Cornbread. Cornbread Everywhere.

"We've got jam at home," Emmy said as we cruised the Dane County Farmer's Market last weekend. I shifted the carrots to my other hand. "All right. I'll bake bread, then." "You sure?" she asked. "Yeah, totally."

So, I didn't bake bread. I didn't even look at the yeast this week. I did, however, procure a library book that seems to have a couple decent and simple bread recipes. As I was reading it I was inspired to try two of their recipes, pop-overs and cornbread. How lucky that I bought eggs! (soy free and full beak, too.) And no rising involved. Bonus.

We began the week with potato soup in mind and gathered our ingredients from the following places:

~Celeriac x2 from Driftless Organics
~Carrots x2 from Carol from Gitto Family Farm
~Flour from Hickory Hill
~Honey from River Forks Honey Co.
~Potatoes from Driftless Organics

also local but not from the DCFM, were 2 onions, milk, buttter, bacon, and sour cream.

The "Werner Potato Soup" recipe was given to Emmy by her mother and is as follows:

Potato Soup

1 med onion, chopped

1 tbsp butter

Chicken broth/bullion cubes

Potatoes, approx. 6

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 peeled carrot, chopped

Salt to taste

Milk/half & half cream

Sautee 1 med onion in 1 tbsp butter until clear, not brown

Chop carrot and celery

Roughly chop potatoes and place in pot with celery and carrot

Add water to cover potatoes, one bullion cube per cup

Boil 20-25 mins or until potatoes are fork-soft

Mash with masher

If necessary, simmer until soup reaches desired consistency

Add salt to taste

Add milk/cream to taste (best with half& half)

 

This recipe, her Mom adds, can be doubled or halved according to need. Just add as many potatoes as you like, enough broth to cover and veggies to preference. Here, we substituted celeriac for celery because celery is not in season yet.

 

I also made Pop-Overs, which I last made when I was about five years old. My middle sister, Kath, is a pop-over wizard. I have always admired her skills. Since I have no beater of whisk, I had to make do with hand power alone, which is probably why mine didn't rise in the middle, but they rose up around the edges.

 

Pop-Overs,

from "Bread" by Williams-Sonoma

 

~1 Tb melted unsalted butter

~3 eggs

~1 Cup whole milk

~1 Cup flour

~1/4 tsp salt

 

DO NOT preheat oven, it needs to be cold when you put the pop-overs in. Take a pop-over tin (deep) or a muffin tin and grease with oil/Pam/cold butter/etc. In a mixing bowl beat together wet ingredients until foamy. I suggest using an electric mixer here, but you don't have to. Beat in the dry ingredients until smooth, DO NOT overmix. Batter should be thin. Fill each tin 2/3rds of the way full with batter. Place pan on middle rack in a cold oven. Turn temperature to 375F or 190C. A deep tin will take about 35-45 minutes, while a muffin tin will take about 25 minutes. DO NOT open the oven door for the firs 30 minuts of cooking, or tops will not rise. When you remove gently pierce the top of each pop-over to allow steam to escape. Let cool. Fill with jam and enjoy!

 

I also attempted to make Cornbread from the same book. The recipe called for a 9-inch pan. I have no 9-inch deep pans so I elected to use my 10-inch pie pan instead. O. M. G. After ten minutes I noticed a sharp burning smell and ran to check the oven. My cornbread (which required 4 eggs, I might add, and almost all of the cornmeal I had left) had overflowed and was busy making a foot-long subway sandwhich-shaped pile of puffy batter all over the bottom heating element of the oven.

 

I'm not ashamed to say that I swore viciously, pulled the pie pan out, spilled batter everywhere in the process, and herded the subway-batter onto the floor by the clever use of two plastic spatulas. I then put a cookie sheet on the middle rack and stuck the cornbread back in the oven. Not five minutes later the burning smell was back, and this time with a vengence. Again, I ran to the kitchen. During my herding process it seemed I had gotten more wet batter directly on the heating element and it had turned to glowing cinders and filled the oven with smoke. Goddammit. I turned the whole thing off and gave up the cornbread as a lost cause.

 

And that's the story of how Kim nearly burned down her apartment complex this week. No idea what we're going to do next week, but I vote chili!

 

xoxoxo,

Kim & Emmy

 

Reader Questions: I know I'm not the only one to have a crazy kitchen disaster, and I also know that misery loves company. Care to share? :)