Cornbread

The night before last, we decided to have chili for dinner. Lately, I've been serving the kids chili on top of toasted buns (sort of like Chili Sloppy Joe's), but this time I decided to try them out with some cornbread. I have always loved cornbread, and I figured they would too. I've made it for them before, in the form of Pogo Stick Muffins, and they ate that.... so....

I found this recipe for cornbread on The Pioneer Woman Cooks website. I decided to try her recipe because I thought, given she lives on a ranch and all, that she'd make some good authentic cornbread. She did not steer me wrong (she never has and I've made lots of her recipes).

Normally, I would have used butter in cornbread, but I went ahead and made it almost exactly as she suggested, so I used shortening. It was very good.

Marco didn't eat it. He tried it, and said that he didn't like cornbread. I usually don't argue too much when Marco says he doesn't like something. He usually eats ALMOST everything, and he always tries stuff. So I figure, at 4 years old, he's allowed to have a few things he won't eat.

Claire loved the cornbread. So I gave her some in her lunch the next day with some cold cuts and sliced cheese and carrot sticks alongside. She decided to try to saw the cornbread in half with the side of her hand so she could make a little cornbread sandwich. It all fell apart, and then she wouldn't eat it. When I picked her up she ACCUSED ME of giving her crumbled cornbread... Sigh, poor Claire what did she ever do to deserve a wicked cornbread crumbling Mom like me??

Cornbread

1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp shortenning
1 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 400F and place 8x8 inch dish in oven to heat.

2. Mix flour, cornmeal and salt.

3. In another bowl, mix buttermilk (you can make a cup of buttermilk by adding a tbsp of lemon juice to the milk and letting it sit for 5 minutes) with regular milk and egg. Stir in baking powder and baking soda.

4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until combined. Melt 1/4 cup of shortenning in the microwave and stir into batter.

5. Remove pan from oven and put 2 tbsp of shortening in the pan, spread around until melted. Pour batter into pan. Return to oven and bake for 20-25 minutes.