Corn Cake aka Cornbread

Some time back I was asked to talk about cornbread.  The yummy deliciousness of my southern life.  The crumbly, golden yellow bread that makes me smile throughout the whole meal.  The butter soaking bread that sits at the edge of your plate, waiting to be noticed and appreciated.

When I was a little girl my mother said that I called cornbread cake.  What a smart girl I was....   This stuff can be so delightful that you'll want to call it cake and eat it for dessert but don't do it.  Put it on the plate, let it sop up the gravy, break it up and put it on top of your beans and rice and save room for dessert.  (Dessert is an event in itself!)

But how to make it?  And NOT use a boxed kit?  Well lets see......Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and let the fun begin!

Those of you who already know me know we'll be starting with the basics.  Get out the corn.

What?  I see a look of concern on your face.  You did know that cornbread was made with corn, right?  Oh,  not that corn?  Bless your little heart, I bet you think chicken comes from the grocery store too, right?  Well get out your cornmeal and jump in when you're ready.  But I only thought it fair to show you the truest form of good ole' fashioned cornbread, Darlin'.

Put it in the mill (if you have one) and make your cornmeal.  If you don't have a mill but would really like some fresh-as-a-newborn-babe-cornmeal, then next time you come over for coffee, I'll send you home with a few cups.  See how pretty that looks?

You'll also need some regular flour and I like to use whole wheat flour.  Only the best, you know.  And yes, it gets milled too. 

 You'll want some farm-fresh eggs from a sweet little hen...

Can't you tell just by looking at those eggs that the hen was a happy girl walking her way around the farm, visiting with the girls, finding crunchy bugs to chew on and casting sweet glances in the direction of that no-good rooster?

Moving right along....this wasn't really meant to be a romantic recipe after all.

Measure out one-half cup of sugar

one teaspoon of salt

I use Real Salt.  It is our favorite.  Can you see the minerals in it?  I buy it in a large bag and just keep refilling my small shaker.

And you'll need your trusty baking power (aluminum-free, please) 

While you're busy getting your supplies together, measure out two cups of water and one-third cup of powdered milk. 

Put all of the ingredients in your mixer (that's my Bosch in the background...thanks, Mom! a million times over!) and mix for two minutes.

Grab your large cast iron skillet.....the one your grandmother left you in her will or the one you wisely purchased at that amazing garage sale and put two tablespoons of bacon grease in it.  This is the moment I'll hear plenty of you shouting....I don't keep bacon grease!  We try to stay away from those kinds of fats!  Only hillbillies eat bacon grease!  You have just entered Hillbilly World, Friend.

Put your skillet into the oven and let the skillet get hot.  The grease can't help but melt.  It will be your job to see that the bottom gets covered with the grease once it is completely melted.

Carefully take out the very heavy, very hot skillet.  Pour in your cornbread batter and cook for 15 to 20 minutes.  You'll know it is finished when the top is golden and your mouth is watering.

Now that looks mighty tasty, doesn't it?  Can you see why it makes good cake too?  Put a little butter on it and then drizzle some honey over that.  Oh, Babe, sit back and savor the moment....Corn Cake has just arrived.

Thank you again, Jonny.  You take amazing pictures of your Moma cookin!

The easy-to-read version, dull but easy-to-read:

2 cups cornmeal
2 cups flour
1/2 sugar
1/3 cup powdered milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup oil
2 tablespoons baking powder
2 cups water
2 eggs
2 tablespoons bacon grease

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix all ingredients except for bacon grease in mixer.  Add bacon grease to skillet and place in oven to heat.  Evenly spread out grease and pour in batter.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. 

Love Sauce

Once upon a time, in a very big city, there was a fast-food place that a young girl liked to eat at.  There were only two in this very big city and they were quite a distance from one another but both were very tasty and enjoyed by the girl.

Like a creature of habit, the girl always bought the same thing.  A grilled burger on a lightly toasted bun with grated cheddar cheese and Sauce.  Oh, the Sauce.  Happiness joined these two: the juicy burger and the yummy Sauce.  And when the girl ate there, she joined in the happy union....and savored the moment.

Then one day the girl moved away.

Far, far away.  Like when you discover it's hard to visit as often as you'd like and your heart starts hurting.

The body can always move.  The heart often remains.

The girl decided that life was going to be only as good as she could make it so she set out to make it tasty.

Tasty is important.  Never forget that.

Burgers, even juicy ones, can be made.  Lightly toasted buns, grated sharp cheddar cheese....all these things can be had.  But the Sauce!

So....on a dark and foggy night the girl set out to reunite herself with the moment of Happiness between Juicy Burger and Sauce.....as they had come to be known. 

Call it fate.  Call it destiny.  Call it desperation on a mission.  Yummy Sauce was achieved and forevermore became known far and wide as LOVE SAUCE!  (Can you hear the angels singing???)

Love Sauce....a hush falls over the room.

Love Sauce...the mouth begins to water.

Love Sauce....a smile escapes the lips.

Love Sauce....Reunited with the Juicy Burger!

And now, many years later after a long bout of soul-searching, the girl, almost as young as she was in the former days.....only younger now because of the joy in her heart, decided to share this piece of Happiness with you. 

You will accomplish this great feat with unexpected ease.  You will pass it on to future generations.  You will slather it on your burgers and pile high the mountain of grated cheddar cheese.  You will become known far and wide for your great culinary skills.  You will sing my praises...if you don't happen to already.  And you will shout with exclamations of joy when the Great Burger Day comes and you can once again make Love Sauce.

Let us get down to business now.  Are you prepared to begin impacting the world with more love?

Assemble you supplies and start your engines.

You'll need only a few things to make your great mark in the Book of Tantalizing Tastes:

1 cup of ketchup, a very good brand, if you please
3 tablespoons of Liquid Smoke
Bowl and spoon

Mix the two together until they are one.  Lick spoon.  You're done.

 

  

  

  

 

You are now a Graduate of my Tantalizing Taste School for Masters.

What?  Did you forget to send in the application for acceptance to this great school no-one-anywhere-has-ever-heard-about?  Did you not enclose your check or money order?  Are you suggesting you just got all this for free???

I guess I'll let you slide this one time....if you make this one deal with  me.  Use my Great and Wonderful recipe frequently and herein and forevermore refer to it as the great Love Sauce that it is and spread your fair share of love in this world.   The Good Lord knows we sure need it!

A message from the Dean of Culinary Education (that's me after all):  
You may at any time adjust the measurements given.  I just wanted to get you on a roll.  More, less, whatever you want.  You're the Boss, I only pretend to be the Boss.  I found out I don't really like being the Boss.  It's too demanding and bossy.  It really doesn't pay that well either~

The REAL way to make Fresh Homemade Tomato Sauce

(First written to help out my homeschool mom-friends)

Ya'll had me laughing today when I was so kindly reminded of breaking the rules! Mentioning a delicious recipe without giving it is and SHOULD BE against the rules. I just hate to hear about something wonderful and not be able to try it out myself so I completely understand.

So......

step-by-step

1. pick a lovely spot in your yard for your tomato plants.....you didn't think I'd start you off with the tomatoes already grown now, did you? We're homeschool moms here. Shouldn't we first talk about whether or not a tomato is a veggie or fruit? Did you know it was part of the "nightshade" family? Why, I've always wondered.....it loves the sun! Can I bring up heirloom tomato varieties? Does anyone here want to write the plural of tomato on the board for us? Any songs about tomatoes? "You say potato and I say patato, you say tomato and I say tamato...." And in this group we'll not forget to discuss the history of the tomato.....thought to be poisonous....or how it was often referred to as the "love apple." Please, would you in the back there mind writing up a short article on tomato planting and harvesting..complete with an "ly" word, a who/which clause, and an interesting adjective and adverb, double-spaced of course....

2. OK, now that you've got your location picked out and your history, spelling, sing-a-long, botanical, grammatical and writing assignments in order, let's move on to a few general helpful hints. Give your plants loads of sunlight. If you decide to try out SFG, you'll want 1 plant/sq. ft. (I love that abbreviation stuff....looks like I'm such a technical writer!) You'll be so tired from setting up the garden and planting that you'll need to go out to KFC using your GPS and if your husband is your main-man helper, he'll be needing some TLC. He'll be so happy you got the IRS and a possible audit out of his mind this time of year, the CIA and the FBI off his back, he'll want to get fancy with the garden but KISS. Trust me. And in case the kids are running through the garden too much, send them in the house to make some PB&J or BLT sandwiches.

3. After the tomato plants are growing and you're ready to harvest, pick your juicy fruits (or veggies...whatever you decided to call them). Bring them into the house and take a picture of them before they meet their maker, that's you and God. Get a pot of water boiling, stab the tomato with a fork and put it into the water for about 30 seconds. When you lift it out, the skin will peel off easily. In another big pot, simmer some onions, bell peppers, garlic, basil and oregano (fresh if you put that in your garden - I do!), a wee bit of salt and a tad of sugar in a splash of virgin olive oil.

4. After you've peeled your toms, quarter them and put them in the pot of spices and veggies. Now just let them cook and soak up all that flavor you just created. Stir and watch them melt away into goodness that will eventually go into your delectable dishes. You can strain them to remove the seeds if you didn't do so before cooking them or just let them be themselves and stay in the sauce. I say, let's just all get-along. Stay in the sauce and be happy.

5. Now you can put them in freezer bags and store them flat (saves space) or you can can them according to directions you'll find on www.freshpreserving.com.

I use these in all types of cooking: chili, spaghetti, soups, etc. Don't be surprised when you see that they aren't as dark as the sauces you buy in the grocery. You may also be impressed when you consider how many tomato plants the pioneer and homesteading families must have had to grow to feed their family year-round. Math! How many tomatoes does it take to make one large pot of spaghetti sauce? How many tomatoes do you need if one train leaves Houston at 4pm going 50 mph and another train leaves Memphis at 2:30pm going 45mph and everyone on the train wants tomatoes on their salad? No, the trains never meet. Why? Because I always trembled in fear when I knew those trains were going to meet and possibly crash! All those innocent people!....just for the sake of one math problem??? Not in my story!

Well, this has been fun. Hope you're more interested now in SFG, eating tomatoes, making homemade sauce, lining your pantry with pretty canning jars, writing essays about tomatoes and eating salads on trains.

Any questions? Oh, the measurements.....You know your family and their preferences. Just make it up as you go along, sing while you cook, stir and laugh, offer your husband a taste from a gigantic spoon, speak Italian with a twinkle in your eye.

Want to know how much a splash is? Well, Darlin', it all depends on how big you are when you hit the water.

Time to run.

SWAK,
Jan

Mardi Gras Madness

This year I decided to make my own King Cake and did so with a fairly good measure of success. We all enjoyed it and I'd say it turned out quite pretty. I used a recipe very similar to this. I had so much fun making it that I'm sure my next try will have a special filling....I just can't decide which one yet.

If you decide to make one yourself, don't forget the baby.

Good Things Come in Small Packages

Good things do come in small packages....small packages with pepperoni and mozzarella cheese oozing out, small packages with tiny red pepper things slipped into the seams and small packages with bowls of homemade marinara sauce ready for the dipping.

Here they are beginning to get loaded with goodies. They aren't finished yet. I just wanted you to see the process. I'm dreaming up all of the other combinations I can squeeze into these little bundles. Italian sausage, black olives, pepper rings....

They wrap up just as pretty as you please. Once you bake them be prepared to run or hoard. Running means you won't get any and hoarding means you'll have a lot of explaining to do about that delicious aroma in the house.

I opted for running. I made 33 of them and invited teenage boys over (for a band practice) and between them and Beeb and her daddy, they were gone. Woosh, gone...and then there they were..... just scrounging around looking for more...darn boys!

I was inspired to make these from Chickens in the Road. I added a yummy dipping sauce. I think the sauce just takes it over the top.

I'm thinking maybe next time I'll hoard them. What they don't know won't hurt them, right? I'll just open the windows and let a breeze (albeit a 20 degree breeze) rush through the house clearing out all signs of fresh baked bread and pepperoni goodness.

Don't worry, I can't really do that. I'm southern and we're allergic to 20-degree breezes.


Care for a wee bite?

Romantic Brunch

Thank you, little one, for the delicious romantic brunch you made for me and Daddy.

Superbowl Sunday: Food!

I'm only here for the food. I like hearing everyone else talk about their favorite team but I want to work in the kitchen making something wonderfully delicious.

Today was a southern event for me. Winter and I aren't on the best terms anymore (were we ever?!) so it was time I pulled out my secret weapon: food that makes me feel like I'm somewhere warmer. I can play mind games when I need to......
Are you thinking BBQ Shrimp? This isn't even related to traditional BBQ sauce (which can also be amazingly delicious). The concoction you're looking at here (and salivating over) is a delightful mix of something too fattening to talk about in public in quantities which fall off the rhict

Saturday Sillies

Home-cookin' always does this to me. Is it knowing that I'm about to be eat something amazing or is it the savory aroma playing with my mind???

Teach a Girl to Cook.....

and she'll feed her teenage brothers for a while.

Yesterday, Jenna and I made an apple bread using a Pete-Bakes recipe. I found it to be too dry when using his exact measurements so I added a bit more milk. We also added a vanilla glaze (his recipe doesn't use one). These breads go so quickly at our house, especially when stuffed into lunches for work or when a stealthy maneuver occurs at midnight...which happens frequently around here!

Boy can those guys eat! We clock a lot of time in the kitchen working on old and new recipes, mostly created from scratch cooking, to feed this family.

Today I'm working on a delicious beef stew made with no-hormone beef and homemade beef stock. The stew meat is browned in oil for a crispy piece of meat and a built-in roux. I've also got a herb bread rising that is full of oregano, basil and garlic. Comfort is on it's way.