Best Dey Ever: Someone's in the Kitchen

We made cornbread! FROM SCRATCH!! Well Jim did most of the work but I stirred which I feel is a pretty crucial part. Jim taught me all about gleaning corn and told me tales of how he did it as a child. Step one: find a cornfield that has been harvested. Step two: hunt for any corn that has been left behind! That's gleaning corn!!

To make cornmeal just pull all the kernels off and toss them in a blender until finely ground.

Never mind the banana. It just happened to be on the counter.

There are many recipes you can find online for making cornbread. We used one that we found on seriouseats.com that we tweaked a little but you can view the original recipe here. We went for more of a Southern cornbread which is not sweet, obviously Jim's idea. The recipe called for 10 inch cast iron skillet and we have a 12 inch so our recipe went as follows

Ingredients

2 1/4 cups of cornmeal
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3 cups (16 ounces) buttermilk
3 tablespoons shortening

Procedures

1

Place 12-inch cast iron skillet in oven on middle rack and heat to 450°F. Meanwhile, whisk cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl until evenly incorporated. In a medium bowl, lightly beat eggs. Whisk in buttermilk.
2

As oven nears 450°F, remove skillet and add shortening. Return to oven for a few minutes, allowing shortening to heat until shimmering. Remove and swirl shortening to evenly coat the bottom.
3

Add eggs and buttermilk mixture plus any excess melted shortening from skillet to dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Mixture will be lumpy. Pour batter into hot skillet and return to oven, bake until top is just golden and edges have browned and pulled away from the side of the pan, 20 to 25 minutes. Allow to cool slightly and serve warm.