From The Tee-Tiny Experimental Kitchen- Succotash with Buttermilk and Ham

If there is any dish I remember from my youth with horror it would be succotash. I do not remember when I first met it, though the hospital cafeteria at the old Mary Hitchcock would be a good bet.
Awful, awful, and more awful.

Yet this past Friday I bought a pound bag of fresh Tennessee grown lima beans at the farmer's market at the Methodist Church on Old Harding Pike.

What a difference forty years can make in our perspective!

I boiled the beans till tender in chicken broth. I sauteed a large white onion in a mixture of 1/3 stick butter and a heaping tablespoon of lard until the onion was tender and sweet. I added the drained beans and a 15 oz can of creamed corn( I did not have fresh or canned plain corn kernels). I added a little sea salt to taste, then poured in 1/3 cup of buttermilk. After all why bore your taste buds with plain cream when you can wake them up with buttermilk! Then I tossed in a cup of diced up fully cooked honey ham.

Oh what a happy Thanksgiving side dish this would be, served up in a beautiful Hall pottery bowl!

Delicious.

I am certain frozen lima beans would work, and that plain corn kernels would be acceptable, but I think the creamed corn adds something special-

Portabello Quiche

Despite its rather funereal appearance, this is a delicious quiche. I made it yesterday with a pound of half priced Manager's Specials Portabello mushrooms from Kroger. I reserved four thin sliced mushrooms for the top, then put the rest into the food processor, where I chopped them finely.

Then I mixed them with a cup of shredded Gruyere cheese, five eggs, and a third of a cup of cream. I also added a bit of salt to taste. I put them into a pie shell I had blind baked for 12 minutes , then baked the quiche at 350 for around 50 minutes. And as the observant will see, I did decorate with a few slice tomatoes prior to baking.

 I have been reluctant to post many recipes on the site lately because I am ambivalent about Internet recipes. I am sad that people are abandoning cookbooks for recipes of dubious provenance posted by people who may or may not know what they are doing.

As an example, I will cite instructions for making risotto that called for first browning the rice!

Marcella Hazan would weep

Use cookbooks people. Do not abandon cookbooks-

Autumn Garden Scenes- Nashville

Here are a few photos of the garden in West Meade that I take care of.  These were taken this morning-

A lovely, clear September day today, and what a joy it was to be outside!

Back From Hiatus

Miss Betsy is back from a much needed break. To celebrate I have composed a bit of light verse foolishness.

One of the younger nurses at the Little Big House once told me the story of an elderly prisoner who became depressed when his pet died. Now pets are hard to come by in prison, but this man had found one. Now you and I might befriend a cat, dog, or rabbit, but prisoners must be creative. Here is the story of an inmate named Denny-


The night that Denny's cockroach died

The mourners brought the wine.

They made it in a hidden still

that the guards would never find..




A matchbox was the coffin.

A Band Aid was the shroud.

And Denny gave the eulogy

To a large, felonious crowd.



"He was my friend for thirty days.

I did not know him long.

But some damn fool came in and sprayed

Now Cockie Roach is gone".


The old man cried for half a week

Till inmates in the house

Assuaged his sadness

By catching him a mouse.








Welcome to Fall and the Autumnal Equinox. May God protect us from any more dew points of 80!