Different

Although most of us like to have our moment, or time to shine, to be special, in general we all want to fit in with others, to be part of a family, of a group, of our community.

To be different is often considered to be a trial or hardship given the almost universal desire to blend. When I was growing up my parents encourage us to be different. Maybe that was their way of dealing with having a large family when the suburban norm of the time was 2.5 children, not 8. The reason doesn't really matter and most of the time I'm grateful to them for encouraging us to be ourselves, to find our own path and not try to be like the latest flavor or fad. The only downside is that most of the time one also feels just a beat out of step with the rest. I did that when I tried jazzercise and ended up turning the wrong way and bumping into the other dancers. Maybe that's one reason why slow weight training appeals to me. The only one I'm being different than is myself if I'm able to do better than last time.

Today is all about being different. Those who were born or married or died on a February 29th Leap day won't have a repeat for four years instead of the usual one year...imagine how that feels!

To celebrate the oddness of the day, I created an odd recipe. Part cornbread, part spoonbread, part fish loaf this one is tasty but might not get repeated for four years, either.

A piece of leftover grilled salmon caught my eye yesterday at lunchtime. We had enjoyed the salmon the previous night for dinner and the leftover piece was fairly small. For some reason I thought that it would go well with corn and spinach and first considered an omelet but then decided to go with cornbread. I usually keep a box of cornbread mix in the pantry that makes just 6 muffins, so it is basically half a batch. You mix the contents of the box with one egg and one third cup of milk or water and bake it at 400 degrees F.

The enhanced variation of cornbread came together quickly. I increased the egg to two and the milk to 3/4 cup which increased the moisture...a bit too much as it turned out, at least for a loaf pan. I baked it at a lower temperature and in a loaf pan. Once the mixture had baked for fifteen minutes I checked the interior...still a batter...so I dug in with a large spoon and turned the top toward the sides to let the interior cook more quickly. Perhaps I should have just let it bake at 400...I'll try that next time.

It made a delicious savory lunch.


The corn muffin part was moist and flavorful and a bit like a spoonbread, the salmon pieces warm and delicious. The spinach was just barely cooked and still bright green. Very enjoyable and there was enough left over at lunch to serve two of us a nice portion at dinner last night. Good thing I enjoy salmon and never tire of it. Sweetie added some barbeque sauce to his dinner portion and liked the result.

For those of you who are interested in what is going on here at the farm, Sweetie finished burying the last of the conduit with the fence wire. I went to the doctor and was told that I might have a virus as well as the hay fever and to avoid fresh grass, so no helping Sweetie.

The seedlings of zucchini, chard and tomato are getting bigger in the sunspace. The daffodils are blooming and tulips will be soon.

Sweetie made great progress yesterday in PT, being able to push his shoulder back and open up his diaphragm for better breathing. His overhead reach has improved, too. Better results at racquetball today, too.

Salmon and Spinach Cornbread
Serves 3-4

1 package corn muffin or bread mix for 6 corn muffins
Note: If you only have corn bread or muffin mix for 12 muffins, make half the mix into muffins and use half for this recipe.
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk (I used 2%)
1/8 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground if possible
1 cup fresh spinach leaves, stems removed, chopped
1 cup flaked cooked salmon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a loaf pan. Set aside.

In a large bowl combine the corn muffin mix, eggs, milk and pepper. Stir just until dry ingredients are mixed wet. Pour 1/3 of the batter into the prepared pan.
Sprinkle half the spinach and half the salmon over the mixture in the pan.


Pour in another 1/3 of the muffin mixture and repeat layering with the remainder of the spinach and salmon.

Pour remaining muffin mixture over the spinach and salmon and poke down any spinach or salmon floating to the top. Smooth the top and place pan into preheated oven.

Set timer for 15 minutes. At that time check interior. If middle is still batter, scoop the top off, using a large spoon, and set it damp side up to the side of the loaf pan, exposing the batter in the middle.

Continue cooking for 5 -10 minutes more until the batter towards the center holds its shape. Place the top pieces down to re-establish the loaf shape. Let cool 3-4 minutes on a rack.

Serve warm. Best served by scooping from the pan with a large spoon.

Babes Broa for Bread Baking Day 2010

Soft and Savory Broa

The October bread for the Bread Baking Babes is a yeasted corn bread. Kitchen of the Month Blogging from OUR Kitchen hostess Elizabeth piqued my interest by describing the Portuguese Broa that she remembered having when she first moved to her new neighborhood years ago. In hopes of making it as authentic I tried to hunt down white corn flour and meal. Unfortunately all I could find was yellow corn flour and we had some polenta style corn meal in the pantry, so I went with that.

Right from the start it seemed like I was baking a different bread than Elizabeth had, not even including the white vs yellow corn component. Polenta is usually cooked in three times the water as the volume of the corn meal. The recipe called for equal amounts so I ended up using my hands to combine the cooled polenta with the whole wheat and yellow corn flours, plus the amount of white flour we were to start with. When I started mixing that with the ½ cup of water that I’d used to reactivate the dry yeast it was clear that this was a very stiff, not slack, dough…the exact opposite of what Elizabeth had described.

What to do? Well I decided to go for broke and added and additional ½ cup of water, kneading everything together on the board using my hands and the bench scraper. I was having so much fun that I neglected to find out when to add the salt, so I ended up with no slat in the dough so I glazed the finished loaf and sprinkled it with sea salt so that there was some salt on the bread if not in it. I followed along with the recipe until the part where you allow it to rise for 1 – 4 hours. By then (I started the bread after work) I was ready to go to bed. The dough, plate on top, was retarded in the fridge overnight.

After that, except for the egg glaze and sea salt, I followed the recipe and ended up with a moist loaf with a nice salty, crunchy crust, and plenty of corn flavor. The crumb included some texture from the polenta and it was fairly loose without any major air holes, and the loaf was a bit on the flat side but we liked that. Sweetie and Straightshooter really seemed to enjoy it and half the loaf was gone pretty quickly even though we had sliced it thinly. I served it with chili and a salad when it was barely warm. The next day thin slices went into the toaster and came out even crunchier and more delicious, if that is possible.

Thank you Elizabeth, for choosing a bread I might never have tried to make. Very glad that this was our Babes October challenge! Now, about World Bread Day...see below.

If you would like to be a Buddy, bake this flavorful moist bread and post about it by October 29th and let Elizabeth know so that she can send you her badge. Head on around to the other Babes’ sites and you will probably see this bread as it is supposed to be made, not my poor attempt. The links are on the sidebar toward the top.

Last, but not least, next month we will be asking for suggestions for the third Anniversary celebration bread. Somehow between Thanksgiving, Harvest, Christmas and New Years the Babes will figure out the bread for February and we are counting on our friends and Buddies and lurkers to challenge us with great bread ideas. Check back around the middle of November for specifics on how to get those ideas to the Babes. I know, dear reader, that you will surprise and delight us!

This bread goes over to Susan at Wild Yeast for the weekly Yeastspotting event, plus it is my bread for World Bread Day…which, by happy coincidence, is TODAY!..., hosted by Zorra at 1x umruhrem bitte. Last year there was a great deal of participation in World Bread Day so it is likely that this year it will be even more popular as people around the globe reconnect with the older rhythms and rituals that connect us, like baking bread, that are now being recognized as an essential part of our humanity. HAPPY BREAD BAKING DAY!

Head over HERE for Yeastspotting and HERE for World Bread Day and HERE for the Broa recipe.

Mellow Yellow

I usually use boxed corn muffin mix when I make corn bread. Sad, but true. It's not that I don't have recipes, but the boxed stuff goes together so quickly and with little mess. Even so, there are so many interesting corn bread recipes that when I read about the Taste of Yellow for LIVESTRONG event, hosted by Barbara at Winos and Foodies, I decided that my yellow food would be corn bread. Not just any cornbread, of course, but Very Corny Corn Bread. As you can see from the photo, it finishes up a very mellow yellow inside, with extra zip from the corn kernels.

LIVESTRONG Day is the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s (LAF) grassroots advocacy initiative to unify people affected by cancer and to raise awareness about cancer survivorship issues on a national level and in local communities across the country. LIVESTRONG Day 2007 will occur on Wednesday, May 16.

My mom is a cancer survivor, more than 5 years after being diagnosed with lung cancer. Her doctor, a very uptight fellow, danced when she survived 3 years. His lung cancer patients don't usually survive that long. I also have two people in my family/friends circle going through diagnosis procedures right now to see if they have cancer, or how extensive it is. This terrible disease affects so many. I am blogging for the event to raise awareness of cancer. However if you wish to make a donation you can do so by visiting the Lance Armstrong Foundation donation page.

This cornbread is almost like a spoonbread. The corn meal is stone ground whole meal so it has a nice rough texture, but since the recipe also uses creamed corn, butter, honey, egg substitute, and buttermilk, this bread has moisture to spare. The crust is crisp and the interior is soft and tender with whole kernels of corn. It was hard to not eat the whole pan of corn bread at one sitting.

I based this recipe on one in the book Bake Sale Cooking by Sally Sampson. I substituted buttermilk for a cup of the milk, added a little baking soda, and whisked the butter and honey together, but otherwise followed her recipe, without the cheese. The recipe below is how I made it. Hope you find time to make this, too, in honor of cancer survivors like my mom.

Very Corny Corn Bread

Serves 9

1 1/4 cups stone-ground yellow cornmeal

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons honey

1/4 cup (1/2 stick or 4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup low fat milk

1 cup creamed corn (canned)

2 eggs, at room temperature or 1/2 cup egg substitute

Preheat the ovent to 375 degrees F.

Lightly butter and flour an 8 inch x 8 inch pan.

Place the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt ina medium sized mixing bowl.

In another bowl, place the honey, then whisk in the melted butter until it is fully incorporated.Add the buttermilk, milk, creamed corn, and eggs or egg substitute. Mix well.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and blend quickly using as few strokes as possible. Immediately pour into the prepared pan and place in the preheated oven.

Bake until firm to the touch and light gold on the edges, about 30 minutes. Cut into squares and serve while still warm.