Or cooking with Victoria’s mom.
My mom has been staying with us a week and I’m certain I have gained a pound or two. Keifel has decided he has to stay married to me now because my cooking will only improve with age.
For those who were salivating over my last entry at the victoria blog, I present my mom’s cornbread and the chuckwagon chocolate cake suitable for vegans.
Sweet Doris’s Cornbread
2 cups Three Rivers self-rising cornmeal mix*
1 1/4- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/4 vegetable oil
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup sugar
Preaheat a heavy cast-iron skillet with the 1/4 vegetable oil in a 425 degree F oven. While teh pan and oil are heating, mix all remaining ingredients in a heat proof bowl. Remove skillet and carefully pour hot oil into batter, mix thoroughly and pour back into skillet. Return skillet to oven and bake about 20 mins. or until the top is golden brown
* When I lived out West I couldn’t get Three Rivers so I devised this improvisation:
In place of the 2 cups of corn meal mix, use:
1 1/4 cup stone ground yellow or white cornmeal
3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Follow directions as above.
Chuckwagon Chocolate Cake
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoons salt
2/3 cup vegetable oil (canola or safflower)
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 cups cold, strong coffee
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Put flour, 1 1/2 cups sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt into an ungreased 13x9x2″ metal baking pan. Stir with a fork to mix; form three wells in the flour mixture. Pour the oil into one, the vinegar into one and the vanilla into the last. Pour the cold coffee over all this and stir with a fork until well-blended. Do not beat. (Doesn’t need and it will make a terrible mess if you try to in the pan.) Combine remaining sugar and the cinnamon and sprinkle over batter. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 35-40 minutes. The cake will have an almost leathery look on the top.
Serve with vanilla ice cream or canned peach halves. Also you can leave the cinnamon and sugar off and glaze or frost the cake.
Bon appetit. And pray that Keifel and I don’t go into shock from having to cook for ourselves the rest of the week.
