Georgia's Special Cornbread (Wheatless)

This is the cornbread that Georgia served with her Pinto Beans. It was a wonderful meal! This is a good recipe for those with wheat allergies.

2 cups cornmeal

1/3 cup melted shortening

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tbl. sugar

1/2 tsp. soda

2 eggs

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 can cream style corn

1 can chopped green chile (or substitute fresh or frozen)

1 cup grated cheese

Mix the first 7 ingredients as for cornbread.

Add corn and chile.

Grease a large iron skillet.

Pour in half the batter, sprinkle with half the cheese, add the remaining batter and sprinkle with the rest of the cheese.

Bake at 500° for 25 minutes or until done. Note: That's a really hot oven, and I confirmed the temperature with Georgia. Just watch carefully that your cornbread doesn't burn.

Georgia's Pinto Beans: Our 500th Recipe!

These beans are very simple but absolutely delicious. Georgia made them for our knitter's group and all of those very experienced cooks were impressed and asking for her recipe.

Georgia served the beans with the following side dishes: Cornbread (I'll post her recipe tomorrow); chopped sweet onions; a plateful of whole green chiles, peeled and seeded; grated cheese; and salsa.

4 cups of pinto beans

Water

Hickory smoked bacon

Salt

Pick over the beans, rinse them well, cover with cold water and soak for 8 hours or overnight. Or, you may clean them, bring them to a boil with water to cover, boil rapidly for one minute, remove from heat, cover and let stand for an hour. Then drain.

Cut up 4 to 6 slices of bacon and place it in the bottom of a crock pot. Add soaked and drained beans. Cover all with cold water and cook in a covered crockpot on medium heat overnight or for 8 hours. Taste the beans and add salt if needed.

Gnocchi with Cheese

This recipe comes from Jeff Smith's The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines; China, Greece, and Rome.

I have to tell you that the Frugal Gourmet TV cooking shows were a big hit in our family. We used to get them on Saturday afternoons, and I can't tell you how much we learned about cooking from watching Jeff Smith. I believe to this day that the expansive gestures that Beez uses in the kitchen were learned on those long ago Saturdays. Of course, great flourishes in the kitchen make for great messes to be cleaned up later by the galley slaves, but I still maintain that there is nothing so satisfying as seeing a husband who formerly ate only steak-hamburgers-pizza turn into a chef with choppers! and gestures! and great gusto! in the kitchen.

2 lbs. baking potatoes, washed but unpeeled

1 egg yolk

3 cups regular flour

3 tbl. semolina flour [may substitute Cream of Wheat]

1/2 tsp. salt

SAUCE:

1/4 lb. butter, melted

1 cup freshly grated Parmesan or Romano cheese

Boil the potatoes, skin on, until fork tender. Drain them well and allow to cool just so that you can touch them. Peel and run through a potato ricer.

Place the potatoes in the bowl from your electric mixer and beat in the egg yolk. Add the flour, semolina, and salt and mix just until you have a smooth dough.

Roll the dough into long cylinders the thickness of your finger. Cut into 1/2-inch slices. Roll each piece a bit on the rough side of a vegetable grater to give the dumpling some texture. Do this quickly and set them on a tray to dry a bit. You can forget about the rolling if you wish and just allow the dumplings to dry a bit before you boil them.

Flouring the dumplings before you put each on a tray will help keep them separated when they cook.

Bring 8 quarts of water to a boil and add about 1/4 of the batch. Boil gently until the gnocchi float to the top. Continue to boil for one minute and then, using a strainer, remove them from the pot to a warm bowl. Continue cooking until all are done and then toss the dumplings with the butter and cheese.

Serve as a pasta or starch dish with almost any meal.

Gingerbread Waffles with Warm Applesauce

• These always made the loveliest weekend breakfast for the family; the kitchen was so fragrant with the smell of spices and apples.

1/4 cup melted butter

• 1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup light molasses
• 2 large eggs, separated
• 1 cup milk

2 cups all-purpose flour

1-1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. ground ginger

• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 
  
• Cream together the butter and brown sugar. Beat in the molasses, egg yolks, and milk. 

Beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until soft peaks form.

Sift dry ingredients together into the creamed mixture, then fold in beaten egg whites.

Bake in a preheated waffle iron until golden. Serve with butter and warm applesauce.

Pot Roast of Beef in Beer

1 tbl. sugar

1 tsp. salt

Grated rind of 1 lemon

1 - 1/2 cups beer

1/2 cup salad oil

2 onions, chopped

4 lbs. bottom round beef pot roast

Bacon drippings or olive oil

1/2 cup water

3 beef bouillon cubes

2 cups chopped celery

8 whole carrots, peeled

8 small potatoes, peeled

8 whole small onions, peeled

Mix the first six ingredients together and marinate the beef in the mixture for 8 hours or overnight.

Remove the beef and reserve the marinade.

Brown the beef in the bacon drippings or olive oil in a deep pot. Add the marinade, water, and bouillon cubes.

Simmer, covered, for 3 hours. Add the celery and the whole vegetables during the last hour. If the gravy boils away to less than two cups, add hot water or more beer.

Serves 8.

From The Boston Globe Cook Book, 1974 (now out of print).

Maple Pralines

Ben asked for recipes with maple syrup, because we all have such fond memories of maple sugar time in New Hampshire. This recipe comes from The Tasha Tudor Cookbook; Recipes and Reminiscences from Corgi Cottage.

1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup Vermont maple syrup

1/3 cup heavy cream

1 tbl. unsalted butter

1/4 cup pecans, coarsely chopped

In a heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, maple syrup, cream, and butter. Place the pan over low heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Cook to the soft ball stage, or 134 degrees on a candy thermometer. Remove the mixture from the heat and let it stand for five minutes without stirring.

Add the pecans and stir until the mixture is slightly thick and beginning to look cloudy. Drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper. Let it stand until cold and firmly set.

Store in a tightly covered container. Makes approximately 2 dozen 1-inch patties.

Cashew Butter Toffee

This recipe comes from Tasha Tudor's Old-Fashioned Gifts. Every time I look through this book I am struck anew by the lovely, other-worldly life she led with her family in Vermont.

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup butter

1 cup chopped cashews

1 - 12-oz. package semi-sweet chocolate chips

Butter a cookie sheet and set it aside.

Combine the sugar, salt, water, and butter in a heavy saucepan. Over medium heat, cook the mixture to the "soft-crack" stage (285°).

Add 1/2 cup of the chopped cashews and immediately pour the mixture onto the buttered cookie sheet. Spread out the mixture with a spatula and allow it to cool.

Melt half of the chocolate chips and spread on the top of the cooled toffee. Sprinkle with half of the remaining chopped cashews. Let this mixture cool until the chocolate has hardened. Turn the mixture over with a spatula and repeat the same process on the other side. Both sides of the toffee should be coated with chocolate and chopped nuts.

Break the toffee into pieces and store in a covered container in a cool, dry place.

Banana Date Bread

Here is another favorite recipe from the Pickity Place cookbook.

3 - 1/2 cups flour

3 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

2 cups mashed ripe bananas

1/2 cup chopped dates

2 tbl. lemon juice

3/4 cup shortening

1 - 1/2 cups sugar

3 eggs

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Sift dry ingredients together.

Mash the bananas and add the lemon juice to them.

Cream the shortening and sugar, add the eggs and beat thoroughly until very light and fluffy.

Add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk.

Fold in the bananas, dates, and nuts; mix well.

Pour into 2 greased loaf pans. Bake at 350° for one hour, or until done. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove and cool on wire racks.

Cherry Cottage Pudding

Here is another favorite recipe from the Pickity Place cookbook.

1 No. 2 can pitted red cherries

1/4 cup shortening

2/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1/4 tsp. almond extract

1 - 3/4 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup sour milk

Drain the cherries, saving the juice for the sauce (below).

Cream shortening and sugar together until fluffy. Add eggs and flavoring and beat well.

Sift flour, baking powder, salt, and soda together.

Add alternately with milk in small amounts, mixing well after each addition.

Add cherries.

Pour into a buttered 9" square cake pan. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes.

Cut into squares and serve with hot Cherry Sauce.*

*Cherry Sauce

1/4 cup sugar

2 tbl. flour

1 cup heated red cherry juice (drained from can of cherries, above)

1/4 cup butter

2 tbl. lemon juice

2 drops almond extract

Combine the sugar and flour. Stir in the cherry juice gradually. Heat to a boil and cook until thickened, stirring constantly. Add the butter, lemon juice, and extract.

Serve hot over the Cherry Cottage Pudding.