Michael has been wanting a grain mill, so I got him one for his birthday. It came today.

Specifically, he’s been wanting to grind popcorn into cornmeal.

He shelled out some of our strawberry popcorn.

He put it through the grinder several times.

Melting butter in the 10” cast iron pan before baking is one of my secret tricks for making good cornbread.

The red cornmeal expanded the horizons of cornbread to another level. Michael says that it would not be a sacrifice if we never ate wheat bread again…and he is the baker in this family!

The cornbread paired well with cream of chicken soup. Eating from a Willi Eggerman bowl kicked the delightfulness factor up a notch. Having a layer of almost-orange chicken fat reminded me of lush green grass and caterpillars on this cold, snowy day.

We live where the wild things are, and some of those things make it onto our plate. Others are not so wild, but still are not products of industrial farming. Slow food includes slow cooking as well as slow growing. One can argue that food is food and why should anyone put so much time and effort into grinding meal? You cannot buy red corn meal and orange chicken fat…not even at the French Laundry.

These two are beginning to teethe and soon will be mumbling apple sauce and winter squash. Michael says we need to plant more popcorn. I agree. It may be a while before they are noshing on it popped, but we can feed them red cornmeal mush!

We also need to hatch ducklings this year, as we will have the Shepherdess here for a while this summer. So much work, and all of it good.

It’s what makes for a Happy Birthday Boy!