Welcome to our new web site!
To give our readers a chance to experience all that our new website has to offer, we have made all content freely avaiable, through October 1, 2018.
During this time, print and digital subscribers will not need to log in to view our stories or e-editions.
You can’t hardly mess up cornbread.
If it’s a bit undercooked, you can grin and pour a little extra syrup over it. If it got left on the stove too long, just scrape off the bottom and enjoy from the middle up. Made from scratch is best. But there are mixes out there that are way better than “just tolerable”.
And when you think of the confusion, misgivings and unpredictable things “baking” in the world around us today, it’s a staple to hang on to!
I’ve eaten it in regular triangles, I’ve had it in squares, Mom had a cast iron skillet specifically molded to turn out six torpedo shaped pones, I’ve eaten it with a fork, I’ve picked it up with both hands and shoveled in mouthfuls, I’ve put my arms behind my back and leaned down and eaten it like a donkey, I’ve crumbled it up in a glass of milk and had it for dessert, I’ve eaten it with green eggs and ham, Sam I am.
It was a great conversation piece. Leon, me and David Mark had running arguments at meals over the best way to make hot water cornbread, whether hoe/cake was one word or two and if it actually contained real corn.
Cornbread was often an interactive meal. If Dad went to answer the phone and Mom turned to set something on the stove, I ducked a wadded up handful Leon hurled toward my left temple.
Cornbread is one of the most versatile foods on the planet.
As a kid growing up in the greatest little village in West Tennessee we only ate it at three meals each day. And I know for dead certain positive we were not alone.
If we were playing ball in that vacant lot beside Ricky Hale’s house and it got lunch time, Miss Anita would call us in for a bowl of pinto beans and cornbread. If it was “kick the can” as dark was falling on Richard and Linda Gregg’s house, we’d go in and feast on cornbread and pinto beans…..do you see a theme here? When we hauled hay for Mr. Dwayne Melton, he demanded we start at first light. He’d come out to the barn where we’d gathered up with a sack of cornbread “leftover” from breakfast.
Cornbread eats well with most everything from hard boiled eggs to a spinach casserole. It goes great with a sweet potato. It compliments lima beans and black eyed peas. It’s especially good with cabbage. And I don’t know have many mornings I ate it right by itself…..and went out to face the day, happy, full and content.