I'm not a food blogger. There. I said it. I've been blogging about food on and off since 2008 but I AM NOT a food blogger. In fact, far from it. I'd go so far as to say I suck at it. I just don't have the perfectionist gene in me and food is typically an organic affair in my home. No, not in the way that it is grown (okay, that too) but in how I prepare it. Though I have lovely Williams-Sonoma measuring cups and spoons and handy-dandy Pampered Chef batter bowls (both sizes, thank you), I find it difficult to pull them out with any regularity. In fact, forgive me if I've told this to you before, until I was about 14 years old I had NO IDEA that measuring cups existed. My mother had them but she never used them. Same for a chopping board. What she had was an instinct about food. She chopped onions in her hands - with a sharp knife - and so do I. There was little perfection in the presentation and Gordon Ramsay would have cringed at her plating skills - though I have no doubt she could have run rings around anyone on any cooking show. This, my friends, was how I learned to cook.
With those things said, it has been my dream for many years to write a cookbook. I'm in the beginning stages. The beginning stages look like a series of hand-written recipes of my creation that are going into a book (thank you Becky Higgins and Project Life). You see, every day I open my spice cabinet to pull out salt or turmeric or garlic or thyme and I see a hand-written recipe for my Mother's yeast rolls. It was written later in her life when things such as writing had become so difficult for her but it is still her handwriting that I had come to know so well. My children may not want things in my handwriting. Who knows? But, I am giving this gift to them regardless. The gift of handwritten recipes from their childhood that they can do with what they wish.
So what about the hoe cakes? Tonight I wrote my first recipe in my new cookbook. It's something I cook ALL OF THE TIME. Hoe cakes. A simple bread to go with dried beans and whatever I harvested that day from the garden. These are a Southern treat though I have no doubt they are found in other parts of the US and greater world (did you read my post on white beans and universal consciousness?) They are also simple and imperfect and there is rarely one left on the table by the end of the meal.
The recipe goes something like this.
Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cook Time: 6 Minutes each batch
Serves: 4 (recipe is easily doubled)
1 cup yellow non-gmo corn meal
1/4 cup flour or baking mix (I use Pamela's GF Baking Mix)
1 tbs sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup mayonnaise or 1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tsp butter
Mix all ingredients together. Heat 1 tsp butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Drop batter in heaping teaspoons into skillet. Lightly pat down with spatula to make thin disks. Cook 3 minutes or until browned (I like golden brown - you may prefer it darker). Flip cakes and cook an additional 3 minutes. Remove and place on towel lined plate. Repeat with remaining batter.
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