conniewilkins56 wrote: »

GRITS!....oh Honey don’t say that in the Southern USA.....LOL....it’s boiled corn meal and a staple on a true southerners breakfast plate and with shrimp or with cheese in them...they are an acquired taste and many people in our Northern and Western States have never heard of them!....I LOVE them and they are so good...made by Quaker and a lot like Cream of Wheat!

@conniewilkins56 I forgot to respond to this one! lol My mom doesn't like grits so it was never served at my house at all growing up, and I only recently discovered it. Mom said it reminded her too much of the cornmeal mush her grandmother used to make and feed them when she was a girl, and she hated how gritty it was. My mom's sister said the same thing. And yet both will eat cream of wheat.......

I was raised in southern WV on the VA side, so we have a culture similar to VA - and we consider ourselves southern because after all, our town is actually further south than Richmond! lol If you go over to the western end of southern WV, the culture is more like Kentucky; the western end of Northern WV is more like Ohio, and northern WV is like PA and Maryland. When I lived in PA and told people I grew up in WV, they'd say "oh, I have friends in Morgantown!" I'd tell them I was from Southern WV, and then they'd say "Oh, I've been there - Elkins, right?" Elkins is in northern WV......so then I'd have to tell them "when you go to the beach and you drive down US19, you go through Beckley, WV, right? I'm near there." And then they'd get big eyes and say "oh, wow that is really far south!" makes you wonder what they thought of someone from Alabama, right? lol

Anyway, WV tends to have a blend of southern and mid-western and of course just plain Appalachian when it comes to our foods, so while I knew what grits were for the most part, and see it on the occasional menu, it wasn't something that was around or showed up at church dinners or anything. So far, I really like them as a breakfast, lightly sweetened; cheesy sounds intriguing! I might pass on the shrimp, but my sister would love it that way - cheese and shrimp are 2 of her favorite foods

So where do you fall in the great cornbread debate? lol I grew up with cornbread made with buttermilk and very little sugar, and the best was my grandmothers, which was light and crumbly and dry so it soaked up the butter you'd put in it or it would easily soak up the juices in chili or soups. And if there was any left over, mom would crumble it into a bowl and pour milk over it and eat it for dessert (and my grandparents would do the same only use buttermilk).

I was aghast when I went to PA and got cornbread in one of the restaurants up there and found it too sweet to even eat, and it didn't have cornbread consistency at all; it was corn cake. That was when I discovered the difference between northern cornbread and southern cornbread, and found that apparently, its almost as heated a debate as whether to call it stuffing or dressing at Thanksgiving! lol

Fellow southerner here. I feel very strongly that sugar has no place in cornbread. it should be savory.

conniewilkins56 wrote: »

I like my cornbread dryer also...I like to “ sop up” the juices or broth from the vegetables or meat served with it...although I haven’t eaten like that in a very long time...I grew up in southern Indiana close to the Ohio River and lived in Louisville Ky for a long time...now I am really south in Florida!....we always called it Stuffing if it was stuffed inside the bird and Dressing if it was a side dish....I used to have a strong southern accent but in college I worked hard to change the tone of my voice and the Ky speech patterns....Hoosiers have their very own way of pronouncing a lot of words......sour is sar and our is are....tower is tar and fire is far....my husband a true Yankee from Buffalo had no idea what my Indiana cousin was saying when she asked him if he wanted to go to see the “ far tar” ( fire tower )... gotta love it!

I had cousins who grew up in Indiana and Kentucky both, so I know what you're talking about! Personally, though, I consider accents and dialects to be a part of the culture and identity of a person and enjoy hearing all the different ways of pronouncing things. I side with linguists who want to preserve language and its rich variety, so I just smile when I call something a "holler" and get corrected to "hollow" and keep right on calling 'em hollers and hills

The funny thing is, though I grew up in WV, I sound more like VA when I talk - I grew up in WV and went to college here as well and made some friends from out of state, and when they asked where I was from and I told them, they didn't believe it because I didn't "sound" like it. And when I lived in PA, folks would tell me that they could tell I was southern by the way I said certain words, like nine and five, but they didn't believe I was from WV either. I'm not sure how I ended up sounding a little different than a typical WVian; my parents and most of my cousins all have the accent and some quite thickly!

Funny story: A few years ago I was sent out on storm duty and partnered with a guy from the Ukraine, who, though he'd been a US citizen for years, still have a very thick Ukrainian accent. We were sent up to find an outage (I work for the power company as an engineer) up this remote road, and finally came out at this dump of a house way back in the sticks. This guy comes out to ask what we were doing, and he really had that thick WV accent. The guy from the Ukraine couldn't understand him, and the WV guy couldn't understand the Ukraine guy, so I ended up having to act as an interpreter!

hansep0012 wrote: »

The Great Cornbread Debate!
@conniewilkins56 and @bmeadows380 your descriptions of cornbread variations are spot on! I've enjoyed both styles depending on my mood and locale but since living in NM I had no idea that there is a whole other realm of cornbread - I call it southwest cornbread because I've eaten it in AZ, too. It's basically a "dry" style cornbread that has been enriched with whole kernel corn, green chile, and cheddar cheese.

We lived in Las Vegas for five years and had the southwestern cornbread when we were there...I loved it with red beans and rice or with sausage and Mexican food!

I suspect you just add sprite in lieu of boiling water and mix well, let sit in fridge. Not sure though.

Satisfiedwithbetter wrote: »

I’ve mixed cottage cheese, sugar free lime jello, lime juice, 1 packet gelatin, and sweetener in a blender and then pour in serving containers and let sit in fridge. It’s very good. No water. It’s like a lime pudding, with jello consistency.

that actually sounds pretty good! I love what I call Irish fluff, which is a jello salad with pineapple, little marshmallows, and lime jello, and I think some cream cheese (can't quite remember the recipe for sure). The above sounds like it might be a good substitute, if I'm willing to stir in a couple of pineapple tidbits

I like my cornbread savory too. I add sugar but just enough to take the bite out of it. I cook mine in a cast iron skillet. I heat bacon grease and then pour the cornbread batter in to hear it sizzle a little. Then bake it normally.

Cornbread has been on my list of hard to justify items. I love it but it is so caloric and even higher than biscuits. The problem is there are only two of us and we would each want one small serving with no leftovers. I don't want to eat it unless it is mine - not bragging I just don't want to take any chances.

I think back now to having 2 huge pieces with beans or chili. Easily 800 calories (we were generous with the bacon grease it cooked in). I do love cornbread in milk too.

I've got a really small cast iron skillet that I use for eggs, but I did figure out how to use that skillet and par the recipe down so that it only made about 4 servings. But I agree - even making substitutions to get the calorie count down, the best I could do was get my recipe to 200 calories a serving. I've figured out how to get biscuits down to around 120 a serving. I don't tend to make either very often. I cringe when I think what my mom's cornbread and biscuits both consist of calorie-wise - and I used to use 3 slices and 3 or 4 of her biscuits! The sad part is, she complains that she can't figure out why she and dad can't lose weight - she says "we don't eat a lot of stuff or potatoes or pastas". I cannot get her to understand the concept of portion size at all.

Of course, now I'm craving cornbread......

xX_PhoenixRising_Xx wrote: »

All this talk of cornbread... I come from a land down under (New Zealand, and lived in Australia too) and I don't think I have ever tasted it!

It's summer here right now and I've been really enjoying chilled sparkling water. I used to have all sorts of low-calorie treats that I would eat when losing weight, but I developed severe migraines and artificial sweeteners are one of the worst triggers. Also too much sugar! I had to change almost everything that I used to eat.

I've also been adding a lot of herbs and spices to recipes recently, and cooking vegetarian/vegan with amazing flavour. One recipe for an Eggplant lasagne done in the slow cooker is sooo good.

That sounds really good!

I found a recipe a few years ago for egg plant parmesan that did not bread the egg plant; you roasted it first, and then layered it without the breading. My whole family loves that recipe!