March Madness

Chapter Nine: The World According to Bella

I was doing some heavy dreaming about my upcoming Friday field trip to the car show when the phone rang and roused me from my sleep. We were alerted by family members of Tsunami warnings in Hawaii. This was a big concern for my people whose son lives there. Several phone calls later we were assured he was safe but the visual images of the damages of the Tsunami in Japan kept us glued to the TV for several hours. Many images were so scary I had to close my eyes.

I was very well behaved for my beach run today since I did not want to upset my people anymore. Lucky for me since I got the okay to join them for the antique car show.

The main street on the island was closed for the event. At least 40 cars went by and I posted some of our favorites. Most of the cars were rare and I never had heard of a Allard or a Dusenberg. I am car savvy today and can tell you that Allard Motor Company was an English car founded in 1936. Approximately 1900 cars were produced till its closure in 1966. It had a large American V8 engine in a small light British sports car body giving it a high power to weight ratio. The Dusenberg was a luxury automobile made in Auburn, Indiana from 1913-1937. It was famous for its high quality passenger cars and record breaking racing cars.

By the time I got home I was exhausted from being up so long, missed my morning nap and really needed that afternoon nap.

Later I awoke to cooking smells and my stomach began to growl. Perhaps this southern favorite recipe will hit the spot for you. I did my silent begging trick and my bowl magically got filled with bits of ham.

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Cornbread Shortcake with Ham and Peach Salsa

Ingredients and Directions:

• In an 8 inch square baking pan make corn bread following directions on the box and cool
• Cook over medium heat in a non-stick pan sprayed with PAM smoked ham steak (I used Hormel product)
• To serve cut each shortcake (cornbread) piece in half horizontally
• Place piece of sauteed ham on one slice of cornbread-top with peach salsa cover with other cornbread slice and top with more salsa
• Garnish with cilantro

Homemade Peach Salsa

Note can use prepared peach-mango salsa

• 3 cups diced-peeled peaches (drop peaches into boiling water for 3 seconds remove and peel)
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries-chopped
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 3 TB. shallots or can use chopped red onion
• 2 TB. fresh cilantro
• 2 TB. brown sugar
• juice from 1/2 lime
• 1/4 tsp. cumin
• 1/8 tsp. ground pepper
• optional 1 jalapeno pepper

mix and refrigerate for several hours