Stew and Cornbread

The rainy days have me hankerin' for some stew and cornbread cakes. My mamma always made the best cornbread. She still does! She'll use the stone-ground cornmeal, which is harder to find now, but it does make a difference.

Stew is another one of those things that you can't really mess up. You put what you like in it, and it only takes a little of each thing which is why the Stone Soup Story works so well. Momma used to save bits of veggies in the freezer and put them in the stew when she made it.

Hearty Beef Stew

I start out with some roast meat cubed up and browned. Place the meat in the crockpot. I sometimes brown some onions and fresh garlic in the same pan. I deglaze the pan by putting in some water and scraping the yummy browned particles from the bottom of the pan. Pour that into your crockpot with the meat. Then I usually put in the following:

• carrots
• potatoes
• green beans
• corn
• cabbage
• celery or celery seed
• oregano
  
• rosemary
• tomato sauce or canned spaghetti sauce
• salt to taste
• black pepper only when you're ready to serve, as black pepper becomes bitter with too much cooking.
  

Other fun things you can add:

• pepperoni or smoked sausage
  
• lentils
• barley
• zucchini
  
• peas

Cook in the crockpot until done.

Cornbread Cakes

• 1 cup cornmeal (hopefully stone-ground)
• 1 cup flour
• 4tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• oil for frying

Mix the dry ingredients and stir in the eggs and milk.
You may put this batter in a hot oiled skillet and bake it normally, or you can make fried corn cakes.

To fry the cakes, place a little oil in a large skillet, electric skillet or griddle pan.
Spoon a large spoonful of the batter onto the hot skillet. Turn when good and browned.