Here's to a smile for my 10 year blogging anniversary!

 Even though I've blogged for twelve years at Across the Way,  it was ten years ago, January 27, 2014, that I first published Dewena's Window. 

We had snow there at Valley View that day and RH caught Katie Belle crossing the barn bridge. 

Here at Home Hill this past week there weren't many paw prints in our beautiful snow. Our dachshunds said No thank you when asked if they wanted to go potty.

But I loved the beautiful and rare 8 1/2 inches of snow we got here. From the first day it started falling, I couldn't keep away from the windows...

until the pond froze solid...

and even when we had to keep faucets dripping and doors under sinks open.

Of course I'm not the one who had to go outside and feed the birds.

Or climb ladders to thaw ice dams or to shovel paths clear.

And you already know that I'm not the one who spent hours outside when the salt truck ran over our water line.

But I loved every minute of our snow and was sad to see the rain melt it yesterday. 

What I did do, always do when it snows, is cook. Not the grilled cheese, tomato soup and Rice Krispie Treats I always made when I had children at home for snow days but what we were craving; salmon mousse with dill sauce for me, pinto beans for RH, and strawberry shortcake for both of us.

The Salmon Mousse was from one of my favorite cookbooks, Helen Exxum's Cookbook, 1987. and it was from The Gordon Lee House in Chickamaugua, Georgia, served at charity fundraisers with celebrity guests attending. 

You might remember that I'm that rare person who loves anything with gellatin in it, aspics, mousses, jello molds, you name it, if it slides down the throat as smooth as gellato, serve me a bowl. 

Unusual for me, my Christmas decor is 90% packed away now but I've kept out a few things I can't part with yet. Which is better than February 2nd when I usually pack it all away. The china above is one of two patterns I love to use in January and February. 

And here's the pinto beans I fixed, Rancho Gordo's that are the creamiest pinto beans ever.

I soak them overnight in purfied water, in the fridge if I have room, and when I cook them until tender the next day I follow Rancho Gordo's advice and never add anything like vinegar to it, or salt as they toughen the beans. I know some cooks say that vinegar in it solves the problem some people have with gas but Rancho Gordo's advice to that problem is to just eat more beans. 

Normally, my pinto beans have a whole bunch of chopped cilantro added to it but we weren't running to the grocery store on our snow day. I do add a bottle of Guiness Stout to mine after the beans are tender and lime juice, chicken or beef broth, olive oil, bay leaf, cumin, thyme, salt and pepper. And sometimes a ham bone goes in the pot after the beans are tender when I have one in the freezer. 

No cornbread with our beans this night because I had my buttermilk biscuits as the shortcake for our Florida strawberries.

Thankfully I had some heavy cream in the fridge so we had whipped cream with our berries too. 

What's your favorite thing to cook when it snows? Do you ever crave something weird like I do? Has anyone ever eaten Salmon Mousse? I bet not, thus no recipe here. 

January is almost over. How has it been for you, on a scale from 1 to 10? Compared to some years, I'll give this one a 10. That's right, a 10. And this is from someone who always used to agree with author Abbie Graham:

I am not wholly committed to January. I do not entirely trust it as a month.

God bless you, dear family and friends. In January and always.  

"When it snows, ain't it thrilling?"

Interruptions

This was not supposed to be my post.

This was…

I had a whole meal planned, bought the ingredients.

A hint: onions on the table and ovenproof bowls?

There was supposed to be a quiche to go with the French Onion Soup.

There was supposed to be an appropriate picture

propped up against the wall to hide the light switch.

The little crystal lamp was supposed to get cleaned.

Little gnats of interruptions happened,

not the big monsters of interruptions that some

of you are going through.

Instead, here is another meal I fixed recently,

a favorite dish I throw together quickly.

It's from Helen Exum's Cookbook, a 1982 favorite.

It's Beef Pilau but is pronounced purlo in the South Carolina low country.

While onions and ground beef are sautéing in one pan, I have mushrooms in another.

I add tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, herbs and seasonings to the meat, beef broth too.

Then I add rice to the mushrooms and stir for a few minutes, then add to the meat mixture.

Helen Exum then bakes hers in the oven until rice is done but I keep it on the burner.

This time we were too hungry to take pictures at supper,

but I fixed a pretty table for one for lunch the next day.

Exum's cookbook is not just a cookbook but a fascinating story about Chattanooga,

Tennessee in the 1970's and early 1980's,

with lots of pictures of Chattanooga families.

Life is not always a bowl of cherries, is it?

There are lots of interruptions, change of plans.

Has life ever interrupted your plans?

Foolish question, right?

A friend of our son's has had his life interrupted;

his and his family's life will never again be the same.

Some of you have had your life interrupted in serious ways.

I'm thinking of you, and I'm remembering that my interruptions

are just little gnats.

Helen Exum's Cremated Ham

Helen Exum's Chattanooga Cook Book and her Helen Exum's Cookbook are two of my favorite cookbooks. Mainly because they tell stories and I don't have much use for a cookbook without stories. I want to know the people behind the recipes and both of these books are full of the interesting lives of the people of Chattanooga, Tennessee. I feel that I know these people after all the years I've read and cooked from Exum's books, and I so much admired the author--slim, attractive mother of six children, newspaper woman.

Exum did not really give a recipe for her Cremated Ham, discovered when her oven malfunctioned and the temperature shot up, unbeknownst to her when cooking for a family birthday celebration. She cooked three hams and the one that was overcooked, cremated, turned out to be the favorite.

The ham dried out and was sweet and tender, "a cross between a regular ham and a country ham." However it happened, it was a gift to me as I had never liked pink ham and loved country ham. I now alternate cooking ham as per package instructions for R.H.'s taste and cremated for me. Here is a picture of mine and it does not look as attractive as the one in the previous post of "Father Tim's ham."Not one good shot did we get and this is the best of the lot.

Really now, it looks like the eyes of a turkey vulture are staring, don't you think? And was I brain dead when I chose the platter? Here is the picture from Jan Karon's cookbook in the previous post, just to remind you of its elegance……….

While I don't have a platter quite as large, or as beautiful, as Karon's, I could have thought to look at some of the platters I do have instead of sticking it on the standby green Fiesta one.

I do have this old Grindley platter……..

If I'd only thought about it. 

So this concludes my third Southern author who wrote about hams cooked to rich mahogany red perfection. Next time, if I dare write about ham one more time, I'll present an author not from the South, in fact she thought that there was entirely too much ham in the South.

Meanwhile, if you like to read stories in your cookbooks, Helen Exum's books will please you. And then there are all of those other good recipes in them, such as:

Smothered Chicken, served on top of rice and fork tender…

Mashed Potato Refrigerator Rolls that will make you want to smack your momma, as a pastor of ours was fond of saying…

Miss Gertrude's White Layer Cake with Caramel Icing, "possibly Chattanooga's favorite dessert" and definitely one of my favorites.

And some day I'm going to take a dozen eggs, separate the yolks from the whites and make two other recipes from Helen Exum's cookbook, the 12 yolks going into a Coffee Cake and the 12 whites going into an Angel Food Cake. 

And I'll dig out my prettiest cake stands for the photographs.