Saturday, November 8, 2008

Cornbread - a must have with chili!!!


Last night was the 1st Friday of the month which means that a bunch of our friends all got together at someone's house for a delicious Pot Luck Meal. Kathy - the hostess for this month, choose a menu that involved our Family Favorites. How fun was that? Until I got to thinking that the only real thing that we all eat together was burgers...how crazy is that? Yep there are other things that we eat but they just wouldn't be good for a Pot Luck. So after much thought and no real solution I decided to make cornbread to go along with the chili Kathy was making!

I remembered that Heather from Gild the (Voodoo)lily had a cornbread recipe that I had been wanting to try since I saw it back in May!

Yankee Cornbread (this was adapted from a Joy of Cooking recipe that Heather had)

1 tbsp bacon fat (I had to fry up some bacon to get this bacon fat-don't tell Heather!)
1-1/4 c cornmeal (she used blue and yellow. I could only find yellow)
3/4 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar (Heather likes 2 Tbsp - I only added 1)
2 large eggs
2/3 c buttermilk
2/3 c milk
3 tbsp melted butter
1/2 c frozen corn (She likes to add minced jalapeños, I didn't do that though)

Stick a 10" cast-iron skillet with the bacon fat in the oven that's preheating to 425. Mix dry ingredients. Mix wet ingredients (eggs and milks). Add wet to dry, mix, and stir in the melted butter and corn. Pour batter into now-hot skillet and bake for 20-25 minutes, until browned on top and toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle.

This was a nice easy to follow recipe. I did great until it was time for me to remove it from the pan so I could get it ready to take with me. I dropped the freakin' thing on the counter and it cracked! Did everyone still love it...oh yes they did!

As Always...

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com

11 comments:

Valerie Harrison (bellini) said...

I have no doubt that your friends and neighbours enjoyed this cornbread Judy cracks and all:D

Frantic Home Cook said...

Looks delish, Judy! And it's definitely Yankee with that flour, although the Yankees up here like it was lots more sugar (almost like cake.)

Anonymous said...

I love cornbread southwestern style -- it's usually quite sweet up here in New England.

Anonymous said...

Mmmmmmmm! Cornbread. Yeah, baby!

Dharm said...

I love a good cornbread. This looks like something that would go really well with Chilli too!!

Thistlemoon said...

Looks delicious Judy! I hope you had another great get together with your friends Chili and cornbread sounds wonderful!

Unknown said...

i just read every post on your home page. great food. great philosophy. love it.

Susan @ SGCC said...

That cornbread looks terrific! Especially with the bacon drippings. I'll bet it was pretty tasty with that chili!

Judy@nofearentertaining said...

Hey Val-They really did like this cornbread despite the crack!

Hey Francie-I'm not big into the really sweet stuff. This seemed just right!

Hey Lydia-The joy of making it yourself...you can have it exactly how you like it!

Hey Nikki-Yeah, baby!

Hey Dharm-It was the perfect accompaniment to Chili!

Hey Jenn-It was a ton of fun. Too late of a night but that happens sometimes!

Hi Claudia-Thank you for the compliments!!!

Hey Susan-Thanks!

Heather said...

Glad the recipe (or my alterations, anyway) worked. It really is such an easy recipe. I like to use the leftovers for breakfast - a slice or two of bacon and a fried egg is all you need!

Thanks for the shout-out, Judy!

Peter M said...

Cornbread is a forgiving bread and yes, a must with chili. See, it's so forgiving that even a smack against the counter couldn't take it down!