My Mom's Cornbread Recipe!


My mom makes the best... BEST... cornbread!
We always had cornbread with our chili which is normal.. but my mom made cornbread for more than just chili. We had cornbread with most of our meals. We would even take a large square of cornbread and heat it... put butter on it... and then put it in a glass and pour milk over it!


Here is my mom's cornbread recipe... it is to DIE for!!



1 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Sugar
4 Teaspoons Baking Powder
3/4 Teaspoon Salt
1 Cup Corn Meal
2 Eggs
1 Cup Milk
1/4 Cup Soft Oil

1)All dry ingredients together
2)Add eggs-milk-oil
3)Beat unti smooth
4)Put in greased 8x8 or 9x9 pan
5)Bake at 425 for 20-25 minutes...

Eating Light Salad Myth


Are you considering dieting as a New Year's Resolution? You may want to read this blog prior to making this resolution or before you set up a diet menu!


A McDonald's Quarter Pounder is quite a mouthful! After eating one you are pretty much full... you may want a small french fries... and of course a 20oz Coke...

Total calories... 950
If you drink a diet coke... 740
If you only eat the Quarter Pounder... 410...

Okay... let's compare those calories to some salads at popular restaurants...

TGIF's Santa Fe Salad... 500
TGIF's Pecan-Crusted Salad.... 700
Chili's Southwestern Cobb Salad.... 950
Chili's Grilled Caribbean Salad.... 440
Panera's Fuji Chicken Salad.... 520
Panera's Full Greek Salad..... 440
Macaroni Grill's Chicken Ceasar Salad....950


I think you are starting to get the picture....

If you want to go out to eat and cut down on your calories one way you can do this and still enjoy the meal is bring your own salad dressing.

I love salads. I probably eat a salad as 4 or 5 of my main meals each week! I love to pile all kinds of goodies on my salads. I really don't need meat but a few slices of chicken would be fine. I love to start with a bed of spinach leaves and then some garden greens. Remember that iceburg lettuce has no nutritional value. When adding lettuce it is better to add romaine, butterhead, loose leaf and radicchio. I love shaved carrots, raw corn, raw almonds, craisins, sliced pickled beets, raw tomatoes, mushrooms, broccoli, edamame, sliced jicama, red or vidalia onions, pine nuts, bell peppers, shredded romano parmisano... with a handful of croutons...

I pick my salad dressings carefully.. Here is a list of popular salad dressings and their calorie count:

Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing: 140c for 2 Tablespoons
Hidden Valley Lite Ranch Dressing: 80c for 2 Tablespoons
Hidden Valley Lite Cucumber Dressing: 45c for 2 Tablespoons

Kraft Catalina Dressing: 100c for 2 Tablespoons
Kraft Fat Free Catalina Dressing: 50c for 2 Tablespoons

Newman's Own Balsamic Vinaigrette: 90c for 2 Tablespoons
Newman's Own LITE Balsamic Vinaigrette: 45c for 2 Tablespoons

Ken's Creamy Italian: 120c for 2 Tablespoons
Ken's LITE Northern Italian with Basil & Romano: 50c or 2 Tablespoons

As you probably know... most people put more than 2 Tablespoons of salad dressing on their salads... so the lower the calories in your salad dressing the better...


My favorite salad dressings are:

Newman's Own LITE Balsamic Vinaigrette
and
Ken's Lite Northern Italian with Basil & Romano...

I have a small rubbermaid container... looks similar to a salt shaker with a pop-top... that I fill with diet salad dressing when ever we go out to eat... I order a fancy salad with no salad dressing (if it's a southwestern style salad I order some salsa on the side)... and then use my own salad dressing to cut the calories considerably!

If you're hitting the salad bar... leave off the potato salad, macaroni salad and anything made with a dressing... those are extremely high in calories. Remember that restaurant salad dressings are a LOT higher in calories than what's in the grocery store. The restaurants want customers to have a great experience so they make or buy higher quality and better tasting salad dressings. Typically a restaurant salad dressing is around 300 calories per 2 tablespoons!

Hope this helps you with your "diet" resolutions...

Cooking Hints


My ancestors on my mom's side are German-Mennonite.. I was raised Mennonite Brethren. We did not wear the traditional Mennonite garb but our beliefs were very similar.

Every year we went to a large auction-event in Dinuba, California (or that area). Now the event is held at Fresno Pacific College. The funds made at this event went to the Mennonite Relief Fund that donates to disaster relief.

My grandmother was always very involved in the different events. One year she helped with a cookbook. Here are some excerpts from that book!

German Cookbook Hints


Three large stalks of cut-up celery added to about 2 cups of beans will make the beans more easily digested


A lump of sugar added to water when cooking greens helps vegetables retain their fresh color.


Use a little vinegar when cooking cabbage, broccoli, etc to cut down on the odors.


To make extra potatoes extra white when mashed, use a little vinegar or lemon juice.


Peel onions under water to prevent irritation to the eyes.


Fesh lemon juice will remove onion scent from hands.


When boiling eggs, add a few drops of vinegar to the water to prevent cracked or thn shelled eggs from boiling out.


Marinating in a plastic bag is a cinch. It's easy to turn the meat and cleanup is to toss the bag. Crumbing and flower dredging can be done in paper or plastic and tossed too!

San Antonio



My husband and I love to travel. We have been to Europe and on several cruises but now we are into seeing fun sites in the good ole' USA... A sight that was HIGH on my tick off list was San Antonio.

Last April I was able to take San Antonio off my list!!

Missouri to San Antonio is quite a hike! We actually drove to OKC and spent the night. We have some close friends who live near OKC and we had dinner with them. We left early the next morning and headed down to San Antonio.

There are a lot of outlet malls in Texas and we stopped at most of them! :-)

We finally arrived and checked into our hotel which was located right on the Riverwalk. The first night we went to dinner at Las Margaritas. We learned about borrachos beans. HEAVENLY!! Then we went to the festival and partied the night away...

The next day we went to the Alamo and went shopping. Then went to eat with a friend and her son. We had a wonderful time!

Our last day we went on a Riverwalk boat tour. Very fun tour!

I would definitely recommend visiting San Antonio.

Holiday Hot Spiced Tea


Every year around the holidays my mom makes her special spiced tea. Of course we all love it and look forward to the special time of the year when she will make another batch. Once the batch is made it's easy to keep making another cup and another cup...

Here is the recipe!


TANG TEA

1/2 teaspoon ground clove
2 1/2 cup Tang
3/4 cup instant tea
1 teaspoon cinnamon
dash salt
(optional) 1 1/4 cup sugar.

Mix all dry ingredients together and store in a jar...

Mix to taste in cup.

Add pineapple juice to taste!