Southern Cornbread, Made from Scratch

Every once in a while I get a craving for some of my grandmother's southern cooking, so tonight I stopped and picked up some cornmeal and eggs on the way back from work so I could throw together a quick batch of her cornbread. My grandmother is the kind of cook that doesn't always measure and stores some of her recipes in her head.


She taught me to make cornbread from scratch by eyeing the ingredients. You know, "pour your cornmeal about to here, and add this and that, then keep adding milk until it looks like this." Sometime when I was in college she gave me a miniature cast-iron skillet, perfect for making cornbread when you're cooking for one. I sure feel closer to home when I whip up a batch. Tonight I seasoned and sauteed some broccoli and cauliflower in olive oil to go along with it.


I've definitely got some leftovers, as always. Just the other day I read something Erin wrote about toasted cornbread with syrup for breakfast. I may just have to give that one a try. I welcome all suggestions for leftover cornbread.

Sporadic Settling.

As I'm sure you can tell from my sporadic posts, I'm still getting settled into my condo in Birmingham. Over the weekend, however, we finally got the bedrooms and office painted so that the new carpet can be put in and then...FURNITURE! I was really looking forward to seeing the colors that I chose for the rooms and I'm really happy with them. The next thing I'm looking forward to getting in here is my Christmas tree, y'all. Normally, the mister and I would have put up my tree a couple of weeks ago, but this move has thrown a wrench in our holidays—along with his graduation from PA School and board certification coming up. However, we have planned the perfect date to celebrate our 3 years.

We had to postpone our date because things are so crazy right now, but as of today, Mr. Burton and I have stuck together through three years and three different cities. Who would've thought we would make it this far? I can't wait to see what happens next. 

Sweet Southern Stories

A few years ago, I stumbled across a book called The Sugar Queen while I was wandering through a bookstore one afternoon. It was a strange, southern story that I loved for some reason, written by a woman from Asheville, North Carolina named Sarah Addison Allen. After that one, I read two of her other books, Garden Spells and The Girl Who Chased the Moon. This weekend, I finally decided to read her most recent book, The Peach Keeper. It's been a while since I've read one of her books, but they always make me happy and slightly homesick from their southern charm. Now that I've officially read all of her books, I'm looking forward to the next one she writes. I do recommend all of her books, though I can't really decide which one I liked the most. I guess I'll have to read them again.

"Coffee, she'd discovered, was tied to all sorts of memories, different for each person. Sunday mornings, friendly get-togethers, a favorite grandfather long since gone, the AA meeting that saved their life. Coffee meant something to people. Most found their lives miserable without it.

Coffee was a lot like love that way."