Job Seeker Blog #8 and Food

Gosh, I had really hoped to not hit 8 job seeker blogs! And there's really nothing to report, either. I did apply to 6 different jobs yesterday. And one was a state job where you have to fill out the forms manually, in great detail. What a pain. Naturally, I will hear nothing back. Oh, not true, one recruiter did respond with surprise that I am still looking. Well it surprises ME as well.

One good thing about not working is that I have a lot more time to cook and try new recipes. Last night I made a version of chicken and dumplings, somewhat based on a recipe I found online, but of course I digressed greatly. It came out Mexican.

The BEST discovery was that if you cut flour tortillas into strips and cook them in a stew, they become practically indistinguishable from the dumplings my mom used to make out of rolled-out biscuit dough. They were great! What I did was cook up some chicken tenders I found in the freezer, and some leftover turkey. At the same time I cooked some onion and celery. Once the chicken was cooked a bit, I shredded it up with a spatula and combined the two things into one pan. I then added 2 cups of chicken broth and (this will either sound yummy or awful) a can of cream of mushroom soup AND a can of cream of poblano pepper soup. That is what made it Mexican. I also added a can of plain corn (I would have used frozen but didn't have any). I found a hot pepper Lee had grown in the freezer and added it for some zestiness. I just let all that stuff cook, and added some spices. Um. Cilantro and something. And a wee bit of salt and pepper. About 20 minutes before serving, I added the sliced tortillas. Well, it was good! Our visitor, Jody, even asked for the recipe. OK, that was it, Jody.

I also made a recipe for banana bread with cream cheese in it that I found. It was so good that it is already gone. So I will need to make Amish friendship bread from the starter I got last week at choir. I have to look for a recipe for that, too, since the one my friend gave me called for a box of pudding. I know you don't need pudding in the normal recipe for that. I do have one pudding left over from the teeth pulling adventure, though.

Wow, isn't my life EXCITING these days?? Let's just hope our friends at the unemployment office find it in their hearts to pay me something soon. I have no idea what their schedule is. They paid me twice in 5 days then nothing since.

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!