Cast Iron Cornbread: "It really rocks"

Justin wasn't kidding when he shared his recipe for Cast Iron Cornbread with me and closed the e-mail with: "It really rocks."

It's nothing like the sweet, cakey cornbread Mom has always made for us -- although now she thinks she's really brilliant because she makes hers in muffin tins.

As a matter of fact, this recipe doesn't have any flour or sugar in it. But it's plenty moist and flavorful.

Cast Iron Cornbread
1/4 c. plus 2 T. canola oil
3 eggs
8 oz. sour cream
4 oz. creamed corn
1 c. corn meal (not coarse)
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt

Put 2 tbsp canola oil in cast iron skillet and place in oven. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix 1/4 c. oil, eggs, sour cream and creamed corn in a medium bowl. In a seperate bowl, mix the remaining dry ingredients, then add to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Pour mixture into hot skillet, and bake for 30 minutes.

(Um, I just realized that I didn't put in the 1/4 c. of oil, and it turned out perfect. Huh. Sounds like experimentation time!)

Let the roll-making begin

You now how most people, when they get a bread machine, it just goes in their garage and gathers dust until they decide to sell it at a garage sale? Well, that's not me. I don't remember how I got obsessed with the idea of making bread, but right before I made my first loaf from scratch, Mom offered to give me her bread machine instead.

I was always anti the square loaves, until my friend Chelsea, who's a trained chef with impeccable taste, convinced me that they're not so bad. Pretty much any food-related item that Chelsea gives her stamp of approval to becomes good enough for me that easily. I am so gullible.

So began the obsession with baking break. It started with the recipes that came with the bread machine. But then I came across Beth Hensperger's "The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook," and I think it might have been love at first sight. I started making the recipes from front to back, then I got sidetracked by a few and now I'm all over the place. But I never strayed from loaves.

OK, I sculpted a few lopsided pizza crusts and calzones that started off in the bread machine, but I was really scared of anything having to do with cutting the dough into chunks. Rebekkah Denn once tried to convince me that cinnamon buns are easy to make after I marveled at her ability to make these overnight rolls and take care of her two children, but to no avail.

However, last night, I didn't really have a choice when Bryan came home with a delicious-smelling smoked port butt from his SouthPaw BBQ buddy. Well, I suppose I could have gone BACK to the store to get hamburger buns, but who wants to go to the grocery store twice in a day? That is just silly. It makes much more sense to just decide on a whim at 5 o'clock at night to make hamburger buns from scratch.

Oh my gosh, it was so easy! Why have I been scared of dough my whole life? I suppose it has to do with Mom's countless failures at getting it to rise, but that's when the bread machine comes in handy. The rest just takes a gentle touch and a lot of flour.

Now take a look at this scrumptiousness ...