Posted on 10/01/2025 5:23:58 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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You didn’t ask me 😉, but I have had good luck with Pioneer Woman’s skillet corn bread:
https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/food-cooking/recipes/a9486/skillet-cornbread/
As she says, it’s not sweet (like Jiffy cornbread mix), but good with lots of butter. If you like sweet, a drizzle of honey is ‘just right’ IMO.
Thanks! I have a few favorites from her that I make on a regular basis. :)
Cornbread is one of the few things I use a prepackaged mix for. I’ve been using Martha White Sweet Yellow cornbread mix and follow the directions. They have never let me down, as my scratch recipe isn’t as reliable.
This is what the package looks like.
https://www.amazon.com/Martha-White-Cornbread-7-Ounce-Packages/dp/B0045T6TQ6/
Our guests are bringing the cornbread tonight, as the wife is gluten free, and I try to accommodate her, but she offered, so I accepted. I’m guessing she will use Krusteaz gluten free, because she has made their brownies before which are very good!
Pete., the pumpkins in the field picture is gorgeous! The other picture is good too, but with the sky, mist & light almost glowing on the pumpkins,the field picture is my favorite.
Our electric co-op Nov-Dec magazine had drink recipes.....the Eggnog Punch
caught my eye & hot chocolate is good anytime, especially one this decadent.
Thx for the recipes.
Regarding Candy Corn!
The "Bee" The Nightmare Is Over: Supreme Court Outlaws Candy Corn!
‘Krusteaz’
They make a Cinnamon Coffee Cake mix that is out of this world!
I’ll look for the Martha White - sounds familiar. Jiffy brand has proven to be just awful.
WOW! Those look SO good!
In another life, I owned a big old Victorian; the upstairs was rented to a single Mom and her toddler daughter. Mom went on to have a long and happy marriage, two more kids and Daughter owns her own retail shop in the same town, also married and with a son.
Renter Mom made the BEST eggnog from scratch with some Sherry added and a REAL Meringue on top. It was always the highlight of our shared Christmas Season. :)
P.S. My Mom receive one of these ‘recipe booklets’ from her Gas & Electric company years ago and we have made quite a number of their recipes to rave reviews.
The cookie recipes are fantastic and are always in the gift boxes for friends and neighbors.
I think we talked about those ‘Pistachio Thumbprint Cookies’ before? ;)
Equal parts Candy Corn and shelled Salted Peanuts in a dish. Tastes like a ‘Payday’ candy bar.
You can thank me later. :)
We made the cinnamon coffee cake at the beach to rave reviews! That cake was gone before you could say PDQ!
The Halloween chili fest/candy giveaway was a decent success, though we had fewer kids this time. I wonder if there is another neighborhood that got swamped this year instead of ours.
Not sure if I mentioned this, but I added water bottles and juice boxes to the giveaway options, and LOTS of kids happily took them, along with the sweets. We moved our firepit stove to the driveway, and had fun visiting with the neighbors who were in their driveways, too. It felt like old school fun.
Oh, Jiffy used to be decent back in the day. I think they’ve changed their recipe. I haven’t used their cornbread mix in at least a dozen years.
Variation:
Candy Corn and pistachios eaten together.......mmmmmm.
Almost forgot! I finally filtered the lemon verbena leaves from the infused vodka today! We sampled it before the trick or treaters started showing up. It was PRETTY TASTY if I do say so myself! A great reminder of that lovely aroma whenever I passed by it. I will offer it to those who are interested, but I won’t be trying to twist anyone’s arms if they’re reluctant. It’s precious liquid gold.
It is a bit dream like I suppose, with the mist hanging over the field like that. (A lot of pumpkins in that field!)
A contrast with the clean well ordered Red Barn and sale pumpkins photo! Would love to have that barn but imagine the costs for the upkeep!
I will remain on the side of the imaginary SC on corn candy however.....
Titled "The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze, South Riverside Avenue"
Is there a particular ‘recipe’ you used? I had a vigorous lemon verbena this growing season & did not make use of it. I need to get a couple of bottles of vodka for making homemade vanilla (just ran out of a big batch from 2-3 years ago) & I should put lemon verbena liquor on my ‘to make’ list as well. There is a really ‘cool’ nursery across the mountain (great cats & plants) & they had lemon verbena - only place I saw it. I will definitely be there next Spring to buy herbs.
As an afterthought, I added in a couple of Hambob Molasses Cookies I'd made. I got a text (followed by a note) from Pastor thanking us for the gifts & telling me that molasses cookies were her husband's very favorite. He told her they were "better than his mother's" (wow!) & could they have the recipe please? Of course, I sent her the recipe link right away .... she was still talking about those cookies last Sunday :-)
I originally got the recipe out of a Parade magazine a long time ago & recently found it again after consolidating some old recipes on the app I now use. There is a link as well - I have posted the link before, but here is the recipe cut out from Parade & the link again after the great review from Pastor's hubby:
*Hebrews 6:10 (NIV) God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.
Similar recipe in my family, too! Great Aunt Hazel was family-famous for them. They are 100% addictive and should go into the rotation this year. Thanks!
Each recipe is a little different. I didn’t have as many leaves as I had hoped this year, so this time I used 2/3 cup packed lemon verbena leaves, instead of 1 cup (and some recipes call for more). I added 2 or 3 strips of lemon zest, and each was maybe 1/2” - 3/4” wide x 2+” long from the lemon. I used quart size Mason jars for infusing. 750 ml Grey Goose vodka (Costco had a huge bottle of that for a great price, so I snagged that and used most of that.)
I set the jars (2) in a sunny spot, and gently turned them a time or two every day. At the 2 week period I added 1 cup of sugar and gently swirled that in. Repeated the turning over and mixing for another week, then tasted it. I felt it needed a tad more sugar, so I added another 1/4 cup to the jars. Swirled and turned the jars daily, and it was probably ready to harvest, but we were heading out of town, so I figured another week or so of infusing wouldn’t hurt. It didn’t seem to. It may have even improved the flavor.
I started on Sept. 20, and harvested on Oct. 31, so pretty much 6 weeks for the process, plus whatever the growing season was. It is just sweet enough and not too sweet, which I like. It is mildly herbal and mildly lemon. We did sips last night by the outdoor fire, and that was lovely.
Note to self: the lemon verbena plant continued to push out new leaves when I did the harvest in September. Before I left for the beach trip, I dug up that plant and repotted it so I can try to overwinter it. I hope this works! That plant is already getting to be the size of a medium house plant. It would be nice to have enough to harvest early in the summer, and then another batch later in the fall.
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