Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Mary,

Just make sure to use a big enough skillet to have a bit of head room. The worst mess I have made in my oven was making a recipe for Southern style cornbread from the Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook that was designed for a 6 inch skillet....only the recipe filled it almost all the way to the brim (like maybe 1/2 a cm from the top, if that), which caused all of the fat that was heating in the pan to go over the edge and onto my oven floor when the cornbread rose. I have an 8 inch black circle of smoking oil sitting in the bottom of my oven waiting for me to be brave enough to run a self-clean cycle which I imagine will fumigate the house.

To add insult to injury, the recipe sucked. It was just straight cornmeal, no flour, no sugar, and a bit of buttermilk, an egg, some baking soda, salt, and oil. It was dense as a brick and nowhere near as tasty as the southern style cornbread I'd get from the farmer's market in Atlanta. Even DH wouldn't eat much of it.

I don't have an iron skillet (I desperately want the pan that makes the corn cob cornbread) and make mine in a pyrex glass 8 inch. Or in muffin/mini muffin tins. More heresy but you work with what you have!

CI's corn muffins are really good. I've had best luck with corn flour for moistness.

Oh yes, Jean, those corn corn bread pans are so cute!
And thank you for reminding me about not filling the pan to high Carey. I do stuff like that ALL the time. My oven is not in pristine condition.

Mary

I made chili for dinner last night and we'll have the leftovers tomorrow. I have a corn cob mold I haven't used in years. Think I'll dig it out and use it.

fitzie

So, I used Becca's recipe last night as she is furthest South, she said "bacon grease" and is constantly posting amazing photos of baked good I cannot pronounce on Instagram. Seriously good cornbread. I am used to the sweeter variety but I think I liked this better combined with the chili. Veggie stew, I mean. I also made a honey cinnamon butter to go with it and the combo was great.
***Own Horn Tooting Alert: Proceed at your own risk***
I was pretty pleased with my entire dinner. I started with Champagne Margaritas and quesadillas of my own devising. The first was shredded pork roast mixed with barbecue sauce and caramelized shallots with cheddar. The second was a mix of goat cheese, mozzarella, Peppadews, green olives and green onions. The main was the chili and cornbread (this recipe, love it: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/ ... ash-363715). For dessert I made Macadamia Nut Squares from the Creme de Colorado cookbook. My friend made a coconut sorbet to go with it. I was not thrilled with the sorbet, I don't think she was either but it was ok and I was grateful for her help.

Mary