Cornbread!

It's been awhile but I'm back! Posting everyday was getting a little overwhelming so I may only post every other day for awhile. It's been getting cold in the midwest and that means lots of soups and chili! It also means cornbread, which I love with everything.

I always make my cornbread from scratch. It is SO easy. It only takes a few more minutes than making it from a box of Jiffy. This recipe comes off the side of the cornbread container:

Easy Corn Bread
9 servings

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup corn meal
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
1 cup skim milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease 8 or 9 inch pan. Combine dry ingredients. Stir in milk, oil and egg, mixing just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 20-25 minutes or until light golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

I usually use a square glass pan to make this cornbread. I also make corn muffins. The recipe is the same, just pour the batter into a 12 cup muffin pan instead. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Corn muffins are great for freezing as well. I wrap them up 2 at a time that way I can pull out a 2 pack to go with my lunch or dinner.

I like to make my cornbread from scratch because I know exactly what's in it. These are the ingredients in a Jiffy mix: wheat flour, corn meal, sugar, lard, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, monocalcium phospate), contains 2% or less of the following: salt, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid. These are the ingredients in homemade cornbread: flour, corn meal, sugar, baking powder, salt, milk, vegetable oil, egg. Which would you rather eat?

I do use mixes sometimes, but I prefer to make stuff from scratch when possible. I keep a container of cornmeal in my freezer and I almost always have the rest of the ingredients on hand so I can make corn bread whenever I want. I don't have to remember to buy the little mixes.

I don't know that it's necessarily cheaper than using a Jiffy mix because when Jiffy mixes are on sale you can get them for 3 for $1.00 sometimes.

I like homemade cornbread because it's more natural, easy and it tastes fantastic! I hope you will try making it from scratch sometime too so you can see how easy it is.