"Northern Buttermilk Cornbread" with Fresh Green beans

I call this Northern Cornbread because it's a little sweet, just the way I like it! I have family down in the Southern States that will argue with me...but that doesn't bother me a bit. After all, this is MY blog!

This time of year our garden is producing an over abundance of food. A lot of it will be canned or frozen, but some of it demands to be eaten when it's at the peak of freshness. One of those things is green beans. I absolutely love fresh green beans with bacon & onion, slathered with butter, salt & pepper. What better accompaniment than a big cast iron pan of Cornbread?

Northern Cornbread
Preheat Oven to 400ºF

1 cup Flour
1 cup Cornmeal (I like hand ground or stone ground)
1/2 cup sugar
1 TBSP. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
Combine the dry ingredients until well mixed. Set aside.

Use the following fresh ingredients if you have them on hand.
2 eggs
1 cup Buttermilk
4 TBSP. Butter~melted

If you don't have fresh, use your dried storage goods.
2 TBSP. Whole Egg Powder
1/3 cup Buttermilk Powder
4 TBSP Butter or Oil
1 cup + 4 TBSP. Water
Combine and mix well to dissolve the powders

While mixing up the batter, preheat a cast iron skillet until it's almost smoking hot. Right before adding the batter to the skillet add a couple TBSP of oil and swirl it around.

For the batter. Combine the wet & dry ingredients, blend quickly just until the dry ingredients are moistened. There may be some lumps, this is normal. Don't over mix or the cornbread will turn out tough.
Pour the batter into the prepared skillet. Bake until it turns golden brown around the edges and a cake tester comes out clean. Serve piping hot with butter and honey...

Iowa Green Beans
Snap the stems off the fresh green beans and cut or break into pieces. Or, do as I do and just leave them whole.
In a big kettle brown 4-6 strips of bacon cut into bit sized pieces, along with a diced medium onion. Saute' until the bacon is crisp and the onions translucent. Pour off all but about 2 TBSP. of fat. Add the cleaned green beans and toss them around to combine with the other ingredients. Add enough water to cover, then bring to a boil. Boil until tender. About 20-25 minutes depending on how big your batch is. Drain well and serve with butter, salt & pepper.

I don't measure when I'm making beans, just eyeball it. If you want more bacon or onion, throw it in!