Food-o-meter: She loved it...especially the grapes!
Mouthfuls: Probably about 35 (she has a little mouth!)
Health: 9/10
Price: About $8 for all the ingredients (fed a family of 3 with leftovers!)
Dessert: Yes, she got dessert because she ate all of her dinner!
VEG's DadTo have your early years breakfast, lunch or dinner featured please send to NeverSeconds@gmail.com , thanks!
Hello, Taelyn's mum! I've never had cornbread, is it at all like polenta? I can't imagine the taste.
ReplyDeleteGrapes are the best, well done to Taelyn for eating it all.
Cornbread is an american dish. It's bread made with cornmeal and has a dense, coarse texture. It's really popular in the southern states but you can find it all over the US. It's one of my favourite things and something I have really missed since moving to the UK 9 years ago. it's delicious, especially served warm with butter and honey! :)
DeleteYou make it sound delicious, Renda, but I am still in the dark when trying to imagine the taste. Does it resemble anything we have in the UK? Is it sweet or savoury? Right now I'm picturing a sweetcorn muffin made with cous-cous ( do they even exist?!i hope not!).
DeleteI'm Portuguese and we have cornbread too! It's savoury and you treat it just like you would bread, I love it toasted with butter but some people prefer it as a meal accompaniment, to mop up sauces and whatnot. Renda, I don't know if it's exactly the same as American cornbread but I'm guessing it's pretty similar (also dense and coarse in texture). You should check if there are any Portuguese bakeries / grocery shops in your area as you can often get cornbread there (Broa de Milho in Portuguese).
DeleteAmerican cornbread can be sweet or savoury. Growing up we had a cornbread baking tray that made cornbread sticks shaped like corncobs! I always made mine with honey so that it had a sweet taste. It's hard to describe the texture. A bit coarse and crumbly. My parents used to break it up into a glass of milk and it was coarse enough to stay firm without becoming mush. I can't really think of anything in the UK that comes close. It's a quick bread in that you don't need to add yeast. It will rise some when you bake it but not too much. I've also made it in a square baking tray and added tinned sweetcorn, jalepeno peppers, grated cheese and sour cream. Usually to have with chilli. Corn muffins are similar to regular cornbread but a bit softer and usually quite sweet. Cornbread is also used in stuffing for turkeys! I'm sure if you searched online you can find lots of recipes for cornbread. It's worth trying at least once.
DeleteThe corndog muffin in Taelyn's dinner is based on a corndog - a hotdog on a wooden skewer dipped into cornbread batter and deep-fried. Very popular, especially at county fairs and carnivals! I'm getting really hungry now!
Me too, my tummy is rumbling! You've convinced me! I'm going to get polenta flour ( i've googled cornmeal and that's what it looks like!) and try to make it at the weekend.The one with jalapenos and cheese sounds particularly good although I'll add a few frankfurters in honour of Taelyn :)).
DeleteDefinitely give it a try AndraRossana! Go for a polenta flour that has a coarser texture. It should work well. There is cornmeal and cornflour. Cornflour is much finer in texture than cornmeal. I used to mix the two or add wheat flour to my cornmeal when I wanted fluffier cornbread. Good luck and enjoy! One thing that is lovely with cornbread is honey butter - butter and honey whipped together. Yum! :)
DeleteHello Taelyn snd Parents,
ReplyDeleteGreat seeing the young ones getting their fruit and veg.
And she ate her broccoli :)
Well done Taelyn !!!!
I love cornbread and really miss it since moving to the UK from the states 9 years ago. I really like the sound of corndog muffins. I might give that a try! well done on a lovely dinner for your daughter! :)
ReplyDeleteLove the idea of the corndog muffins! I'm going to try that!
ReplyDeleteThat is a BRILLIANT idea. I want a corndog muffin RIGHT NOW!!! :)
ReplyDeleteYup, in the US, cornbread can be either sweet or savory. Typically it's sweet in the North, and savory in the south. (You can kind of tell the difference because "Northern" cornbread will have some sugar in the batter. "Southern" cornbread will not.)
ReplyDeleteAgain, as Renda said, a Google search should get you plenty of hits for recipes for making cornbread.
For those not in the States, yes, just substitute polenta flour. Polenta is ground just a bit finer than most corn meal, but that won't really matter in your finished product. It may just not be quite as "grainy" as it would be otherwise. But it will taste the same.
One last "old-timer's" trick: instead of using just a regular cake pan, if you have a cast-iron skillet, use that. (For a typical recipe, a 10-inch skillet works well.) Preheat your oven to 200 degrees C. (gas mark 6). Put a bit of ground nut oil (higher smoking point) in the skillet (enough to coat the inside, plus just a tiny bit more) and put the skillet in the oven to preheat. When the skillet is "smoking hot", remove it from the oven (careful the handle is HOT!) and pour in your cornbread batter. Return it to the oven and bake as directed.
It's the "crust" that everybody loves the most about cornbread. Baking it in a cast-iron skillet will cause the bottom to get all nice and toasty golden-brown, as well as the top.
And if anybody needs conversions, here's a great conversion chart for US - UK recipes:
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Q-A/BritishEquiv.htm
Thanks for conversion link Jaylah! My aunts in Arkansas used to bake their cornbread in a cast-iron skillet. We used our cornbread cast-iron tray that made corncob shaped sticks. Perfect for making very crusty cornbread! :)
DeleteThanks for all the great comments! Taelyn is a really good eater and she usually does really good (even with broccoli!). I hope everyone tries a corndog muffin....it is one of our families favorites : )
ReplyDeleteTaelyn and her mommy
That's a very colorful plate! I think you could put just about anything on that plate, and it would look good. (But then, I'm partial to Hello Kitty.)
ReplyDeleteI'm curious about why you gave it a 9 out of 10 on the health rating? (The hot dog?)
Thank you! My daughter LOVES hello kitty and actually had a HK themed birthday last year! I guess I gave it a 9/10 because it was a hot dog and it is one of the more higher fat proteins out there.
DeleteDon't really agree with anyone (children or otherwise) eating hotdogs - I'm assuming that these are supermarket standard weiner thingummies though, which might be wrong? - you never really know what's in them, even good brand sausages that have about 80% meat, you still don't know what KIND of meat. Since it's only a little bit though I'm not really going to criticize, loving the massive sprig of grapes, they look really good. And any child who loves broccoli automatically gets a thumbs up from me. :-)
ReplyDeleteWe actually only by all natural 100% beef hotdogs that are certified organic. That have no nitrates or fillers. They are still a fattening protein, so it is a special treat when we eat them. And yes, brocolli is one of her favorites : )
DeleteTae and her mommy
Don't worry... the few hot dog bits in the cornbread are a lot healthier than the ketchup besides it ^^ (unless it's selfmade - it looks like the ordinary high-sugar, "natural flavor" kind, though)
DeleteMaik