What a wonderful time of year autumn is! The first little crispness of fall air makes me want to get back to the kitchen (as if we ever get out).
Due to my husband’s illness and recent hospital stay, I was unable to write a new column. This one is from our days in the Rio Grande Valley. The recipes are great.
The first recipe today walked into our choir room at church yesterday with Base (the tenor) Huston. Base does all the cooking at his house, and personally, I think that is a great arrangement for wife Sandy and daughter Courtney. Base loves to try new recipes and many times will take one he finds and works with it (as so many of you do), until it is “just right.” He particularly likes crock pot recipes and taught me the trick of putting a cooking bag into the crock pot so that the cleanup is especially easy. We are having this one tonight with a pan of hot cornbread.
Base’s Easy Stew
2 pounds Lean stew meat (as usual, I bought a small boneless shoulder roast and cut it into chunks)
1 1/2 ounce package beef stew meat seasoning mix
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes with sweet onion
1 (4 1/2 ounce) jar whole mushrooms, drained
3 small to medium potatoes
1/2 pound baby carrots
Place meat in a large plastic baking bag. Sprinkle with beef stew mix. Add remaining ingredients and shake bag to mix. Tie bag and make 3 or 4 slits in top. Place bag in crock pot and cook on high for 5 hours. Makes 6-8 servings.
Though I have shared this recipe with you before, I think it is worth repeating. It is the cornbread recipe that I almost always make (when I am out of cornbread mix and not in a big hurry).
The next two recipes come from a wonderful cookbook which was given to me years ago. As far as I know, it is still in print. It is from the Northeast Texas Rural Heritage Museum cookbook, Pittsburg/Camp County Museum Association, 200 Rusk St., Pittsburg, Texas 75686; $13.50, including postage.
I am aware that most of us make cornbread like (or similar to) the cornbread that our mothers and grandmothers made. My family never had “sweet” cornbread, so I never made recipes that included sugar.
Jane Fielder Davis’ Cornbread
1 1/2 cups cornmeal (I use yellow)
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
Mix dry ingredients. Add buttermilk and eggs and mix well. Cook either in muffin tins (8) or a 9-inch iron skillet which has had a little cooking oil has been added. I use 1 tablespoon (original recipe called for bacon fat). Heat pan in oven before adding batter. Bake at 400 degrees for about 15-18 minutes for muffins, about 20-25 minutes in skillet. Watch carefully, and be sure cornbread browns to golden and is firm to touch.
I keep thinking I will lose my “sweet tooth” as I mature (OK, so the real word is “age”). However, I feel as though every meal should be followed by a taste of something sweet. This pineapple cobbler looked interesting and easy. It is both and also very good. Of course, you could substitute peaches, apricots, apples or canned cherries (add some sugar to unsweetened cherries, though).
Ora Shirley’s Pineapple Cobbler
1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple, with juice
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup milk
1 stick margarine or butter
Mix dry ingredients and add milk. Melt the margarine or butter in a 9-inch square pan or dish. Pour the batter over the margarine and add pineapple on top of batter. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25-30 minutes until golden brown on top.