Grandma's Sour Cream Cornbread

When I think of my grandmother's cooking, I think of fried chicken, vegetable soup, homemade biscuits, butter beans, fried fatback, and this lemon meringue pie she used to make that only my brother liked. It's not that the pie itself was bad, but she didn't pre-bake the pie crust before making it, so you had this delicious filling and gorgeous meringue, but a raw and gummy pie crust. For someone (like me) with textural issues in food anyway, I just couldn't eat it. My brother was fine with that, and made sure to scarf pretty much the whole pie down himself. Not that it mattered because she always seemed to have chocolate ice cream in the freezer, and that made for a very happy Krista.

Something else my grandmother used to make that was out of this world, was her sour cream cornbread. This stuff is amazing. Somewhere, there is a handwritten recipe from her of this miracle cornbread. I think we framed it and gave it to my brother at some point in time. As for me, before I moved away from home, I took the time to hijack kindly ask for and copy each and every recipe that my mother made over the years that I fell in love with. I was huge into scrap-booking at the time, so I put them all into a book with pictures and anecdotes behind the beloved people who gave me the joy of eating these wonderful foods over the years. As I grow older, and some of these people leave us, this book grows more and more precious to me.

This weekend was game night at our house, and I felt like cooking.  On the menu was a chicken casserole (recipe to come later this week), tomato/basil/feta salad (yummy and brought by our friends!), strawberry poundcake with Tequila Rose glaze, and grandma's cornbread. There was also a fantastic ham ball with crackers, spinach dip, and my homemade peach salsa as appetizers. A lot of food, no? That's what gamers do: they snack while playing.  *wink*

So this five ingredient cornbread is actually pretty easy to make, and I am not kidding you when I tell you it's a show stopper. It uses creamed corn and sour cream, which gives it a moist, dense, cake-like texture - and honestly - taste. I could eat this for dessert, breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner...that is how yummy it is!

Grab a bowl, and empty the contents of a package of Jiffy corn muffin mix. Then add two eggs, one stick of melted butter, 8 ounces of sour cream, and 8.5 ounces of creamed corn. Basically it runs about 1 cup each of sour cream and corn, with the cup of corn being a heaping one. The debacle is that you will have leftover creamed corn...and unless you really like eating it the way that it is...what do you do with it? Hang onto it. Freeze it or something, just don't throw it away. I have a recipe for my mom's corn fritters that are out of this world, and they will use up those leftovers!

When you unwrap the stick of butter, don't throw the wrapper away just yet. Use it to grease your 8x8 dish so that the cornbread won't stick! It works perfectly, and doesn't get your hands messy.  (thank you Paula Deen for that gem of an idea!)

Mix everything together until well combined, and pour into your prepared baking dish. Bake in a preheated 425°F oven for 25-35 minutes, or until lightly golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center.

Cut into squares, put on a serving platter, and stand back!  Well, after you get your share, of course. ;-)