When you do long-term home food storage you learn both white and brown sugar actually have an indefinite storage time, when properly stored. I like to make my own brown sugar because you can decide how much molasses and what kind of molasses you'd like to use, as well as what kind of sugar you'd like to use. I prefer that deep rich Plantation Blackstrap Molasses. Freshly-made brown sugar is more aromatic in baked goods. You'll soon think commercial brown sugar has a stale taste, in comparison. You can mix the sugar and molasses together with a whisk or even using an electric hand-held mixer, as well as a food processor. I like the hand-held mixer for the task. You can "fix" hardened brown sugar by placing it in a 225-degree F oven for 10 minutes. -Grainlady

Thanks a million for posting the link. I enjoyed reading it so much. Cornbread is like so many other things in cooking/baking, it's neither right or wrong (unless you're dogmatic) - but a choice. It's the same for brownies - chewy, cake-like, or something in between, it's a choice. My Canadian-born (bush country of northern Ontario) mother never made cornbread until she discovered she had celiac disease and made 100% cornmeal cornbread made with sour cream, and no flour to lighten it, and I thought it was a wonderful recipe - so maybe there shouldn't be wheat flour in the mix, either! ;-) The only other cornbread I had to compare it to at the time was at school, and it was the sweet cake-like style. I like all of it, and have made lots of different recipes for baked corn pone and corn sticks, and cornbread, and different methods baking it over the years. My personal experience.... Until you've made cornbread with freshly-milled cornmeal you've missed out on one of the greatest flavor experiences EVER! And it doesn't matter WHAT recipe (sweetened, or not, additional flour, or not) you use. It's one time fresh-is-best. Commercial cornmeal tastes like "road dust" compared to freshly milled cornmeal. On the food science side - which is what I always find interesting and useful as a former Foods Judge at County and State Fairs who uses a list of standards for judging different baked goods - the finer the cornmeal is ground the more cake-like the finished bread. If you like a coarse cornbread, use a coarse-grind of cornmeal (Bob's Red Mill has coarse, medium, and fine grind). If you have your grandmother's recipe, but just can't get the recipe "right", she may have used a different grind of cornmeal. There is also a big difference between recipes depending on the ratio of cornmeal to (wheat) flour. I make a very thin gluten-free version using finely-milled cornmeal (I mill my own) and masa flour (used for making tortillas) to use as sliced sandwich squares for grilled sandwiches. If I use a coarse grind of cornmeal in this particular recipe, the cornbread falls apart. So there are any number of reasons for using different recipes and different grinds of cornmeal. Sugar in a recipe will work as a tenderizer and will also aid in the browning. You can almost tell there's sugar in a recipe by the lightly browned crust, while the anemic-looking crust (or the crumb and crust are almost the same color) probably has no sweeteners in it, other than the "natural sugars" found in corn and (wheat) flour.

Here's our favorite Sangria recipe. Note; adjust fruit, juice, alcohol, sugar....amounts to taste. I always taste and adjust as I mix in the various ingredients. Sangria Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2005 Prep Time: 10 min Level: Easy Inactive Prep Time: 2 hr 0 min Serves: Yield: about 1 1/2 quarts Cook Time: Ingredients · 1 (750-ml) bottle red wine (a red blend or a zinfandel are good choices) · 1/4 cup brandy · 1/4 cup orange flavored liqueur (recommended: triple sec or Grand Marnier) · 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice · 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice—Valencia or Blood Orange or whatever you can find; juice of ~one orange · 1/4 cup sugar + 1/8 cup · 1/2 orange, thinly sliced · 1/2 lemon, thinly sliced · 1 unwaxed apple, cored, and cut into thin wedges; Granny Smith · 1 (750-ml) bottle sparkling water, chilled Directions Combine everything but the sparkling water in a large plastic container or glass pitchers. Cover and chill completely, 1 to 2 hours. When ready to serve, add the sparkling water. **We add a splash or so (to taste) of Pellegrino mineral water (in glass, not plastic bottles) to our own goblets, as desired. Copyright 2012 Television Food Network G.P. All Rights Reserved

"people in power haven't tried to keep cures for diseases from getting out in the open you are truly naïve" Seriously? Are you a conspiracy person? Who are these people in power conspiring to keep people ill? -- "You don't think it's odd that all this money has been raised to find all these cures but none have been found?" That's how science works. If people knew where to look, knowledge would be much easier to obtain. You may not appreciate that the fact that nothing is found with a particular investigation doesn't mean nothing will be found, simply that where or how they were investigating wasn't fruitful. Work goes on. -- "Going to doctors but staying sick?" Doctors are in on the conspiracy with people in power too, they want to keep their patients ill intentionally? Yeah? -- "Medicine is all trial and error" Yes, this is true, it's true of much of scientific research in general too. Can you suggest a better approach? Smarter people than you and me and the world of science in general have settled on an approach to expand knowledge. Why do you accept unproven approaches that AREN'T tested or subject to trial and error? Do you think that's smarter or a more valid approach? -- "And all of those trials you speak of have no affect on me because I don't go to the dr." That's your choice. Do you think it's a thoughtful one? Do you have medical insurance and choose not to use it, or do you not have coverage? I've known some people over the years who've scoffed at conventional medicine as you do and turn to alternatives BECAUSE they couldn't afford health insurance. For several, it was a short sighted decision because they needed care and had to scramble to get coverage. I hope you don't have kids whose wellbeing you're risking because of your extreme views. -- "If I get sick I take my natural remedies and feel better in no time. " Sure you do. Just hope you never have anything seriously wrong with you, it will strain your faith beliefs. -- "Just because you don't agree with something it doesn't make it wrong" True. -- "And I'm pretty sure tests have also been run on these other remedies. You'll never hear about them if they actually accomplish something though." Don't be so sure, that's the greatest beef about so-called "alternative medicine". Lack of testing and lack of proof. If something is proven to be effective, the researchers rush to publish papers and everyone knows about it pronto. Ever hear of PubMed? It's an NIH-run online catalog of ALL biomedical research that's published. Should a piece be missed in a periodical, researchers doing catalog references will come upon any findings that are new or different concerning an area of interest they have. There are no secrets. In fact, researchers rush to find areas others haven't investigated because being first is a way to become better known. In the alternative medicine area, it's mostly crickets. Religions are a belief based environment, science is not. Wishing doesn't make it so. -- "Drug companies can't patent natural things. " Sure they can. -- In the absence of proof, a suggestion or a hypothesis is described as lacking proof or being unsupported by evidence. That means it's false/invalid/doesn't exist. It's not the negative, "it hasn't been disproven". That argument is illogical and isn't valid for science. Or medicine. You're very misinformed. Sorry.