Marie Callendar's Famous Golden Cornbread

The first time I tasted cornbread was in my elementary school cafeteria.  No one should have their first taste of anything in a school cafeteria!  The lump of yellow was dry, crumbly, mealy and terrible.  I never tried another bite of cornbread until my friend Kim invited us to dinner and served it.  I didn't want to be rude so I fearfully took a bite.  It was simply divine!  I couldn't believe it was cornbread!  It was light, moist, and sweet.  Top it off with honey butter, and all is right in the world!

This is the recipe Kim shared with me.  I made it for a recent family dinner and it was gone before anything else.  The kids were eating the cornbread before the chocolate chip cookies!

Marie Callendar's Famous Golden Cornbread

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
2 tsp. baking powder
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup shortening
1 egg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar, and salt in medium bowl.  Add milk, shortening, and egg.  Mix only until all ingredients are well combined.  Pour batter into greased 8x8" pan.  bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the top is golden brown.  Let the cornbread cool slightly before slicing it.

Honey Butter:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup honey

For the Honey Butter, use a mixer on high speed to whip the butter and honey together until smooth and fluffy.

Print Recipe

Green Thumb

My father had a green thumb. It was a dark forest green thumb that grew beautiful vegetables out of the rocky soil below Timpanogous Mountain.  Sadly, I inherited his big nose instead of his green thumb.

I've tried growing a few gardens here and there and nothing much came out of it.  This year I had the opportunity to have a 7" x 30" plot in our town's community garden.  I have decided to take a chance on this garden.  I feel I have a very good chance at making this garden successful because there is a whole community of gardeners out there. Because if I have people that will notice my weeds or my lack of watering I perform well when afraid of humiliation.

This weekend we planted tomato and green pepper plants. 
And marigolds to keep bugs away from the tomatoes.

We also planted green bean, zucchini, pumpkin, and carrot seeds.

Grow, veggies, grow!  Don't embarrass me!

Farewell Cookies

Jesse and Madison

My nephew, Jesse, left today to serve a mission for our church for two years. In honor of his commitment we had a farewell for him on Sunday. And everyone knows the best way to celebrate someone is with cookies in odd shapes. If you decorate 38 cookies in the form of an article of clothing you know it's true love. Can you tell they are shaped like neck ties?  I hope so because I purchased a cookie cutter just for these cookies!

Caleb and Madison

Jesse wasn't the only one to leave for his mission today.  Madison's boyfriend Caleb also left.  Madison's two favorite people left her today.  Needless to say, it has been a rough couple days for her.  Here, sweetie, have a cookie!

Antiques?

I once blogged about my love of lighthouses.  I didn't post any pictures I took of the rooms inside because they were taken inside through safety glass resulting in poor quality photos.  I was looking at my pictures of the bedrooms with the oil lamps, fire place, and even chamber pots.  There is a beautiful patchwork quilt with the lighthouse attendants pants draped over it.  I noticed the pillowcase.  Antiques linens?  I think not!  I think they were probably purchased at the nearest Wal-Mart and quickly placed on the pillows.  Please notice the folds from being in the packaging.  I truly hope the quilt wasn't purchased for $69.99 at Bed Bath and Beyond because I like to think it kept the little wife made it herself to keep her family warm.

 

This House

This house is on the way to my in-law's cabin. 

It speaks to me.

It wants to be mine.

It wants me to repair it's cracks and to paint it's trim.
It wants shutters beside the windows.
It wants a new light fixture above it's doorway.
It wants trees and tulips to border the walk.

It wants me to replace the chain link fence with a white picket fence.
It wants me to repair the inside with the style from the period it was originally built.
It wants to be furnished with antique furniture and feather beds.

It wants to keep my family comfortable and warm with it's two fireplaces.
If I had the money to fulfill this house's wishes, it would be mine.

 

My Baby Girl

Forgive me for so many pictures.  I keep looking at them trying to find the little girl I used to hold on my lap while I read stories to her.  

Where oh where did my baby girl go?

Photos by the fantastic Kimberly Jane

 

My Lights Got Their Paint On!

Here is something that has been under my skin for the past year.

Notice the rust? I have 3 light fixtures in front of my house that have been taunting me with their rustiness. They distracted me every time I pulled into the garage. So, what's a girl to do? Buy spray paint of course!

Here is what one would need if they have pesky rusty lights.  A metal brush to sand down the rust, painters tape, spray paint (I used the metallic finish) and don't forget your Dr. Pepper! 

One can never go wrong with Rust-oleum.  Now, I know there are many blogs that have been paid to feature this spray paint.  But not me.  I advertise for free, baby!  I just use it because it works well to cover and resist rust.

After I cleaned the lights (and by clean I aimed my garden house in the general direction) I used the metal brush to remove the rust.  I didn't spend a lot of time on this, just brush, brush, brush, and I'm done.  Now I taped off what I didn't want to paint.  I did spend a lot of time on this, just tape, tape, tape, and 2 hours later I'm finally done. This was seriously the worst part of the project.

 And because I love the taping process so much I taped up some paper.  It was at this point that I began to wonder what the neighbors were thinking of me and all my tape.   Hello, I have blue tape and I know where to put it!  And then I began to wonder what the neighbors thought of me taking pictures of my tape.  

Don't they know I'm a blogger!

 

I primed that bad boy!  Or girl.  Whatever your sex your lights claim to be.

And then I painted it.  Twice, because I'm married to an engineer who will notice any uneven painting.

After the paint dries, I excitedly removed the low stick adhesive tape and  stood back to admire my work.  Wait!  What's this?  Do you mean to tell me the low stick adhesive tape removed the paint from your house? 
This can't be!

Oh, it be! 

The previous owners left the clearly marked house paint for us in our basement, bless their hearts! 
So, I was able to touch up this near disaster.

Okay, now I can stand back to admire my work.

Love! 

I am not longer taunted by their rustiness!