My idea of corn bread is, and always has been, making a box of Jiffy corn muffin mix. If you are also from a Jiffy corn bread family, you know that Jiffy is sweet, and a lot of corn bread you can find out there is not. I’ve had plenty of non-sweet corn bread, and I just wasn’t digging it. I was starting to think I’d be eating Jiffy forever.

But then I found this Sweet Corn Bread recipe. With both sugar and honey in the ingredient list, it looked promisingly sweet enough that I decided to go for it. I bought a box of Jiffy mix, just to be safe, which made it easy to do a side by side comparison.

Homemade sweet corn bread on the left, Jiffy boxed mix on the right. Now, it’s not the fairest comparison, as you can probably tell that the Jiffy mix got a little well done on the top. However, I think it was good enough to get a pretty good feel for the difference. Really, it’s no contest. The homemade was much denser, actually held together very well (Jiffy crumbles apart if you look at it funny), and had the perfectly sweet taste I was going for.

It mixed together quickly enough that the boxed mix doesn’t even have much of an advantage there either. Move aside, Jiffy. I’ll definitely be making this homemade version again in the future.

Sweet Corn Bread
Source: The Country Cook

2 tbsp. honey
1 egg
4 tbsp. butter (melted)
½ cup milk
½ cup water
½ cup sugar
1 cup yellow corn meal
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ tbsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Spray 8×8 baking dish with nonstick spray. In a medium bowl, whisk together all your wet ingredients: honey, egg, butter, milk and water. In a separate bowl, combine all your dry ingredients: sugar, corn meal, flour, baking powder and salt. Give it a gentle stir with a fork to combine.
While whisking, slowly add your dry ingredients to your wet until all combined. Batter may be a little lumpy, that’s okay.
Pour mixture into greased 8×8 baking dish. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until set in the middle and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Today’s recipe is not exactly fine dining. What it is, however, is super easy and very tasty. I know there are some scalloped corn recipes out there that call for fresh corn, and all that, but this is not one of those recipes. This is a typical “open cans and boxes and mix them together” sort of thing. If I’m making this dish, it’s probably for a family gathering (such as last Thanksgiving, when I took these pictures). There are quite a few of us, so I double the recipe and make it in a 9×13 pan. The pictures and descriptions are for the doubled recipe, but if you’re serving a smaller group, you’ll probably want to make just the single recipe, and I’d suggest an 8×8 pan instead.

Creamed corn, margarine, Jiffy corn muffin mix, onion, egg, salt

In a bowl, add 2 cans of creamed corn

2 sticks of margarine

Diced onion

2 eggs

2 cups, 4 tbs of Jiffy cornbread mix

1/2 cup water

and salt to taste.

Mix it all up

and pour into a 13×9 pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until browned and cooked through. Mine was a little undercooked in this picture, but I was out of time!

Scalloped Corn
Doubled recipe for a 13×9 pan

2 cans of creamed corn
2 sticks of butter or margarine
2 eggs
Onion, diced
2 cups and 4 Tbs. Jiffy cornbread mix
1/2 cup water
salt to taste

Mix together, and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes until browned

Let’s take a brief intermission from the sweets, shall we? No worries, there will be more coming. (I really ought to have named this blog Jenn Bakes or perhaps even Jenn Eats Sugar rather than Jenn Cooks… I DO enjoy baking far more than anything else.)

I found this little dip recipe on a quilting blog, believe it or not. Back when I thought I was going to be able to learn how to sew in straight lines, I added a bunch of quilting and crafting blogs to my feed reader. I kept most of them even after I packed up the sewing machine, and a little while back, I found this gem.

I made this dip and took it to my Christmas Eve dinner. People seemed to enjoy it, but I have a feeling it would have gone over better if I had, you know, been ON TIME. I was too busy breaking my car out of its candy coating (a layer of ice) to get out the door on time. Oh well! It was still good!

Cream cheese, sour cream, shredded cheese, pizza sauce, green pepper, green onion, pepperoni, crushed red pepper, garlic powder, oregano. (Ritz crackers)

In a bowl, add 8 oz. of softened cream cheese

1/2 cup of sour cream

1 teaspoon oregano

1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper. Honestly, if I make this again, I’ll probably leave this out. It give it just a little bit of a kick, not too spicy, but I’m not a fan of ANY spicy. Up to you, but I personally think the dip would be just as tasty without the peppers.

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Mix until well combined.

Spread in a 9-inch pie plate. (Sorry for the quality of the photo… my camera suddenly decided flash was unnecessary, it was dark outside and I didn’t have the time to fight with it!)

Top with 1/2 cup pizza sauce

Green onion

Diced green pepper

and diced pepperoni.

Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Add 1 cup of cheese and return to the oven.

Bake 5 more minutes, until the cheese is melted. Serve with Ritz crackers.

Pepperoni Pizza Dip
Found at Sister’s Choice Quilts

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
½ cup sour cream
1 tsp oregano (or Penzey’s Pasta Sprinkle)
¼ tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper
½ cup pizza sauce
½ cup or more diced pepperoni sausage
½ sliced green onion
¼ diced green pepper
1 cup shredded cheese (I used a mixture of mozzarella and cheddar)

Preheat oven to 350. Beat together the cream cheese, sour cream, oregano, garlic powder and crushed red pepper. Spread in a 9 inch pie pan. Spread the pizza sauce over the top. Sprinkle with the pepperoni, onions and peppers. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle evenly with cheese. Return to the oven and bake for 5 more minutes until golden. Serve with Ritz crackers.

Serves 12 or more.