MOMMAS’ CORNBREAD RECIPE

Last Thursday, January 28th, Nashville was virtually quivering in the media rush of an oncoming “winter storm” predicting anywhere from 4-10” of snow followed by ice in the middle Tennessee area. The weathercasters showed the ominous road closings of Oklahoma, issued grave reports of trees laden with ice to follow a massive snowfall and followed up with a happy Kroger’s ad featuring a sale on milk and bread. Well, OK, I made the Kroger’s thing up, but you would have thought that they had with the stampede that thundered through the isles immediately after work on Thursday afternoon… or so I was told….

I wasn’t at the store at that point, but was comfortably seated at my hairdressers having my scalp massaged and hair trimmed… among other vital hair maintenance … but Southern women aren’t really supposed to talk about having their hair highlighted, are they?

Anyway, by the time I showed up at the grocery store (since I am admittedly the WORST at wanting to run there at the first hint of snow with panicked thoughts about whether we have the essentials… like brownie mix…) lots of items were out of stock and some shelves picked clean. When I had asked Uncle R. what “snow foods” he might want me to cook - should we be snowbound - he mentioned homemade soup… maybe his mom’s delicious hamburger soup. In the store I was amazed to see that there were only a few packs of ground beef remaining in the enormous Kroger meat section…. So I grabbed one.

Now it’s time for a sad confession. After I lugged all that food home, I realized that we were almost out of milk and butter, so I went out again! It’s nuts, but there is something so delicious about the thought of cooking up goodies with snow blustering around outside that made extra effort worthwhile.

Friday morning there wasn’t much happening weather-wise while I was dressing for work and so I headed out. Halfway to the office I received a call from office mate Tam-lou saying the office was closed – thanks to our kind and bounteous head of office. I was seriously relieved. The thought of picking my tentative way home along miles of snow clad Nashville highways with the most feared of all nature’s dangerous & unpredictable beasts (Nashville drivers) was not a happy one.

As soon as I got home, Uncle R. expressed the hope that there might be soup for lunch, so I got busy. I made Mommas’ homemade vegetable soup and after that made Mama S.’s wonderful hamburger soup. These two soups were pretty much our diet for the weekend, and although Uncle R. wears out on soup pretty soon, I could eat it day after day. Saturday I decided to try Mommas’ cornbread recipe and thought I would list it here for the lovely Pamela’s Girls.

I still smile when I remember squeezing recipes out of Mommas. While she was cooking she never thought about whether it was a half of a teaspoon of salt or one fourth cup of cooking oil… she had baked cornbread for so many years that she just tossed it all in, knowing that it would turn out in its own Southern culinary perfection. I remember that extruding her habitual cooking talents into explanations of cups and spoons made her lean her elbows on the kitchen counter, grip her forehead and sigh deeply with the physical effort.

Mommas’ Corn Bread

1 egg
1 level cup milk
1 1/2 tspn baking powder
1 tspn sugar
1/2 tspn salt
1/4 cup cooking oil
2 cups cornmeal (use coffee cup)
1/2 cup flour ( use coffee cup)

Mix egg and milk
Add other ingredients
Mix well until ingredients well blended
Put in greased cake pan in 350 oven and cook until golden brown (30 - 40min?)

With love and hugs,

Auntie J.