Cornbread Supper

Memorial Day is a Monday holiday, and we decided to proceed with a Cornbread Supper for any people not tending their own backyard grills. About 25 people came to Supper, bringing several red-white-blue dishes: fruit salads, casseroles -- and a golden roast chicken. Left-behind food labels suggest some of the variety of dishes (and colors): > Strawberry & Spinach Salad > Black Bean & Mango Salad > Lemon Poppyseed Scones! > Rice, black beans, local ground beef, Irish cheddar, salsa > Lime Curry Orzo Cornbreads, carrying out the Red-White-Blue theme: > [Red] Super-spicy vegetarian with red kidney beans, Elmwood 2008 (frozen) hot and sweet peppers, cheeses, Campsie green garlic, and Blue Moon hot paprika > [White] Traditional cornbread: Contains pork (bacon and cracklings) > [Blue] New England sweet corn muffins with Reed Valley 2008 blueberries; vegetarian Prepare for Savory Cornmeal Waffles - taste treat coming up on Monday night, June 8!

Andrea Immer , author of Great Wines Made Simple and many other texts on wine, asserts that corn is the single most wine-friendly food in the world. Which brings to mind the old (and eventually expurgated) text of " Beulah Land ," Edgar Stites's grand 1876 Methodist camp meeting hymn: "I've reached the land of corn and wine, and all its riches freely mine..." Later some Baptist revisions yielded a Temperance-minded version: "I've reached the land of joy divine..." But we'll not quibble. There's nothing wrong with joy divine, either. One consistent longing in many beautiful old hymns is that we will commune with loved ones in freedom and peace in the next life. In this present life, we get to do some earthy and earthly communing already when we come together with good food, drink and friends. In fact, we are enjoying the blessings of corn and wine each week at the Monday night Cornbread Suppers. This week a wondrous add-on event increas

Submitted by Anita Courtney I got this recipe from a Fresh Market e-newsletter. It's quick to make and even better the next day. Roasting the tomatoes until they carmelize adds a rich flavor. Babies at the Cornbread Suppers seem to like tomato soup. The night I brought this recipe, two little girls both ate several cups of it. Ingredients · 14-ounce can diced tomatoes · Salt and pepper to taste · 1/2 cup olive oil, divided · 2 cloves garlic, minced · 1 yellow onion, diced · 2 carrots, diced · 2 stalks celery, diced · 1 cup chicken broth · 2 fresh bay leaves · ¼ cup fresh basil chipped · ½ cup cream Preheat oven to 450. Strain tomatoes, reserving juice. Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with ¼ cup olive oil. Roast until carmelized, about 15 minutes. In a medium sauté pan, heat ¼ cup olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic, yellow onion, carrots and celery and cook until softened, about 8 minute

Submitted by Anita Courtney This recipe is from The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper cook book by Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift. It has 4 shades of vibrant green and a great blend of flavors and textures. This dish is so cheerful and healthy looking that it makes me happy just to look at it! Ingredients 1 cup sugar snap peas 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 medium red onion, cut into ½ inch dice Generous pinch of sugar Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 1 cup snow peas 1 cup frozen baby peas 2 tightly-packed tablespoons fresh mint leaves, chopped ½ cup salted whole almonds, coarsely chopped String the sugar snap peas with a small, blunt knife. Grasp the stem between your thumb and the blade and pull down the length of the peas pod. Rinse the pea pods and dry them thoroughly. Heat a wok or a straight-sided 12-inch sauté pan over high heat. Swirl in the oil. Add the onion, sugar, salt and pepper and toss over high heat for 1 minute. Add the sugar snap peas and toss

Submitted by John van Willigen This is a family recipe from my mother Jean Van Willigen. It seemed to have originated in a German restaurant in Watertown, Wisconsin where an aunt’s father- in-law was the cook. His name was Billy Schubert. Ingredients 3 lbs. red cabbage, shredded finely 2 chicken bouillon cubes ½ cup brown sugar, packed ½ cup cider vinegar 1/4 cup butter or margarine 1 small onion, chopped fine 1 tablespoon salt Pepper to taste Dash of ground cloves 2 medium apples, chopped 3 strips of bacon (optional) In a large kettle combine all ingredients except the bacon. Bring to a boil over moderate heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat: simmer covered and stirring occasionally for 1 to 1 1/4 hours until liquid is reduced and cabbage is tender. Thicken at the end with a bit of flour. Fry the bacon crisp and crumble as a topping if you choose. The recipe does well prepared ahead and can be served the next day. I use a food processor for all the chopping.

Submitted by Rona Roberts Opening note: What follows below is a description, without real measurements, of how my mother, Ruth Roberts, made cornbread—without real measurements other than her good eye and hand. Eventually I developed some standard measurements that come close to her good skillet style cornbread. Those are at the bottom of this post. Scroll down if that's what you want. I admit it – I don't use a recipe for cornbread.  I do follow a process that is nearly a ritual, though. My ritual combines ancestral traditions with the latest food news about the wonders of eating what is real, fresh, and grown close to home. Actually, in cornbread, the ancient and the latest views on what is good come together in joyous union. I put my mother's well-seasoned cast iron corn stick and corn muffin pans into the oven and turn it on to 450 F. I set some filtered water to boil in my electric teapot. I get out my former husband's grandmother's chipped pink ceramic

The big dish, a variation on Paula Ann Abbott's Mexican Cornbread, included Stone Cross Farm sausage, Swiss cheese, local Sapori d'Italia aged goat cheese, homegrown Wayne County corn, Campsie green garlic, Elmwood Stock Farm's 2008 sweet red peppers (roasted and frozen) as well as their gorgeous pastured, free range, certified eggs, and more. I also tried Drowned Cornbread a third time - and that's it for that idea, until someone develops a better way to make the American Corn recipe work with its promised layer of custard. The third cornbread was an olive oil version of traditional Kentucky/buttermilk/boiling water, baked in sticks, muffins, and a small skillet. I failed to collect little descriptive food labels after people left, except for the one labeled "Pink Beauty Radishes from the Koch backyard." Beauties for sure! And they appealed to one of our one-year-old Cornbreaders, who ate several as if they were popsicles. I remember a wonderfully aromat

Anita Courtney says : Let's create a Campsie Cornbread Suppers recipe collection. Please send me (anitac@qx.net) any recipes that you’ve brought that you'd like to share and I'll post them on this blog. We'll have our own eco-friendly, local cookbook. If there is a dish you really liked but you don't know who made it, feel free to request it and we'll try to track it down. If you get more than 3 compliments on your dish, you're pretty much required to send it in. Here's to more connection, crunch and comfort on Campsie.

Funny how good the "every bit local"caprese-style salad looked after the long months without fresh local tomatoes. The big platter of Bleugrass Chevre goat cheese/Roland Macintosh hydroponic tomato/homegrown herbs/vinaigrette may have lasted three minutes - and then the beautiful pattern on the platter underneath got to show itself off. A lovely large crowd of people brought a record-setting number of young people with them, many of whom ended up moist (that's a euphemism) from (parentally approved) play in outdoor puddles, romps through the back yard, climbs on the mulch pile, and other adventures. Quite a few people new to the Cornbread Suppers appeared this week, with and without children. The left behind food labels for the evening included these: Chili with beef + beans + ?? Grandma Neal's homegrown pepper relish (McCreary County) SPICY Zucchini and yellow squash saute' -- vegetarian, vegan Rhubarb Compote Chocolate pound cake with strawberries and whipped c