Cornbread, NOT Cake

Besides sweet tea there is a big confusion with cornbread. Think about it. Cornbread is supposed to suck up over 80% of the water in your body. It's not sweet. There are acceptable variations in the South for cornbread, but sweet is not one of them. That's just cake. There is Mexican cornbread with some yummy peppers mixed into it, there is cornbread baked in cute little muffin tins. (Served at Cracker Barrell's everywhere.) And most importantly Grandma's homemade cornbread.
No matter what kind of meal there is usually some cornbread on the table when Grandma cooks. Chilli, soup, Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner.. it's not seasonal and it goes with everything.
I've seen some Northerners flinch at how cornbread is used sometimes (my brother in laws are both Northern, thank goodness they had the good sense to marry Southern women to set them straight) But I've seen them cringe at using cornbread to 'sop' up the juice from turnip greens, stews, soups, etc. And they have seen the light and now they eat cornbread not cake.
My last comment is not of cornbread, but something that is usually there with cornbread for family gatherings. Sweet Potatoes. They have to be baked with marshmallows (some people like nuts with it, but I just like marshmallows).
These things fixed any other way is not of God.

When Jenn told me she was going to make a post about cornbread the first thing I asked was "Jiffy sweet or regular?" When she began her tirade about the evils of sweet cornbread, I didn't have the heart to tell her I actually like Jiffy cornbread (I hope we will still be friends after she reads this post). I decided that it may not be a good idea to start a great debate on sweet cornbread vs dry crusty cornbread (save that for when we get more visitors). So I mentioned the topic to my mother; hoping she would have some suggestions. She whipped her head around and gave me a "serious" (she says serious but it was really more of a slightly crazed) look, "Well I hope you are going to say something about making dressing with sweet cornbread". Sure...I can do that.

Now before I start talking about the evil sweet dressing, I figure I should explain what dressing is to the people (yankees) unfamiliar with it. Dressing is a cornbread based mix made with celery and onions. This mixture may seem familiar to some people who mistakenly (ignorantly) put a similar cornbread mix into the lower cavity (do I even need to say it) of a turkey. Now we in the South figured out this was not a good idea because it takes even longer for the turkey to cook when you do this. Instead, we put the cornbread mixture in a baking dish and bake it. Now I know the stuffing folks are saying, "The stuffing is to keep the turkey moist" (or whatever the dumb logic may be). To that I must say, that's what God created those funny meat filled bags in the turkey for, to make giblet gravy.

Now that we have that out of the way, let's talk about the sweet dressing. As mentioned earlier there are two main types of cornbread, sweet and regular. When making dressing, the proper cornbread to use is homemade cornbread ( see dry cornbread grandma makes). There are a few misguided souls (Bless their heart) out there that think it is ok to put the sweet cornbread in the dressing mix. Well, it's NOT OK. It is WRONG! Very,very Wrong. I want you to stop and think about this... Jenn already told you sweet cornbread is like cake. Can you imagine cake smothered in gravy...with little chunks of meat floating around. Makes your stomach turn just thinking about it, right. Well then, STOP MAKING THAT CRAP! You know who you are, don't make me call you out. And if you are one of those "special" individuals that make sweet dressing, stop asking us "Is there something wrong wrong with the dressing" when you notice no one is eating it. Yes, something is wrong. You have managed to screw up a nice family meal with your nasty dressing.

Now I would like to also comment on Jenn's brief mention of sweet potatoes. There are several other ways to prepare them. Jenn mentioned what many of us call sweet potato souffle. A lot of us include raisins and some of the truly adventurous add pineapple. Unfortunately Jenn neglected to mention two other popular sweet potato dishes. That would be sweet potato pie (baked or fried) and candied yams. I may have to write about sweet potatoes later on.

Ginny

Definitely should have mentioned the Sweet Potatoe Pie. Where was my brain? Let me think.. mentally consuming dressing, cornbread, sweet potatoe casserole, deviled eggs... etc. All that talk about the uses of Cornbread just made me hungry .