No Recipe for Cornbread

Laura wants my "no recipe" for cornbread.    First, I want to make it perfectly clear that I have nothing against self-rising flour or corn meal mix.  I use both.  The reason is--I no longer have a sifter.  All I have is a big strainer I use when something must be sifted.   Sifting is work.  It usually needs to be done more than one time.   I am basically lazy.  So, to make biscuits I use self-rising flour and to make cornbread I use corn meal mix.  I buy the big kind in the sack--5 pounds.  I do not like those little jiffy boxes.  They are cake.  I don't put flour in my cornbread only the mix!

First, dump some corm meal mix in a big bowl.  Probably a couple of cups at least--maybe 2 and a half--I have to see it.  I add some sugar, but just a level T spoon not a lot.  I add another pinch of salt too!  Now, I put in an egg.  Oh, you should have already "lit" the over to 450 degrees!  Oven must  be hot to make cornbread.  Now, I add sweet milk.  I pour it out of the jug!  I am not sure how much but I am sure it is way more than a cup.  The mixture for cornbread should not be as thick as for a cake.  Not runny either, but runnier than a cake mix.  If your mixture too runny! Tada--just add a half cup of corm meal mix.  Put an iron skillet on a burner on the stove.  Add a T of shortening.  You can use oil, but I think it leaves an after taste.  Ohhhh, lard would be nice but I don't buy it anymore.   Melt the oil and get the skillet hot, hot!  Pour in your mixture.   You want it to brown a little.  You can turn off the burner but leave the skillet there a while.  Now, put this in your hot oven.  I set the timer for 20 minutes so I won't burn the cornbread.  Cornbread needs to be brown on top.   I don't usually use the broiler....I leave it in the oven until the top is brown!  So, Sunshine, that is how I make cornbread!   Hope I did not leave anything out.   This makes a big iron skillet full.  I have a small iron skillet Patsy sent me.  If I make a small batch...I still use one egg.  Everything else is the same just less of it!

Erin is too smart to use "no recipes", but I think one day she will turn into her Momma and start doing as I do!  She will say,  "how much"?   She wants an exact amount...so I just make one up.  The recipe does not turn out well usually and she wonders what she did!!  I chuckle every time.

Yippy, skippity, I have been worried that Larry has a cataract and is going blind.  He can't read what is on the tv.  It is often--what does that say.  Well, he went to Dr. Anne--I taught her and she is a jewel.  I went and sat in the office in case they dilated his eyes.  All he needed was a new prescription and Anne said he is a long way from cataract surgery.  I am so glad.  He can only see out of one eye really and surgery on your one good eye is a little scary.  He may have to have cataract surgery, but that is farther down the road~  So thankful today!

I went to get my hair cut today....on the wrong day.  I thought I looked but now I think I looked at Larry's eye appointment card.  At least, that is my story and I am sticking to it!  I will go on Thursday and try again for a trim!  My hair cutter is trying to get on disability!  She is really working on it.  She is having back problems, nervous trouble, head aches, and lots more stuff!  She believes in taking meds.  More the better.    I told her to NEVER have a back surgery if she can help it.  Getting disability would not be worth getting back surgery.  Well, I like her for a hair cutter, but I get tired of the moaning and groaning when I go!