Johnny Cake or Corn Bread Recipes

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

One of my gifts for Christmas was a acron Corn Pan, now its awesome in so many ways but still on the hunt for a cast iron corn cob corn pan to add to my baking wear collection. When I was up at my Big Brothers, we made a batch of my momm’a cornbread, wow does she make northern cornbread, its crazy rich and sweet, and to this she added more butter and syrup.. It tastes awesome that way, and I remember loving it as a kid but honestly as a adult who try’s to cut sugar down, I found it very sweet. The funniest things about the recipe was a comment, I looked at it and finally had to ask my mom, it was a very odd way of saying, don’t touch the top of the her johnny cake when checking it for doneness.. as its such a moist recipe that the top will stick and you will be left with a finger print in the middle of the pan LOL

 

So lets talk about some southern Johnny Cake recipes, as sourthern cornbread is not typically done up sweet, here are a couple old fashion recipes, these recipes were first published in 1915 in the Five Rose Cookbook

Recipe #1

  • 1 cup sour milk (buttermilk will also work very well)
  • 1/4 cup molasses
  • 1 egg
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/3 cup melted lard
  • 1 cup ground corn meal
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp of soda

#2

Mix 3 cups of buttermilk with 2 small tsp of soda, 1 cup of sugar, 2 eggs a 1tsp of salt, 3 cups of cornmeal and one and cups of flour with 1 teaspoon of sifted cream of tarter in the flour. 3 melted tbsp of lard, mix very well.

#3-No eggs

  • 2 cups cornmeal
  • 1 cup flour
  • 2 cups sweet fresh milk
  • 2 tbsp melted fat
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp baking powder

Bake them all in a hot oven in a greased cast iron pan, ideally preheated first and then add batter and then bake till golden brown..

Posted in Food Production and Recipes | Tagged | 6 Comments

Food Storage Feb -$10 a week Challange

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Well, I thought about making this a flat food storage feb but the truth is, I am paying good money to get some help in regards to health related to diet and working towards having a little one, so it does not make sense to not follow said advice, which includes having some fresh fruit and greens per day, now I have been able to work out that I use my canned/frozen/dried fruits for most of my portions per day but I gave at one fresh each day, typically a apple, orange or a banana.  Now I am not buying greens, I am growing and or sprouting them more so, but I do need to buy cabbage.

So I have done some math and I believe that I can get what I need each week for ten dollars or under per week, getting everything else from the farm in terms of  pantry, freezers or fresh on the farm, including eggs, milk, meat etc.

I am giving myself a pass on girls afternoon out for coffee, but I hope? that I will be able to get them all visiting in house raither then going out, to reduce and or limit any spending on them, I do have one give, the weekend before Valenties, we have a fancy four course lunch out booked, this is a freebe meal, I was quite excited to find them and can only hope that they live up to their motta,  I will post on the meal, but its all about being local, I found them in my ontario table book.

So I think Daisy said she was up to joining me so I look forward to that, anyone else want to join me, set your own weekly amount that suits your family be it less or more and we will see how it goes, i will be doing my weekly updates on my food storage friday posts.

Posted in Food Storage, frugal | Tagged | 5 Comments

Trust yourself when it comes to food storage!

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Sunday was a interesting food storage day, brought a new big 20 pd bag of flour in from the freezer and when I opened it, I didn’t like the way the flour smelled, it was off.. not rancid but I started into that bag and just didn’t like it..

Was to Make the first item, still didn’t like it.. when I poured it and felt it, still off, finally  put it though the strainer, and sure enough scales and most likely eggs that I can’t see..  then as it warmed up, the smell came out.. rancid bug flour.. what the ??

O ya, last year when the big freezer got unplugged the bags of flour at that time got moved to the truch for a couple days while we cleaned and got the freezer bag again, clearly the bugs had a blast in that time.. neverless to say that flour is off the human table, I am still trying to figure out if I want to refreeze it (so the eggs that I can’t see but figure are in there can’t hatch in my house) and use it to make tack for the chickens, they don’t care about old flour or bugs in it..

Then I sent hubby down for a list of canned goods and one of them turned out to be a second year old rhurbarb, looked fine, popped fine, but had a single tiny black spot on the inside of the lid, hmmm Took off the top of the jar and smelled it, smelled fine, poured it out into a glass jug, looked fine, no mold strings, lifted out spoonful and stared at it, bright color, looks right.. looked at the lid spot again.. poured into a small pot and started to heat it, for two reason’s, a) if there is nothing wrong with it, i am being careful by giving it a boil for ten min, and B) if there is something wrong with it, the cooking will give time for the smell to come up and off, and that is just what happens once it got hot.. the nose knew what the eyes could not see.. this jar had gone bad! and down the toilet it went, not safe even for the critters nor the compost pile.

Then I opened up a new small jar of my bulk raw pumpkin seeds and they had gone/going rancid, sheez! Went to the hounds ground up as natural dewormers so that they could be all used up without going to waste..

It seems like every time I turn around, I am reading on a blog about learning to can or pressure can and how easy it is, and I agree, follow the rules and you will get a good safe product but I want to follow along with the canning and cook books in regards to advice, if you are new to cooking, canning or food storage.. use four of your five sences..

  • Look at the food- and not just the top, pour it out, lift it by the spoonful, move it around.
  • Smell your food -If in doubt, heat it to double check.
  • Feel your food- sometimes just the texture and feel of a tsp of food will give you the answer
  • Hear your food-Truly spoiled canned food can have sounds that will tell you that its gone..

But for heaven sakes.. Please! don’t taste that food until you are sure. and if it fails any of the above, don’t eat it! The problem with the above is clear to me, if you have never made that product before and or have little or no cooking experance, how do you know that the texture is off, or the color is off, and is that color off because its older or because it went bad.

I don’t have the answer other then to say that as with most things in life, time and practise are required, so might i recommend that you consider doing the above on all your good jars, so that when you hit that bad one, some part of you goes.. Stop wait..

If I didn’t make my bread by hand, those scales in the flour would not have been seen or felt by a wooden spoon but my first touch stilled me.. my rhubarb fruit was sealed, but bad spots on the inside of a lid.. should not happen in a good jar, and as for the jar of my bulk seeds, I always take a first whiff when I open a jar, typically its a pleasent thing, but it also gives you the first best chance as the air is at its most scented, one of the perks of storage in jars, raither then in bags.

Be careful and stay safe in the kitchen.. take that extra few seconds to learn your food, its worth the effort.

This is a Homestead Blog Hop Post.. Want to see what others are up to, use the link to see what folks have posted about and see if anything catches your eye!

Posted in Food Storage | Tagged , | 9 Comments

A little soup love..

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Since I have been home, I have made a number of soups, here are just a few, some I posted with recipes and some have never made it to a post but they were so good.. Every single soup was started with homemade bone stock, the meats were duck, chicken, or lamb, and at least 50% or more of the veggies came from the farm be it pantry, canned or freezers. Have you been enjoying and making different soups in this cold month?

 

Posted in frugal | 1 Comment

Gray Day-Freezing Rain and then snow on top..

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Since we have moved here, we have seen ice storm and snow storms but today is just a touch scary, everything was already covered in thick ice (which typically means breaking limbs on tree’s) but then it snowed, heavy wet snow.. about an hour or so ago, I hear a huge Boom! rattle, rattle and then crash! which was the ice and the snow all letting go in a huge slab off my metal roof crashing down on my deck on one side and on the other on to the attached trailer off the kitchen, it was so loud, and seemed to have hit so hard that I ran to check the inside roof on where it landed and then carefully made my way outside to check from there.. other then being in a pile.. everything seems just fine..   Some of the soft fruit bushes are pulled down so low that they are laying over, hoping it does not effect them to badly but I will be needing to do some tying up and I have not even got out to see my young or younger fruit trees..

Truly hope you are having better weather in your neck of the woods!

 

Posted in Life moves on daily | 1 Comment

How NOT to make a cake.. No really, don’t ever try this at home..

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Open fridge..

Look at homemade mayo.. starting to go.. hmm, Throw in a bowl.. Pre-heat oven to 350

Open oldest Sheep yogurt jar.. throw in bowl.. Rince Jar, pour into bowl

Start digging for jars of this and that..  come out of fridge with three jars..

1 oz of red current jam, 3 oz of chokeberry jelly, and about 5 oz of mixed fruit of strawberry  rhubarb with apple mint, dig out and throw in bowl, give it all a mix..

Walk over to cupboard.. open.. and throw a handful of sliced almonds that you roasted off a couple days ago and didn’t use all of them..  Pour in around two cups or so of flour, a pinch of salt and half a lid of baking powder, walk away, walk back and break up and add a few walnuts to the mix..

Start mixing, opps, to dry.. add half a cup or so of warm water into bowl, whisk till no lumps, pour into a greased 9 by 9 glass pan and bake in over till done..

Good heavens, unstead of the everything but the kitchen sink soup, its the everything that needs to be used up cake.. Repeat at your house if you dare!…bum, bum.. BOOYAAA..

Posted in Food Production and Recipes | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Food Storage Friday

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

When it comes to adding in things this week, its been total min, I kept to my 5 item limit, of which no sales tempted me.. I was able to keep my food budget for the week for two and half (the old lab who eat’s peaple food should be considered a child in terms of food costs) at 7 dollars for the week. with a grand total of 34.84 for the month of Jan to date..

I have not decided yet if I want to go to town this weekend, it was in the plan but this freezing ice storm has settled ove my farm and local area and I am thinking that I should just stay home an off those roads.

I am very much thinking of having a fairly stricted food related cost for the month of feb, I have not decided if I am doing a month of eat out of your pantry only, or if I am going to take a ten dollar a week only challange, I will annouce on the 1st what the plan is, I know that if I need to do something for a short term and report either daily or once a week I am much better at doing so then something that needs to be done once a month.

So what is new in regards to food storage this week is mirco greens in trays, sprouts in jars and that the sun is getting longer daily, which is wondeful for starting pots of different things in the house..  I am burning though my home collected radish seed, and I think this year, I am not only going to plan and collect broccoli, radish seeds but I am going to plant a whole row of beets just for sprouting seeds, I really like beet greens..

Otherwise we continue to have lots of fresh milk as more of our girls freshen this year, I am a little surprised at the amount of big singles instead of twins this year.. I didn’t flush them this year as much as year’s before, I guess I am seeing the results of that in the barn this winter, More milk for me!

Last but not least, I am not happy with my second year laying hens this year, I am not getting the eggs I should be, I tried a different breed with that flock and while they are dual purpose hens, they were earlier layers and very good first year, but they have been poor winter layers and poor second year layers, Dh wants to cut them slack, I want to freezer camp them! The up and coming young layers (due to start in end of feb/march) are of a different breed that I have had for most of the years I have been on the farm, and they are still good layers at three to five as well as excellent broody mothers typically.

All I have to say is start laying again girls or else, I won’t keep and feed you if you are not going to reward me with rich big brown eggs.. this is a barter, and right now, I am getting the shaft..

So how was everyone else’s week? Did you get a great sale at the store? Did you find a cool old fashioned recipe or make one up that was a way to use your winter stores? How are your hens laying this winter? If you have fresh milk, are you making cheese? Yogurt? Bread Pudding?

Today is the day that the wonderful blog, the homestead Rivival has their once a month Preparedness Challange (don’t forget to stop by for the homestead blog hop on mondays!), Raither then write a new Food Storage Post, I am using my regular Food Storage Friday posts but as its to cover the whole month, Last week my Food Storage Friday write up..

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Ghost of the past-Current in the future..

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Having been home this spring, I ran into a old friend of mine that I had not seen for years, the year before that I saw a old work friend and a old roommate that I had not seen for awhile.. I am always surprised when my mom tells me hello from so and so.. most of the time I don’t even remember them but I am informed that I went to school with them..

For some reason someone I went to school with has been in my head lately, she moved to our town and started eighth grade with us, she was beautiful by the western standard, any way you cut it!, she was already about 5’8, long blond hair, bright blue eyes, slender but still a bit curvy, fair skinned, perfect teeth and she was a lady, soft spoken, always dressed to the hilt, light makeup, with pretty shade of pink nails..and she didn’t belong to anything, the boys drool and coo’d on her..

I on the other hand in that grade, was already 5, 9 if I was a inch, had been funcky red hair, that you never knew what it would look like, long, braided, funked or punked, I bite my nails but had fake nails and I would make them multi-colored, or put stars on them but mainly I used to wear a different color per nail, or a rainbow of colors on my hands, dress wise, it ran from very dressy (my folks believe that a girl should be able to be a girl) but it also included outfit of the 80’s country punk. I was on the volleyball and basketball team (b) and I joined the running club that year and was active in drama and went to every dance. As for boys, I was not allowed to date, not group date, or double date.. NO dating!  On other hand, I was allowed to go to ever dance and boogy to my hearts delight, but I went home with big brother or my folks picked me up at the doors. In a nutshell shew was the anti-me

Fast forward a couple years, and I was just as different, just as active in school things, still into drama, but by then also very active behind the camera, even getting a student placement to learn more with the local cable company.. The angel on the other hand, by that time was the first person (but not the last) I knew that had Anorexia, she was dating a boy from my brothers grade, she ended up having to be put in the hospital and as they say, if you try to harm yourself its a cry for help.. well by the time she got there, it was not a cry so much as a scream, that was the last I heard of her.

It was one of those moments in my life when I had that moment of “why” ..  and I know that everyone has their own versions of why.. but in her case, she had talked about the voice in her head, that voice that said, never good enough, never thin enough, never pretty enough, Not good enough..

It was the first time I can remember being at a meeting when everyone in the school in groups was talking about that voice.. and I realized, I don’t have one..

Now I do understand and have been told by the “man” that of course I do, but I really don’t, I tend to smile and nod when they tell me I do.. but let me be honest with you, I don’t, I don’t have that voice in my head, when I go still and silent, I can slip off the still path by thinking or worrying a problem like a bone.. but no inner voice like others talk about..

Fast forward twenty years into the future and I look at my current lifestyle choices, I don’t keep up with the jones,  I am on a different path and have been on many of them in my lifetime, I wonder if I would be me, the me now, if I had a voice, would I have been as fearless on a number of choices I made if I had that little voice, saying, “No, you can’t do that, you will fail” .. Don’t know, never will know, its not how my head works..

So for all your folks that are walking a different path, making the choice to step off from the crowd and do your own thing.. Do you hear that voice? or is it possable that there are many of us out that just don’t..

Posted in Goals | 1 Comment

Weigh in 1/26/2012

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Well, its been a crappy week in terms of workouts, I just have not wanted to spend any extra time out on the skating rink that we are calling the farm then required this week, extra grip boots and even then I need to wear my spikes a couple of times, I have been getting a workout breaking ice off of steps, paths and decks, that should count for something. I need to step it up this week and try and get a little more outdoor time..

It was a odd week to be honest, I had the biggest cravings for my yogurt, I wanted it plain, in foods, and mixed with nuts and canned fruit, I have not baked a thing this week, its been all about fruit/nuts/seeds.. Yesterday is a great example, Breakfast, I had yugurt with chopped raw almonds with canned peaches chopped up, lunch was pot of pea’s butter and a touch of honey/ginger, and supper was a huge plate of cabbage salad with pear, apple, cranberry, and raw pumpkin seeds along with a bit of homemade mayo, salt,pepper, dill, basil and turmic, along with a little ham.. Now do you see the problem with yesterday’s meals! Because while yogurt, peas and cabbage salad all sound good, and to be fair the calorie count was within my desired range..

Did you just go.. Wow.. High fat content! Yup, so yup, full fat sheep yogurt, sugar in my canned fruit, all the dried fruits and then add in the nuts/seeds and mayo and YIKES. Why is my body craving fat, I am not kidding on this either, I have the urge to make pie, and its not the craving for fruit that is making it float my boat, its the idea of pastry, fat loaded pastry.. 

The weird thing about this, is that I went over my journel and I am not lacking in fat in the diet, I have been really! careful about being balanced, and I am not hungry, I am being very good about not snacking, no real surprise there, with that amount of healthy natural fats in the meals I am eating, I walk away full and stay feeling happy for hours.. 

I have hit the books trying to figure out what I would be missing or needing in regards to this crazy craving in regards to fats and in truth I am a bit stumped.. So thoughts would be very welcome??

I also have been requiring extra sleep, I even took a rest day, something that has really help my mood and my energy but still it was a odd one, I was not sick, No cold, flu or even that time of the month etc.. just felt really tired and wanted to sleep, and sleep I did..

Regardless when I got on the scale this morning, I was down 3 pds (remember I said I was keeping the calories under control) so a total of 18.5 out of my 50 pd goal and a total of 13.2 on the family spring weight loss challange, which I am currently in 3rd or possabily 4th place in depending on the weigh in this week..sigh..

Goals for this past week.

  • Journey food, and Water intake-At least 8 cups of water a day-Yes Daily..
    Workouts at least 3 to 4 times per week, my choice on what kind, but expect most of them to be wii ones, but mix it up on the type, plus at least two strength workouts with DH this week-Not a hope, only worked out twice plus farm and house chores.

Goals for this coming week..

  • Journey and take my calories plus make sure I get my water drank!
  • One longer outdoor walk, one barn stall workout, one weight workout with hubby
  • Going to spend at least 10 min on stretches and balance work daily
  • Do at least two one hour extra housework workouts-Wash Walls, or cupboards or ?
  • If possable eat more greens this week, I have a number of pots coming, break down and just harvest some as micro-greens and plant more pots.
Posted in Goals | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Costs of Replacing my stove..

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

This monring I walked into my kitchen and went huh, its so strange to have a bright white stove where my black stove sat, it certainly catches my eye..  I made my first dish on it this morning, a pot of Red River for a hot breakfast.

So lets see how I did on the costs of replacing my old stove, I checked out the sales on for a new one, and there were alot, I want real burners as I can alot, and the glass topped stoves (or at least the ones manual’s I have looked at) don’t recommend that kind of weight on them as they can crack or break under it. The sale prices ran from $399 to $599, ok in truth not a bad price for a new stove but to that you would need to add Tax, plus gas for pick up etc

Then came looking at a few second hand stores, the average cost for the kind of stove I wanted was about $250, plus tax an gas for pick up, better.. Then I started looking at farm sales, I figure I could get a stove for around a hundred or so if I could find a good sale to get to, only there was a issue, the sales that had a correctly sized stove where all an hour to two hours away, that is a lot of gas for a “if” I get the price I want.. a bit more risky then I want at the moment..

So that brought me to Kijji, there the stoves ranged all over in price from very low to very high depending on what the value placed on the them by the person selling them.. The average prices in general seemed to be 150 to 250, still not bad.. but I was not in a hurry, I really wanted one for a hundred or under, and figured if I just watched for a bit, I could find it..  Had one close buy for 75, but despite being the first to email them after the post went up, they would not hold it till after work for a pick up and sold it before Dh even got off work, have to admit that while they were polite about it, it kinda made me growl a little, but fate has a way of giving a helping hand, a new posting for a stove was up for $30, works well but a little wear and tear..

So I contacted them, the stove has two knicks in the paint but the real issue was the the plastic on a couple of the buttons on the timer for the oven had broken off, the buttons still work but its no longer “pretty” and so it got replaced, the rest works perfectly well..

As a added help it was less then ten min or so in driving time from were DH works, so he drove in, and parked at work for the day and then picked it up afterwards and the older gentleman helped him load it, and even provided bubble wrap for certain parts of it etc.

We got it set up and yup, as they said, everything works, so for less then 5% of a new stove, I have a second hand one with missing buttons.. I will admit that I will see if its possable to get a replacement part on that, and or find a safe way to cover them, but if not, so be it…

So what do you think? Would you have turned down the stove because of the buttons? or would you have taken it? At which price point would you have been happy and bought one at?

Posted in frugal | 2 Comments