cornbread – will garden for cake

pumpkin cornbread; pair it with chili

Published on October 29, 2013November 18, 2014 by alisahuntsmanLeave a comment

the change in season took me by surprise. funny how that happens. one day it is warm, actually a bit hot and then in the blink of an eye, it is cold and frosty. chili seemed like the perfect solution for a dreary fall day. in our house, it isn’t a proper bowl of chili unless there is a pan of cornbread on the table.

lurking in the fridge was an open container of pumpkin puree leftover from something i baked. the idea of adding pumpkin to the cornbread recipe seemed natural to me. it would add a little flavor, a little moisture and of course, some additional nutrition and fiber. what i wasn’t expecting, that gorgeous golden color. especially since i only added 1/3 cup of the puree to the recipe.

and, dinner is served…

to make the cornbread, i turned to my favorite cornbread recipe, it can be found on the albers website by following this link. although i followed the recipe, i did make a few changes. first, i reduced the sugar to 3 tablespoons because i did not want it to be sweet. then i substituted and equal portion of buttermilk for the milk and finally, i added 1/3 cup of pumpkin puree by whisking it with the other wet ingredients. by baking it in a 9″ round pan rather than the 8″ square called for in the recipe and the addition of the pumpkin did increase the baking time a bit, i had to check it for doneness by inserting a cake tester in the center. it came out clean around the 30 minute mark in my oven. and just a note for the leftovers, cornbread makes nice toast! i cut wedges in half, horizontally and toasted them in the broiler. they were tasty with a little butter.

in the garden with cake and the first lady of tennessee; blackberry cornbread buckle

Published on August 1, 2013November 18, 2014 by alisahuntsman1 Comment

so many things say summer, but few do it as well as freshly picked blackberries. in the south, blackberries aren’t hard to find. they grow wild in urban areas as well as rural. luckily for me, i work in a demonstration garden that has several large bushes. on one warm sunday morning, i picked 6 pounds of them.

and just as you would expect, there is no shortage of recipes to use blackberries in. my first task was to cook up a batch of jam. it was easy to do and it only required two ingredients; blackberries and sugar. i kept a few back to use in cakes and the like and i am glad i did. on a recent morning, i had the opportunity to show off the demonstration garden to the first lady of tennessee.

mrs. haslam is busy with the installation of an heirloom vegetable, herb and cutting garden at the executive residence in nashville. she came out to the demo garden to learn about alternative methods of planting and to see the many plants suitable for our area. in this photo, i am explaining the keyhole garden, our latest experiment in the garden.

we toured the herb garden which was constructed completely out of found objects and the beds were filled using a lasagna gardening technique.

our herb garden has many culinary, medicinal and pot pourri herbs as well as a few edible flowers and some herbal tea plants.

the garden is a labor of love (or insanity-you choose) for me. it is where i go every sunday morning. the chance to share it with others is an honor.

my two favorite gardeners were with me, shirley (not in the photo) and ty ann. without either of them and their hard work, the garden would not be nearly as beautiful as it is. and where ty ann goes, so goes bella, the garden mascot!

and any morning spent in the garden means cake. in honor of the first lady’s visit, i baked up a blackberry cornbread buckle with some of the berries i had picked. to see the full recipe, visit food52.com

ain’t that just peachy? ttb 7/16

Published on July 16, 2010November 18, 2014 by alisahuntsmanLeave a comment

i have spent my week looking at a large basket of peaches and many little baskets of blueberries. the peaches are starting to ripen-perfectly. slightly firm but bite into one and the juices run. they are also full of flavor and hard to resist even if they are a bit on the fuzzy side. earlier in the week i made a peach brown betty with biscuits but today, i made one of my favorite recipes from the book, blueberry peach cornbread buckle. the cake goes together like so: