My folks built a cabin in the Stanislaus National Forest and as children, we always enjoyed getting away for a few days at our cabin-in-the-woods.
Later, as we married, we often took our own families up to the cabin many times for a family reunion.
On one ill-fated trip, it was just my husband, me and our four adolescent children. The night prior to our departure for home, it began to snow. It snowed all night, and in the midst of it all, the electricity went out.
The next morning, we realized that we could not possibly leave. The snow-covered dirt road was too steep for our vehicle to traverse, and naturally, we had not brought any snow chains with us.
We decided to make the best of a bad situation and call it an adventure.
At least we wouldn’t starve! My mother kept her cupboard stocked with dry foods, spices and condiments. Dried beans, chili powder, cornmeal, flour, sugar, and powdered milk determined our lunch and dinner.
Cooked oatmeal with a small amount of milk could make a filling breakfast.
The old wood stove which heated the cabin, had a flat top where a tea kettle full of water usually sat. Beyond that, I had never tried to cook with it!
Beans, sorted and washed, went into a sizable cast-iron kettle. Soon we had the makings of chili, flavored by a few pieces of bacon, since we were out of hamburger.
The chili took quite a while to cook, so we played cards, worked puzzles, and read some old magazines. My husband decided to fix cornbread.
Without an oven or electricity, we had to improvise. Since it would fit on top of the stove, out came Mom’s flat frying pan! The cornbread didn’t turn out, but we had invented delicious cornbread pancakes instead; were they ever scrumptious with the beans!
Later that afternoon, a kindly neighbor stopped for a visit and offered to help us get out of there the next day. True to his word, he arrived the next morning with a tow chain and explained the exit plan, which worked like a charm!
While I have never desired to repeat another snowed-in experience, that was a memory I will always treasure. Now we make cornbread pancakes purpose!
For your cornbread pancakes, just use this or your Jiffy mix, and a greased griddle or flat frying pan. Turn when brown, and if you have a bit of butter, coat the top of each cake.
Corn Bread Southern Style
1 ½ cups yellow corn meal
½ cup flour
2 Tablespoons baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 cup milk
Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Add oil, egg and milk and stir just until blended. Pour into an 8 inch square pan, or a 12 muffin tin pan. Bake in a hot oven at 400 degrees 25 minutes or until done. Serve with butter, or when cold crumbled in milk or butter milk.
This post has been entered in: Food on Fridays at http://annkroeker.com/
Do visit her site and gather up some delicious and nutritious recipes.
Later, as we married, we often took our own families up to the cabin many times for a family reunion.
On one ill-fated trip, it was just my husband, me and our four adolescent children. The night prior to our departure for home, it began to snow. It snowed all night, and in the midst of it all, the electricity went out.
The next morning, we realized that we could not possibly leave. The snow-covered dirt road was too steep for our vehicle to traverse, and naturally, we had not brought any snow chains with us.
We decided to make the best of a bad situation and call it an adventure.
At least we wouldn’t starve! My mother kept her cupboard stocked with dry foods, spices and condiments. Dried beans, chili powder, cornmeal, flour, sugar, and powdered milk determined our lunch and dinner.
Cooked oatmeal with a small amount of milk could make a filling breakfast.
The old wood stove which heated the cabin, had a flat top where a tea kettle full of water usually sat. Beyond that, I had never tried to cook with it!
Beans, sorted and washed, went into a sizable cast-iron kettle. Soon we had the makings of chili, flavored by a few pieces of bacon, since we were out of hamburger.
The chili took quite a while to cook, so we played cards, worked puzzles, and read some old magazines. My husband decided to fix cornbread.
Without an oven or electricity, we had to improvise. Since it would fit on top of the stove, out came Mom’s flat frying pan! The cornbread didn’t turn out, but we had invented delicious cornbread pancakes instead; were they ever scrumptious with the beans!
Later that afternoon, a kindly neighbor stopped for a visit and offered to help us get out of there the next day. True to his word, he arrived the next morning with a tow chain and explained the exit plan, which worked like a charm!
While I have never desired to repeat another snowed-in experience, that was a memory I will always treasure. Now we make cornbread pancakes purpose!
For your cornbread pancakes, just use this or your Jiffy mix, and a greased griddle or flat frying pan. Turn when brown, and if you have a bit of butter, coat the top of each cake.
Corn Bread Southern Style
1 ½ cups yellow corn meal
½ cup flour
2 Tablespoons baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 cup milk
Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Add oil, egg and milk and stir just until blended. Pour into an 8 inch square pan, or a 12 muffin tin pan. Bake in a hot oven at 400 degrees 25 minutes or until done. Serve with butter, or when cold crumbled in milk or butter milk.
This post has been entered in: Food on Fridays at http://annkroeker.com/
Do visit her site and gather up some delicious and nutritious recipes.
1 comment:
a real adventure :-)
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