Published by The Woman Activist Fund, Inc.
Copyright © 2002 Anne Morrow Donley

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Spoon bread is a cross between a baking powder biscuit and a pudding.  It is called spoon bread, because when you bake it in one large container, and serve it hot, you dip out individual servings with a spoon.  Silver spoons tarnish when they have long contact with eggs, so remove the silverware to the soapy dishwater once the meal is over.  To make it easier to serve, and to warm up any leftovers, you can heavily grease a large size muffin pan, or several small baking containers, and bake it in those, reducing the baking time accordingly.  Your finished product in the muffin pan will be limp and not firm, but as melt in your mouth as you could ever wish.

I don't know of any way to make a low fat, no cholesterol spoon bread, so save it for a special day!  The basis of it is cornmeal with eggs and butter, served hot with butter available to lavish upon it.  Like the corn bread, you traditionally would use the yellow or the white cornmeal.

Sometimes, we all tend to forget that our recipes are descended from a variety of places.  When my family and I lived in what was then called West Germany, in the ‘70’s, we met many wonderful people, and enjoyed sharing our food at each other’s tables.  A particularly wonderful couple loaned us a piano during our stay in Germany, so that I could teach Timothy, and his friends, how to play the piano.  My family and I wanted to fix an unmistakably South
ern dish to say “thank you” to our friends.  So I made spoon bread.  What a surprise for us all when the man became so joyful and excited he could hardly speak, for it was exactly what his grandmother had always made for him.  My Southern recipe, baked in West Germany, had transported him back to his grandmother’s kitchen in Eastern Europe -- a reminder that even our dearest treasured recipes may have traveled longer roads than we have!

Serving:  8-12
Pan:  greased deep pan or casserole dish; or use greased muffin pan
Baking temperature:  350 to 375° F, pre-heated
Baking time:  15 to 20 minutes for small containers; 45 minutes for large pan
Ingredients:
    1 1/2 cups cornmeal                    1 1/2 cup boiling water
    1 1/3 teaspoon salt                      4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, melted
    1 teaspoon sugar                         2 cups milk or non-fat soy milk
    1 tablespoon baking powder        5 eggs beaten

Mix the dry ingredients.  Pour over the boiling water.  Add in the melted butter.  Mix in the milk.  Mix in the beaten eggs.  Bake for about 45 minutes in a pre-warmed oven, at about 350 to 375° F.  If you use the greased small containers or muffin pans, it will take about 15 to 20 minutes to bake them.  Serve warm from the oven.  For the large casserole dish, use a spoon to dish it out.  If it is a silver spoon, be sure to wash it right after the meal before it tarnishes from the eggs.

If you have used the small containers, take a knife or pancake turner and gently go around the outside edges, freeing it from the pan.  Then tip it over and remove the little spoon bread, which will be limp, not firm.  You can easily refrigerate any that is left over, and later warm it up by putting it on an ungreased cookie sheet in the oven for about five minutes at 350° F.

Having personally gone the gamut from no-fat to macrobiotic to ayurveda to raw to “you name it” styles of cooking, I found this cookbook delightfully simple, commonsense, uncomplicated, unregimented, creating a balance of old and new thought on healthy cooking and living options.

“Keep a sense of humor in your pocket, a song in your heart, and a pound of flour in the freezer.”  Such is the philosophy at Wisteria Acres, a small farm in rural Virginia.

The Wisteria Acres Cookbook has a focus on organic products and a vegetarian bent, as well as a few just for fun recipes such as making your own butter.  Original recipes such as oatmeal cranberry scones and yogurt cheese cake stand beside old fashioned favorites like sweet potato biscuits, and roasted pumpkin seeds.  Edible wild plants and flowers are discussed.

Recognizing that people may avoid or be allergic to some common foods, experimenting with various types of flours, milk and other health options is encouraged.  The simple step-by-step directions and upbeat writing helps build confidence for inexperienced cooks and bakers, while new ways of making old favorites presents challenge and interest for seasoned veterans.

“Always start with good ingredients, a sense of humor, and a willingness to experiment.”

A section is included on important details covering topics like:  fresh and healthy ingredients; ways to reduce sugar, salt, fat, cholesterol; pots and pans; presentation and clean up tips.

“Remember that with your cooking and baking, you are not only supplying tasty items for yourself and others, nurturing them, aiming for healthy minds and bodies, but you also are affecting the environment itself with your work.”