Corn Bread

"We all have the Native Americans to thank for corn bread.  Its humble beginnings can be traced back to the Indians that the European settlers came in contact with when they first arrived in America." (http://www.indians.org/articles/corn-bread.html)

We (my husband and I) have invited the sister missionaries to join us for supper tonight.  Planning to try a new (new to me) recipe for corn bread, I decided to make a skillet of it this morning.  That way, if it didn't turn out, or if I didn't like it, I could scratch the idea and make some dinner rolls.  Well,... I say this recipe is a "GO" for tonight, and beyond.  The credit for this recipe goes to someone named "Nandabear".

As I was making this, I thought of a particular grandson (Matthew, shown below) because he always liked it whenever I served this in the past-- but, confession-wise, my "cornbread of the past" usually came from one of those little blue boxes.  NOT this time around!!

This recipe makes enough to serve 10 (I'd surely cut this recipe in half for a small family.)

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups white cornmeal-- but, I used yellow cornmeal today.  (Personally, I like to look around and find Non-GMO corn meal--  an Internet search will help you find some brands of it.)
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
• 4 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 2 cups buttermilk (To make this, I added two tablespoons of fresh-squeezed lemon juice to a scant two cups of whole milk, and then let it sit for about 15 minutes so it could do its "curdle thing".)

DIRECTIONS:

1. If you DON'T have regular buttermilk on hand, make your own by adding lemon juice as I did.  Do this now so it can sit and do it's "curdle thing" for a little while.  Skip this step, of course, if you have regular buttermilk on hand.
2. Preheat oven to 450-degrees F.
3. Pour vegetable oil into a 10-inch cast-iron skillet and swirl the oil to coat bottom and sides of skillet.  Place skillet (with the oil in it) into the pre-heated oven until very hot, OR for 3-5 minutes.  Set a timer so you do NOT forget about this being in the oven.
4. Remove skillet from oven, and set aside.
5. Whisk together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a med. sized mixing bowl. 
6. Beat eggs in a separate bowl, and then stir the buttermilk in.
7. Pour half (2 tablespoons) of the hot vegetable oil from the skillet into this buttermilk mixture.  Beat until oil is incorporated.  
8. Mix buttermilk/eggs/oil mixture into dry ingredients to make a smooth batter. 
9. Pour batter into the still hot/warm skillet.
10. Bake in the oven until top is golden brown, or 18-20 minutes.  This is how mine looked at 18 minutes when I took it out of the oven.  

                                  
Since ovens vary, check yours so see how it is coming along after the first 15 minutes.  IF you do not want the top to get as dark as what mine did, here, you might want to lay a piece of aluminum foil very lightly over the top when it gets to the desired "brownness" and continue baking until it is done.  (At 18 minutes, I tested this with a wood toothpick to see if I thought it was done-- the toothpick came out "clean" so I took it out.)

Cut cornbread into servings while in the skillet, and serve while warm.  If baked ahead of time, like I just did, warm it in the oven just before serving time.

After taking that big wedge of corn bread out of the skillet and............. well, you know,...... eating it while the butter was melting on it,............... I think I just may have made a meal out of this.  OINK!!!, OINK!!! ... to ...ME!!!!