Innovation!

Last week or maybe it was this week, I wrote about the glories of cornbread and purple hull peas.  It remains one of my favorite Southern traditions and I can eat several helpings of both with a bottle of hot sauce, preferably Chipotle Tabasco or Trappey's Red Bull, until I am a bloated old goat.

My dear friend and reader Jenny sent me an email a couple of days ago and suggested that while cornbread and peas eaten together is a fantastic and satisfying meal, why not put the peas in the cornbread?  Well hell I say, why didn't I think of that??

Here is her recipe, with lots of other tasty stuff cooked inside the perennial peasant food of the South.

Purple Hull Pea Cornbread

1 lb. bulk pork sausage (use the HOT sausage for some heat!)
1 onion, chopped
1 cup white cornmeal
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 4-oz. can chopped green chilies, drained
3/4 cup cream-style corn
2 cups grated Cheddar cheese
2 cups purple hull peas, cooked

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a 13-by-9-by-2 inch pan.

Cook sausage and onion in large skillet until sausage is browned. Drain and set aside.

Combine cornmeal, flour, salt, and soda in large bowl.

In another bowl, beat eggs, buttermilk, and oil together. Combine with dry ingredients using a few quick strokes (batter does not need to be blended until smooth.)

Add sausage, onion, chilies, corn, cheese and purple hull peas.

Pour into prepared pan and bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Cool and cut in pieces.

Serves 8 to 12

I don't know about you, but I'm headed straight to Kroger tomorrow with my shopping list!  Thanks Jenny!

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The Midnight Garden. . .

There hasn't been a whole lotta sunshine in my life lately, but the garden still offers it's quiet sanctuary where I can escape from the ghosts which haunt me.

I picked the first of what appears to be THOUSANDS of Cherry 100 tomatoes and they are just as sweet as they look right off the vine.  Bug poo and dirt included.. . .

From the photo below, it won't be long before I am inundated with cherry toms. . .but really, am I complaining?  Just means more cucumber and tomato salad this summer and now that I have three kinds of basil out on the porch, including a spicy purple variety, the salad will be a delightful and fresh way to beat the summer heat.

Here are the larger Celebrity variety that appear to be maturing nicely with no sign of blossom end rot which is the bane of the Southern gardener due to our clayey soils, but this year I see no signs of calcium deficiency.  So. . .yay!

Also, my sweet bell pepper plants are doing quite well as I have struggled with them for four years.  The lack of production and small, irregular sizes of the peppers have been a huge disappointment over the years, but it seems I have the soil conditions just right for good fruit.  Also, I hope to get some pickings before the real summer heat sets in.  All peppers I have ever planted produced more and appeared healthier either early in the season or once the heat has passed in September.

The okra is coming along nicely less than 6 weeks after planting.  I think the soil has never been better for gardening.  Lime, lime and more lime.  And lots of cow poo.

And finally, besides tomatoes, my next favorite garden vegetable, well legume actually, purple hull peas!  Remember what they looked like about a month ago?  Well, TA DA!!

If the insanely large elephant ear on the other side of the house doesn't eat us this year, this out of control goodness probably will, unless we eat it first, of course.

All I need now is my favorite cornbread recipe and the maker who makes it.  Where is my favorite cornbread maker anyway?

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Easy Pickins. . . .

One fact of life:  life will not be stopped.

And such is the case in the garden this evening.  remember the "baby squishes" from last week?  Well, TA DA!

Man, can't wait for some fried squash!

And those tomatoes?  They are coming along nicely too.  The weekend rain sure helped everything and without a doubt I am one happy garden ape.

Here is the Cherry 100 variety. . .

And below are what I think are Better Boy. . .could be Arkansas Traveler, I'll have to check on that.

Lots of good eating ahead folks.  And it's gonna be a toss-up between what I like better, fresh tomatoes or a pot full of purple hull peas.  Ah, the choices!  What do you think?

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