That's What She Said...: Its winter here...

I have decided to make some Chili and cornbread... it struck my fancy. I may not be Betty Crocker herself but as my crocpot of chili is simmering my house is filled with the LOVELY smell of the stewing meat and beans. I can hardly resist opening the lid, although good crocpot chefs know that you must refrain. And while my cornbread isn't exactly homemade I know it will be delicious, as long as I listen to my timer, which has a bad habit of stopping at 6 minutes causing my food to be burnt!

I had a million things in my head that I was going to sit here and write but they have all gone. Distractions have pulled them from my skull, my thoughts are still floating around in the air somewhere I'm sure but I have a hard time grasping them.

I think I need a mind strainer something that only lets a certain amount of thoughts in or out of my head at any given time. When 10 trillion thoughts all bombard my head at the same moment it is quite overwhelming.

So for now I will stick to cooking, I have 2 minutes left on my chili timer and ... let me check the other timer... and 4, yes 4 minutes left on my cornbread. It smells divine.

Cornbread always reminds me of my Grandpa. My mom's dad was filled with delightful stories and I have very fond memories of times spent with him. At this moment only one memory sticks out. Whenever we would go to Hometown Buffet- a favorite of his, the best part was DESSERT! I would get more Ice Cream than I could possibly handle and he would say, "your eyes are bigger than your stomach" or "You have to eat all you take" or something along those lines, but for him nothing could beat Peach Cobbler, and if they were out of that, nothing could beat a glass of whole milk with a piece of cornbread stuffed inside. This fine delicacy turns into an almost puddin' texture and must be eaten witha spoon. It always grossed me out, maybe tonight I'll try it myself, but with 1% milk, not whole :) (The picture is of my mom and my Grandpa several years ago, actually it may have been before my birth!)

I've reached a crisis, I told you all I was baking cornbread, I failed to mention that I have 3 baking pans in my house, a cookie sheet and some thing that resembles a cake pan but only 1/2 sized recipes will fit and a glass casserole pan, great for making scalloped potatoes. I chose the glass casserole pan and while my cornbread now has a beautiful crust on it, it is raw inside... I put it in for another few minutes, hopefully it will work, the timer has gone off again. time to check. Oh good, it is totally ok, my overn apparently just takes a bit longer!