Hello again from Grammie’s Kitchen! It’s been quite some time since you visited and I’m glad to have the pleasure of your company once again.

This is such a wonderful time of year. The days grow ever longer and the air is alive with the fresh scent of spring. This is definitely my favourite season.

There’s something hopeful about the arrival of spring. Mother Nature awakens from her wintery nap and everywhere there is new life and growth. My motto is — Rise early and live every moment of every day.

I consider myself very lucky. I’m in good health and fairly active. I so enjoy being with my grandchildren and getting outside with friends and family. Spring calls me when she arrives, pulling me from the house. So, if you see an old lady out shovelling the last remaining snow from her lawn — that’s me.

I hope you’re inspired to get out and get moving. Call a friend and go for a walk or open the seed catalogue and start planning your garden.

As always I encourage you to email me about anything you think would be interesting to our readers. Recently, I received these great recipes from Lance in Louisiana:

Here is a simple recipe for Jambalaya. Jambalaya is a Cajun dish that is very easy and versatile. It is usually cooked from "scratch" but here is an easy way to prepare it.

This is a very easy and tasty recipe for jambalaya. You can add seasoning as you would like, but it really isn’t needed. This is not a very hot and spicy one and will fit "non-Cajuns" just fine. The meat can be any meat you choose. A good combination is boneless chicken and smoked sausage. Shrimp is good alone or you can add another meat to it also. Be creative and do as you wish. Also, you can use either more or less meat. Depending on your taste. Seasoning is the same. If you like it hot and spicy then add cayenne pepper.

Enjoy!

1 can – French Onion Soup
1 can – Chicken Broth
2 cups – rice
1 block – butter
½ cup – water
1 pound – meat (Either chicken and sausage, shrimp, or whatever you would like)

Melt butter and layer ingredients in a rice cooker as follows. Melted butter, meat (of your choice), rice, water, soup and broth.

Cook in rice cooker as you would cook rice. After rice cooker has chimed, leave cover on and let stand for 5 minutes.

Chopped onion
Chopped green Onion
Chopped Bell Pepper
Chopped celery
Rice
Chicken
Sausage
Seasoning

Combine chopped onions, green onions, bell pepper and celery and cook down until the onions are browned. Then add your cooked, diced, chicken and sliced cooked sausage. Cook this down until the seasoning and meat are well mixed. Next add the rice and water. For every cup of rice, you add two cups of water. Mix this well; add seasoning such as Red Pepper, Salt and whatever other flavours you might want. Keep mixing as it cooks. It is best not to stir but to mix with a large spoon. When the rice is the consistency you want, then it is ready.

I usually use smoked sausage but I also like to use a store bought homemade sausage and remove the sausage skin. The homemade sausage is usually seasoned and I happen to like it better than smoked sausage. Also, the Chicken and Sausage can be substituted with Shrimp, oysters or a combination of seafood. I didn’t put any "amounts" of anything as you can prepare as much as you want. People use different amounts so as to fit their taste. I like lots of meat in mine. Some people wash the rice first to minimise the starch content. We cook with lots of onions here so always use a lot of onions. The darker the onions are browned the darker and better the jambalaya will turn out. Different people use different seasonings. The good thing about Jambalaya is everyone prepares it different. Hard to find two jambalayas that taste the same.

Lance, thanks so much for sharing your recipes with us. It’s wonderful to try different dishes from all over the world. Please everyone, keep sending me your favourite recipes!

And here is one of my own recipes that I find really tasty.

5 tablespoons butter
½ cup sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups mashed, very ripe bananas
1 ¾ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ cup heavy cream
1/3 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350º F. Grease a loaf pan or spray with non-stick cooking spray. In a large bowl beat butter until light and fluffy. Add sugar and brown sugar, beat well. Add egg, egg whites and vanilla. Beat until blended well. Add mashed banana and beat on high speed for 30 seconds. Combine flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder in medium bowl.

Add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with cream, ending with flour mixture. Add walnuts to batter and mix well. Pour batter evenly into loaf pan. Bake until browned and toothpick inserted near centre comes out clean, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Cool loaf in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes then remove from pan and cool completely on the wire rack.

Slice and serve with butter.

I leave you this month with some great words of wisdom from Nathaniel Hawthorne — "Happiness is like a butterfly which when pursued is always beyond our grasp, but if you sit down quietly may light upon you."

Until next time remember I made it especially for you!

Grammie is waiting for you in her kitchen, rocking in her favourite chair by the stove, knitting needles clicking away the seconds. Drop by and join her for a spot of tea, a warm molasses cookie and some wise advice. Every month she answers all your letters as only she can. So, if you have a kitchen-type question or comment for Grammie, send an email to editor@breadnmolasses.com and put Grammie in the subject line.