September 17, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I’m making cornbread this morning and I’m crying. It was supposed to be a vegan cornbread recipe, but I don’t have vegan butter nor non-dairy milk. I substituted real butter and real milk which pretty much just makes it cornbread. It’s not even imperfectly vegan cornbread. It’s definitely non-plastic at least. I’m not crying because it’s not vegan, I’m crying because I’m thinking about a really close friend that loves to cook. I wish I could call and text her as often as I used to about how much I’ve grown in my cooking. For various reasons our friendship has been one of those wonderful yet sometimes painful pairings. But anyway, I just miss my friend. I miss her when I cook and when I meet these milestones. The reason why is that she is a phenomenol and intuitive cook, and she knew me before I could cook. And she actually taught me a lot of things about cooking and life. We will just leave it at that. We are better off where we are now in our relationship, still true friends but more distant. I can’t believe I’m crying. This plastic picking and journey of discovery is literally making me process decades worth of issues. We all got issues. I’m just doing my own therapy through this blog in front of everyone.

Wow. I feel better. The cornbread is in the oven and it was very easy. I modified a vegan cornbread recipe into a regular cornbread recipe, which is really weird. But the world is off-kilter these days and I’m weird, and my friend would appreciate that. Here is my modified recipe and the link to the original vegan one.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups cornmeal
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup butter
• I put 1/2 cup of left over coconut flakes as a partial food waste project

Instructions

• Combine the dry ingredients (cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and brown sugar) in a large bowl and stir well. 
• Melt the butter in a small pot on the stovetop or in the microwave. Then add it to the cornmeal flour mixture together with the unsweetened plant-based milk and the apple cider vinegar. Stir with a wooden spoon until well combined, but don’t overmix. 
• Generously grease an  8 or 9-inch square baking dish with butter. Pour the prepared batter into the dish and evenly divide it with a spatula. 
• Preheat the oven to 400 °F. Bake the cornbread for 20-25 minutes. 
• Allow the cornbread to slightly cool before slicing and serving.

https://veganheaven.org/recipe/vegan-cornbread/