Evil Jim

09:00 pm: Long post about a fast break
Over Labor Day weekend of last year (gads, I can say "last year" already) I drug Colin off to the Evansville Thresheree for a day of reveling in the wonderful world of antiquated farm equipment. It's actually more fun than it sounds, especially if you're a steam buff like me. Imagine an old-fashoned train locomotive up on six-foot metal spoke wheels. That's a heavy-duty tractor from 100 years ago. Now imagine a dozen of them all still in perfect running condition and chugging by so close you can feel the boiler spit on you and the steam mess your hair. These and scores of other different types of outdated equipment feature in the Thresheree which also includes a three story steam powered jackhammer that pounds telephone poles into the ground all weekend. It's loud, it's fun and cheap too.

Anyway, I told you all that so I could tell you this. While there I bought a sack of stone ground cornmeal and another of buckwheat flour. I had it in my head that it would be fun to cook using the old recipes included with the stuff. Well, since I don't cook much complicated stuff I still have most of it in my kitchen cupboard. I've used the buckwheat flour a number of times with good results. It's pretty much the same as regular flour except that it's not bleached and not as fine. The cornmeal on the other hand, I didn't use until just tonite. You see, the recipes called for baking powder and shortening, both of which I'd never been able to find in my local grocer's market. It may have remained unopened in my fridge still were it not for a chance meeting with my mother while shopping yesterday. We chatted a bit about her recent wisdom tooth extraction, upcoming get together to see The Return of the King and the groceries we were buying. I remembered to ask about the two other products and she gladly showed me where they were. Now I know that baking powder does not come in the same type of box as baking soda.

So I told you all that so I could mention that tonight, all by myself, for the first time ever I made homemade, from scratch, old fashioned cornbread! Along with other breakfast fixin's like pancakes, bacon and eggs it made for quite a delicious breakfast.... at, um, eight o'clock this evening. But, being my first official meal of the day (and first food in twelve hours) it still qualified as breakfast and if I get hungry again later this evening (which is doubtful, considering how much I ate) I may have some "lunch."

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