Monday, January 12, 2009

... and They Asked for Seconds!

Tonight's dinner featured something that went over very well... and shouldn't have! So I thought I'd share the recipe. Even if you're not into cooking, I think it makes good reading.


Twice-Baked Cornbread

1 cup cornmeal 1 cup white flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 can of corn
scavenged leftover pumpkin (about 1/2 cup)
1 cup plain nonfat yogurt, preferably left on the top shelf of the refrigerator to partially freeze
1/4 cup vegetable oil, more as needed
2 eggs

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

  2. Drain the corn and reserve the liquid for use in a soup. (worked great in a roasted veg soup tonight!)

  3. Get the cornmeal out to discover it's almost all gone. Substitute husband's prize stone ground polenta and hide the evidence.

  4. Mix "cornmeal" with flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.

  5. Scrape yogurt into measuring cup, approximating because of the ice crystals. Add pumpkin and oil. Stir.

  6. Mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients with corn. Mix until appears like a thick batter. (or mooshed-up macaroni and cheese, as the Man of the Place commented.)

  7. Scoop into prepared muffin tin. There will be some leftover. Ignore it. You have plenty to do.

  8. Set timer for 15 minutes and work on soup.

  9. After 12 minutes, discover eggs still sitting on work area. Squawk.

  10. Remove muffin tin from oven and glare at it. Think. Look at the eggs.

  11. Shrug. Crack eggs into leftover batter and mix thoroughly.

  12. Scoop mostly cooked batter out of muffin tin and into mixture. Mix really thoroughly, being sure to break up all the cooked bits.

  13. Look at the clock. Note that you have to leave in five minutes to pick up your kid from soccer practice and there will be no way to make two batches of muffins.

  14. Yank out a square 8 x 8 glass dish. Spray it and dump in the new mixture. Pat it out evenly.

  15. Place in oven and set cook-timer to turn itself off in 25 minutes.
  16. Dump the muffin tin in the sink and hope for the best.