My Sweet Cornmeal Muffins

My mother made cornbread in a 8 x 8 inch pan or larger and cut it in squares.  You would receive a square of it on your plate, very hot, to split open and spread with butter and a sweet, jam or honey, sometimes mollasses.  Both of my parents grew up in rural northwest Oklahoma in the 30s.  They were dramatically affected by the Depression.  My Grandfather, a natural born story teller, told of years of draught and crop failure.  Poverty like most of us now can't imagine.  They had a garden, canned everything, and kept a cow.  They slaughtered a cow when they could and canned the meat.  My mother always said they were never hungry but didn't usually have much choice about what they ate.  

So much in modern life is taken for granted.  So much consumption is just assumed.  So many of us feel deprived if we don't have this or that.  The Best Things in life are simple, fairly easy, just not advertised on prime time TV.

Cornmeal Muffins for 2 or 3.
1/2 c. biscuit mix
1/2 c. yellow cornmeal
2 T. sugar
1/2 c. milk
2 eggs beaten
4 t. vegetable oil

Combine dry ingredients.  Add wet ingredients.  Stir until just moistened.  This is a thin batter. 

Pour into sprayed muffin tins.  Yes, I fill muffin tins to the top.  And yes, I know you home ec teacher and the Betty Crocker Cook Book says to fill them 2/3 full.  This is how I do it.

Bake  at 400 degrees for 15 - 18 minutes or until golden brown.  And of course, eat them hot.  Left overs make good snacks.

Remember to be grateful.

The Queen of Casseroles

I am not ashamed.  I am the Queen of Casseroles.  And if that sounds not cool enough or not upscale enough, now you know who I am.  First child of a midwestern child of the depression.  I am also an organized person and a person with a job.  It is my mission to serve a hot dinner every night to anyone who is around at dinner time.  Not always an easy task. To do this smoothly, you need a plan. 

Every week, I make a menu plan for the next week, what I plan to serve for lunch and dinner.  Now I rarely do exactly what I plan, but it gets me a starting point.  I usually plan for leftovers, so I don't cook a full meal each night.  I make a shopping list from my plan and shop once per week.  Every morning, as I get my bowl of cereal, or left over popovers or muffins from the night before, or fruit and yogurt, I decide what's for dinner that night.  Sometimes, I am heating left overs from a previous night or remodeling left over ingredient into something new.  But when I am cooking that night, I set out the recipe on my counter.  I feel more organized and prepared when I walk in the door when I know my plan and it is sitting in front of me. 

Tonight, it is Ham and Tater Casserole.

Start with 6 cups of tater tots.  Yep, right out of the freezer.  And yes, I know this isn't a completely natural product and doesn't fit perfectly into my value system, but you have a bag in your freezer.  You know you do. 

Next, 2 large heads of broccoli, cut into 1/4 inch florets.  My husband likes broccoli, so I use it a lot.

2 cups of ham is next.  This can be left over from a previous meal.  Or, you can buy a ham cutlet at the meat counter.  When small hams are on sale around the holiday, I often buy one and serve it for a weekend meal when the kids will be around, then cut it into several  portions, put them in freezer bags and freeze them for this and other meals.  More to come using ham.

Next the sauce.  1 can (10 3/4 oz) condensed cream of mushroom soup.  I get the low fat low sodium kind when it is on sale and keep several cans in my pantry for various meals.  I have no delusions that this is a low fat or sodium meal.  Rather, I prefer to add the fat and sodium from other sources.  For example, mayonnaise.  1/2 cup for this sauce.    This is best quality mayo, not salad dressing.  I buy 1 or 2 every time they come on sale and keep 1 in the fridge and 1 in the pantry.  Mayonnaise is not expensive when purchased on sale and it adds lots of flavor.  3/4 cup milk and wisk it all together.  Pour over the other ingredients.  Turn with a large spoon to combine.  Spray a large casserole dish and turn it all into the dish. 

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.  Take it out and add 1 cup of medium or sharp shredded cheddar cheese.  Bake an additional 20 minutes.  This makes 6 - 8 servings.  It can be packed into individual servings and reheated in a microwave for lunch.  Or divide the casserole into two smaller dishes.  Cover and seal one for the freezer.  Cook only one of the dishes, the other next week.  Food everyone likes.  A little salad, a litlle garlic bread.   Ice cream or fruit for dinner.  Time to knit and watch the news.

Remember to be happy.  

Chili Heaven

There is something very comforting about a big pot of chili for me.  The source of my love for the stuff must be my mom.  She made awesome chili in a huge kettle. 

In addition to ground beef, she added bacon.  She was a very frugal person, but added bacon to lots of stuff.  Each time, she made a point of saying to everyone that bacon was expensive, but it was worth it for this particular recipe.  We often had cornbread with it.  We were allowed several toppings to both our chili and our cornbread.  To chili, we were allowed shredded cheese, saltine crackers, sour cream and chopped onion.  To cornbread, we had butter and something sweet, sometimes, honey, molassas, jam or dark karo syrup.  I know this wouldn't be for just everyone, but we all looked forward to this.

When we were finished with our meal, Mom spooned the remaining chili into Mason canning jars, put lids on them and put them in the freezer for other meals.  I have many happy memories of coming into the kitchen and seeing a frozen jar in the sink defrosting and being happy knowing that chili was coming. 

I don't have my mom's chili recipe.  Here is one my family likes a lot.  It is very good reheated, not very hot, but has lots of flavor. It still makes me happy to make it and eat it.  I'm just as happy to have left overs. 

Chili Chez Osborne (A modified version of a Taste of Home recipe)
3 lbs ground beef
1/2 large onion chopped.
1 medium green pepper, chopped
2 celery ribs, chopped.
2 cloves garlic, minced 
1 can each (16 oz each) kidney and pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (29) oz tomato sauce
1 jar (16 oz) mild picante salsa
1 can (14 1/2 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained. 
1 can (10 1/2 oz) beef broth and 2 cups water
1 - 2 T. chili powder
2 T. Worcestershire sauce
1 T. dried basil
2 T. ground cumin
2 t. A-1 steak sauce
1 t. salt.

In a large pot, cook meat, onion, pepper, celery, and garlic unil meat is no longer pink.  Drain.  Stir in remaining ingredients.  Make sure to rinse the beans.  Canned beans have a starchy liquid on them which isn't good.  Bring to boil. 

Reduce heat, simmering uncovered for 30 minutes.  Use any left overs for other meals or for lunches.

Passing It Along

If you know me, you know that I am a tactile person.  I touch everything to see how it feels.  Most of my experience of the world is not visual.  All of my favorite foods are eaten out of hand, preferable dripping in butter and eaten with those little cocktail forks.  Crab is my favorite food of all time.  I love artichokes, corn on the cob.  Anything I can hold in my hand and get all over myself.

I have a little 5 year old step grand daughter who hangs out with me a lot.  Although there is no genetic connection, I see so much of myself in her.  She headstrong and absolutely without fear.  She is all fight, a little warrior.  And she is very tactile.  Maybe she has seen me smush things in my fingers, but I think there is something inherent in her that comes out in that way.  She not just a toucher; she is a smeller and a taster. 

She sits on a bar stool and watches me cook asking to be allowed to stir and measure and pour.  Every spice or herb I get out, she wants to smell.  She is interested in the difference between baking soda and baking powder, at 5!  I keep a little plate and spoon out so that she can sample things.  She doesn't mind if it is unpleasant.  She just wants the sensation.

I think back to watching my own mother cook and remember that she allowed me tastes and shared with me.  She hand made pasta.  She called it noodles.  They sat on the bread board covered by a towel for hours to dry.  I loved to taste the uncooked noodles.  Now, pasta is flour, egg, salt, and water.  It doesn't taste good raw, but I loved it.  Same with pieces of uncooked pie dough.  Sometimes Mom sprinkled the scraps of pie dough with cinnamon sugar, placed them on a cookie sheet and baked them.  We were allowed to eat them like a cookie.  Not a healthy treat, but we were just as happy to be allowed a piece raw.  Just flour, shortening, and water.  It doesn't taste good, but I still put a piece in my mouth as I finish a pie.

She and I watch the Food Network Channel together, Ina, Paula.  Now, I have absolutely no food show fantasies.  I am not outgoing, a bit socially awkward, and not interested in being the center of attention.  But my little granddaughter has started playing Food Show when we cook.  She'll say, "Now, everybody watch.  You mix it like this and you pour it like this.  But you have to be really really careful so you don't make a mess.  Is everybody watching?" 

It is interesting to watch another generation of food lover in the making and to wonder what impact I am having on her food sensibilities.  What perspective she will have.  What she will remember and think about our time in the kitchen.   

Turkey pot pie / Stop and smell the Pie Crust

If you cut me, I bleed pie crust.  I don't know how else to say it.  I just love the stuff.  It empowers me.  I wrap everything in it. I find inspiration and Joie de vivre in pie crust.  It makes me happy.  To see how truly goofy I am about the stuff, see my 11/6/09 and 11/8/09 posts.
Turkey pot pie

1 T. oil

1T. butter

1/4 c. flour

1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped

2 stalks celery finely chopped

1 cup of chopped purple cabbage

1 t. salt
1/8 t. pepper
1/4 t. poultry seasoning
1 Bay leaf
2 carrots, peeled and chopped.
2 small yellow potatoes, peeleed and chopped
1/4 c. frozen peas.
2 cups shredded turkey dark meat
1 cup of the liquid the carrots and potatoes were cooked in
1 cup of 1/2 and 1/2
A double sided uncooked pie crust

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Heat oil and butter in a large skillet.  Add onion, celery, salt, pepper and poultry seasoning.  Add a Bay leaf for flavor which you will fish out later.  Cook until everything is soft. Add the flour and combine.  Meanwhile, in a sauce pan, cook the carrots until they are soft but not mushy.  Remove them with a slotted spoon into the skillet and repeat with the potatoes.    

Add the cooked potatoes to the rest and add the peas and the turkey.

Add the vegetable liquid and the 1/2 and 1/2 Cook, turning, until everything is well heated.  The flour and liquid start to thicken into a sauce.  Let it similar briefly.  Remember to find and remove the bay leaf.  This makes a lot of filling, so I use my deep dish pie pans.

Lay the first uncooked crust in a well sprayed pie pan.  Press the crust in place.  Spoon the thickened filling into the pie crust.  Lay the top crust overall.

An interesting thing happened here.  My top crust fell apart.  I've been doing this since before I was a grown up.  For forty years.  Of the things I'm pretty good at, this ranks really high and I messed it up.

Again, the zen of the pie crust.  It is only shortening, salt, flour and water.  What is the worse thing that could happen.  Start over?  Forgive yourself. It doesn't have to be perfect.  Pat it in place and keep going.   Messy pie crust is always better than no pie crust.

Crimp the edges (see November posts).  Cover the crimped edges with foil.  Poke holes in the top and bake for 30 minutes or until bubbly hot.  In this case I brushed the top with an egg white.  I do that with savory pies, but not with sweet.  The result is a different color as it browns.

Remember to be happy.

Turkey Sandwiches

I can't believe we ate the whole thing.   TheThanksgiving holiday makes many people feel warm and comfy-cozy, safe and happy.  The smell of the food, the feeling of it all, the nesting hominess is a happy memory for most of us.  Turkey, sage and thyme, butter and cream.  This is our culture.  Who we are on some fundamental level.

But let's be real.  The traditional Thanksgiving of my past is 2 days of work to prepare and serve and 1 day of clean up for someone.  If you've been that person, it can be overwhelming.  And yet it is easy to feel guilt at not doing this for future generations. 

My usual solution to this problem is a seriously scaled back version.  This year, I roasted a turkey, made mashed potatoes and gravy and a pie.  No greenbean casserole, no yams, no stuffing, no rolls, no salad, and on and on.  I served it on the china.  We enjoyed the smells and toasty warm feelings before, during and after the meal.  I cleaned up as I cooked so it wasn't too bad.  We had left overs for 4 days. More and more, the important thing for me is to be happy, not to be perfect. A hard lesson for me.

My favorite sandwiches are all grilled.  My memories of my mom making grilled cheese are strong and just make me feel good.  To make this sandwich, butter one side of a piece of bread (bakery sour dough here).  The other side is spred with mayonaise.  It goes butter side down in a heavy bottom pan that has been heated to medium.  A layer of cranberry sauce, then turkey, and Brie cheese.  Common left overs after Thanksgiving.  I've done this with swiss and provolone also, if you don't have Brie.

Another piece of bread butter up, mayo down.  The bread gets toasty as the sandwich heats and the cheese melts.  Use a spatula to lift up the corner of the sandwich and peak under. 

When the bread is browned, use the spatula to flip it over.  Be careful to make sure the ingredients stay intact.  Apply a little pressure with the spatula to the top of the sandwich now and then as it cooks and the ingredients incorporates. Just delicious.  One day I may get one of the new fangeled pannini makers, but maybe not.


A piece of pie and a pair.  Shared this all with the husband and we had lunch.

More Expensive?

I hear several reasons why people don't cook real food.  One is people think it is more expensive.  People point to dollar menus and so forth, but I still don't get it.

Let's take an example.  I buy whole chickens at $.79 per pound.  It is probably different in other areas, but in my Store they come on sale several times per year at that price and that is my price point.  I buy several at a time and freeze them.  So at 5 lbs for the bird, you do the math.  Let's say I stew him or roast him.  Then pick half the meat off and reserve it for a casserole.  The remaining carcass and meat gets made into chicken carcass soup.  Boil down the bones into a rich stock, add back in the meat and a boat load of veggies.  If this is new to you, Google it or take out any Better Homes or Betty Crocker cookbook.  My family can eat many bowls of the soup for lunch all week.  Cost per meal, just a few cents and very healthy. 

Now back to the casserole.  See my November 21 post for an example.  The rest of the ingredients are still pennies and I have eight servings there. 

Real food is not more expensive than fast food.  It's not.