Yesterday I baked a perfect pan of cornbread. Now, normally this would certainly not be blog-worthy news. But just this one time it really is. Because earlier in the day, "we" installed our NEW CONVECTION OVEN! (Click on the posts listed in Food and Drink category on the right to read the whole saga of our microwave troubles.) This time we have changed brands completely and we have a Sharp. It fits in the space where the old one was! It works like it is supposed to! Life is good!
We like cornbread and there is a kind of family history to it that we enjoy thinking about while we eat:
Bill's dad was the oldest in a family of nine children, growing up during the Depression. He told us that cornmeal was a family staple when money was scarce. He remembered that on several birthdays, the cake was a big pan of cornbread with a candle in the middle. This actually might not be as sad as it sounds, because this grandmother, (who was still alive and healthy well after our children were born) was a wonderful cook -- she worked some in restaurants and scout camps -- probably not too different than cooking for her family had been. So if anyone could make cornbread into a celebration, she was the one. My father-in-law still liked to eat it all his life, so I guess it must have been good.
We like it too -- but not for birthdays!
There's no recipe to accompany this Food post, because I just use the one that's always on the box of cornmeal. I wish I had Bill's Grandmother's though; I'm sure it was better.
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