask them to bring a salad of their choosing. The pies are served with hand-whipped cream and are a crowd favorite. Kimball always has six Derby Pies and the traditional jam cake with a caramel icing that she makes every year. The rest of the menu will include country ham, turkey, corn pudding, spoonbread or beaten biscuits, ice tea. She usually bakes a turkey but may try to do a deep-fried one this year as well.