Today in American history…our 39th U.S. President, Jimmy Carter, was born on October 1, 1924 in Plains, Georgia. (Interesting fact: He was the first President to be born in a hospital)
Some of his lifetime accomplishments were:
🇺🇸 Served in the U.S. Navy from 1946-1953 (and then in the U.S. Naval Reserves on inactive duty from 1953-1961) 🇺🇸 Member of the Georgia Senate (14th District) from 1963-1967 🇺🇸 Governor of Georgia from 1971-1975 🇺🇸President of the United States from 1977-1981 🇺🇸Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for co-founding The Carter Center
“Earlier in my life I thought the things that mattered were the things that you could see, like your car, your house, your wealth, your property, your office. But as I’ve grown older I’ve become convinced that the things that matter most are the things that you can’t see — the love you share with others, your inner purpose, your comfort with who you are.” Jimmy Carter
Fall is probably my most favorite time of the year for baking because I love all things with pumpkin and apple in the ingredients.
In the kitchen today I made delicious pumpkin apple muffins – so needless to say…I’m a happy girl today. It’s a perfect Fall day to enjoy a pumpkin apple muffin and enjoy a cup of coffee because after all…it’s National Coffee Day!
I hope you all are enjoying the cooler temps and have a wonderful Sunday.
Pumpkin Apple Muffins
Muffin Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoons ground nutmeg
2 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup grated apple (about 2 medium sized apples)
Crumb Topping Ingredients
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tablespoons melted butter
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
Directions
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, add the flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, baking soda and salt together and whisk the ingredients together. Set aside.
In a separate medium bowl, add the eggs, pumpkin and vegetable oil and mix well.
Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture.
Add the grated apples and gently fold into the batter until combined.
Scoop the mixture into well greased muffin tins – you can also line with paper or silicone liners too.
Time to make the crumb topping!
In a small bowl, add the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and melted butter together and mix until all of the flour is incorporated.
Sprinkle the crumb topping directly on top of the muffin batter.
Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes until completely done (do the “toothpick check” to make sure!)
Remove from the oven. Allow the muffins to cool slightly before removing from pan.
We’re coming upon the time of year again to where we’ll be making a lot of delicious soup and chili. What goes best with soup and chili? Cornmeal Muffins of course 😋
Cornmeal Muffins
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
2 TBSP granulated sugar
1 TBSP baking powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 cup buttermilk
6 TBSP salted butter, melted
2 TBSP honey
2 large eggs
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with cooking spray or line the cups with paper liners.
In a medium bowl, add the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, and salt and whisk together until combined.
In a separate medium bowl, add the buttermilk, butter, honey, and eggs and whisk until well combined.
Pour the buttermilk mixture into the cornmeal mixture and mix all of the ingredients together.
Fill each muffin cup until nearly full.
Bake for 17 to 22 minutes until the tops are a golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Cool the muffins in the tin for 5 minutes before you remove the muffins to a wire cooling rack.
Lady Bird Johnson’s Lemon Cake recipe is from the book A White House Diary by Lady Bird Johnson which was published in 1970.
The cake was served at The White House for the wedding reception in honor of their daughter Lucy and Patrick Nugent on August 6, 1966.
Lady Bird Johnson’s Lemon Cake
Ingredients for the Cake
3/4 cup salted butter (at room temperature)
1 1/4 cups sugar
8 large egg yolks (yolks only!) ***
2 1/2 cups cake flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup 2% milk ***
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
***I used the entire egg
***I used whole milk
Ingredients for the Lemon Glaze Icing
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup salted butter (at room temperature)
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lemon
heavy cream (only if needed)
Directions for the Cake
Preheat oven to 325° Fahrenheit. Grease a 10″ bundt cake pan with shortening, then dust with flour. Or you can use our magic cake release recipe.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
In a separate bowl, whisk the & egg yolks together to break up the yolks until they light and lemon-colored. Mix the yolks into the butter/sugar mixture.
Sift together cake flour, baking powder and salt.
Add the sifted ingredients in thirds, alternating with the milk. (½ of the flour, half the milk, ⅓ of the flour, half the milk, ⅓ of the flour) Beat the batter thoroughly after each addition, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed.
Add the vanilla extract, lemon juice and lemon zest. Beat for 2 minutes.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan** and bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
*** grease the pan with softened butter and dust with flour or spray with cooking spray.
Directions for the Lemon Glaze Icing
Combine the powdered sugar, butter, lemon zest and lemon juice. Use a hand mixer to mix until well combined.
If the glaze isn’t thin enough, add a touch of heavy cream to thin it out to drizzling consistency.
Once the cake is cooled, drizzle the glaze over the cake.
There is nothing like a tall glass of fresh lemonade with freshly squeezed lemons. It’s also so perfect and refreshing on such a hot and humid day.
It’s incredibly easy to make and so much better than the powdered store bought stuff – just my personal opinion 😉
I also just love the smell of fresh cut lemons. Lemons are refreshing, revitalizing and good for you too – they are a great source of Vitamin C 👍
Homemade Fresh Lemonade
Ingredients
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 cup water
9 medium lemons (or more, if desired!)
7 cups of ice-cold water
As much ice as needed
Directions
Cut the lemons in half crosswise and squeeze the juice into a measuring cup until you have about 1 1/2 cups of juice.
Some prefer the pulp in their lemonade. If you want the pulp, remove the pulp and place in a small bowl to use for later use.
Make sure to discard the seeds!
Combine the granulated sugar and one cup of water (this is also commonly referred to as “simple syrup”) into a small saucepan. Stir to dissolve sugar while the mixture comes to a boil.
Set aside to cool slightly.
Pour 7 cups of ice-cold water into a pitcher. Stir in the lemon juice and pulp (if using the pulp).
I have an abundance of yellow squash and what to do? Make biscuits of course!
These biscuits remind me of a popular restaurant chains garlic-cheddar biscuits and are so delicious! Except of course…I’ve added yellow squash to the mix which makes them even more fantastic 😋
Yellow Squash-Cheddar Biscuits
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon onion powder
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cubed
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/4 cup diced yellow squash
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
Directions
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, onion powder and sugar until combined.
Add the cubed butter into the flour mixture.
Use a pastry cutter, a fork or you can also use your fingers to cut the butter into the flour mixture until lentil-size pieces form.
Stir in the cheddar cheese and squash.
Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the buttermilk. Use a wooden spoon to stir the mixture until the dough comes together.
Place the dough on a flour dusted surface and pat gently into three circles and 3/4 – inch thickness.
Dust a 3-inch biscuit cutter with flour and cut 8 biscuits from the dough.
Place the biscuits on a parchment lined baking sheet and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Remove from the refrigerator and place the biscuits in a preheated oven of 425 degrees. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
Serve with tons of butter (ok that’s my personal preference! 😋)
Today in American history…former First Lady Lucy Webb Hayes was born on August 28, 1831 in Chillicothe, Ohio.
Married to former President Rutherford B. Hayes, she was our Nation’s First Lady from 1877-1881.
Official White House Portrait (The White House Historical Association)
Lucy Hayes was a well educated woman for her time and was the very first First Lady to have a college degree – graduating from Cincinnati Wesleyan Female College in 1850.
“There is not to be found a better receipt for white cake than the following. The cake is mixed contrary to the usual rules of making cake, but it is the best mode of making it fine-grained and delicate.”
Ingredients: Whites of six eggs, scant three-quarters of a cupful of butter, one and one-quarter cupfuls of pulverized sug-ar, two cupfuls of flour, juice of half a lemon, one-quarter of a tea-spoonful of soda.
If soda is used, mix it well with the flour, and pass it through the sieve several times to distribute it equally. Beat the butter to a light cream, and add the flour to it, stirring it in gradually with the ends of the fingers until it is a smooth paste.
Beat the whites of six eggs to a stiff froth, and mix in them the pulverized sugar; now stir the eggs and sugar gradually into the flour and butter, adding also the lemon-juice, and mix it smoothly together with the egg whisk. As soon as it is perfectly smooth, put it into the oven, the heat of which should be rather moderate at first. When done and still hot, spread over it a frosting made with the white of one egg, pulverized sugar and a flavoring of lemon.
The frosting is a decided improvement, and, according to the receipt, only requires a few minutes to prepare.
I made a traditional white cake today using my favorite recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction – it’s the only one that I ever use when making a white cake – it’s truly the best! (And I’ve eaten a lot of cake in my life 🤣)
To honor and remember former President Lyndon Johnson’s birthday today…I decided to make one of his favorite meals in the kitchen tonight.
He was a “meat and potatoes” kind of man (my kind of person!) and enjoyed steak, potatoes…cornbread. Just pure deliciousness! 😋
One of his favorite meals was Chicken Fried Steak. He would have enjoyed spinach and mashed potatoes to go along with it too. Oh and don’t forget the cornbread with lots of butter.
For dessert and especially for his birthday he would have most likely enjoyed his favorite cake which was German Chocolate.
Chicken Fried Steak
Ingredients for the Chicken Fried Steak
1 1/2 cups whole milk
2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp pepper
3/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
3 lb. cube steak
1/2 cup canola or vegetable oil
1 TBSP butter
Ingredients for the Gravy
1/3 cups all-purpose flour
4 cups whole milk
1/2 tsp salt and pepper
Directions for the Steak
In a medium bowl, add the milk and eggs. Use a hand held whisk to mix the eggs and milk together until well blended. Set aside.
In a separate medium bowl, add the flour, salt, pepper, paprika and cayenne. Whisk the ingredients together really well to get the spices well blended into the flour.
Work with one piece of steak at a time. Sprinkle both sides of the steaks with a mixture of salt and pepper (about 1/2 tsp combined)
Place the steak in the egg/milk mixture and turn to coat on each side.
Place the steak into the flour mixture and coat thoroughly on each side.
Once again, place the meat into the milk/egg mixture, turning to coat on each side.
Finally, place the steak back into the flour and turn to coat.
Place the breaded steak into a clean plate – I lined the plate with parchment paper to handle easily.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
Add the butter.
When the butter sizzles immediately, you know it’s ready. The butter will become brown and golden and time to start cooking the steaks.
Cook the steaks for two minutes on each side until brown, golden and crispy.
Remove the steaks from the skillet onto a paper toweled line plate to drain the excess grease.
Wrap in foil to keep the steaks warm while you make the gravy.
Directions for the Gravy
After all the steak is fried and removed onto a plate, pour off the remaining grease into a heatproof bowl.
Without cleaning the skillet, return the skillet to the stove over a medium-low heat.
Add 1/4 cup of the grease back to the skillet and allow it to heat up accordingly.
When the grease is hot, sprinkle the flour evenly over the grease.
Using a whisk to mix the flour with the grease, creating a golden-brown paste.
Helpful hint: If the gravy mixture looks too greasy, add more flour. If the gravy looks too clumpy, add a little more grease.
Pour in 3 to 4 cups milk and whisk constantly. Add the salt and pepper while cooking…and whisking…until the gravy is smooth and thick – should be thickened between 5 to 10 minutes.
If the gravy is overly thickened? Add more milk.
Make sure to taste the gravy to make sure it is perfectly seasoned – might need more…all depends on your preference.
Serve immediately over the chicken fried steak and if you are having mashed potatoes…goes wonderful over those too!!
The Historical Homemaker 