Corn Bread (Little House on the Prairie)

I recently bought the Melissa Gilbert (Laura Ingalls) Prairie cookbook My Prairie Cookbook. It's wonderfully illustrated and has anecdotal tales by Melissa of her life as Laura and current life. It's really more than a cookbook and worth the reasonable price. The recipe actually calls for scallions but it was just fine without them. Next time, I'll add double the honey and a bit more salt. The cast iron skillet is still on my wish list, so I used a pyrex pan and it turned out perfect even at 6500 ft elevation. :)

1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup coarse stone-ground yellow cornmeal

2 teaspoons baking powder

1-2 teaspoons salt

Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

1 1/4 cups low-fat milk

2-4 tablespoons honey

2 large eggs, beaten

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon corn oil

8 scallions, thinly sliced

Serves 8

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place a 10-inch cast-iron skillet in the oven to heat.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and pepper. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk, honey, eggs, and 1/3 cup of the oil. Add the wet ingredients to the cornmeal mixture and whisk just until combined. Stir in the scallions.

3. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil to the hot skillet and swirl to coat. Pour the batter into the hot skillet and bake for about 30 minutes, until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let it cool slightly, then invert the skillet and turn the corn bread out onto a wire rack to cool. Alternatively, server the corn bread hot directly from the skillet.