My Grandma Harper's Mexican Cornbread

I made this totally yummo cornbread tonight! It's my Grandma Harper's recipe. It's moist, flavorful, and just a bit ooey gooey :) You see, the cornbread is really a flavor delivery system for the sour cream, creamed corn, onions, jalapenos, and sharp cheddar cheese within. My Grandma also sometimes made this with ground beef cooked up inside. Since this is for a work luncheon as a side, I skipped the meat, but I highly recommend that version as well. Without further ado, on to the (super-easy) recipe!


Mexican Cornbread

2 c. corn meal
½ tsp. baking soda
½ c. flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1 large onion, chopped
4 jalapeno peppers
1 can cream style corn
½ c. Wesson oil (corn oil)
2 eggs
1 c. sour cream
2 c. grated sharp cheese
1 ½ lb. ground beef, fried

1. Mix all ingredients.
2. Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes.
3. When done, take out of oven.

Wow--what a great product!

I love, love, love to cook, and I absolutely hate to clean up after myself--thankfully I have a very dear hubby who takes care of most of that :) Anyway, this is my new favorite kitchen appliance. I know it's 'just' a Ziploc bag, but it's so much more!

Ziploc Zip'n Steam bags are the rock star of my kitchen. They are super quick, require no clean up, and make awesome, extremely healthy food. I've used them for fish and veggies so far. The corn on the cob we made in them was probably the best I've ever eaten. We (and by 'we', I mean my hubby) made two ears in four minutes. That's less than half the time of my previous 'fast' method (wrapped in moist paper towels in micro), and the corn was way better.

I know I may seem a bit overexcited about something that is really just a plastic bag, but I really feel like it's going to change the way that we eat and save tons of time.

Welcome & a peach daiquiri to get us started!

I've been talking about it for a long time, but I'm finally starting...

Announcing my blog: A-Twirl. There's no real significance to the name, other than it's availability. I wanted something that sounded happy but occasionally off-balance--like me in a nutshell :)

Anyway, to get us started, I'm going to share a mixed drink of my own concoction. This was actually conceived as a peace offering to my dear hubby who had put up with a little too much from me that day. I can be a bear to live with at times. Without further ado, the "Isn't Life Peachy Daiquiri".

Isn't Life Peachy Daiquiri

1. Muddle peaches with raw sugar, divide into glasses (1 peach)
   
2. In a cocktail shaker, mix ice, orange juice (1 shot), triple sec (1/3 shot), white rum (1 shot), and a splash of vanilla syrup (1/3 shot)
   
3. Strain mix into glasses
4. Stir, top with cubed peaches

Note: All amounts are given per serving.