Cornbread

This is the recipe I made for you at least once while you were here and works well as a side anytime (especially with chili).

Southern Cornbread

Preheat oven to 450.

Place a heavy 9-inch skillet, preferably cast-iron, or 8x8 baking pan:
1 T. bacon fat, lard, vegetable shortening (or in a pinch, butter)

Whisk together:
1 3/4 c. stoneground corn meal (I used Hodgson Mills)
1 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
3/4 t. salt

Whisk in another bowl until foamy:
2 eggs

Whish in:
2 cups buttermilk
(I rarely have buttermilk, but it's easy to make a substitute.  I put 1 T. lemon juice for each cup of milk into a measuring cup and add milk to equal a cup - for this recipe, I put in 2 T. lemon juice and add 1 7/8 c. milk.  Let it sit for 5 minutes and it works like buttermilk for most recipes)

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until just blended.

Place skillet or pan in oven and heat until the fat smokes (or just melted and the pan is hot.  Smoking fat always scares me a little).  Pour in all of the batter at once and return to the oven.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until the top is browned and the center feels firm when pressed lightly.

I'll put the rest of the cornbread stuffing recipe in another post.

-Jennifer