It's that time of the year....

It's that time of the year....

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Another gray November day…

and the temperature is hovering at 39 degrees.  I have been out and about this morning, first to get my hair cut, then out to pay my cable bill.  I had a nice little quarrel with Comcast as they tacked on a visit to my home that was supposed to be covered by the service maintenance plan I have.  Man, I am so unhappy with Comcast that I could spit nails.  My telephone service which is part of Triple Play goes out about once a week for an hour or two, sometimes for a whole afternoon.  When the phone goes out, my internet goes out, then I have to spend anywhere from 15 minutes on upward on my cell phone getting it all straightened out.  Frustrating as the devil!!

Then I took the ham and beans over to my daughter’s house.  For my friends in England and Australia that wanted to know about this dish, it is not like your pease porridge that you have.  It is made with Great Northern Beans.  After they have soaked (either in boiling water for 30 minutes, or overnight in cold water) you add water and cook them on top of the stove (or in a crockpot) along with some ham or bacon and other seasonings until they are done.  They are best served with hot cornbread.  Any leftover beans can be easily made into baked beans by adding catsup, brown sugar and a bit of mustard and baking for half an hour in a preheated 350 degree oven.

Perfect Homemade Cornbread

 

by Beth Marie in Breads

1 c. sifted flour
1/4 c. sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 c. yellow cornmeal
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 c. milk
1/4 c. shortening

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Mix first 4 ingredients, add cornmeal and cut in shortening (use your electric mixer). Then add milk and eggs, stirring until all is moistened. Let stand for 5 minutes. Pour into greased 9"x9" pan. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.

I hope you are all having a great week.  Be happy!!

Red heart  Beth

12 comments:

  1. I'm kind of glad I haven't bundled up with Charter or anyone. It may cost a tiny bit more but usually don't have to worry about one going out unless we have a complete power failure.
    That's my granddaughters favorite corn bread.

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  2. Comcast has a lousy reputation in the Roanoke area and the news is always running stories about how much trouble people have with it. Back home we had a bundled package from Cox (TV/internet/phone) and we loved it. Here we have the next best thing from Centurylink and I really can't complain, especially since we just switched from DishNetwork to DiectTV. Not only is the picture much clearer but our bill for this month is -$34 because due to over payments for Dish!

    My cornbread recipe is basically the same except I bake it in a cast iron skillet.

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  3. Bingo! Chip said the same thing I was going to say about the cast iron skillet. I LOVE my cast iron and have a number of pieces I use, like different sized skillets, dutch ovens, fryers, can't be beat. So now, dear Beth, I not only want the beans but I want cornbread to go with it. I'll be 300 lbs in a month if I give in to all of this :D
    Oh, and I couldn't stand Comcast for the same reasons as yours. I'm on FIOS now and love it. My problem today with IE is not due to them, it's a glitch all on it's own. xoxoxo

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  4. Gotta pass on this one as here in Uk our utilites provider's have different names but, in your recipe, what is 'c' on the ingredients. also what's the equivalent cornmeal and shortening please?

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  5. Sorry that you have had a bad times.I don't have problems in here,only sometime cause from storms otherwise pretty good.
    Your recipe is very interesting dish I will get copy and give to my daughter in low too.
    The beans: I don't think we get great northern
    beans may be southern beans LOL!
    I will cook in the cool weathers time.

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  6. So sorry you are having to deal with Comcast. We have the bare minimum of local phone with DSL and we use pay as you go tracphones for long distance an such and have dish network.
    Great recipes!

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  7. Hi Beth,

    It seems all problems with phones and internet at the moment, can understand you being frustrated. Thanks for enlightening me about the beans - Have a good weekend, Hugs - Nita

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  8. I have the same problems as you do with the same ISP. We are trapped..there IS no other service.

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  9. Sure glad we don't have that provider. Since we switched to AT&T dsl, we haven't had one single problem. Knock on wood!

    Love cornbread and anything with cornmeal. Do you have a recipe for cornmeal cookies? I used to buy them at a bakery and they were so good. Crunchy and chewy at the same time. Had walnuts in them too. mmm mmm good.

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  10. Why is it that beans and cornbread seem to taste so good on a gray day? Or any day for that matter.
    We have DSL through the phone company and it works quite well...is rarely out. Could have cable through the phone company, too, but we don't watch TV, so not worth it.
    Have a great weekend!

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  11. I made cornbread one time with about 1/4 c. sugar. It was good but had the texture of cake. We folks down here don't usually make it sweet. I do use yellow cornmeal to cut the white self-rising cornmeal because of the salt. I may try this. I don't mind a little sugar. Besides I can make a small hoe cake by cutting it in half.

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  12. Oh,yeah!Louisiana folk LOVE their beans and cornbread! Most of us eat the beans in a bowl with the cornbread crumbled in (in grape size chunks).Most popular in north Louisiana are pinto beans,great norther beans, and dry lima beans. I always cook my cornbread in a special cast iron skillet that is reserved just for cooking breads.

    Thank you,Beth, for your encouraging words during my daughter's illness and thyroid surgery!It meant so much to me to hear from my new blogger friends!

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