This Texas girl grew up on good southern cornbread. It was a staple alongside a big pot of pinto beans.
Since I’ve been doing sourdough a lot lately, I thought I’d give sourdough cornbread a try. This is based on my grandmother’s cornbread recipe with a few tweaks. It’s delicious and moist, not grainy at all. You should all try it.
Sourdough Cornbread:
1 cup cold sourdough starter
1 tsp salt
1 cup water
2 tbls honey
1/4 cup oil
2 eggs
Mix all the above ingredients together. Then add…
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 whole wheat
3/4 cup corn meal
1 tbls baking powder
Mix and pour in a greased cast iron skillet 8×8 casserole dish.
Might sound weird, but this is a great way to preserve your peppers whether spicy jalepenos or some other pepper.
Simply slice, spread out on a dehydrator tray, and dry at 125 degrees for about 12 hours or until crispy.
They are great sprinkled on pizza, Mexican food, or anything you want to add a little crunch to. And let me tell you, in my opinion, these are far superior to canned or picked jalapeños.
After they are dry, store in a jar until needed. I’ll tell you, I can’t grow peppers where I live, but I will buy jalapeños in bulk just so I can try them. Give it a try.
May seem counterintuitive to go to the trouble to go to the trouble of making refried beans only to dehydrate them, but this makes a great, shelf-stable convenience food, or is excellent lightweight, easy to carry, protein packed food for a backpacking or camping trip.
I used to buy the Santa Fe dehydrated refried beans for many years. I would use them when I needed a quick lunch. But prices went up and we couldn’t afford them any more. So, I had to figure out how to make my own.
If you’re going to make these, you might as well make a lot. You can presoak and cook the beans on the stovetop, but cooking dried beans in my Instant Pot is one of my favorite uses for that appliance.
Cooking Dried Beans in the Instant Pot:
Sort 2 pounds of dried pinto beans.
Add the beans to the IP along with 2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper, and 8 cups of water.
Lock the lid and set the valve to the sealed position.
Set the Instant Pot for Pressure Cook, High Pressure, 48 minutes, Warm setting OFF.
Quick release the pressure and stir the beans.
Mash the beans using your potato masher until they are the desired texture.
Drying in the Dehydrator:
Spread them evenly on dehydrator trays as thin as possible, about 1/4” thick.
Dehydrate at 145 degrees for 12-24 hours until they are completely dry and will crumble to a powder.
Drying in the Oven:
Alternatively you could spread these on parchment paper and dry on cookie sheets in your oven on the lowest heat setting. Aim for no warmer than 150-170 degrees. You want them completely dry with no moisture left. They should crumble to a powder
Storage:
You can store in portion sizes appropriate to your family size in plastic zip-lock bags or in glass jars. 1 cup = about 2 servings.
To rehydrate:
To rehydrate the beans for a meal, add 1 cup of dehydrated beans to 2 cups of boiling water. Simmer about 5 minutes until all the water is absorbed. Estimate about a 1/2 cup dried beans per serving per person.
Do not use a bag or jar of beans if you open them and they have a strong musty smell. If this happens it is likely that all the moisture was not dehydrated out of them and that they have spoiled.
6 oz. fresh raspberries (approximately 1 cup, frozen can be used also)
Zest of 2 lemons
3/4 cup sourdough starter (can be fed or unfed)
2 cups of milk, reserve 1/3 cup
Mix everything but the 1/3 cup of the milk. You want a very wet dough that just holds together or your scones will be dry. Add the remainder of the milk 2 tbls at a time if needed.
Turn the dough out onto a floured board. Gently press into a rough rectangle. Flour the top. Lift the dough and fold it in half over on itself. Press it out into a rectangle again. Flour the top. Lift it up and fold it in half again. Repeat this process 3 more times. This is called laminating the dough. It adds layers which result in a fluffier, flakier end product. After the last lamination, press the dough into a rough rectangle again until it is about 1 inch thick. Cut out your scones with a biscuit cutter, pizza cutter, or knife.
Add this to brighten your day. Tasty, chewy, and sweet, with just a bit of lemony tang.
Lemon Blueberry Batter Bread:
3 cups sourdough starter
1 tsp salt
1 cup water
1 cup honey (or 3/4 cup brown sugar)
1/3 cup oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
Mix these ingredients together. Add the following….
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 – 6oz container of blueberries
Zest of 1 lemon
Any whole grain flour of your choice 1/2 cup at a time until the dough is the texture of a soft cream cheese or buttercream frosting.
Pour into two greased loaf pans (or you can use liners and make muffins instead). Cover with a damp towel and let it rise until the dough reaches the top of the pan.
If you use honey, bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 to avoid them browning too quickly like the loaves below. If you use sugar, bake at 375 degrees for 35-45 minutes. Check for doneness using a cake tester. It should come out clean, or the interior temperature should register 200 degrees on an instant read thermometer.
Are you ready for the easiest recipe you’ll make this week?
I’ve become addicted to this lemon cranberry honey. It’s sooooo good!
Here’s what you need:
1 package whole fresh cranberries
1/2 chopped lemon peel
Honey
Simply chop the cranberries in your food processor (or leave them whole if you want), cut up your lemon peel into little pieces or chunks, put in a jar, and cover with honey to 1” above the fruit level. That’s it!
You’ve now made fermented cranberry lemon honey. Just swirl the cranberries around 2-3 times per day or whenever you pass by the jar to keep them well coated as submerged. After a couple of days you’ll notice that the honey becomes more liquid as the fruit release their juices into it. You can begin eating it at any point, but the flavor is best after a week or more of fermentation time.
So, what’s actually happening here? The anti-microbial properties of the honey are acting as a preservative for the fruit long enough for the liquid to be released into the honey which then allows the honey to ferment. After fully fermented, which takes about 2 weeks (more like 4 weeks if you use whole cranberries) the this will last indefinitely in the fridge. If kept at room temperature it will continue to ferment and eventually turn to alcohol if left out long enough. I keep mine out on the counter, but it never lasts long enough to bother putting it in the fridge. We eat it up.
And feel free to play with flavors. I’ve also tried adding orange and cinnamon, but the lemon is my favorite.
This recipe makes a great jam substitute if you are trying to avoid sugar. I also use it in baking to make flavored biscotti or scones, or even as a flavoring or sweetener in my morning tea.
Just in time for Christmas and all your holiday celebrations. Give some delicious loaves as a gift. Visit the Bread Box Cottage Bakery page for pricing and availability.
I’ve always enjoyed picking herbs from my garden. But I typically just pick what I need for mmmmm for culinary use. I’ve been harvesting more herbs this to dry and save for medicinal and beauty uses this year.
Scroll on to see what’s been in my herb basket this year.
Sage, Calendula, and one big Mullein leaf.Basil!Mint and CatmintSpearmintCilantroRoses!I lay my rose petals between two paper towels to air dry.Pretty little Calendula flowers. I air dry these the same way I do the rose petals.
We love Trader Joe’s spice grinders. We like the Lemon Pepper, Everyday Seasoning, and Garlic Salt. If you haven’t tried them, you really should.
What what do you do when you find yourself smack-dab in the middle of a pandemic, and you can’t run out and buy more? You get creative and make your own.
Garlic Salt is the seasoning I use the most. It’s basic and I find it to be the most versatile. I use it on the kids chicken strips that they eat every day for lunch, and I REALLY like it on our sourdough crackers. If you want to try to craft your own, save an empty grinder and mix the following together.
Remembering Maggie Lane 