Corn tends to lend itself to a sweet mix of goodness when it comes to stuffing and I developed this one year when I wanted to have something sweet to cut through all the savory goodness of the dinner. So this is mine and it begins two days before Thanksgiving with some homemade cornbread! A word of caution: this is NOT healthy!
- 3/4 cups cornmeal
- 3/4 cups flour
- 1/4 cup COARSE grind cornmeal OR polenta
- 1/2 cup fresh corn off the cob or if you must use canned drained shoepeg corn.
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 tbsp. baking powder
- 3 tbsp. oil
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup buttermilk (more if need be)
- Lightly oil a round, cast-iron skillet.
- Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
- Place the skillet in the oven and let it get hot (5-8 minutes or until it just begins to smoke)
- Mix the dry ingredients together and toss in the fresh corn to mix.
- Add the eggs and oil and just enough buttermilk to make a thick batter, DO NOT OVERMIX! YOU DON'T WANT CAKE!
- Pour the batter into the skillet. You should hear a sizzle.
- Bake for 25-35 minutes or until browned on top.
Now that's the cornbread. You're going to let it cool, then loosely wrap it so it stays crunchy (I put mine in a clean tee towel) overnight.
The next day:
- 4-6 strips of bacon, fried and broken into bits
- 1 small Granny Smith apple, (peel on or off is up to you) cut into small pieces
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- 1/4 cup finely diced white onion
- 1 cup of tangerines (cut up) packed in juice (keep the juice)
- 2 tbsp melted butter
- pinch of nutmeg
- Mix everything together.
- Break up the cornbread or cut it into cubes as you like.
- Add all of the other ingredients to the mixture and toss, adding juice until things are just moist.
- Place into a baking dish and cook at 400 until slightly golden brown.