Every year at Thanksgiving, I make my great-grandmother Sallie’s cornbread recipe. She and my great-grandfather were “dirt farmers” who lived in Oklahoma during the depression. This bread, some beans, and vegetables from their sustenance garden (if there were any), was all they had for dinner most nights.

As I mix the ingredients for this cornbread (and then use it to make stuffing), I can’t help but ponder their life…how hard it must have been and how, as my ancestors, they made my life possible.

I don’t want you to just sit down at the table.
I don’t want you to just eat and be content.
I want you to walk out into the fields
Where the water is shining and the rice has risen.
I want you to stand there far from this white tablecloth.
I want you to fill your hands with mud, like a blessing.

-Mary Oliver

Mix together with a big spoon

• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tsp soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

Make a large “hole” in the middle of the dry mixture with the spoon

Beat one egg with a fork, add 1 tablespoon of oil (which is what my great-grandmother used) or melted butter (which tastes better IMHO) into well in the middle of the dry mixture and mix with a fork

Add 1 cup of buttermilk

Let rise while heating the oven to 450 degrees (about 10 minutes) with your cast iron skillet in the oven.

Gently whip the batter down with a fork

Pour any excess oil from the pans into the batter and then pour the batter into the hot cast iron skillet.

Bake 20-25 minutes (until a toothpick or knife comes out clean)

So that’s my great-grandmother’s recipe (and yes, the photo at the top of this post is of her and my great-grandfather). This recipe makes the right amount for a weekday dinner but it doesn’t make enough for Thanksgiving. So I did the math to make enough for everyone (and the stuffing, and breakfast the next morning!) If you don’t have enough cast iron skillets, no worries. Use muffin tins, cake loafs, whatever you have.

The recipe is the same but starts with melting a stick of butter in the microwave (It’s supposed to be 7 tablespoons but a stick of butter = 8 tablespoons and I can’t imagine a little extra butter hurts!)

Dry ingredients:

• One bag of cornmeal (2lb)
• 3 1/2 cups of flour
• 7 tsp of baking soda
• 3 1/2 tsp of baking powder
• 2 1/2 tsp of salt

Wet ingredients:

• 7 eggs
• “7” tablespoons of butter (see above) – or use oil if you prefer
• “7” cups of buttermilk – the batter should pour but not be thin