I have a deep love for hush puppies that began -as so many things did- in my childhood in Kentucky. I was awfully young when we lived there and don't have very many concrete memories of the place aside from creek stomping, salamander capturing, and sledding down coal piles in snow suits*, but one thing I do remember vividly is making occasional treks out of the holler and into the biggest nearby town for excursions that almost always ended in a trip to Long John Silver's. *No really. We did that. Being a family from Michigan, we missed our sledding hills and winter sports while living in Kentucky. My mom's clever solution was to View Post
Corn Dog Bread
Summer and corn dogs are like winter and hot cider; you just hafta. What is is about corn dogs that is so appealing? Is it as simple as the whole "food on a stick" universal truth*? Or is it more complicated? Maybe it comes down to the crazy appeal of the hot dog itself. Perhaps it's the hint of honey in the crispy-exterior, moist-interior cornbread. Could it be the cultural association of fairs and festivals and carnivals and summer fun in sultry heat? The vinegar bite of yellow mustard dripping down the corn dog? I don't know. All I know is that when you say 'corn dog' I make like Pavlov's loyal companions and drool. Alas, View Post
Golden Cornbread Rounds
I'd like us all to observe a moment of silence for the baking ignitor in my oven. (Silence from me, but not the children.) Yes, that means my oven isn't working. We've had the most glorious stretch of fall-like summer weather in my memory and I can't bake a loaf of bread in the oven. But I'm not bitter. Well, alright, maybe I am a little bitter. But I'm also creative and stubborn. I wanted fresh bread, dang it, and I was going to make it happen. My husband, the Evil Genius, recently added a toaster oven and a large electric griddle to our kitchen. I've not yet 'connected' with the toaster oven. I have some sort of bias against View Post
Cornbread Salad for the Weekly Cookbook Challenge – Part 3
As I mentioned earlier, I also made a half recipe of the vegetarian version of the salad this morning. If anything, it received an even warmer reception from my (expected and unexpected) audience. My husband and I work for a small church-related camp, and on Sunday, our next camper groups come in to begin their week. Which means lunch is the last meal our paid staff has alone together. Normally. So I thought I would bring these salads to share with everyone. Well, some of the campers arrived early, and so we had a lot folks who had a chance to try these out, and I have to say, I’ve had more requests for recipes after serving these than View Post
Cornbread Salad for the Weekly Cookbook Challenge – Part 2
Okay, so I should read recipes more carefully—in looking at the recipe for the original cornbread salad recipe, I see the instructions ‘coarsely crumble the cornbread into a good big bowl and let it dry for a few hours.’ So my careful slicing and cutting into cubes was definitely wasted effort. I salvaged it this morning by coarsely crumbling my nicely cubed bread into a bowl: I then put the bacon on to fry, and while that was going on, I chopped all the veggies and made the dressing. Veggies done, bacon fried till crisp and drained on paper towel, dressing all mixed, I was good to go. First, add all the chopped veggies and bacon to the View Post
Cornbread Salad – Part 1
As part of my wanderings through the internet world of food, I came across a site that hosts a monthly cooking challenge: http://weekendcookbookchallenge.blogspot.com/. Every month a new challenge is issued around a certain theme—either a particular chef, a certain kind of food, etc. I believe the goal is to either use a cookbook you have but from which you have never (or rarely) used a recipe. Anyway, this month’s challenge was "Salads"—a challenge for me since I’m not much of a salad maker over all. And for my first time participating I wanted to do something different than the few salads I usually make—veggie salads, pasta salads, View Post