Capitol Hill Blue Forums Misc. Topics Food, Drink and Cooking What are you making/having for dinner tonight?

There it is! Good cornbread is an art form. I must say that I have had fair success at it over the years. An iron skillet is a must. Can't be done without one. As you say, Greger, it should be hard and crispy on the outside, deep golden brown on the bottom, soft and chewy in the middle. I always use buttermilk.

I'm not at all partial to sweetened cornbread. I know a lot of people like it that way, but I don't care for it as much.

Once when I was a kid I saw my grandmother making cracklins and that was the end of cracklin' cornbread for Mick. I don't want no parts of that in my cornbread!

There use to be a place near Micanopy, but I imagine it's gone now. Mighty fine home cookin'.

I'm gonna have to find me a recipe for that. New England tends toward sweet cornbread; not to my liking. (I already have the cast iron skillet.)


Dinner tonite was just organic, raw broccoli with a little ranch dressing for flavor contrast. Stopped at the health food store after work and ate a handful of cashews on the drive home. Ended up feeling . Doubt it was the nuts...more likely a stomach virus that just about everybody in Vermont has...some worse than others. Luckily, I don't seem to have the full-blown (as it were) variety.

You'd think broccoli wouldn't be a good choice under those conditions, but it went down well.

(Too much information??? )

I have a Southern Living cookbook recipe that uses a cast iron skillet to bake the corn bread in and it comes out crusty and moist in the middle - and it also has a tablespoon of bacon fat, baking powder, and buttermilk in the recipe - just as you state.

OMG! I have to have that smilie.

(I've helped myself!)

Tonight I put 1/2 an avocado on two slices of Orowheat Oatbran bread, four slices of peppered turkey sliced meat and two slices of low-fat swiss cheese and grilled it in my panini maker for about 5 mins.

...and added a side of creamy tomato-basil soup.

(Sammy had the very same dinner )

The halibut turned out well. I'm really starting to enjoy it. I like salmon, too. But I only eat the wild-caught, northwest Pacific kind. Copper River tatstes best-but it is very pricey $16-20 a pound!

My main weapon for corn bread...

My fam gets all quivery when I make corn bread.

Sweet corn bread muffins, etc have their value too though. Those are way different but something I've discovered in recent years. They offer a very different experience but one I've come to like.
Not soul food, stick to the ribs (like those up there) but more gourmet.

I made maybe the best salmon I've ever eaten/cooked last night. Frozen Silverbrite filets. Hubby skinned it. I marinated it in Thai chili sauce and topped it with fresh garlic slices.
Baked it in a very hot (4oo) oven for 15 minutes.
Wow, it was good. Not fishy at all.

Hmmm....we're paying $7/8 per lb and eat it at least once a week rotating with tuna and perch now.
Only wild caught.

You got it! I'm not a purist, have you ever added jalapenos and cheddar cheese?

Olyve, is that Copper River salmon from the Pacific northwest? Wow-that's agreat price! It's never that cheap down here!

It's from Alaska.