Corn Bread Success!

A few friends and I founded a tailgate this season -- one of my dreams for the past few years.  We named it Shenanigate and it is basically a smorgasboard of flavors, friends and fun.  I’ll blog about it in more detail when the season is over (GO BUCKS, btw).

Having a tailgate allows me to pressure myself to make amazing food to share.  For the Purdue game, I made chili and cornbread.  At the last tailgate, I made pimento cheese sandwiches (although kind of not because I couldn’t find pimentos and the cheese wouldn’t mash up so it wasn’t quite right).  The pimento cheese, umm, I mean cheese sandwiches, looked good, but  I was half embarrassed to put out them out on display. But this time, my stuff was the bomb.

I made a crock pot full of chili using a new recipe.  I usually make sweet chili, but I figured people would think that was weird.  So this time, I seasoned it with cumin and chili powder.  Magnificent.

The real crowd pleaser, though, was the cornbread.  I used the recipe from one of my favorite restaurants, DeSha’s.  The flagship DeSha's is in Lexington, but there's also one in Maysville (which is very close to Ripley, aka, hometown).  They are famous for many dishes, but their cornbread is kind of a classic.  I grabbed a recipe card from the restaurant after one visit and had been wanting to try it.  The tailgate was the perfect opportunity!

While emotionally drawn to the recipe and opportunity to create it, the recipe kind of intimidated me.  It called for a crap ton of things.  Umm, 6 eggs?  For real?  6?  Yes – it called for 6.  OK.  Here goes nothing!

I’ll tell you folks, the recipe is legit.  People actually WANTED to take a plate of leftovers home from the tailgate.  This kind of phenonema has never happened to me.  Probably one of the greatest moments of my life, haha.

The Recipe:

DeSha's Homemade Cornbread

3 cups self rising corn meal
1/3 cup sugar
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
3 cups sour cream
2 2/3 cups cream style corn

Combine all ingredients in order listed, mix well.  Pour the mixture into greased 9x13 inch pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes.  Makes 12 squares of cornbread.

If you go to DeSha's, you too can pick up such a postcard
with the cornbread recipe on the back.

My recommendations:

• The recipe instructs you to use a 9 x 13 pan.  I really thought the stuff was going to overflow for a while, but it didn't  The amount of batter used in a pan this size will give you a very thick corn bread -- almost like a cake.  I think next time I will cut the recipe in half to see how it works.

• Also, the recipe card says to bake the cornbread for 30 minutes approximately.  My oven is a little janky, so that could explain this, but it took about 50 minutes for the corn bread to fully cook.  Just be sure to test with a toothpick of skewer for doneness.

• It makes 12 HUGE squares.  I would think it would be more like 36 servings approx.

Enjoy!