It turns out that Chris Rock was right.

I put a call out to my friends through my personal fb page, asking for suggestions for recipes to make in my new (old) cast iron skillet. The overwhelming majority of folks responded with much enthusiasm "CORNBREAD!" And so it came to be.
Aaron Piotro had this to say:

"You're from the south, but live in the north. I'm from the north, but live in the south. Why am I giving you this recipe?


1 cup of cornmeal

1 cup of reg. flour

1 cup of milk

1 egg (beaten)

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup oil or butter

couple pinches of salt, pepper (optional) and sugar to taste with a heavy hand.

Grease that pan, bake for 15-20 min at 450.

As usual, I read the recipe a few times, found a few more online to compare, and riffed in my own way. I used the measurements from above BUT I:

Heated the skillet with 2 tablespoons of veg oil in the oven while it was preheating

Soaked the cornmeal in the milk that was called for in the recipe, but used Buttermilk instead of regular milk AND let it sit for about 15 minutes while things preheated and I measured the dry ingredients.
 
I used about 1/4 cup sugar instead of pinches to taste (but I would cut back on this in the future--maybe use 1/8 cup instead so the corny goodness can shine through).
 
I mixed the wet ingredients into the cornmeal and milk mixture, and then added the dry, along with a small can of corn which I drained.
 
I mixed and then poured the batter into the hot cast iron pan and baked for about 15 minutes. So light, tender, and delicate...
 
Cornbread...ain't nothing wrong with that!

The simpler the better

I used to think that good cooking required fancy techniques and ingredients that I could hardly pronounce let alone cook with (what the hell is xanthum gum and what would I even do withit?). As I've become a better more seasoned cook, I've found that keeping it simple usually garners the results that I am looking for and produces better, tastier food.

Case in point: the great polenta debacle of aught nine. I had found a recipe that I thought was going to be amazing - a red wine and mushroom polenta - that was going to blow Kelly away and make me some culinary hero for months to come. As is turns out this experiment was a disaster before it began- a multi-step, complicated recipe using a main ingredient I have never used before. If you have never used polenta, it's one of those things that you really can't walk away from. It requires constant attention and monitoring; or maybe I shouldn't have dumped it all in the water at once (probably a little of both). To make a long and frustrating story shorter and with kid-friendly language (I assure I was using none of that in the kitchen

that day), what I was left with was a purple clump of inedible mash. It was horrifying. Of course, Kelly, the saint that she is, took a few polite bites before excusing herself to make some peanut butter toast. A culinary hero, I was not.

Fast forward to Thursday's dinner. Ingredient list:

• Chicken.
• Home-made spice rub.
• Fresh sweet corn at the peak of its season from a farm we could have driven to.
• A compound butter made from the spices in our cabinet.
• A hot grill.
• A beautiful summer night.
• An adorable wife

Simple, easy, and delicious. In a word, "perfect." It's not to say that I won't try polenta again (I am both stubborn and Italian) but I now know that sometimes keeping it simple is the much more satisfying route.