Corn Bread, as promised

Chili cooking in the fireplace with the cornbread ready to cut.

Along with the chili we almost always have corn bread. To make this scrumptious corn bread we often use corn cut from the still-warm cooked cob during the season.

Preheat your oven to 350°. Put a #8 (10") iron frying pan in the oven while the oven is heating up. When it is up to temperature throw about 1 tablespoon of butter into the pan to melt.

While it is melting mix together the makings of the corn bread:

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl:
3/4 cup yellow corn meal
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup white granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
(make sure the baking powder is fresh - purchased within the year)
1 teaspoon salt

Mix the wet ingredients in another smaller bowl:
3/4 cup buttermilk
(this can be well beyond the "buy by" date - just make sure there is no mold)
1/4 cup corn or canola oil
1 egg
Beat it all together.
Add about 1 cup of corn either cut from the cob or dumped from the can after draining.

When the oven temperature has risen to 350° and the butter is melting in the pan
pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix only until blended.
Over-mixing will make the bread tough.

Remove the VERY HOT pan from the oven, swish the butter around the bottom and pour the mixture in.
Put it right back in the oven and set your timer for 25 - 30 minutes.
When it is just beginning to crack on the top, it is done.
Take it out of the oven and, when still warm,  turn it out onto a cutting board.If you leave it in the pan, it might get a little gooey on the bottom.
Some people have even been known to attack this with a spoon when it is still in the pan.

If you were to use a different pan, adjust the time for the size of the pan. A larger pan will make a thinner bread and require less cooking time. A smaller pan will make a thicker bread requiring more cooking time. Any way it is done this is good.

Serve it with butter and/or honey or eat it as-is.

Corn Bread in its Griswold iron pan.

Chili redone

The other night I adjusted the chili recipe from my cookbook - Ancestral Cooking.
I made a large pot for a celebratory dinner at Emily & Jesse's new house. Unfortunately I couldn't join them as I had shingles and didn't want to give little red Ned the chicken pox.

This time I made the chili on the stove, but it works in the fireplace, as well.

Cover the bottom of a large dutch oven with a bit of olive oil.

Chop (I use my cuisinart) 1 medium onion, 2 cloves of garlic and a couple of carrots.

Salt and sauté them in the olive oil until limp but not brown.

Add a couple of pounds of ground meat. For this batch I used bison, organic beef, mild Italian chicken sausage and ground turkey.

Add ¼ teaspoon (a few strong grinds) of fresh pepper, 1+Tablespoon chili powder, 1+teaspoon of the following: ground basil leaves, dried oregano, chopped dill weed, and dried parsley. Adjust to your liking.

Add 1 small (6 oz) can of tomato paste, I quart jar or can of cut-up tomatoes,

about 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar, 1+ Tablespoon Dijon mustard,

½ cup red wine or what-have-you. I threw in the liquid from the tomatoes and did not add any wine for this batch.

2 or 3 drained cans of beans – dark red & light red kidney beans, and Great Northerns or another white bean. I use canned beans, but am about to make this starting with dried beans.

Add a cup or so of corn. Sometimes I use corn that I have striped off the cob during corn season; sometimes I use canned corn. I drain as needed. I took this photo before adding the corn from the freezer, which was striped from the cob at the dining room table last summer. It doesn't look all that different - with or without it.

Season with salt and more chili powder, as you wish.

I serve this with a chunk of cheddar cheese with a grater, sour cream and hot sauce for those who like things hot. They do say that some like it hot.

None of the amounts in this recipe are sacred. Play with it and make it your own. Some people like more beans, others like more meat. I am happy to accommodate.

This goes well with corn bread – the recipe for which I will add shortly.

You might note the olive oil on the back of the stove. That is a Haig & Haig Pinch bottle that I found on the top shelf of my closet in Canada. Mother must have kept them for whatever other use. Thank you!

Pumpkin Bread Redo

For those of you who have been making this pumpkin bread for the last 30-some-odd years or have discovered it in my book "Ancestral Cooking" there are some necessary changes. I started this using Comstock's Pumpkin Pie Filling (2 cups per can). Unfortunately Comstock stopped making it. I now use Libby's Pumpkin Pie mix (30 oz: 3 cups per can). This has required beefing up the spices as well as the number of coffee cans (9) in the cupboard.

I now make 3 batches at once, thereby using all of the pumpkin for one 30 ounce can.

Make 3 - 3 loaf batches in 3 different bowls at the same time - 9 coffee cans.

The new recipe for each 3 loaf batch is as follows:

Pre-heat oven to 350 F

3 - 1 pound coffee cans, greased with corn oil or spray.

3 cups white granulated or organic granulated sugar
1 heaping teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda

1 cup corn oil
4 eggs
1 cup Libby's Pumpkin Pie Mix (1/3 of the can)
2/3 cup water

3 cups unbleached, unbromated all-purpose flour.

Mix the dry ingredients together, except the flour.
Add the wet ingredients. Mix well with an electric beater.
Mix in flour.
Fill coffee cans 2/3 full.
If you add raisins, flour them first so that they do not sink.

Bake for 1 hour in a 350 F oven - on the middle rack of the oven.

Let them cool on a rack. When you want to remove them from the cans put each can on a burner to melt the bottom of the loaf inside the can. Turn it upside down and shake to gently release it. Leave on a rack to harden the outsides of the loaves before bagging.

Zucchini Bisque & Chicken Panne

After trips to local markets we have just made a couple of our favorite dishes: zucchini bisque and chicken panne. Both of these are adaptations of James Beard recipes. The soup from a Cuisinart cookbook written by James Beard in the early 1970's and the chicken from a course my mother took at Buffalo's Albright-Knox Art Gallery in the late 1950's.

Zucchini Bisque my way:
1 medium onion, chopped
1.5 pounds zucchini, shredded
1 quart chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
8 leaves fresh basil, about 1 Tablespoon chopped
1 teaspoon salt
a few grinds of pepper

Saute the onion in about a tablespoon of butter and/or olive oil until limp, but not brown.
Add the shredded zucchini and chicken stock, enough just to cover the zucchini.
Simmer for 15 minutes.
Puree in a blender or food processor with nutmeg, basil, salt and pepper.

This can be served hot or cold. If serving cold, garnish with a dollop of sour cream.

Make this in July, August and September when the zucchini at the farmers' markets is fresh. Choose firm, medium sized zucchini. Don't use the older ones. They are pithy and have very little flavor. Make extra and freeze it for a taste of summer next winter. I freeze it in a pyrex bowl. Once it is frozen, I dunk the bottom of the bowl in hot water to release the frozen chuck of soup and then put it in a freezer bag and back into the freezer after labeling the bag with contents and date.


Another favorite is Chicken Panne.
This serves 4 people.

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breast halves trimmed and pounded very flat.
Dip into beaten egg and then into bread crumbs seasoned with salt and pepper.
(I make my bread crumbs by grinding old bread in my food processor.)
Place chicken pieces between layers of waxed paper and refrigerate until ready to cook. Melt butter to cover the bottom of a heavy iron pan over high heat. Heat until the butter is bubbling. Brown the chicken quickly on both sides. The pieces will be cooked through, as they are very thin. Add 3 tablespoons of warmed brandy and light it while pouring it over the chicken. If you have had the fan on, turn it off for this part to prevent a fire in the duct. Also back away from the stove. I have heard of some people who have burned off the hair on their arms at this stage of the process. Remove the chicken to a platter and keep warm in an oven set to 200 degrees. Remove the pan from the stove.


Blend 2 egg yolks with 1 cup of cream, half & half or milk (depending upon your caloric desires). Add it to the pan just used to cook the chicken. Stir constantly over low heat until the sauce has thickened. Make sure it doesn't boil or scrambled eggs will result. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour it over the chicken. Serve with green and/or yellow beans, maybe some beets and some little potatoes.

Eggs, lamb and why we think cheese should be yellow

One day last week our daughter took the day off and joined Walter and me as we shared with her the local sources we had discovered on the Canadian side of the border and as we searched for more.
We started at the Port Colborne Farmers’ Market where the skies opened and drenched all. Holly and I huddled under a melon seller’s tent while the hooded Walter ran back to the car for an umbrella. While chatting with the melon purveyor we tried and bought some amazing melons: sweet cantaloupe, pink and yellow watermelon, which tasted quite different from one another. They were not your normal grocery store melons. It was quite a pleasant surprise.
We bought heirloom tomatoes, probably the last of this year’s cherries, corn to eat and cut off and freeze, raspberries to eat and some blueberries to eat and freeze. We also got some yellow zucchini, although I think I prefer the green variety.
The rain had subsided and we lugged all of our goods back to the car. We traveled north on the Niagara Peninsula. Walter wanted to take a different route. We usually try new routes whenever possible. That is the way we make new discoveries. We drove along the south side of the Welland River, which was a good thing as we came upon a field of sheep and a sign:



We knocked on the door and met Rosemarie Meier of Zeta Farms. She, her husband Hans and their three children moved here from Germany 8 years ago. They raise organic vegetables, sheep, goats and chickens. We bought a dozen eggs and put a down payment on a lamb that would be sent to Hommer’s Meats on the Point Abino Road in Ridgeway for slaughter and butchering in a few days. That was quite a commitment and a wonderful, unexpected find. We were making some headway with new discoveries.
It was time for lunch and we were off to Zest in Font Hill (http://www.zestfonthill.com), a favorite lunch and dinner spot for us. We dried out while eating their wonderful vegetable soup with crisp vegetables in it. This was welcome warmth on this damp, chilly day. While at lunch the sun actually came out! This made our next stop much more enjoyable than it might have been.

We went to Bow-Ridge Herb Farm (http://www.itcanada.com/~bowman) down a dirt road which is closed in the winter and we could see why. It seems that there is a road coming in from the other direction that the Bowmans use. I bought some Lady’s Bedstraw to plant in my garden. It was used to stuff mattresses, as you might guess from its name. It also has been used to coagulate milk for cheese and as an orange dye. When animal rennet was not available (when a suckling calf’s stomach was not available) to use to coagulate milk, lady’s bedstraw was used. It not only coagulated the milk, but dyed the cheese orange. This is why some of us think that cheese should be orange. These days the orange dye is often from carrots.

We went back to the Morningstar Mill (http://www.morningstarmill.ca/)and found that they will be milling wheat Saturday, August 18th, and will be milling corn Sunday, August 19th. We will go for some more flour and some corn for corn bread.

We needed to show Holly Upper Canada Cheese Company (http://www.uppercanadacheese.com/Welcome.html)in Jordan Station. Dave, the cheese maker was there and willing to chat. A return trip when he is making his cheese might be in the works. There cheeses are wonderful. We were at the Inn on the Twenty (http://www.innonthetwenty.com/ott_restaurant.htm) in Jordan recently and one of the salads had roasted Upper Canada Cheese Company's Ricotta on top of beets in a salad. It was delightful. There are many Niagara Peninsula restaurants, many associated with wineries, that specialize in serving local fare.

We also went looking for nuts at Grimo Nut Nursery in Niagara-on-the-Lake, but no one was there to help us. We will go back to buy some of their great looking nuts.

The eggs from Hans and Rosemarie Meier's Zeta Farm are wonderful. The yolks are much darker yellow/orange than our usual store-bought eggs.
Also, the yolks stood up rather than spreading out in the pan. The flavor was much fuller than we are used to. What a treat. I will continue to buy fresh free-range eggs and will buy Zeta Farm eggs when I can.



One of Zeta Farm's free range chickens in her roost with the eggs of many a chicken.

Hemp and blueberries

My husband and I spent last week with good friends in the northern Ontario woods near Muskoka. We listened to the loons' mournful cry and read and chatted lots. On our way up there we stopped at Hempola Hemp Farm near Barrie, Ontario. We bought some hemp oil, hemp germ, hemp seeds and a couple of shirts. Hemp provides products similar to those that flax provides: oil, seed and fiber. There are other uses of hemp that are known especially to the hippies of the 60's and 70's. These hemp products don't seem to have any of those qualities. I assume that there are different varieties. The oil has a wonderful nutty flavor and is great in salad dressing. I have been told that it is also great for sauteeing.
On our way back down from the north woods to the southern shore of Canada we were able to purchase baskets of wild blueberries which we froze for later use. We also bought corn for our dinner. I cooked 12 ears for the 2 of us. We each ate 2 and I cut the kernels off the other ears and froze them for the flavor of fresh corn next winter. I am sure I will use it to make chicken corn chowders, one of our favorites.







The Hempola Hemp Farm Shop
http://www.hempola.com/

Got flour! And cheese! And oil!

Libby from next door joined us yesterday morning at 8 o'clock and we were off to Gallagher’s Farm Market on Route 20 in Pelham to pick up the little pickles that I had ordered to make cornichons. Alas, the pickles were too big. It seems that the heat has made them grow too fast so some are just too big while others have exploded in the fields…maybe later in the season. I am also hoping that the wild mustard will ripen before I make my pickles so that I can use mustard seed harvested in our own woods. We did buy some corn at Gallaghers and Libby found the sour cherries that she had been seeking. We were off to the St Catharines farmers' market. On the way, Walter wanted to show Libby some of the local gems. We traveled a windy seasonal road to the Bow Ridge Herb Farm on Orchard Hill Road just south of Short Hills Provincial Park. We bought three French tarragon plants and the herbalist’s husband dug up some horseradish and some comfrey and gave it to me, reminding me that both plants would spread wildly. We learned that they would have various varieties of apples ripening by late September. We will keep that on our list of places to revisit. We drove by the power plants on the Niagara Escarpment at Power Glen, southwest of the city of St Catherines. I was surprised to find this power generation plant, as I had thought that the only power generation was from Niagara Falls. Water is sent down sluiceways from the top of the escarpment to the bottom to drive turbines and the resulting electricity is captured. We were on our way to see an early 19th century mill: Morningstar Mill Museum. We had been there before, but Libby had not. It is a beautiful spot. On past trips it had always been closed and locked. I was so surprised when I discovered that it was manned by volunteers and that they were running the mill. I was able to buy stone ground whole wheat flour ground by their own stones and made from flour grown in Ontario! We did go to the market and test some more local fare.
Later in the day Walter and I went out again on our quest for local foods. We made a huge find: Upper Canada Cheese Company in Jordan Station. They make 2 primary cheeses from milk of a local herd of Guernsey cows. Their cheeses are wonderful. We bought their Comfort Cream cheese which is similar to a perfectly ripe brie, their Niagara Gold which is a washed rind cheese, and their ricotta.

We also found local grapeseed oil and local wine vinegars, including maple vinegar. It was a home run! Jen Gammon, the buyer was more than helpful. We will continue to be customers and will be interested to see how this fledgling business grows. Their phone number is 905.562.9730.