grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Keiser’s Kitchen – a foodie blast from the past

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Fall in the part of the Delta where I grew up meant harvest, football and countdown to the Keiser Halloween Carnival. Friends, it was THE big event in our little town. I’ve written about my reign as Halloween Queen HERE if you’d like to get background information. The thing to know for purposes of this post is that the PTA mothers raised money for the school primarily so their kid and class representative could wear the coveted cardboard glittery crown.

Grace Grits the Halloween Queen

A.BIG.DEAL.

Way back in Nineteen Hundred and Sixty-Nine (gasp), the year I was nominated Queen of the second grade class, our most successful fundraiser was the Keiser cookbook, aptly named Keiser’s Kitchen.

Keiser's Kitchen

This cookbook belongs in a museum showcasing middle twentieth century PTA Mom handiwork.

Way before computers and high speed copy machines and your choice of cool fonts, regular construction paper covers were cut to size, manually stapled and hand lettered using a Bic marker. Someone (probably Momma) collected and typed the recipes on a clunky manual typewriter before running them off on the mimeograph machine in the teacher’s lounge. And I’m sure there was sniffing. Sniffing the mimeograph paper was the reward at the end… (if you don’t know what I mean, you are showing your young age.)

What a labor intensive project compared to today’s technology.

Our copy of Keiser’s Kitchen is priceless.

During the upcoming fall weeks, I plan to recreate these dishes as presented (along with maybe a little story about the Keiser mom who originally submitted the recipe). There are over thirty recipes, so I won’t do all of them because really, how many Jell-o salads does one need? But I plan to make lots of them. I think we need to remember these recipes, taste this simple, basic food lovingly made by our mothers who saw to it that we gathered around the supper table every night for a family meal.

I’ll warn you now, there will be no salted caramel frosting or balsamic anything. But sometimes maybe that’s what we need.

Stay tuned!

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Keiser's Kitchen cookbook

 

 

Savory Rustic Cornbread

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Savory Rustic Cornbread

Momma made cornbread every night for supper. Every Single Night. Throughout the next day, her iron skillet rested on the stovetop beneath a sheet of crumpled aluminum foil. Every time my sister and I walked through the kitchen, which was constantly because the kitchen was the house hub, we nibbled on the leftover cornbread. It was impossible to walk through without taking a bite. Come five o’clock, she replenished the empty skillet with a fresh pan of cornbread hot from the oven.

So I guess you could say I was raised on cornbread.

There’s nothing better than a slice of hot cornbread dripping with melted butter. Plus, as the weather grows cooler, I can survive for days on end with a pot of beans and cornbread. Or a bowl of chili and cornbread. Or beef stew… I could go on.

For hearty bowls of stew and beans, I prefer a serious, rustic, stick-to-my-ribs (and hips) cornbread.

And guess what? I have a secret ingredient… A secret ingredient you can add to your favorite cornbread recipe to make it more savory and rustic-ker. (new word!)

Seasoning Salt.

Burger House Seasoning Salt, to be specific.

Burger House Seasoning Salt

Burger House is a Dallas hamburger tradition, and their seasoning salt is award-winning. If you don’t live in Dallas, you can buy it on-line or substitute your favorite seasoning salt in the same ratio as the regular salt in your recipe. Seasoning salt adds a hint of something extra but not an obvious flavor, know what I mean?

And yes, cornbread should have buttermilk in it too. Right? Right.

buttermilk - a key cornbread ingredient

buttermilk – key ingredient!

 

Savory Rustic Cornbread

Print Recipe
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 1 1/3 cups Cornmeal
  • 1 1/3 cups all-purpose Flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons Burger House Seasoning Salt
  • 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
  • 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
  • 3 large Eggs
  • 1 cup Buttermilk
  • 1/2 cup whole Milk
  • 2 heaping Tablespoons unsalted butter shortening or bacon grease

Method
 

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Whisk together dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
  3. In a medium bowl, beat eggs. Add buttermilk and whole milk. Stir.
  4. Melt butter in iron skillet on stovetop. Stir and coat sides of skillet with butter. Remove from heat.
  5. Pour wet (egg/milk) ingredients into dry ingredients. Add hot butter to mixture and stir. Batter will be lumpy.
  6. Pour batter into greased skillet. Bake 25-30 minutes until brown.
  7. Enjoy!

cornbread with my secret ingredient!

Make Cornbread not War

Rice Pineapple Tropical Pudding

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Before I get to my Rice Pineapple Tropical Pudding recipe, I want to tell you I spent the past few days with a group of phenomenal Arkansas Women Bloggers (and a couple of dudes) at our annual blogger conference. The entire event was outstanding and inspiring, and I’ll no doubt be blabbing about it for a while. Riceland Foods, one of the primary sponsors for our weekend conference, deserves a huge shout-out.

Riceland was sooooo generous, providing gift bags of rice, rice bran oil, recipes and on and on and on. I’m not kidding, y’all. Once I got back home I dedicated an entire pantry shelf to my Riceland goodies. See?

Yes I love rice. Why do you ask?

The fabulous ladies who planned the blogger conference asked me to provide a dish to share with the group, a dish highlighting Riceland Foods. Let me say right off, this Rice Pineapple Tropical Pudding recipe is simple, but making anything in a new (to me), poorly stocked kitchen (we are in the process of moving) was a foodie challenge.

This was my first cooking attempt in the new kitchen.

I only had one pot. Here it is.

cooking in a new kitchen is interesting!

I discovered rather quickly, three of my four burners have one flame temperature. HIGH. Still, I managed to make the rice, and it turned out perfectly.

And when you only have one pot? You wash it out repeatedly because the same pot is used to make whipping cream.

I love my new deep sink!

Can I just tell you how much I love my new deep sink?

I love my new deep sink!

making homemade whipped cream

making homemade whipped cream

 

Rice Pineapple Tropical Pudding

I only had one bowl too. A large wooden salad bowl.

 

Even though I wagged my dish from home and stored it in the Embassy Suites refrigerator to be eaten TWO DAYS LATER(!), lots of folks asked for the recipe. So here it is. Simple, tasty, not too sweet and a great way to support Arkansas farmers. And we do love our Arkansas farmers, right?

Rice Pineapple Pudding in small servings.

Spooned into little cups so everyone could have a taste.

 

Rice Pineapple Pudding

This recipe will serve a crowd depending upon serving size.
Print Recipe
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 6 cups cooked white rice
  • 4 cups chopped pineapple or 32 oz.
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 4 cups heavy whipping cream
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 cups toasted coconut
  • 1 cup slivered almonds or chopped pecans

Method
 

  1. Drain pineapple. Chop into smaller pieces so it isn't too chunky.
  2. Mix pineapple, rice and powdered sugar in a large bowl.
  3. In a separate bowl, beat together cream, vanilla and cinnamon to stiff peak stage.
  4. Fold whipped cream into rice mixture. Refrigerate overnight.
  5. Serve very cold topped with toasted coconut and almonds.

Rice Pineapple Tropical Pudding!

Doesn’t it look yummy?

Grace Grits and Gardening

Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

(Although Riceland Foods sponsored the blogger event, this recipe and opinions are all my own. I was not compensated for this post and made this recipe prior to receipt of all the rice goodies pictured above.)

Please watch this heart-warming Riceland Foods video. You will not be sorry (but have your tissues handy).

Martin Farm Story:

 

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!