'THE' CORNBREAD

cornbread - when done correctly - is god's gift to cheap people. i am a cheap person. well most of the time. anyways cornbread; its crumbly, takes over your mouth, then melts away into a tasty cloud-like texture. Is it cake or bread? i don;t know. but it can be used for anything.

everyone has their favorite use. mine happens to be for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. try it and tell me its not awesome, my father likes to drown his in honey for an after dinner snack, josh likes to eat his anytime after 2am with whipped honey butter slathered on top, my mom dissolves her in soups, my grandfather mashed his up with a wedge of cheddar cheese, a few spoons of molasses and a pool of milk (just a touch of the south there). yum. its quintessential soul food and we all know about soul food.

growing up (and i believe even to this day) my mom had a special cast iron pan that was sectioned off into equally sized wedges. pour the batter in, pop in the oven and 20 minutes later you have 8 perfectly sized servings waiting for their butter therapy. they beg for greedy hands to grab onto one of those triangles of gluttonous opportunity. my mother's kitchen, unlike my miniaturized one, had storage for such specialty items like that, mine: no way. I have to have at least 3 uses for an object to justify letting it take up real estate in my kitchen.

so i made chicken chili the other night - and really there is no other option but cornbread. really, i dare you to name an accompaniment that compliments chili any better, or even equally. don't even think of saying rice. just no. so i am going to share with you my cornbread recipe. only because when cornbread isn't done correctly its worthless; how something can be gritty, gooey and dry all at the same time is beyond me, but i happens. this took me somewhere around 6 years to get right and this is THE cornbread recipe. no more no less - don't experiment. if you do i will not be held responsible. broccoli is especially banned. sorry.

CORNBREAD

1c all-purpose flour

1c cornmeal

1/4c + 1tbs sugar

1 tbs baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4c shortening (crisco works well), softened at room temp

1 c milk

1 egg

* preheat oven to 425 F

* combine all the dry ingredients : flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt

* cut in the shortening with your hands to a fine crumble. similar to pie crust, but finer and more even.

* in a separate bowl whisk together the milk and egg.

* quickly add the milk mixture to the flour mixture. mixing only enough to combine. it will be a bit lumpy.

* pour into a greased 9 x 9 square pan.

* cook 20 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

* cut and serve