Frozen Corn!

Finding corny food inspirations during the Winter

Happy 2022 Everyone!

I hope y’all are staying healthy and finding things to keep you hopeful, happy and moving forward. It’s impossible to know what this year will bring, so I am just focusing on making good food and taking care of myself and those I love, as best I can!

Fresh, fresh, fresh!

When I’m cooking, I prefer to use ingredients that are local and in season as much as I can. This allows me to have the freshest, best food while also supporting my local farmers and producers, and my local economy. As I get to know the local growers and producers, they also share insider information which helps me get even better, fresher stuff. Believe me, it’s worth it to make friends with the people who produce your food!

This time of year is always a bit challenging. I live in Kentucky, and though a lot of people think of Kentucky as being part of the warmer South, we still get a full 4 seasons, including ice and snow in the Winter. So it’s a lot more difficult to get local ingredients for these cold months of the year.

However, I am amazed by what local farmers are able to produce by growing in greenhouses. I am still able to get local kale, carrots, radishes, apples, and many other things. I am also amazed and delighted that those same farmers come to the outdoor markets, even when it’s extremely cold outside.

I always encourage people to support and thank their local farmers! They provide excellent fresh, nutritious food that doesn’t have to be shipped across the country or the world!

Orange appeal

However, this time of year, I also crave something that’s in season, but not in Kentucky. Citrus fruits! I love citrus, and even though it’s not locally grown, I enjoy as much of it as I can. I love all citrus, from lemons and limes to oranges and calamondins. I especially enjoy fresh orange juice, and using citrus in baking and cooking.

I ordered a case of oranges from Pearson Ranch have been using oranges in many different ways this month, from eating them whole and juicing them, to making mulled wine, marmalade, orange biscuits…and yes, orange cornbread!!

I had never had orange cornbread before, so I thought it was worth a try! I wasn’t sure exactly how to get the orange flavor in the cornbread, but I decided to soak the zest (thin outer layer of peel) in the buttermilk as it was warming up. I decided to bake them in a muffin tin, so I sprinkled some candied orange peel on the top of the muffins before baking them. They were very tasty!!

I based this particular cornbread recipe off a great corn muffin recipe by the Grande Doyenne of southern cooking, Edna Lewis. If you aren’t familiar with Chef Edna Lewis, you really, really need to check out some of her books. She is an absolute legend who had a long career and knew how to make amazing food, and luckily, she wrote down so many of her recipes for us to enjoy as well!

The month of February is Black History Month, and I am trying to expand my culinary universe and increase my cultural awareness by reading more cookbooks by Black chefs. If you have ones to suggest, please share them in the comments!

The Grind

If you read my newsletter back in November, you may recall that I was drying some flint corn in hopes of grinding my own cornmeal. The flint corn (also known as “field” corn, Indian corn, and by many other names) is very hard. It is not the kind of corn you throw on the grill in the summertime and then eat off the cob. It is mainly used for animal feed, and to make cornmeal, corn flour, and cornstarch.

I got the flint corn this past Autumn from a local farmer. Even when I just bought it, it seemed totally dry already, so I attempted to grind it right after taking it off the cob. However, it has a lot of moisture hidden inside the kernels, and when I tried to grind it, the moisture turned it into a paste that gummed up my friend’s grinder.

I have been letting the corn dry for the last couple of months, and just tried grinding it again. It worked this time! I actually ground my own cornmeal. Amazing. It doesn’t look as fine and uniform as they kind you can buy at the store, but in other ways it’s so much better.

Immediately after grinding the cornmeal, I mixed up a cornbread and popped it in the oven. It was delicious! It doesn’t get an fresher than locally-grown corn that I ground myself into cornmeal and then used to bake into cornbread!

It was super YUMMMMY!

Corny Joke of the Month

Two corns in a field were telling each other corny jokes.

They were the laughing stalks of the field!

I hope y’all have a delightful February! As always, I would love to hear your cornbread stories and your feedback on this newsletter!