Sunday, February 7, 2010

Snowy Days and Comfort Foods

Today I’m thinking about the folks in the eastern part of the U.S. who are covered in snow – hoping they have the comfort of a warm home with family gathered safely around.
All I can offer in the way of comfort to them are two recipes that I like to make on cold wintery days. The chili is so easy and quick to make -- you can be eating it within 30 minutes of starting. And this cornbread recipe is my favorite -- the texture is smooth and cake-like. I keep the ingredients for these two recipes in my cupboard at all times because Dale likes chili almost as much as he likes meatloaf!

EASY CHILI

½ lb. ground beef browned with chopped onions
Add:
1 can pork and beans
2 or 3 cans beans (red beans, kidney beans, pinto beans)
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1 tsp. (Or to taste) chili powder
salt
pepper
Simmer until flavors blend. (At least 15 min.)
(If I choose to add the third can of beans, I also like to use a little bit more ground beef.)_

JIFFY CORNBREAD

1 box Jiffy cornbread mix (8.5 oz)
1 box Jiffy yellow cake mix (9 oz)
1/3 cup milk
½ cup water
2 eggs
1/4 cup oil

Mix all ingredients. Pour batter into a greased and floured 8X8 pan.
Bake at 400 degrees for 5 minutes, then lower temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 20 - 25 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Friday, February 5, 2010

I Think I'm Sick

Got a fever?
Feel a chill?
Call the doctor
If you’re ill.

Take two aspirin,
Go to bed.
Call tomorrow,
Unless you’re dead.

Have had the woozy head, sore throat thing for 2.5 days. But I am holding my own - drinking Airbourne like it’s party punch. I thought back to a day in May 1988, when Kent and I were waiting in Dr. Taylor’s office. Kent was sick with fever, sore throat, etc. The poem just came tapping out of my toe. We read it to Dr. Taylor and he almost fell off the stool laughing and asked for a copy, and since my only copy was on a scrap of paper that I wrote on in the waiting room, he sent his nurse in with a piece of paper to get a copy which they hung in the office. So once upon a time a copy of this little ditty was hanging around – somewhere.