Simply Norma

I’ve heard it said that oatmeal is good for the heart so to see The American Heart Association label on the top of the Quaker Oats box wasn’t surprising.

When I’m home, I try to have oatmeal in the morning.  A tiny bit of salt, a dab of sugar and lots of cinnamon.

Now, I wonder if eating oatmeal cookies is as healthy as having oatmeal in the morning.  I guess it would depend on how many cookies I eat.

Being curious, I decided to try the cookie recipe on the Quaker Oats box to see if it stood the test of my palate (which I’ve been told is not very discriminating).

Ingredients:
1 stick of butter, softened
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups Quaker Oats

I left out the raisins in my ingredients, used butter instead of margarine and added a wee bit more cinnamon because I’m a big fan of cinnamon.  I also cut the recipe in half so the ingredients above are halved already.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.
Beat butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until creamy.
Add the egg and vanilla.  Beat well again.
Your batter should look like the one below.

Okay, so I had a craving for cornmeal.

I called my sister up and asked her for her recipe for something we called “rocks” when we were growing up.  It was a simple recipe that mainly used cornmeal.  The answer came back “I don’t remember.”  Eeekkk!  That just made me want the cornmeal more.

So — since my cookbooks are still in storage in Seattle, I did the next best thing and did a search on the internet for anything cornmeal-ish.

I came across this recipe that I found at cooks.com.  I have to warn you though, it’s not a perfect recipe and although it satisfied my craving for cornmeal, I still felt like I was shortchanged.

Part of the problem I think is that the recipe is not clear enough in one area — whether to oil the griddle or not.  I am a basic cook.  I always tell people “don’t assume I know anything.”  I wish recipes would do the same unless they say “for the professional cook only.”

Anyway, here’s my experiment.  It wasn’t too bad but I know there’s a better recipe out there.

Here are the ingredients:

3/4 cup cornmeal
6 tblspns flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar
1 cup milk
1 egg, well beaten
1 tblspn oil

Put all dry ingredients in a bowl.

Sift the dry ingredients together.  I use a whisk since my sifter is still in storage.

Beat the egg well.

Combine the egg, milk and oil, then stir.

The consistency will be a little liquidy.

Drop 1/4 cup full of the mixture onto a griddle.  I put a little bit of oil on the bottom because I was afraid it would burn.

When the cakes have bubbled on top, turn them and cook them on the other side.

The cornmeal cakes should look like this.

Cornmeal Cakes

I served the cornmeal cakes with vegetarian links and maple syrup.