Recipe: Cool Corn Muffins

Cool Corn Muffins

Happy & Healthy Cooking,

Fun-Da-Mentals Kitchen Skills

• bake :

  to cook food with dry heat, as in an oven.

• measure :

  to calculate the specific amount of an ingredient required using a measuring tool (like measuring cups or spoons).

• mix :

  to thoroughly combine two or more ingredients until uniform in texture.

• preheat :

  to set an oven to the desired temperature a few minutes before cooking, so it reaches that temperature by the time you place the food in it.

• spoon :

  to pick up and move food with a spoon from one place to another.

History of Cornbread!

• Cornbread is a batter bread made with cornmeal, originating with Indigenous Americans. The Native people grew corn and cooked with the kernels and ground cornmeal for thousands of years before it reached Europe and West Africa. They showed the colonists how to grow and harvest corn and some of their cooking techniques, like making a simple cornbread with ground cornmeal and water and baking it over an open or hearth fire. 
• Enslaved Africans may have already been familiar with using corn and cornmeal in their cooking when they were brought to America. Since corn was a cheaper crop than wheat, they were supplied with cornmeal for cooking and baking. Cornbread became a staple of the Southern diet. 
•  All cornbread batter has cornmeal, and some include wheat flour, baking powder, eggs, sugar, and buttermilk. With the addition of baking powder rather than yeast, cornbread becomes a quick bread, usually baked in the oven. Southern cornbread uses less, if any, sugar and flour compared with cornbread from the north. 
• Variations of cornbread are "johnnycakes" or "hoecakes," pancake-like cornmeal batter fried in a skillet. "Hush puppies" are deep-fried balls of cornmeal and buttermilk batter, a popular Southern side dish with fried fish. 
• Cornbread is a popular side dish for barbecue, chili, and ham and beans. It is often served with butter and honey. Cornbread crumbs or cubes are frequently added to turkey stuffing.

Let's Learn About the Southern United States!

• The southern region of the United States is also referred to as the Southern States, or just "the South." The area lies between the Western states and the Atlantic Ocean. Midwestern and Northeastern states are to its north, and Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico are to its south. 
• From west to east, the states included in the South are Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. 
• The term "Deep South" usually applies to Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.
• Native Americans inhabited the region as early as 11,000 to 9,500 BCE. They lived on food they grew, hunted, and fished.
• Eleven Southern states seceded from the Union from 1860 to 1861 and became the Confederate States of America. Their secession and the dispute about the expansion of slavery caused the Civil War (1861-1865), the war between the North and the South. At the war's end, the Southern states returned to the Union. 
• Southern culture was influenced by indigenous peoples, immigrants from England, Spain, and France, and enslaved Africans. As a result, the area's language, food, music, architecture, and literature may include one or more of these influences.  
• The climate in the region is diverse and depends on a state's proximity to the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricanes and tornadoes are extreme types of weather seen in the South.
• Animals that are unique to the South include the nine-banded armadillo, the cottonmouth (snake), the roseate spoonbill (wading bird), and the American alligator.
• Stock car racing got its start in Southern states. NASCAR (National Association of Stock Car Racing) was founded in 1948 and is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida, and Charlotte, North Carolina. 
• There are a wide variety of foods in Southern cuisine. Cajun and creole dishes originated in Louisiana. You can find Caribbean cooking influences in Florida, including Cuban, Dominican, and Puerto Rican. 
• Various types of barbecue are popular in the South, and each state has its own cooking or smoking techniques, dry rub, and BBQ sauce that make its barbecue style unique.
• Other well-known Southern dishes are Southern fried chicken, red beans and rice, fried catfish and hush puppies, and Hoppin' John, a black-eyed pea and rice dish commonly served on New Year's Day.