People, Cornbread and FriedApples

                 People, Cornbread and Fried Apples
   Mary came for supper last evening.  City folk have dinner in the evening
But I was raised in the country where the big meal, dinner, was at noon.
   Without any advanced preparation I decided I needed a friend for supper.
I had hoped to have her over during the holidays but that didn’t happen.
And January is almost over.

   Supper would have to be simple.  She loves cornbread, I could do that.
My go-to bean ingredient was down to a can aof kidney beans, but--.  The head of cabbage in the frig needed to be used; there was a little meat to be had and there were apples in the deepfreeze.  It was a go.
   I forgot about the house; I knew the bed wasn’t ;made, but she wouldn’t be taking a nap. 
   Our conversation was light; she is always cheery.  We talked about the weather and flowers.  Would a bale of straw protect the dahlias, or would
They be lost?
   She declared she wasn’t going to can vegetables anymore.  She has more in the cellar than she can use.  I wished I could still plant peas and lettuce, but now that strawberries have taken over there is no space.
   She regretted that she won’t be wintering in Florida  with her granddaughter.  Her broken wrist took its time in healing.
  We were both thankful for what we’ve got; loving families who check on us; who see we don’t run out of bananas.

 Don’t buy that box of cornbread mix, making your own is so easy.  Here is my recipe.

1 cup flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
4 teaspoons baking powder
¼ cup sugar
Pinch of salt
Combine previous ingredients with a sifter or a whisk.
1 cup milk
1 egg
¼ cup oil
Combine and add to flour mixture.  Stir briefly, bake at 400 in a greased
9 inch square pan; I like pyrex, but a cast iron skillet would be great.  Bake for about 18 minutes, or until it is a little golden on the top.

  Have you had those delicious fried apaples at Cracker Barrel?  So easy to make.
  In a cast iron skillet, or at least one with a heavy bottom, melt some butter.
The amount of butter depends on how many apples you have.  I used
2 cups sliced apples, ½ stick of butter.  Cook the apples on low to medium heat for about 6 minutes.  Add 2 Tablespoons brown sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon.
   In a cup of water add 1 heaping teaspoon of cornstarch, stir and add to the apples.  Cook until apples thicken and cornstarch is cooked. That’s it.
   Supper was that easy; cornbread and beans, coleslaw, a little meat and fried apples.
   Don’t forget: It’s what you do with what you’ve got.

January--Chicken-N-Dumplins'

           January--Chicken ‘N Dumplins

   January may be ice and snow, but it’s also chicken ‘n dumplins.  Chicken, one of the favorite foods of the nation, can be prepared in so many ways.  Once it was just Sunday dinner, and we were glad to have that.  Every woman could fry a chicken, now hardly anyone does. KFC  does it so easy and tasty.  Chicken wings are one of the most popular party dishes for the young crowd. 
   For easy, delicious, and inexpensive, you can’t beat chicken, gravy and some kind of dough.
   If time is an important factor in your meal preparation, the super market rotisserie chicken is a help.  Take as much chicken off the bone as you can, put the bones in a pot, add chopped celery and chopped onion and simmer . After an hour or so, strain and cool-chicken stock.  Chop onions, celery, potatoes and carrots and add to the stock, cook until almost tender.  Add the chicken meat, and you are half way there.
   Dumplings come in many forms, all wonderful.  Here is a basic recipe.
                                            Dumplings
4 Tblsp. Shortening
1 tsp. salt
Pinch of sugar                  1 1/2cups flour   ¼ tsp. baking soda
½ cup buttermilk              1 egg beaten
Combine dry ingredients,  with a fork, cut in shortening.  Combine egg
And buttermilk, add to dry ingredients.  Mix well, form into 2 balls and
Chill. 
    For drop dumplings, drop  small tablespoonfuls into boiling chicken and vegies, cover with a lid.  Keep heat on low.  Don’t take lid off for l5 minutes; test dumplings with a toothpick for doneness, may need to cook a little longer (Size of dumplings).  That’s it.

If you have made 2 balls of dough and used only one, roll second ball out thin.  Cut into 1 inch square pieces, freeze individually.  The next time you cook chicken drop these into the boiling stew, cover with lid, cook for 15 minutes.  This is called slick dumplings.  This is what you get at Cracker Barrel that is so delicious.
        If you prefer to cook your chicken you can start with as little as 2 or 3 chicken thighs. Add 1 or 2 bay leaves to chicken.  When chicken is done, debone, add chopped vegies, cook until vegies are almost tender. Add dumpling mixture and follow top recipe. 
   There is another chicken and dumpling recipe.  My Grandma McDonald
always did it this way.  She stewed the chicken, added no vegies, made a gravy; combine flour and milk, (amount changes with amount of chicken cooked).  Add flour and milk, (no lumps) to chicken broth. Now you have chicken and gravy. 
   Then you make little biscuits.  They must be cut little to absorb the gravy.  I have the inner piece of a donut cutter that I use.  You can use Bisquick (just add milk) or any biscuit recipe.  Canned biscuits cut into pieces would work.  Bake the biscuits in the oven, then add to the chicken and gravy. 
   The thing you must watch for is: if you make chicken and gravy, then add the dough, lid and simmer for 15 minutes, the chicken may stick to the bottom of the pan.  The first recipe without gravy, was nice and brothy and did not stick to the bottom of the pan when dumplings were cooking.

   Then there is the case of chicken pot pie.  I was blown over with KFC flaky potpie.  But have not been able to duplicate it.  January has a ways to go, and I am working on it.
   In the good ’ole days we raised our chickens, dressed them, and sometimes froze our own.  Probably some  taste has been lost in our progress.  Buy the best chicken you can find, it will be worth it.   
   If you want something different, try Chicken Wings.
                             Chicken Wings
1 bag frozen chicken wings
1 pound light brown sugar
5 ounces teriyaki sauce
Little minced garlic
Combine and spread over wings. Bake at 400 until done.  Delicious!

    Correction: In December blog the Pistachio Crinkle Cookie Recipe
was incomplete.  “Where’s the Flour?”  Add 1 ½ cups flour to recipe and
it should be fine.  Sorry about that mistake. 

New Year, but Old Times

   Where did I put the “thing?”    I don’t know where it is so I hunt.  The cupboard, the attic, under the bed, the kitchen drawer.  The “thing” may take a different form from day to day.  One day it is the scissors, my shoes, today it is 30 year old pictures that someone needs by Monday.
   It could be absent mindedness or it could be I have too much stuff.  All those organized boxes on a shelf-that isn’t me, sorry. 
   Old photographs should all be in one place, but sadly--.
   On the other hand, if I had not been looking for pictures I wouldn’t have spent a pleasant afternoon browsing old newspapers and clippings from long ago.
   The plastic container from under the bed was full of treasures.  There was ana envelope with newspaper clippings from the Oxford Press, my column, In The Fields from the ‘70’s.
   Here is a tidbit from a November column.
   Is this the year we don’t send Christmas cards? (Wash my mouth with soap.)  Postage has gone up from 6 cents to 8 cents.  Cards cost from 5 cents to 15 cents each.  Breathes there a soul who does not add ten names to his list every year?  Couldn’t we just say “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year” to our friends when we see them at the feed mill or at the grocery?
We could inquire about their health; that’s more than some of us do with a card.

   Then there was the complete issue of the Brookville Democrat, dated 1925.  It was in pretty good condition, considering.  Why had it been kept all these years?  The paper was not yellow, but shades of brown,; the print quite legible and the news very personal.  Wedding descriptions and club news on the front page.  Advertisements for automobiles and such. 
   On the next to the last page was the reason the paper had been saved.  The obituary of Eliza Hampson Hyde; my husband’s grandmother.  She was born in 1857 in Franklin County and died in 1925; 68 years old. Her obit was lengthy; either she had been somebody or she had a good writer in the family.  When her first husband, Thomas F. Hyde,  passed away, she married his brother, Eli.  She had 2 sons with Thomas and 4 girls and 2 sons with Eli.  Despite the length of the article, her real story went untold. 
   Her 24 year old son, Samuel, died from influenza while he was in the navy;  the trials of caring for her 6 year old daughter who contracted polis.  The joys she must have known when her daughters became teachers, expert seamstresses and mothers.  Eliza had lived a full life. 

   I found  another newspaper copy, dated October, 1918, 100 years old.  Why had that been saved? The
 front page contained names of men, 18 to 45 who registered for the draft; bond drives  and a brief article on the war.  It read.
   “The American steam trawler, Kingfisher, reported to have been torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine off Halifax, first was captured by the U-boat, according to information received by the Navy Department”
   On page 2 was the obituary of Samuel Hyde,.  He had volunteered in 1917.  The legendary story that I had heard was that he was too thin to be accepted by the navy. His doctor told him to eat raisins, he did and gained enough to be accepted in the navy. In just a year, he contacted influenza during that great epidemic and died.  His grieving father and brother went east to claim his body.  Mother, Eliza, stayed at home.
   I finally recalled where the pictures of my original hunt were.  Pictures of happy occasions to be used at another time of sorrow.