Southern Cornbread

There are some things that I only love when they're Southern style. Since it's probably best not to get me started on the topic of iced tea, as I may begin to rant, we can stick to cornbread. Like many good Southern foods cornbread must be a bit sweet. It should also be nice and fluffy. Think...delicious smells wafting from the grill, plates filled with barbecue, people sipping down real iced tea. Bad cornbread however, creates an entirely different scene...squatting by a fire, using a stick to pry a dry mass out of a cast iron pan. In short, I want to feel like I'm at a party, not trying to survive the Oregon trail.

CORNBREAD
modified from the side of the Albers box by the lovely tikimama. I don't think I've ever seen Albers cornmeal, so I am doubly grateful to tikimama.

INGREDIENTS:
1 C flour
2/3 C sugar
1 C cornmeal
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 1/4 C milk
2 eggs beaten
1/3 C vegetable (or corn etc) oil
3 T melted butter

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your oven to 350 F. Mix together the flour, sugar, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. Mix together the milk, the beaten eggs, the oil and the melted butter (let the butter cool a bit before you add it to the eggs please). I would guess that you should add the dry ingredients to the wet, but I did it the other way around with no ill consequences. Either way, mix until fully incorporated. You can make either corn muffins, or corn bread. Grease whatever pan you're using. For muffins, bake 18-20 minutes, for bread in an 9x9 pan, cook for 20-30 minutes. Make sure that a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean, but don't over bake. No one likes dry cornbread.