So.
To those of you who know me personally, it is no surprise that I like to cook, considering all I do is talk about food and post food pictures to Facebook haha. To those of you who do not know me personally, it's probably pretty obvious I like to cook, considering I have a food blog and all :)
However, it's not simply the act of cooking I enjoy, but the act of cooking for others. When I have just me to feed, I will easily resort to a cup of top ramen or a microwavable dinner. Not those small portion, healthy ones, but the calorie-laden, Hungry Man ones. Because f*** Lean Cuisines and Healthy Choice--I could eat like 3 of those before I'm full!
Please don't judge...
Anyway.
Most of my culinary creations come about when I cook for my boyfriend; however, since he currently lives 5 hours from me, I see him only once a month, on average. I recently took a week off from work during my spring break to visit him, devoting the whole trip to cooking for him. Literally. He started a new job at FNMOC that week, so I kept myself busy during the day by planning out meals. And I enjoyed it a lot!
My obsession with cooking that week made me realize I needed to find a reason to cook more often even when we're not together, since that is my favorite hobby. It's hard enough being apart from him, let alone practicing my hobby only when he's around. Figured I might have an easier time being away from him if I could busy myself with more of the things I enjoy doing while we're apart. Not sure why it took me a year and a half of being apart from him to realize this, but I was right.
My roommates and I decided it would be fun to do roomie dinners at least one night a week, and even though it's only the second week since we started doing this, I already feel genuinely happier with life, being able to devote my free time to planning out recipes even with my boy not here. Since today is the only day I have off from both school and work this week, I decided to do dinner tonight. Stuck some ribs and bbq sauce in the Crock-Pot (post to follow) and made a couple batches of cornbread--one plain and one with jalapeños.
This cornbread is soooooo easy and tasty! It came out dense and sweet (which is how I like it). This recipe makes a double batch, so cut it in half if you don't want two loaves, but I recommend making both and freezing one if that's all you need
In a medium pot (yes, a pot--this is going to be your main mixing bowl to save you dishes), melt 1 1/4 cups of butter. Remove the pot from heat, stir in 1 1/4 cups of sugar. Incorporate 4 eggs together in a small bowl, then add to the sugar mixture
Add the 2 cups of buttermilk, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking soda, 2 cups of cornmeal, and 2 cups of flour. Stir until well blended--it should look like the batter in this high quality Instagram picture. Kinda like a thick cake batter
Separate half of the batter into a medium bowl and add diced jalapeños if you want a jalapeño loaf, otherwise just divide the plain cornbread batter into 2 greased pans (doesn't really matter if you use round cake pans, square cake pans, or casserole dishes). I just grabbed a good handful of sliced jalapeños from a jar--came out to about 3/4 cup, so eyeball the amount based on your preferences, then chop them up and mix them into the batter I also added 2 tbs of jalapeño juice from the jar into the batter, and added a few jalapeño slices to the top. Then pour your batter into a pan
Here's the plain cornbread
I used a casserole dish and an 8-inch cake pan, since that's what I could find
Cook them together in the oven at 375* for about 20-25 minutes. Mine were perfect after 20
Lots of hidden jalapeño surprises :)
Close-up!
I let both batches cool for 20 minutes, then cut them up into slices
The jalapeño loaf is my favorite!
Buttermilk Cornbread--Plain and Jalapeño
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
4 eggs, beaten together
2 cups buttermilk
2 cups flour
2 cups corn meal
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup canned sliced jalapeños (optional)
2 tbs jalapeño juice from can
Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 375*. Grease your 2 cake pans.
2) Melt butter in pot. Remove from heat and mix in sugar. Once that is incorporated, add your eggs and blend well. Add buttermilk, salt, baking soda, cornmeal, and flour. Stir until blended--a few lumps are ok.
3) Pour half the batter into a medium bowl if making a jalapeño loaf. Add jalapeños and juice. Stir until incorporated, then pour batter into one of the cake pans. Pour the plain batter into the second cake pan.
4) Bake both loaves in the oven for 20-25 minutes until done. Serve warm with butter :)
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