For my family cornbread was a staple food.  It was served with beans and potatoes, with fish, for holidays, at parties and often just as a snack.  It was always served with a bowl of chili.  There was no question that chili and cornbread were meant to go together.  If anyone had suggested to me as a kid that you could just bake the chili right in to the cornbread, I would have called them crazy.

Yet here I am today, telling all of you that you can do just that.  Not only am I telling you that you can do it.  I’m telling you that you should do it, and you should do it as soon as you get to the recipe below.  It might just be a life altering experience for you.

I don’t say that lightly.  The dish pictured above and below these words has changed my perception of a dish I’ve known and loved all my life.  It has opened new possibilities to me in very much the same way that Martin Yan, Julia Child, Emeril Lagasse or Alton Brown ever did.  It twisted my “normal” on its ear… And that, my friends is a very good thing.

It also opened my kids up to something new.  I’m not going to lie when I say that there was a fair amount of resistance to trying this dish.  At one point there were cries of “I’d rather go hungry.”  Thankfully it never came to that. Once they took a bite, it was all over.  They loved it, and I think your family will too.

Have you ever had a dish that changed the way you thought about an ingredient?  If so, did it change for the better?  I’d love o hear about it, so drop a comment below.

Now get your oven ready.  It’s time for some vittles!

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Like most families, we saw each other mostly on holidays, and the order of the day was, of course, the food. Turkey, in particular, with homemade cornbread stuffing, though there would be literally tons of other dishes and desserts. My mother and grandmother would usually handle the dressing personally, bickering good naturedly over amounts and cooking times up until the point that one of them went to sleep (as the stuffing is usually made the night before, and the bird is started in the morning.)

Nan: Doris, there’s not enough onions in this.

Mom: Niki won’t eat them if she can see them, Mom.

Nan: *Chuckling* Oh… I seem to remember someone else who used to say the same thing, we’ll just cut them smaller. I think this needs more sage, or maybe some poultry seasoning.

Mom: It seems right to me, but we’ll add a bit more if you think it needs it.

Nan: Oh… It’s fine if this is the way your kids like it…

…

All right, maybe just a tad.

Mom: O.K. Mom, but just a bit.

Nan: Didn’t we have more cornbread?

Mom: We did… I think Jerry got to it.

Nan: Does that boy ever stop eating?

Mom: No.

I’ve generally shied away from the traditional version, both for the time it takes to make it properly and because I tend to be extremely messy when making it, but I took the plunge with dinner last night, just to have the taste of many, many happy days with me, and the memory of a very special lady at my table.

I hope Y’All enjoy, and whatever your holiday tradition is, be sure to share it with family. Read more…

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I was trolling my usual food blog haunts the other day when I stumbled across a post about cast iron pans and cornbread at The Homesick Texan. I realized two things very quickly. One, she has as much dislike for sweet cornbread as I do. Two, I hadn’t made cornbread in quite a while.

For those of you from the northern climbs; In Texoma we make our cornbread for dinner. It’s not a dessert item and therefore has no sugar. (I know she would disagree and say all of Texas, but I’ve been served sweet cornbread more than once since I moved here. and since I’ve never visited Southern Texas, I can’t speak for them.) Read more…

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