There's More to Life Than Knitting!

Join Suna as she stops knitting long enough to ponder her life, share her joys and concerns, and comment on the goings on in the world.
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Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Recipe: Beer Bread


Autographed Wine!
Originally uploaded by sunasak
Yes, this is a photo of wine. It's an autographed bottle of sweet red wine that we bought on our trip to Fredericksburg last weekend (blogging it next, I promise). We met the vintner and he was so sweet--said trying to sell wine in the wine shop was the hardest part of his job. I believed him. What fun to make interesting wines--he makes muscat and other sweet wines, which is different from most. The muscat was lovely, too--none of the usual aftertaste.

Anyway, after finding some of my grandmother's and mother's recipes recently, I decided to share some of them here (mainly so I can find them, ha ha). I made my grandmother's gingerbread recipe last night, which was interesting, because it did not list what size pan to put it in, what temperature to cook it at, or for how long. So it made a big cake that took an hour to cook at 350. Also, she called for "syrup" and I had to assume that meant molasses. Next, time, two smaller pans at 375. But, it was wonderful to see how much Beccano loved it.

Today we have beer bread, though. Because it is shorter. This recipe just came in from a yarn vendor, and I will make it tonight, if we have beer:

Beer Bread

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Measure two and two-thirds cups of Self-Rising Flour (self-rising, not
cake flour) into a large bowl.
Pour in one can of beer.
Mix.
Scrape batter into a greased loaf pan.
Bake for 55 minutes.

I can do that! And I don't have to buy it from Tastefully Simple.

The recipe I found in my grandmother's handwriting was for Beer Rolls. Here it is:

3 cups Bisquick
1 tablespoon sugar
Dash of salt
1 can beer.

Mix all ingredients until blended. Bake in greased muffin tins until brown in 400 degree oven. Makes 1 dozen large or 1 1/2 dozen small rolls.

At least on this one she said the temperature and the pan type. I may add the salt and sugar to the other recipe. What's interesting is how well my grandmother spelled. She must have had a really good education in Green Cove Springs, Florida. Her family owned businesses, and both her brothers ended up newspaper editors, so yeah, probably she did. My other grandmother, who was from very rural Georgia wrote like she talked and sometimes spelled things interestingly, but was amazingly literate for someone of her background--married early and not a lot of chances for enrichment.

Off topic! Must get ready for another job interview and blog that trip!

2 comments:

sandy said...

Coolness...my great great grandfather Eli McGee Geiger was born in Waresboro, GA in 1867 and died in Green Cove Springs, FL in 1937.

Suna Kendall said...

It's certain, then, that he knew my great-grandfather and probably my uncles and aunts. The great-grandfather ran the only drug store in town. Whoa. So few of us native Floridians that we all know each other.