Cornbread

I love a good hot piece of cornbread, but not sweet.  I do not like sweet cornbread.  To me, cornbread should not taste like cake.  This recipe is the one my grandmother passed down through the family.  I remember the first time I tried to make cornbread.  It stuck in the pan and fell all apart.  My husband tried to encourage me and said it still tasted great, which it did. 

Ingredients
2 cups cornmeal      
2 egg
1/2 cup sweet milk      
1 teaspoon sugar
1 stick butter
water

Directions
1. Mix cornmeal, milk, eggs and sugar.
2. Melt butter in an iron skillet.
3. Pour butter into other ingredients but make sure to keep the iron skillet hot.
4. Add water until the batter is fairly thin.
5. Pour the mixture into the hot iron skillet.
6. Bake at 425 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

Notes
Makes a 10 inch cake of cornbread. 

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Is homemade worth it?

2 cups cornmeal= $.38
2 egg = $.28
1/2 cup sweet milk = $.12 
1 teaspoon sugar = $.02
1 stick butter = $.50

One recipe of cornbread costs $1.30 to make.

I will need to visit the store to see how much a box of cornbread mix costs.  I know Jiffy is pretty popular and cheap.  I've never made it before so I do know what you add to make it.  I'll have to do a little research next week at the store!

Strawberry Lemonade

So, one day I made a cake for a church auction.  I have left over frozen strawberries and left over lemons from a previous baking occasion.  I am not a big fan of strawberries myself, but do love a good cold strawberry lemonade.  I got out a pitcher, squeezed the juice from the two lemons I had left and pureed the strawberries I had and slowly added sugar and water until I had a yummy drink.

Ingredients
juice of 2 lemons
3/4 cup pureed strawberries
water
sugar to taste

Directions
1.  Place lemon juice and pureed strawberries into a 1/2 gallon pitcher. 
2.  Fill pitcher with water.
3.  Add sugar until desired sweetness is obtained.  I used about 1 cup.
4.  Stir until sugar is dissolved.

Notes
I made this with the left overs I had and do not know if it would have tasted better with more or less lemon juice or strawberries.  If anyone else tries other measurements for these items and it taste better than what the directions say, please let me know!

Fudge Filled Cookie Cups

So, one day I had a craving for fudge.  Not just any fudge, but my grandmother's fudge icing.  I also needed to make something for a pot-luck meal, and thought why not create something with this fudge icing I've been craving so much.  Well, what I came up with is pictured below!

Ingredients:
Favorite cookie dough
1/2 recipe chocolate fudge icing

Directions
1. Take your cookie dough and form the dough into 1 inch balls.
2. Place the dough into a lined mini muffin tin.
3. Bake cookies (as directed) until just done, but not too done.  Once out of the oven, depression will form in the center of the cookies, creating a cup like shape.
4. Fill the depression with fudge icing, about 1/2 tablespoon, depending on the size of the depression.
5. Let fudge firm up before serving.

Notes
Servings per recipe depends on the amount of dough you use.  I used 1/2 a recipe form the back of a chocolate chip bag and had a lot of fudge icing left over.  I made 24 cookie cups.  Using 1/2 recipe of fudge, you could use a whole cookie dough recipe and still have enough icing.

Chocolate Fudge Icing

This has got to be my favorite icing.  I love to lick the pot when it is done and will even eat the icing plan, without any cake.  It is THAT good.

Every year for my birthday when I was little, my grandmother would make me a chocolate pound cake with this icing on top.  She would also fill the hole inside the pound cake with this icing.  I would always scoop out some from the middle every time I got a piece of cake. 

This picture shows the icing how I like to eat it... without a cake :)

Ingredients
2 cups sugar       
5 oz evaporated milk
10 large marshmallows
1 stick butter
6 oz chocolate chips

Directions

1. Bring sugar, milk and marshmallows to a boil, cook for 6 minutes. (stir constantly)  
2. Take off heat and add the butter and the chocolate chips.  
3. Let icing cool for a little while, a 2-3 minutes.      
4. Then, beat the icing until it looses part of its glossiness.
5. Spread on your favorite cake!

Notes
One large marshmallow = 13 mini marshmallows, so if you only have mini marshmallows you will need 130.

This recipe can also make fudge!  Just place aluminum foil in a 9x9 pan.  Pour the icing in the pan and set in the fridge until hardened.  Cut into squares while it is cold.  I would recommend storing the fudge in the fridge so that you can actually pick it up to eat.  It is okay to leave it out. You will just have to eat it with a spoon.

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How much does this cost?

2 cups sugar = $.50
5 oz evaporated milk = $.45
10 large marshmallows = $.45
1 stick butter = $.50
6 oz chocolate chips = $1.25

It costs $3.15 to make this recipe.

Recipes that use Chocolate Fudge Icing

Fudge Filled Cookie Cups

Fruit Loop Learning for Pre-K

So, I had this idea to also incorporate food with learning.  Being a preschool teacher before I had my daughter, I incorporated food into lessons quite often.  This is the first post of this kind on this blog, and I hope to add more as time goes on.

First, give each child some Fruit Loops

The following pictures will show some activities to do with the Fruit Loops.

Sorting by color

Patterns

Counting

Graphing

Make your own picture

These are just some of the activities that use Fruit Loops.  When you are finished with what ever project you are working on, the kids get to enjoy a tasty snack!

Other Fruit Loop Activities:
1.  Using Fruit Loops to "color" in a picture.
2.  Make necklaces or bracelets
3.  Use Fruit Loops to create letters

Know another activity?  Please let me know and I will add it to this list!