Mama's Cornbread

Don't you want some cornbread? I thought so. Every southern food book I've ever read (and that has been a few, believe me) shares memories of their mama's cornbread. In the south, cornbread usually means unsweetened cornbread baked in a sizzling hot skillet. Super sweet cornbread baked in a pyrex pan was cake not cornbread. If my Mamaw had set a plate of that down in front of my Papaw he would have thrown it out to his hound dog. No offense to lovers of yankee cornbread but "real" cornbread is a serious thing in the south, impostors could be shot!

My Mama is famous for her cornbread. I love love love it and must have it at least once a week. Her crispy, buttery cornbread is one of the only things I have a deep craving for year round. It goes with everything, beans, soup, salad, butter, anything really. I make it for breakfast sometimes and there is never a crumb left. Now I make two pans of it so everyone can have plenty. Made with fresh ground cornmeal and flour, you can't beat it for a healthy quick bread.

I will now ask my Mama to look aside while I tell you that I have slightly modified her recipe to fit my cooking so it's not her exact recipe. Honey instead of sugar, fewer eggs and less butter. Okay Mama, you can look back. So get out your skillet and let's make a pan (pone as Mamaw used to call it) of cornbread.

The first step is to preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Set your iron skillet in there to heat up too. A hot skillet is the secret to good crusty cornbread. Measure a cup of flour, cup of cornmeal, 1 tablespoon baking powder and a teaspoon of salt into a large bowl. Stir it to mix all your dry ingredients together.

Enlist a handy kid to mix up 1 and 1/4 cup of milk, 2 eggs and 1 tablespoon of honey in a measuring cup or small bowl. If there are no handy kids, just beat it together yourself. All the same and you probably have cleaner hands. I hope so anyway.

When your oven and iron skillet are good and hot, set the skillet out on your stove and melt 2 tablespoons of real butter in it (Don't you like my square pan? It was Grandma's.). Pour the wet mixture into the dry and give it a few stirs, then pour the melted butter quickly into the batter. Stir it up to mix the butter in. Be sure to not burn yourself with the skillet, it's super hot! Pour the batter into the skillet.

Can you see what's happening? Look at the edge of the skillet and see how the batter is foaming up. It is searing in the hot skillet and that is what gives you the magical golden crust. Bake it for 20 minutes in your hot oven and then flip it out onto a big platter. Flipping it out of the pan is a bit of a trick, I still catch myself holding my breath every time I turn do it. Just have faith and go for it.

Then all that's left is to cut it up and serve wedges or squares of hot golden goodness to all the lucky people sitting around your table. You'll be glad you did.

The Glamorous Tightwad

I have long been addicted to being a tightwad. You know it's bad when your mother-in-law stages an intervention. Part of my therapy has been to force myself to buy bread and salad dressing even though it cost considerably more than making it yourself. My progress has been inspiring, at least to myself it has.

Well, my new venture with buying stuff instead of making it myself like the proverbial Little Red Hen has taken a serious hit. A slam into a brick wall hit in the form of this book. Do It Gorgeously by Sophie Uliano, also author of Gorgeously Green and the website and blog, www. Gorgeously Green .com, has undermined all my progress. Her focus is on making your own products (think Pine Sol and insect repellent) to save money, be more "green", and reduce the toxins in our homes. I am hooked! So far I have made:

Green Goddess Washing Powder. Super easy to make and use.

Gentle Facial Exfoliating Scrub. Oatmeal and lavender, can't stop using it!

and All Purpose Cleaner. Makes cleaning the stove and counter easy and quick. I also tried her recipe for Best Ever Cough Syrup, Rinseless Car Wash,

and Gorgeously Green Purifying Green Clay Mask.

Up next is Chamomile and Aloe Cleansing Cream to go with Geranium and Apricot Moisturizer, Regenerative Floral Beauty Balm, Vanilla Body Cream, Whitening Peppermint Toothpaste,

Cough Drops and Citrus Furniture Polish. There's a bit of everything in here.

There is an initial cost on some of the recipes, especially the beauty products, since they use essential oils but they last for a long time. I have my list and will be purchasing things as the budget allows. So, here's to my new venture as a glamorous tightwad. I like the sound of that already!

Bread for the Challenged

I love bread. It's serious folks, I bake some form of bread almost every day. Yesterday it was tortillas, today was homemade crust for our cheese pizza at lunch, Monday I made a loaf of the hearth bread you see in the photograph. This weekend it was two loaves of braided Oatmeal Sunflower Bread for a family get-together. I am blessed to own a wonderful bread mixer that I love but with the time constraints of homeschooling and keeping up with the brood, I was looking for a faster and easier option for my baking fixation.

Enter the no-knead bread method. This had been all over the internet but I just recently picked up the book at our library. If you are a cookbook reading nerd you will enjoy reading through his introduction and the descriptions of each recipe. If you are a bread snob like myself you will love the final product of his recipes. What I can't get over is how easy and quick it is to make fabulous bread following his methods. My only problem is that it makes one loaf. My family is ravenous and one loaf doesn't last too long. But I guess that's a good problem to have.

To make the loaf in the photograph I mixed 1 and 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour with 2 cups of white flour, 1 teaspoon of yeast, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt and about 1 and 1/2 cup of water. It takes just enough water to make the dough come together, it will be sticky but that's okay. I stirred it together right before I went to bed, popped a lid on the bowl and left it on the counter. That's all! No kneading, watching or punching down. Nothing. The next morning, I turned the dough out onto the countertop after I sprinkled it with some flour and quickly shaped it into a ball. Then I dusted a cloth napkin heavily with flour and set the ball of dough, smooth side up on the napkin and let it rest. The dough is quite sticky so you have to work quickly but it isn't critical to get it smooth or perfect, just rounded up. After about an hour I put my cast iron pot with a lid into the oven while it heated to 450 degrees. About 45 minutes later I took the lid off the pan and tipped the risen loaf off of the napkin and into the pan. This is a bit nerve-wracking for recovering perfectionists but it will rise in the pan while it's baking and that seems to take care of any mess-ups in the dough transfer. The bread baked for 15 minutes with the lid on and 25 minutes with the lid off. Then all there is to it is to cool on a rack.

This recipe works great for pizza dough if you increase the yeast to 2 teaspoons and let it rest in the bowl for about 2 hours. I mix it up before we start school to make pizza for lunch. It just can't get any easier than that.

I hope you try it out and look for the book, he has so many other recipes that I didn't try out, not yet anyway!

Baby's Book

I must confess, my inspiration for craft projects for the kids leaves something to be desired. Our art usually consists of coloring books for the little ones and sketch books for the older two. They have plenty of creative license (translation: their mom can't think of any good ideas) to draw whatever strikes their fancy. Creative bursts may result in a little painting or the occasional modeling clay frenzy, but day to day we don't get too crafty. Lately we have been making some simple sewing projects for gifts and that is what you see happening here. Please note the "happy mushroom" on the left hand side of his page.

My middle son made a cloth book for Baby's first birthday a few weeks ago. He loves to draw and so we set out with some fabric squares, markers and prayers for patience. That would be me praying for patience. He illustrated each page with drawings of the two of them doing various boy things, fishing, camping, hunting, driving race cars and monster trucks. My part was to write the story on each page and sew it all together.

I must say, it was a hit. Baby carried it around with him and looked at all the pages over and over. The best part was seeing Big Brother's delight in giving the gift. When it comes to gifts and giving, I want each of my kids to know that feeling of giving something you made with your own hands. There's nothing like it!

Tea and Tea Cups

Curling up under a quilt with a steaming cup of hot tea and a book has been my antidote to the endless gray skies and cold weather that have inhabited the world outside my windows. In this picture you can see one of my favorite tea cups and also one of the first I had in my collection. When I open my cupboard there are multiple kinds of cups and mugs to choose from, depending on my mood. There are thick old diner mugs, one that is tiny, perfect for enjoying a "half a cup" of coffee. Several are hand thrown pottery mugs including one made by a wonderful friend in her pottery studio. I have a pair of tea cups with matching lids I use for herbal teas. The most special part of my collection though is the set of mismatched tea cups I inherited from my grandmother. She ran the china and bridal registry part of their jewelry shop and at her house she used the extra pieces from the store for her everyday dishes. When I was preparing to set up my own house, she and I went through her "extra", extra pieces and I chose twelve settings of china for my future home. Now that she is gone I love to look at all the beautiful patterns and remember my Mamaw who used fine china to serve every meal because that's what she had. Whoever thought making do could be so elegant? So when I am feeling elegant or missing my grandma I get down the stacks of miss-matched tea cups and saucers and search through them for the perfect one for that day and brew myself a cup of tea. Comfort in a cup!

Snack Mats

For me, inspiration comes from many places, books being in the top 5 places for acquiring some good old inspiration for handmade things. On my last trip to the library (by myself even!) I came across a beautiful book called Linen, Wool, Cotton , a lovely book of sewing projects written by an equally lovely Japanese woman. Like so many others, she loves to work with natural materials and out of that passion came this book. There are 25 wonderful project to make for your home and to wear, I could be in serious trouble if I happened across a bunch of linen, cotton or wool that needed a destiny.

One project caught my eye in that it was small and could be put together quickly, also it was just the thing my kids would enjoy using. Her snack mats are made from a gorgeous white fleece with three elegant french knots in the bottom corner so mine don't evoke quite the same spirit but they are very much loved now at afternoon snack time so what can I say. Besides, anything white around my little darlings isn't white for long. The girls' are made from a small flour sack trimmed with thrifted lace and the boys' are made from the remains of their dad's old shirts that were repurposed into Christmas PJ bottoms.

I embroidered their initials on them since my little men aren't into lace. Now, my machine isn't made to do embroidery so I will show you the nice "T" I made with the button hole function and not show the "D" I made with the button hole function. They were all gratifyingly delighted when they awoke from their naps to find snacks waiting on their own snack mats. By the way, those chocolate cookies are my favorite and every time I make them I eat way too many. Those and rice crispy treats. Just keep them away from me, I have no self control!

The Sourdough Chronicles: Part II

Here is the next installment in the exciting Sourdough Chronicles. I can just see you riveted, on the edge of your seat. Over the years I have made countless recipes for sourdough bread. Most have been along the lines of a country bread with a thick crunchy crusts and chewy inside. This week I found a wonderful recipe for a soft slightly sweet sourdough that I just had to share. On the first go around I made the round loaf you see above. If we hadn't devoured it in 24 hours I would have been able to share it but after afternoon snacks, before bed cinnamon toast and an alarming amount of vanilla french toast this morning, there isn't even a crumb left. Today I made another batch for hoagie buns to make this for dinner and it was just as soft and delicious as the big loaf yesterday. Next I am going to play with the proportions and try it as loaf bread.

Over the weekend I read The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder and was interested in the descriptions of Ma's sourdough bread that they literally lived on for most of the winter and spring . She usually used yeast cakes and made light bread but out of necessity she made a starter and used that for her bread. If you've never read this book, do so immediately but make sure you have a quilt handy because it makes you cold to read it. Most pioneers used a sourdough starter and they are legendary in Alaska. You can even order a special wooden spoon from Alaska that has been dipped in starter and use it to make a starter for yourself. Or follow my starter recipe and make your own with your own wooden spoon. It's really easy and quite an interesting process. After you have a starter going and make a loaf of bread, you have to feed the starter to keep it alive. The yeast in the starter lives off the sugar in the flour and it can't go much longer than a week with out more flour being added to it. Sometimes when I can't get a chance to bake I will dump a cup of the starter out and feed it 1/2 a cup of water and a cup of flour to keep it alive. When I bake, I replenish the starter with the same amount of water and flour. So you see, it's easy and when you can make bread like this it's absolutely worth it.

Soft Sourdough Bread

2 teaspoons dry yeast

1 cup milk

1 1/2 cup sourdough starter (Replenish starter with 3/4 cup water and 1 1/2 cup flour)

3 Tablespoons soft butter

3 Tablespoons honey

3 Tablespoons wheat germ

1 Tablespoon salt

4 cups flour (I use 2 cups whole wheat and 2 cups unbleached white)

Stir together yeast, milk, butter and honey. It will be lumpy because of the starter but take heart, it's nothing a little kneading won't fix. Mix in the wheat germ, salt and flour and stir until the dough starts to come together. Dump it out on a floured surface and knead for 5 to 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. This dough may be sticky at the beginning so add flour as you need to work with it. Set the kneaded dough to rise in a large bowl in a warm place. If I am not using my oven, I set it in there with the light turned on. Rise until doubled in size. Gently deflate the dough and shape into a ball. Set on an oiled baking sheet and let it rise again. When it is about twice as big and looks puffy, preheat your oven to 4oo degrees. Bake the bread 25 to 30 minutes or until it is golden brown. Cool the bread on a rack at least 20 minutes before you slice it. Guard it from your family members if need be.

Perfect Gingerbread

Gingerbread is something I crave regularly in the winter, we have it several times a month, often for breakfast. This morning was one of those mornings and we devoured almost all of it straight from the oven. The recipe comes from one of my favorite cookbooks, The Dairy Hollow House Cookbook by Crescent Dragonwagon. She once lived here in Arkansas and helped pioneer the bed and breakfast industry in Eureka Springs. Two cookbooks were written during her ownership of The Dairy Hollow House, the copy above was purchased in their gift shop and autographed by the author the first time I visited Eureka Springs as a college student. It is one of my favorite cookbooks and I read it almost every year. I'm kind of weird like that, my preferred reading is usually a cookbook and there's always one on my nightstand. This recipe is adapted from her recipe for Elsie's Gingerbread and it's a great one. Not too molassesy, not too sweet, with a cake-like texture. The crumb topping makes it extra special and it is made as you make the batter so it's a one bowl treat. Gingerbread is not made all that often nowadays so people are surprised and pleased when you serve it. Try it and you will be surprised yourself!

Perfect Gingerbread

Adapted from Elsie's Gingerbread

1 1/2 cups flour (I use 1 cup whole wheat and 1/2 cup white)

1 cup sugar

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup butter

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 scant teaspoon salt

1 egg, beaten

4 Tablespoons molasses

1 cup buttermilk (or sour 1 cup of milk with 1 Tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice)

Stir together flour, sugar, ginger and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Scoop out 1/4 cup of the crumb mixture and set aside. Add baking soda and salt and stir lightly to incorporate. Stir in egg and molasses, this won't mix in completely so don't worry. Pour in buttermilk or soured milk and quickly stir to combine. Pour into a buttered 9 inch baking pan and sprinkle with the reserved crumb mixture. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until the sides start to pull away from the edge of the pan. Remove from the oven and serve hot, warm or cool. Anyway you serve it, you can't go wrong!

Our Advent

Last year was the first year our children were old enough to read through an advent book and we enjoyed it so much we decided to celebrate it every year. It's a wonderful tradition for kids and not so young kids so today we begin. In the summer I picked up this beautiful book called The 25 Days of Christmas at a homeschool book fair and stashed it away for December. Thankfully, I was able to remember where I put it. The artwork is beautiful and the daily readings talk about everything from God knowing us from the beginning to the meaning of gifts. Everyday we will read the devotion and sing a carol or hymn. I especially love the daily page for parents that offers ideas to make this busy season more meaningful and less stressful. This is a book I highly recommend, it would be great for any age child and something that could be used each year.

Another tradition we are starting is a miniature Advent Christmas tree. This tree is about a foot high and we have it set up in the dining room. I picked up a couple of sets of tiny ornaments and some felt to make a few more and every night one of the kids will get to choose an ornament to put on the tree. They are so excited for their turn and have several ornaments picked out for their night. I am excited to have such a fun way to share the joy of Christmas and teach them why we have that joy. Let Christmas begin!

The BOOK

It finally arrived!!! Waiting at the front window, I spied the big brown truck driven by a veritable angel as it screeched to a stop in front of my house. In my stocking feet I ran out the door to meet the cheerful lady who was sprinting up my driveway. She handed off the package and turned back to her truck. I was about to hug her but man, they are fast. Instead I hugged the humble cardboard box and headed back inside. After making quick work of ripping it open, there it was in all it's glory, my own copy of Pioneer Woman Cooks!! My sweet mother-in-law had purchased it for my birthday this summer and I have been on pins and needles ever since. Why does it take so long to print a little old book anyway? So it is here and after I get the kids in bed and the kitchen cleaned I can sit and revel in PW's wonderful work. If you have talked to me for longer than 5 seconds then you have heard of my devotion to PW. It's serious, I may need intervention. She may think I am stalking her. Good thing she lives out in the middle of no-where, who would watch my kids while I drove all the way over there just to shake her hand. Last night I read through to chicken fried steak and twice baked potatoes. Really, it would be in every man's best interest to buy a copy for his wife, it's full of man-food. So, PW, I want you to know that you have brightened the life of a little Arkansas mama and I thank you!

Harvest Corn Muffins

Let the pumpkin cookery begin! The poor pumpkin is delegated to an almost exclusive decorative role in America. With the exception of a pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, most of us don't eat pumpkin any other time of the year. In France you can buy slices of several varieties of pumpkins at the farmers market to cook for your dinner. There are hundreds of kinds of pumpkins grown around the world and so many ways to eat them. Every year I buy some pie pumpkins, roast them, eat some mashed with butter and salt and puree the rest for freezing. Joe loves Pumpkin Pie, it was the first thing I ever cooked for him, and he had never had one made with fresh pumpkin. If you never have cooked your own pumpkin then pick up one of the small round ones next time you are at the grocery store and get crackin'. Here's how to make your own pumpkin puree. I couldn't have said it better myself.

These muffins are a loose adaptation of a recipe in this cookbook. It is full of great wholesome recipes for families. The wonderful thing about it is that each recipe has a footnote telling how that food can be served to a baby so you can cook one thing and feed anyone from 6 months old and up. I'm all about making my own baby food so this was right up my alley. Now about these muffins, I cut the butter/oil and maple syrup in half and substituted part white flour for the whole wheat flour. I have since made them with all whole wheat flour and they are delicious that way too. Once I made them with oil and applesauce and then with butter, we didn't notice any difference, so use what you prefer. Start out by gathering up all your ingredients.
My dry ingredients are combined in the big bowl. In the bag is my thawed pumpkin puree and I have oil, eggs and applesauce. Any baked good can have applesauce substituted for part of the oil or butter so I used some here. Also, a note about corn meal. Here in Arkansas we have a water powered grist mill that grinds fabulous cornmeal. It is whole grain meaning it contains the germ of the corn kernel. If at all possible find some whole grain cornmeal to use instead of the degerminated cornmeal sold in a grocery store. You should be able to find good cornmeal at a health food store or order online from a grist mill. You won't regret it. The flavor, not to mention the nutrition is a world apart from the sandy grit sold as cornmeal.

Harvest Corn Muffins

1 1/2 cup of corn meal

1 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour, or use 1 cup whole wheat and 1/2 cup unbleached white flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup of pumpkin puree

1/2 cup of milk

1/4 cup of oil or melted butter, or 2 Tbls. oil/butter and 2 Tbls. applesauce

1/4 cup honey or maple syrup

2 eggs

In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Whisk together the pumpkin, milk, oil/melted butter, honey/maple syrup and eggs. Stir gently into the dry ingredients and spoon into a greased or paper lined muffin tin. Don't you love paper muffin liners? They are practically my best friend.
Bake for 25 minutes in a preheated 375 degree oven. Cool for a few minutes then place in a napkin-lined basket and serve. You can serve them on a platter if you want but they taste better from a napkin-lined basket. Makes 12 hearty muffins. Naturally they are delicious with a big bowl of hot steamy soup.

Weekend Sewing

For the most part I am a patient person but this almost got me. Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross came out in the spring and as soon as our local library added it, I was on the request list. Then the waiting began. Two and a half months later it was finally available. Now I had two weeks to sew from it before passing on to the next eager person on the list. After reading through and enjoying all the beautiful photographs, this is what I decided to make:
Oh my goodness!!! Were they ever cute! Little one has a pair of matching Ruby's Bloomers underneath her dress. They are called Flower Girl Dresses which makes them even more darling. This was the first time I had trimmed something with rick-rack and it was a bit tricky but worth it.
Next were these Smocked Sundresses. I was waiting for white elastic thread from our one fabric store but finally broke down and made them with black elastic thread. You can't see it from the outside of the dress so it ended up being just fine. The great thing about them is that you can make one in about an hour, the smocking is just sewing back and forth with the elastic thread in your bobbin.
Big sister needed flowered sheets for her little bed and I made this one out of a fitted twin sheet. Then of course she needed a pink pillowcase. I made this by adapting Heather Ross's pillowcase instructions to use a thrifted white pillowcase. The pink trim makes it so cute and she hasn't mentioned the fact that the whole thing isn't pink!

One of my favorite things to give is a warm loaf of bread but there never is a good thing to give it in. I have lost quite a few cloth napkins and dish towels this way. Now in 30 minutes or so I can whip up one of these drawstring bags and give that with the bread. It could be used for anything when the bread is gone. The bag in this photo is made using some leftover fabric from another project but my own bread bag is made from a vintage sheet. I have my radar out for some cute vintage tea towels to make bread bags from. Besides, I love the name tea towels, Don't you?

So those are the projects I have made from this wonderful book so far. I don't think I have the patience to wait for the book again, I guess I'll have to get my own copy! If you have any sewing experience or want to learn, this book is perfect for you. The range of projects and experience levels would suit anyone. Also, Heather included some wonderful weekend recipes that sound wonderful. Check it out!