Good Morning Saturday-Amazing Pre-Sunrise

 Happy weekend friends,

    The weatherman has lowered our temperatures for the weekend and next week, but still hoping to get some things accomplished outdoors. and Saturday around 4 pm we are hosting a small fishing-birthday party for Larry. His birthday is on the 16th which is a Sunday. We have looked around and purchased some hand crafted brats, some mild some very hot. Larry didn't want potato salad just munchies and dips. I am thinking of baking upside down pineapple cupcakes too. Should be fun. Originally we were to be in the mid 70's all weekend which has changed to the mid 60's instead.

   We are also on a red flag alert-conditions ideal for wildfires-so I won't be firing up the grill this weekend.

   We woke up to an amazing looking sky this morning-early. When the sun rose it was soooo bright I couldn't look at it, so didn't get a photo of that.  We also viewed lots of little ducks in small groups-some flying over and some swimming in the lake.

  These photos are shown in order while we watched  We both have always been early risers-never people to just stay in bed late-if we did we would have missed all this beauty

The reds now gone-sun beginning to peak through

The little ducks that we watched on the lake

  In the first photo can you see them??

This one was taken indoors-sorry through dirty windows

This week I made us bean soup with a little bit of ham and cornbread

and my recipe-the best ever in my opinion I have shared this in the past-this one is gluten free and I love the method of mixing this up

Sharing the cornbread recipe I use. I found this online in 2004 on King Arthur Flour's site. It is no longer there.

I always really liked this one because it uses only cornmeal no added wheat flour so this is gluten free too. This is also not sweet which I prefer

This recipe is made for a cast iron pan-could be made in a different pan but won't be the same for the crunchy bottoms and sides.

I use my 9 3/4" inch square cast iron pan. The recipe calls for an 8" cast iron pan. I double this recipe which will fill my pan nicely as it bakes. This is awesome baked outdoors over and under coals in cast iron too

Not-Northern Cornbread by King-Arthur Flour

4 teaspoons bacon drippings or I use 4 teaspoons olive oil

1 cup cornmeal-divided ( if you can find it popcorn meal is really good too added with the cornmeal)

2 teaspoons sugar (I use splenda)

1/2 teaspoon salt (I omit)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/3 cup boiling water

3/4 cup buttermilk (I make my own-add 3/4 tablespoon lemon juice to milk or half and half)

1 large egg lightly beaten

Warm up your oven to 450 degrees F when oven to temperature add in your cast iron pan with fat to heat up

In a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk together 2/3 cup of the cornmeal, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

In a small bowl combine the remaining 1/3 cup cornmeal with the boiling water-stir to blend. Add the buttermilk whisking til most of the lumps are gone. Stir in the beaten egg.

Stir together the wet and dry ingredients, mixing til just combined. Remove the hot skillet from the oven and pour fat into the cornbread batter. Spoon the batter into the hot skillet, spreading it evenly over the bottom. Return the skillet to the oven and bake the cornbread for 20 minutes or til it's starting to brown around the edges, and the center springs back when lightly pressed with your fingertips. Remove the skillet from the oven and transfer the cornbread to a cooling rack. It should slide out of the pan easily

Happy Friday and weekend