I know it’s been a while since my last post but I have a good excuse: I was on my honeymoon. Steve and I got married on August 18th and we left the next day to spend eight days in Iceland. I’ll write a separate post on that trip, with some photos and a little about the food there. The wedding was everything we had hoped for and more. It was fun, emotional, intense, and heartwarming all at the same time.

In fact, the whole week preceding the wedding was like that. There were dinners, a stretch limo ride to a jazz club and a restaurant overlooking the Met opera (for a friend’s birthday), a boat cruise around Manhattan at sunset, bowling while eating pigs in a blanket and drinking beer, and a bagel brunch. The actual wedding ceremony was filled with laughter and tears, followed by scrumptious food, like garlic crusted tuna batons, lobster salad in red endive, baked mac-n-cheese, ancho-rubbed steak with grilled peaches, and so much more.

So, as I get my act together and start cooking again, I give you a recipe for corn bread that I absolutely love. Corn bread is one of those things that I will always reach for when it’s available. The problem is that sometimes it can be dry or overly sweet or even mushy. This recipe is none of those things. The bread comes out perfect every time and it keeps well in the freezer, cut in pieces and wrapped well.

The recipe calls for a cast iron skillet to make this and it’s the only way I’ve ever made it. If you don’t have a cast iron skillet, you can probably use a cake pan, though it won’t retain the heat as well as the cast iron one. But seriously, if you don’t have a cast iron skillet, buy one. It will be one of the best purchases you’ve ever made.

East Coast Grill Corn Bread (Slightly adapted from the New York Times)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup melted butter
2 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels (no need to defrost them first)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Lightly oil a 9-inch cast-iron skillet and put it in the oven to heat up.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking powder until combined. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk and oil. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients, add the melted butter and the corn and stir together until just mixed. Don’t overmix the batter.

3. Remove the hot cast-iron pan from the oven and pour into it the batter, smoothing out the top with a spoon if necessary. Return pan to oven and bake, approximately 1 hour, until the corn bread is browned on top and a toothpick or a thin knife inserted into the top comes out clean.