corn bread

I have passed this photo a few times on flickr.com and finally remembered the stories that went with this photograph.

The recipe for the main course came from The Occasional Vegetarian, a cookbook that is out of print. My mother-in-law acquired it for me used because she new how valuable it would be in my kitchen. The recipe originally called for rice, but I had couscous; so I used couscous. My mother and I both have been having indigestion (only one of us has a more positive excuse and will eventually have something to show for it) and actually appreciated the basic, but bland, flavors: sweet pine nuts, slightly bitter spinach, salty Parmesan. Next time, I would try it with rice and add some additional flavor to the rice itself--maybe some onion and garlic powder. Will have to think on it. Luckily, I have plenty of spinach and rice on hand for the coming week. Maybe I'll find the time to try it again.

Paul wanted some corn bread, and I thought it would go great with the asparagus, but when I measured out the corn meal, I realized that I was very short the needed amount for the cornbread; so, I checked out the recipe for Corn Scones in Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home and found it needed the 1 cup corn meal I had. The batter mixes up easily and is easy to cut into nice triangular shapes with a pizza cutter. Naturally, the corn scones don't get as fluffy and are a bit crunchier than regular corn bread, but it's a nice change or an easy way to get the same flavor when you are short on corn meal. By the way, the recipe calls for currents, which I intentionally left out.

This has to be the best cornbread I have ever had. Lisa Hardinge made it to accompany her Red Lentil Soup when we were visiting Spokane last month. What got me was how light in color it was, how light on the tongue it was, and how it amazingly stayed together and didn't crumble when it was cut and served. I love cornbread, but a dry mixture where most the item is left in the pan or on the side of your plate is a botch! Such a successful dish proves that maybe restrictive foods (like dairy- or gluten-free) might be successful after all.Although all of Lisa's cooking was fantastic, this was likely the most successful just because I talked about it so much to everybody when we got back.

Marie Callender's Famous Cornbread (Modified)

Source: Constance Corbett (Modified)

• 1 ¼ cups flour [See gluten-free note below.]
• ¾ cup cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ⅓ cup sugar, (or less)
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 1 ¼ cups milk, (soy or cow)
• ¼ cup shortening, (olive oil works great)
• 2 egg whites, (or equivalent egg replacer)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl.

3. Add milk, oil, and egg (or egg replacer with water) and mix only until all the ingredients are well combined.

4. Pour the batter into a greased 8x8 in. glass baking dish.

5. Bake for 25-30 min, or until the top is golden brown.

This recipe is very good even when made free from dairy or eggs. I usually mix the egg replacer and warm water in a separate bowl before adding it into the recipe. Blending it with a hand mixer seems to work well. Better Than Milk Soy Original is the best soy milk I've found for cooking. Other types of soy milk give the recipe an unusual flavor. If making gluten-free, use gluten-free flour and add 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum to the batter.

When Publix had a 50% off sale on Bird's Eye products, I picked up as many items as looked good. The bag of white and green beans with baby carrots looked different, and I took picked one up. I very rarely make the recipes on the back of a package, but I had some bean sprouts that needed to be used up and the recipe on the back for a been salad with the Bird's Eye bag and some bean sprouts sounded good and easy. The recipe called for the beans to be cooked, diced onions to be added in, and for the mix to be topped with a honey mustard salad dressing, which I had to make from scratch because I never by such a variety. Perhaps the dressing was the sour note, perhaps it was the quality of the vegetables. Either way, it was a bad move. And the leftovers the next day were even worse. (See, I don't like to waste food, and I don't believe in sending Paul leftovers that weren't good int he first place. I brought the leftovers myself and through half of them out.) Needless to say, I won't be reading recipes on the back of bags any more, and the other half of the bag of beans is still in the freezer.