Today's almost baking catastrophy.

Behold. Whole wheat with white cornmeal cornbread.


Last Saturday I was out of the house for the majority of the day. I asked hubby "What will you do to entertain yourself?", to which he replied that he'd buy ingredients to experiment with one of his favourite dishes, Chicken Fried Steak.

For the non-Americans among you, the terms Chicken Fried Steak and Country Fried Steak are used for the same dish, based on what gravy is served with them. Bizarre, I know. The actual meat is supposed to be slightly pound with a mallet (do it too much and you'll end up with schnitzel), then breaded with flour and spices and deep fried. Like fried chicken, only beef.

I'm not a particular fan of this dish as it ends up being too oily for me, but hubby decided to pan fry it instead of deep fry it, and he used cornmeal and low fat buttermilk (I know, it sounds like an absolute oxymoron) for the breading, which allows for a crisp outside-tender inside steak.

So, upon my return from my Saturday excursion, I came home to a bunch of steaks, and a lot of leftover buttermilk and white cornmeal. Cornmeal will keep fine in the pantry, but I'd hate to let the buttermilk spoil, so I decided to make cornbread.

I read the recipe on the back of the cornmeal box, and with a couple of substitutions I actually did have the ingredients to pull it off. Which I did, or I almost did and I figured it out just before it was too late - I had forgotten to add the canola oil in the recipe. Oops!

Thankfully the moment I put the thing in the oven I realized my mistake, so I pulled it out, and folded the oil in the batter right in the baking pan. It came out delicious and I had it with the leftover gravy for breakfast today. Yum!

If you're interested in the recipe, here it is:

• 3/4 cup white cornmeal (Aunt Jemima or Quaker brand - I'm sure that yellow will work just fine)
• 1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour (it called for all purpose but I felt adventurous and fiber craving - substitution no1)
• 1/4 cup Splenda (it called for sugar but I had none - substitution no2)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt (it called for only half, and optionally so, but w' out real sugar I needed to bring some more flavor out)
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 1/2 cup low fat buttermilk (it called for 1 cup of the skim milk instead of what I did, substitution no3)
• 1/4 cup canola oil (which I almost forgot)
• 1/4 cup egg beaters (it calls for either 2 egg whites or one beaten egg, which I had not handy)

Preheat oven at 400oF, combine dry ingredients, combine wet ingredients, don't forget the oil just cause you used two types of milk thusly thinking you combined all 3 wet ingredients the recipe called for, add wet mix into dry mix and combine thoroughly into batter, spray a loaf pan with baking spray, pour batter in and bake for 20 mins or until toothpick comes out clean.