Chili n' Cornbread

Oh, man. I haven't posted in a while. Mostly because I suck.

Wait no--maybe it's because YOU suck!

No. Wait. It's because I suck. *sigh*

Last Thursday I had to stay home from work because I was sick and so was my cat Zooey (sort of). Turns out she was in heat which should strike you as kind of funny once you find out that SHE'D BEEN SPAYED ABOUT A YEAR AGO. Yeah. Turns out sometimes they don't manage to get everything out on the first try, which means (according to the vet) that technically, it's like she's not been spayed at all (she'll probably start going into heat again regularly and her chances of eventually developing mammary cancer or other bad things will continue to increase until all her lady parts are removed). Which means she has to get surgery. Again. So they can make sure to get everything out this time.

Apparently it is not that uncommon for them to not get everything, but still: COME ON, VET-PEOPLE! IT'S YOUR FRICKING JOB! SCOOP ALL THOSE LADY PARTS OUT ON THE FIRST TRY SO WE DON'T HAVE TO PUT OUR CATS THROUGH SURGERY NOT ONCE BUT TWICE WITHIN THE SAME YEAR! Gah.

Anyways, that's part of the reason you haven't heard from me in a while.

But now I'm back. Though not with a recipe today--alas.

I DID do a bit of cooking last week, though not much. One of the things I made was the Tex-Mex Chili from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian Cookbook which I snagged from the library after having read a few people rave about it on their blogs.

Despite the fact that I was excited about finally making a chili with both lentils and beans (I'm addicted to Aladdin's Len-Chili) I was actually rather disappointed with it on the grand-scale of chilis, particularly after the rave review given to it by Jaffrey who called it her family's favorite fall-back chili.

I think I have high-standards when it comes to chili, though more often than not, I've absolutely adored the recipes I've tried. So perhaps it's not so much high-standards as it is very specific tastes as to what I like in a chili. And this was not it. It was not spicy enough for me. Nor was it flavorful enough. Nor was it tomatoey enough. In fact, it kinda moreso tasted like a bland curry.

The only thing that gave it a bit more oomph was the addition of some vegan sour cream (which I've kinda become addicted to since making the vegan paprikash for X-mas).

I DID accompany it with a nice big batch of cornbread though, so that kind of helped it out. Which makes me realize that I do indeed have a recipe to share with you today--hurrat hurrah!

Enjoy!

Corny Cornbread



INGREDIENTS:

• 2 c. unbleached all-purpose flour


• 2 c. corn meal


• 2 T. baking powder


• 2/3 c. applesauce (I used unsweetened, but I actually think sweetened might work just as well if not better)


• 1/3 c. maple syrup


• 1/3 c. agave nectar


• 13 oz. soy milk (which I think I screwed up in c.-measurement land--I ended up using about 1 3/4 c. or so, but it still ended up being ok--in reality, this'd be a tiny smidge over 1.5 c.)


• 2/3 c. canned corn, drained


• pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS

Mix flour and baking powder. Add corn meal and salt; mix thoroughly. Mix wet ingredients in another bowl and then add to dry ingredients and mix well. The mixture should be a course, almost pourable batter. If the mixture seems a little dry, add soymilk to moisten. Fold the corn into the mixture.

Bake in a greased 9 x 11 baking pan at 350° for 30-35 minutes.

Baking time will vary from oven to oven. Corn bread should be light brown. Use a toothpick or knife to insert into the middle of the corn bread to check if it's done. If the toothpick comes out clean, you're all good.