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.

Friday Photo

Grandma Helen's cake keeper. One of my favorite things. It was always used to hold the famous 1-2-3-4 Cake, but this time it held a Coconut Pineapple Cake. Yummy! I hope your weekend holds sweet things for you!

Collections

I have several collections of old things that I love. Cookbooks, old and new, pottery pitchers, mostly old, antique books, definitely old, and rotary egg beaters. I just love them.

All of them have different handles and mechanics. They are surprisingly sturdy and efficient, especially considering that some are from the 1920's. I don't use these, they are stored away for someday when I have a great place to display them. There is one I keep in my kitchen and use nearly every day, a good friend of mine almost past out one day when I whipped it out to use. She had never seen anyone actually use one.

The yellow handled one is my favorite, I have a thing for yellow. Mostly I love thinking about the woman who used to use each one. Did she have a variety to choose from when she bought it. You can almost imagine her excitement at having such a cutting edge kitchen tool to make her life so much easier. She probably set right out to make an angel food cake from her fresh eggs just to get to beat the egg whites with her modern gadget.

Things have come a long way from the rotary beater to the KitchenAid but keep an eye out and if you see one of these at a flea market or antique shop or in your Grandma's kitchen, give it a try. You might fall in love with it. Just ask Grandma first before you take it, okay?

Cranberry Streusel Pie

What can I say about this pie? I just can't understand how it can be so good. About 10 years ago I found the recipe in a magazine and jotted it down because I obsessively jot down any recipe using fresh cranberries. They are my favorite fall fruit and we have several dishes at Thanksgiving dinner that feature these beautiful ruby colored berries. Any recipe calling for them is instantly in running for my new fall dish. In fact, as I write this I have a cranberry apple breakfast crisp in the oven. An interesting fact about cranberries is that they are the only true American fruit. They were growing here long before the first Europeans landed on this fine land of ours. Another fun thing about cranberries is that children always want to taste them and they always forget how tart they are. Every year I get to trick my kids with a fresh cranberry. Ah, fun times!

Now about the pie, it became an instant favorite in my family. The only dilemma we have is that the original recipe calls for walnuts and my dad thinks the only nut worth eating is a pecan. (Except for boiled peanuts. Don't ask, it's a southern thing.) So we put pecans in it for Dad and either way it's about the best pie you ever put in your mouth. My husband's family loved it too and I always make one to send to Grandma and Grandpa. Just trying to be the favorite!

Cranberry Streusel Pie

2 cups fresh cranberries

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 egg

1/3 cup sugar

3 Tablespoons flour

4 Tablespoons butter, melted

1 unbaked pie shell

Toss together the cranberries, brown sugar, white sugar, nuts and cinnamon. Spoon into the pie shell and spread out as evenly as you can. Whisk the egg and add the sugar, flour and butter. Pour over cranberry mixture in the pie shell. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 20 minutes, reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake for 30 minutes more. If you are using a glass pie plate, carefully check the bottom of the crust to make sure it is nice and browned. A undercooked gummy bottom crust is a violation of all that is good and right. However a properly browned bottom crust will make you everyone's hero or at least help you sleep better at night. So round up your ingredients and make this pie today or on Thursday, you'll be glad you did!

Aunt Becky's Treat

Oh my goodness, this stuff is dangerous. My mother-in-law said she could never be around it again. If you have a problem sharing then you should probably just skip this recipe. My mom made this snack for us when we were kids and since I have a favorite Aunt Becky I thought this recipe came from her benevolent hand but my dear mother said she didn't know where she acquired this recipe. Whoever came up with it was a genius and all their family and friends were blessed indeed. I always make it in my iron skillet from Grandma, it tastes better that way.

Aunt Becky's Treat

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup honey

1/3 cup brown sugar

3 cups Cheerios

1 cup oatmeal

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 cup raisins

Melt the butter in a skillet or large saucepan. Stir in the honey and brown sugar and mix until smooth. Add the Cheerios, oatmeal, pecans and cinnamon. Stir, stir, stir until everything is coated. If you used a saucepan then turn the mixture into a greased 9x13 pan, if you used a skillet then bake in that. Bake in a preheated 325 degree oven for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. As soon you take it out of the oven, mix in the raisins. Spread it out on waxed paper to cool and enjoy!

A note about the photograph. I used golden raisins because that's what I had on hand but it's best with regular raisins. Also, you may notice the absence of any pecans. My parents own a pecan orchard but someone had eaten all the pecans her loving parents had given her and she is eagerly awaiting this year's pecan harvest. My dad shelled pounds and pounds of pecans by hand that he had gathered last fall. Several pounds found their way into my freezer and subsequently onto my bowls of homemade yogurt and countless bowls of hot oatmeal this past winter. I can't buy pecans at the store, it's just not the same after eating pecans grown, gathered and shelled by your sweet dad. So, no pecans were to be had for my Aunt Becky's Treat but it was still great and only survived one snacktime around here with the ravenous horde, not too bad I'd say.

8 Years and Still Going Strong!

This weekend we are headed back to the little cabin in the woods for a little getaway in honor of our eighth anniversary. The big difference between this weekend and the one earlier this summer is that we will have only one of our delightful offspring with us. Our brave and wonderful Grandma will be entertaining the four big ones so remember her in your prayers. And don't worry Grandma, we will come back, just take some Motrin and everything will be fine. As for us, I have some snacks packed along with some double dark chocolate Ghiradelli cookie dough to bake and serve with cold milk, I'm taking some books we are reading and a sewing project to work on. I'm excited and ready for some relative quiet and chocolate cookies!

Evelyn's Quilt

This month we were able to visit Grandma and Grandpa and introduce their newest grandson to them. Of course, they were delighted and mesmerized with him and all his darlingness. I do believe that he is their favorite! When we arrived Grandma was prepared with the plastic measuring cups and the quilt. Oh my, the quilt. I don't remember ever seeing it before and I can't imagine forgetting it if I had. Here it is.
The prints in it are enchanting. Grandma had a wonderful friend named Evelyn, she made this quilt. All the prints are from her childhood frocks, she saved them and pieced this nine patch quilt from them. It's hand quilted and the backing is the same yellow fabric as the solid squares on the top. Several years ago, Evelyn passed away and Grandma was helping her daughters go through her things and they didn't want the quilt. Grandma said she would like to have it, so now it is one of her treasured possessions. There seemed to be about ten or twelve different patterns on it and each one was more darling than the last. She has taken such good care of it that none of the colors are faded or worn so you can really enjoy the prints.
I love the blue and pink floral that is by Cubbie's knee, but I would be hard pressed to say which one was my favorite. Just looking at the colors made me want to reproduce them as a fabric line so my girls could have lots of darling dresses made out of the same patterns. So that is the story of Evelyn's quilt. Good work, Evelyn, You were quite the crafter!