Friday, December 08, 2006
The Comforts of Home!
(from Linda) .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
...Sleigh bells ringing…carolers singing…and kids soon packing to come home from college for the Christmas break! They may be dreaming of not only a wonderful white Christmas, but also of soft big beds, thick fluffy towels, a bathroom all to themselves! ...and all their favorite foods prepared lovingly by Mom (or Dad!) ...the comforts of home they did not know they would miss until they went away to school! So, now many of us parents are eagerly thinking about making preparations for our college kids’ homecoming.
“Traditional” foods may vary, depending on which part of the country from which you hail. In the South, cornbread is a traditonal favorite food. Actually history plays a part in this—during the Civil War (or the War of Northern Aggression, as many Southerners call it!) there was a severe shortage of flour in the southern states. So, they began making cornbread from the corn readily available, and today it is still a a favorite. (Actually, this is how chess pie, another southern specialty using cornmeal, became so popular in the Southern region—it was made from the foods available during the war.)
So our southern belle Laura grew up loving cornbread, and I will be sure to have a batch of Alabama Cornbread for her during the Christmas break. I imagine some day she will be making it for her own family. Ironically, the recipe was given to me by Melody Capshaw, a friend in Tennessee! She won a contest with the recipe and was gracious enough to share it with me. Now Perry and Laura don’t want any other kind of cornbread…it has to be “Alabama Cornbread.” (And I must admit I love it myself…there is always a muffin or two missing before it ever gets to the table!) So, for those of you who have asked me, since I mentioned the cornbread in a previous blog, here is the recipe for you. Even those folks who think they don’t like cornbread usually love melt-in-your mouth Alabama cornbread! (By the way, before Laura came to OC, she checked to see if Oklahomans served biscuits—another one of her southern favorites. And yes, they do! Fortunately, it is not like our vacation in the Northeastern states where she found, much to her dismay, no biscuits served for breakfast!)
Alabama Corn Bread
1 cup sour cream
1 cup cream style corn
3 eggs, well beaten
1 cup self rising cornmeal
pinch of salt
1/2 cup cooking oil
Beat eggs well; add other ingredients and mix together. pour into greased
muffin tins.
Bake at 450 degrees until test done.
