Homemade Corn Bread

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Mary's Homemade Corn Bread

As an old country boy, I believe there are few foods that don't taste better when accompanied by a big piece of corn bread. I remember vividly the taste of my mother's scratch made corn bread, and the wonderful dish consisting of a crumbled up slice of it smothered in fresh garden tomatoes and field peas, all washed down with raw milk. I've written before about my Betty Crocker Mix corn bread and how my Panamanian friends love it, but I really miss the real thing. Thanks to Nancy Young, who just arrived with her husband Richard and daughter Rebecca to settle in Volcan, I now have the missing item needed to make REAL cornbread. Nancy was kind enough to bring me a nice 10-1/4 inch Lodge cast iron skillet in her suitcase. Nancy didn't know me from Adam when I responded to her offer on Viviendo en Panama to bring things down on the family move to Panama, and I want to thank her for her kindness. She, Richard, and Rebecca are the kind of folks we need more of in Panama.
My daughter-in-law, Mary, who lives in South Africa with my oldest son Karl and their two youngest boys, Ryan and Gavin (http://www.southafricaupc.org/) sent me her corn bread recipe, and it is everything I had hoped for. Here, in her own words is the recipe.

The key to success in cornbread is to cook it in an iron skillet. I lather white margarine (grease) all inside the skillet and this helps to make it rather crunchy when cooked. I use:

1 1/2 cups of flour
1 1/2 cups of cornmeal
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
enough milk to make it kinda thick but not so thick you can't pour it into skillet. Probably about 1/12 cups as well.....You will know when you make it.
Bake at 150 degrees C' or 425 F for about 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Thanks, Mary. This beats anything ever put into a package.

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