Yesterday was chilly and windy and that made it perfect weather for a big (huge!) pot of chili and some home made cornbread.
My friend Jeff Reed gave me the perfect cornbread recipe a few years ago. I realize that just saying that a particular recipe is the perfect recipe is fighting words for some folks, especially when it comes to cornbread. Some foods just seem to divide people sharply along lines of opinion. Here are my cornbread rules, you probably have your own:
1. No cornbread worth eating ever came from a mix.
2. Sugar can be added if you are using it for dessert. Dessert cornbread is delicious. Otherwise sweet cornbread is yucky cornbread.
3. It's better with buttermilk.
4. It must be cooked in greased and preheated cast iron! You just won't get the right crust otherwise.
5. I like yellow cornmeal so much better than white. I think it tastes more strongly of corn, but that may just be a visual prejudice.
6. Never cook cornbread while shirtless. Especially don't accidentally lean your shirtless self up against the cast iron skillet when it is just out of the 450 degree oven, you hussy, you. Don't ask me how I know about that, but I will say I have two permanent reminders on my tummy.
So back to Jeff's simple recipe for perfect golden goodness:
2 beaten eggs
2 c buttermilk
2 T melted butter
2 c self-rising (Yellow!) cornmeal
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Grease a cast iron skillet. (I used to use Crisco shortening, but now that I know shortening is trying to kill me, I have been trying other things. Last night I used a combo of butter and olive oil and got the best crust ever. The crust is key.) Put the greased skillet into the oven and leave it there until it is really hot. Mix the ingredients together without over mixing, then pour the batter into the very hot skillet. It should sizzle like crazy. If it doesn't, then the pan wasn't hot enough and your cornbread is ruined and you should just go to bed now and cry yourself to sleep. Or am I the only one who would do that? Really? Oh, well, never mind, then. Bake it until it is done to your liking. I like it dry but not dried out. You kind of have to experiment with time to see how you like it.
The thing is, I get bored, even with perfect cornbread. Last night I was feeling cheesy, and oniony, and chile -y, so I added:
1c shredded extra sharp cheddar
1/2 c finely diced onion
1 small can diced chiles
a tiny splash of extra buttermilk
It was, simply, the best cornbread I have ever had. It smelled so good baking I almost couldn't stand it. The crust came out beautifully with the butter/olive oil. The cornbread was moist and the extra sharp cheddar, onions, and chiles created tiny bits of heavenly flavor throughout. The cheese was particularly awesome.
I had some for breakfast this morning. Cold. It is that good.
When I get home tonight I'm going to can 7 quarts of that ginormous Jethro pot of chili so it will be ready to go the next time I want some. The rest will go into the freezer. Real convenience food!
Does colder weather get you excited about cooking like it does me?
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
Ham Broth
I am a terrible blogger. I don't write often enough and when I am immersed in something I almost never remember to take pictures. Please forgive me, all 7 of you! Let me try to make up for all of my past and future indiscretions with this one post about a useful and fabulous food that no one ever seems to talk about.
The subject most on my mind today is Ham Broth. Why don't people talk about it more? I just don't understand. Yes it is salty and more fattening than chicken broth, but that is because it tastes like ham, People. Yum!
What do I use it for? Everything! I make soup with it, especially bean soups; put it in casseroles; cook rice with it; cook veggies in it (Oh yes, I do!). My two favorites uses for ham broth have to be ham & dumplings and ham gravy.
Ham & dumplings is exactly what it sounds like. My mom is not a from scratch cook. Really. As a child I thought that Campbell's was the only kind of soup to be had in this world and Swanson were the people who froze our dinner for us every night. In the late '70s, though, my mom and step-dad bought a farm out in the sticks and built a house complete with a woodstove in the basement. One day in the deep, dark cold of an Upstate New York winter, my mom put a picnic ham into a huge pot, filled the pot with water and set it on the woodstove to cook. The smell of that brought me and my sister down the stairs to the basement like in one of those cartoons where you kind of fly though the air led by your nose. You know what I'm taking about? It was incredible to smell real food cooking. After hours and hours on the woodstove the ham fell apart into the broth and mom made dumplings right on top of all that scrumptious goodness. Hot Dog! Or, rather, real, actual food!
Years later, as I was making my own boiled ham I thought "Why have I never had ham gravy?" It sounds really good, right? You should be able to make it like any other gravy - fat, broth, thickener, right? Right! It is simple to make and you should see the look on someone's face the first time they put a forkful of mashed potatoes with ham gravy into their pie hole. You can almost hear angels singing.
Geez, that yogurt I had for breakfast was a long time ago and I'm making myself hungry, here. You know I'm having a ham sandwich for lunch, right?
Ok, Grace, how does one make ham broth? Put a big ham in an even bigger pot, fill it with as much water as you can get in there, and simmer it for hours and hours. When the meat is falling off the bone, remove the meat, allow it to cool, and pull the meat off. I divide it into two cup portions and freeze it. The skin, fat, and bones go right back into the stockpot. I put in a good splash of apple cider vinegar in the batch I made this weekend, and let simmer it even longer, until the broth is rich and concentrated and the bones have given up all of the good stuff. Oh yummyness. I have it in bowls in my fridge right now. When I get home from work tonight I will skim the fat off and freeze it for making ham gravy later. I will also put the bones and some of the broth and fat in my most enormous pot (My beloved cousin-in-law Debra calls pots like this Jethro pots.) with a huge amount of collard greens (and some water and red pepper flakes and plenty of apple cider vinegar) and cook that for a good, long time because I like collards cooked all the way until they are good and soft. There are only two people in my house but we go through collards like an army. Tomorrow night for dinner we will have some of the boiled ham which I will pop briefly into the oven to crisp it up a little; collards; and mashed potatoes with ham gravy. I can't wait to chow down on all of that. Too snug jeans, here I come!
Later this winter when it is good and cold I will make a pot of ham & dumplings. It is awesome comfort food for a cold, blustery winter's day.
The subject most on my mind today is Ham Broth. Why don't people talk about it more? I just don't understand. Yes it is salty and more fattening than chicken broth, but that is because it tastes like ham, People. Yum!
What do I use it for? Everything! I make soup with it, especially bean soups; put it in casseroles; cook rice with it; cook veggies in it (Oh yes, I do!). My two favorites uses for ham broth have to be ham & dumplings and ham gravy.
Ham & dumplings is exactly what it sounds like. My mom is not a from scratch cook. Really. As a child I thought that Campbell's was the only kind of soup to be had in this world and Swanson were the people who froze our dinner for us every night. In the late '70s, though, my mom and step-dad bought a farm out in the sticks and built a house complete with a woodstove in the basement. One day in the deep, dark cold of an Upstate New York winter, my mom put a picnic ham into a huge pot, filled the pot with water and set it on the woodstove to cook. The smell of that brought me and my sister down the stairs to the basement like in one of those cartoons where you kind of fly though the air led by your nose. You know what I'm taking about? It was incredible to smell real food cooking. After hours and hours on the woodstove the ham fell apart into the broth and mom made dumplings right on top of all that scrumptious goodness. Hot Dog! Or, rather, real, actual food!
Years later, as I was making my own boiled ham I thought "Why have I never had ham gravy?" It sounds really good, right? You should be able to make it like any other gravy - fat, broth, thickener, right? Right! It is simple to make and you should see the look on someone's face the first time they put a forkful of mashed potatoes with ham gravy into their pie hole. You can almost hear angels singing.
Geez, that yogurt I had for breakfast was a long time ago and I'm making myself hungry, here. You know I'm having a ham sandwich for lunch, right?
Ok, Grace, how does one make ham broth? Put a big ham in an even bigger pot, fill it with as much water as you can get in there, and simmer it for hours and hours. When the meat is falling off the bone, remove the meat, allow it to cool, and pull the meat off. I divide it into two cup portions and freeze it. The skin, fat, and bones go right back into the stockpot. I put in a good splash of apple cider vinegar in the batch I made this weekend, and let simmer it even longer, until the broth is rich and concentrated and the bones have given up all of the good stuff. Oh yummyness. I have it in bowls in my fridge right now. When I get home from work tonight I will skim the fat off and freeze it for making ham gravy later. I will also put the bones and some of the broth and fat in my most enormous pot (My beloved cousin-in-law Debra calls pots like this Jethro pots.) with a huge amount of collard greens (and some water and red pepper flakes and plenty of apple cider vinegar) and cook that for a good, long time because I like collards cooked all the way until they are good and soft. There are only two people in my house but we go through collards like an army. Tomorrow night for dinner we will have some of the boiled ham which I will pop briefly into the oven to crisp it up a little; collards; and mashed potatoes with ham gravy. I can't wait to chow down on all of that. Too snug jeans, here I come!
Later this winter when it is good and cold I will make a pot of ham & dumplings. It is awesome comfort food for a cold, blustery winter's day.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Checking Another Item Off The To-Learn List. Woot!
I'm so geeked out! I did make bread and butter pickles this year, but that wasn't really what I had in mind when I added fermenting foods onto my To-Learn List for this year. Today Riverview Farms sent me an e-mail announcing that Slow Food Atlanta is having Sandor Katz teach a fermenting class here in town on the 24th! I had to think that over for, oh, about 1/16th of a second before I was on the brown paper ticket website ordering my ticket.
Isn't it funny the things we get worked up about? I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!
Isn't it funny the things we get worked up about? I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!
Monday, August 15, 2011
Losing Pip, a Preserving List, and a Little Garden Clarity
I haven't been blogging because I am depressed, devastated, bereft, and forlorn. I lost my partner in crime, my travel companion, my sweet little doggie, Pip. My angel went peacefully to sleep in my arms over two months ago. I didn't sleep for 9 days. I want my dog back.
Let's move on, shall we?
Here is a list of what I have put up so far this year:
Canning:
Mandarin oranges in Spiced Syrup - (6) 1/2 pints (These are bitter and horrible!)
Peaches - 7 qts.
Pinto Beans - 14 qts.
Strawberry Preserves - (11) 12 oz. jars
Strawberry/Fig Jam (so good!) - (9) 1/2 pints
Bread and Butter pickles - 6 pints (I grew the cukes!)
Beef/Vegetable soup - 7 qts.
I'm forgetting something, I think.
Not really canning but I did 2 jars of fridge pickles, also with cukes I grew.
Frozen:
2 gallons whole strawberries
1/2 gallon sliced strawberries in sugar
6 c peas (Almost my entire harvest. Need to put in way more peas next time.)
1/2 gallon peaches in sugar
3 cups tomatoes (The first of the Romas)
1 pint of tomato juice
Harvest:
From the garden and patio, I have harvested peas, lots of cucumbers, potatoes, tomatoes, and carrots. A lot of the garden in South Carolina just up and died. The weirdest thing is that the red cabbage I planted in February is just now making heads! That's just wrong, right?
I learned a lot about gardening this year. Most notably, I learned that you cannot successfully have a garden in another state. Life intrudes, and it became impossible to get there, sometimes for a month or longer. I plan to go exploring in that jungle soon to see if I can find my onions in all that mess. Fortunately, we had to cut a big tree down in our front yard at home in Atlanta, and suddenly my greedy gardener's eye sees potential for a garden in right in my own front yard. Raised beds are about to be built for the fall garden. Hopefully I won't be the next Julie Bass. Hey, if a garden in the yard is ok at the White House...
The best surprise for me this year was to find that we have a prolific pear tree in our yard in South Carolina. That thing is huge and so laden with pears some of the branches have broken. I plan to do a lot of canning with those pears. Fruit cocktail, salted caramel pear butter, pear sauce, canned pear crisp filling, just pears in syrup, oh my! We also have a fig tree I didn't know about. FROG Jam and more Strawberry/Fig Jam coming up as soon as they are ready!
I want to put up a lot more soup, more veggies, lots more meat (I did pork last year and it was wonderful!), more beans because the pinto beans are so delicious and easy to make something from. I want to do some kidneys, limas, and white beans, at least. I still haven't done my tomato canning for this year. My tomatoes are not producing so well, so I'm going to have to buy them, but I need to have tomatoes in my pantry, especially my mom's recipe for stewed tomatoes. I need to remember to get a new gasket for my pressure canner!
How goes your gardening and preserving this year?
Let's move on, shall we?
Here is a list of what I have put up so far this year:
Canning:
Mandarin oranges in Spiced Syrup - (6) 1/2 pints (These are bitter and horrible!)
Peaches - 7 qts.
Pinto Beans - 14 qts.
Strawberry Preserves - (11) 12 oz. jars
Strawberry/Fig Jam (so good!) - (9) 1/2 pints
Bread and Butter pickles - 6 pints (I grew the cukes!)
Beef/Vegetable soup - 7 qts.
I'm forgetting something, I think.
Not really canning but I did 2 jars of fridge pickles, also with cukes I grew.
Frozen:
2 gallons whole strawberries
1/2 gallon sliced strawberries in sugar
6 c peas (Almost my entire harvest. Need to put in way more peas next time.)
1/2 gallon peaches in sugar
3 cups tomatoes (The first of the Romas)
1 pint of tomato juice
Harvest:
From the garden and patio, I have harvested peas, lots of cucumbers, potatoes, tomatoes, and carrots. A lot of the garden in South Carolina just up and died. The weirdest thing is that the red cabbage I planted in February is just now making heads! That's just wrong, right?
I learned a lot about gardening this year. Most notably, I learned that you cannot successfully have a garden in another state. Life intrudes, and it became impossible to get there, sometimes for a month or longer. I plan to go exploring in that jungle soon to see if I can find my onions in all that mess. Fortunately, we had to cut a big tree down in our front yard at home in Atlanta, and suddenly my greedy gardener's eye sees potential for a garden in right in my own front yard. Raised beds are about to be built for the fall garden. Hopefully I won't be the next Julie Bass. Hey, if a garden in the yard is ok at the White House...
The best surprise for me this year was to find that we have a prolific pear tree in our yard in South Carolina. That thing is huge and so laden with pears some of the branches have broken. I plan to do a lot of canning with those pears. Fruit cocktail, salted caramel pear butter, pear sauce, canned pear crisp filling, just pears in syrup, oh my! We also have a fig tree I didn't know about. FROG Jam and more Strawberry/Fig Jam coming up as soon as they are ready!
I want to put up a lot more soup, more veggies, lots more meat (I did pork last year and it was wonderful!), more beans because the pinto beans are so delicious and easy to make something from. I want to do some kidneys, limas, and white beans, at least. I still haven't done my tomato canning for this year. My tomatoes are not producing so well, so I'm going to have to buy them, but I need to have tomatoes in my pantry, especially my mom's recipe for stewed tomatoes. I need to remember to get a new gasket for my pressure canner!
How goes your gardening and preserving this year?
Friday, August 12, 2011
For Mikey
I can only imagine, thank goodness, the shock of suddenly having one's world shattered like that. All their plans for the future, gone. Their daughters will now grow up without their dad. Jennie has lost the husband she loved so much. Everything was changed in an instant.
This could have happened to any of us. Thank you, Jennie, for taking the time to remind us all to make the moments count. I am so grateful to have Bren and I love her so much, I want to make sure that I never have regrets about what I didn't do for her. That will be an ongoing project, but for today, I made her favorite pie, too.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Overboard in the Garden
Please, somebody stop me!
Do you think 54 tomato plants night be just a tad more than 2 people will need?
Why do I keep overdoing this even though I am killing myself in this garden? Honestly, I'm beginning to resent the garden for the work and the travel and the stuff I miss out on when I'm there. My nephew was the hero of his baseball game Saturday, for instance, when, thanks largely to him, his team beat their seemingly unstoppable, and heretofore unbeaten, rivals. I miss too much going from state to state for this garden. I miss my wife! So does that slow me down when buying and planting seeds and tranplants? No.
What is holding me back is that my physical limitations are much worse than I had thought. Some of it I can overcome if I will just get into better shape. Arthritis, advancing years, and my many illnesses will always make me weak and sore, but it doesn't have to be this bad! This weekend reminded me that losing a bunch of weight does not mean that you are any stronger or have more stamina than before. It took all day and a whole lot of breaks to get those tomatoes in (and the cantaloupe, peppers, watermelon, and green beans.) I finally just couldn't do anymore and I ended up bringing the zucchini, yellow squash, and picking cucumbers home to try to plant on my patio and in my front yard. I'll figure it out.
I am excited, however, about some heritage tomatoes the local nursery had in stock. I have always wanted to try Mortgage Lifter and Cherokee Purple and now I can! I also planted a whole lot of Roma type tomatoes, a first for me, as I hope to make a lot of sauce and paste for myself this year.
I harvested a few peas, enough for a nice side dish one night, but most just weren't ready. It looks likely to be a bumper crop when they are ready, though. Awesome!
The cabbages are most unhappy and it's getting so hot now I suspect they will bolt without making heads. They've been in since February and are just now starting to get some size. That's the red cabbage, the green cabbages all died right off.
Lots of lettuce almost ready for picking. The beets, swiss chard, and carrots are coming along nicely. Unfortunately many of my garden markers washed away in the storms and, as I have no experience with most of what I'm growing this year, I have no idea what is what. Hopefully I'll come across the sketch I did of what is where. Note to self - a designated notebook with all the notes, lists, sketches, and comments would be most useful and a better idea than the bunch of scribbled sheets on different sizes of paper scattered randomly throughout my 2 houses, my office, and my car. A sorry state of affairs.
I really need to become friends with my new elliptical machine, because this weekend about killed me!
Do you think 54 tomato plants night be just a tad more than 2 people will need?
Why do I keep overdoing this even though I am killing myself in this garden? Honestly, I'm beginning to resent the garden for the work and the travel and the stuff I miss out on when I'm there. My nephew was the hero of his baseball game Saturday, for instance, when, thanks largely to him, his team beat their seemingly unstoppable, and heretofore unbeaten, rivals. I miss too much going from state to state for this garden. I miss my wife! So does that slow me down when buying and planting seeds and tranplants? No.
What is holding me back is that my physical limitations are much worse than I had thought. Some of it I can overcome if I will just get into better shape. Arthritis, advancing years, and my many illnesses will always make me weak and sore, but it doesn't have to be this bad! This weekend reminded me that losing a bunch of weight does not mean that you are any stronger or have more stamina than before. It took all day and a whole lot of breaks to get those tomatoes in (and the cantaloupe, peppers, watermelon, and green beans.) I finally just couldn't do anymore and I ended up bringing the zucchini, yellow squash, and picking cucumbers home to try to plant on my patio and in my front yard. I'll figure it out.
I am excited, however, about some heritage tomatoes the local nursery had in stock. I have always wanted to try Mortgage Lifter and Cherokee Purple and now I can! I also planted a whole lot of Roma type tomatoes, a first for me, as I hope to make a lot of sauce and paste for myself this year.
I harvested a few peas, enough for a nice side dish one night, but most just weren't ready. It looks likely to be a bumper crop when they are ready, though. Awesome!
The cabbages are most unhappy and it's getting so hot now I suspect they will bolt without making heads. They've been in since February and are just now starting to get some size. That's the red cabbage, the green cabbages all died right off.
Lots of lettuce almost ready for picking. The beets, swiss chard, and carrots are coming along nicely. Unfortunately many of my garden markers washed away in the storms and, as I have no experience with most of what I'm growing this year, I have no idea what is what. Hopefully I'll come across the sketch I did of what is where. Note to self - a designated notebook with all the notes, lists, sketches, and comments would be most useful and a better idea than the bunch of scribbled sheets on different sizes of paper scattered randomly throughout my 2 houses, my office, and my car. A sorry state of affairs.
I really need to become friends with my new elliptical machine, because this weekend about killed me!
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Garden Crazy
I had made up a planting schedule for the whole year ahead of time this year with some help from Clemson University's website. They had South Carolina divided up into specific regions, and gave great advice that has probably saved me time, money, and aggravation. For instance, I was going to plant Collards with my early crops, but Clemson suggests waiting for a Fall crop. They would grow fine, it seems, as an early season crop. They would also be bitter and awful without that Fall frost required to make them worth eating. Bless them for sparing me that disappointment!
I'm off to my SC garden tomorrow night and I'll be red-faced, sweaty and sore Saturday morning. I wouldn't have it any other way.
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