My friends and I had our Girls Christmas party this past weekend and it was wonderful! The food-theme somehow migrated to “Cajun/Southern” during our lengthy email chain (for which I am truly thankful) and it was Delicious! Our resident NOLA queen, Bonnie, made delicious gumbo; my favorite red-head Candice, made some pretty awesome Red Beans and Rice and brought some outstanding Venison boudin. And my favorite Bota-Box representative (aka Susanna!) asked if I could make cornbread (hence why I classified the theme as “/southern”). She has been unable to get her hands on her favorite recipe because the source refused to part  with the recipe (like me and my enchiladas). I told her sure thing, vaguely remembering a recipe for corn muffins that had appealed to me in Giada de Laurentiis’ Giada’s Kitchen cookbook. I decided I was going to make a whole corn, sun-dried tomato, hatch green chili cornbread with some cheese and played with the idea of adding bacon to the batter. This corn bread earned the name ‘Garlic Nation’ Cornbread after Sus dubbed it as such. What can I say, I love garlic and it was girls night so no pesky boys could tease us about our garlicky breath. I actually lost count of the number of garlic cloves I used (really I was just not paying attention), but it was somewhere in the vicinity of ten.

This was my first time making cornbread (at least in the past four years) and, honestly, I do not know why considering how delicious it is and how well it freezes. Clearly, I must remedy this…and maybe that batch will have some bacon in it.

Note: You can use your favorite cornbread cooking apparatus for baking this (i.e. cast iron, Pyrex, muffin tin, etc.) – I used a cast iron.

‘Garlic Nation’ Cornbread

Serves eight to ten

adapted from Giada’s Kitchen

17 ounces of favorite corn muffin mix
Three cups frozen corn kernels
One cup sundried tomatoes, chopped
Two-thirds cup aged cheddar cheese, shredded
One can of hatch green chilis, chopped
Ten garlic cloves, finely minced
Pinch Salt
Black Pepper to taste
Two eggs
Two-thirds cup buttermilk, plus two or three tablespoons more if needed
Two-thirds cup sour cream

In a large bowl combine the corn mix, corn, salt, pepper, sundried tomatoes, cheese, garlic and chilis and mix well. Add in the eggs, sour cream and buttermilk and stir until all elements are well incorporated. Grease a cast iron skillet and pour the cornbread mixture into it. Bake for about 25 minutes on 375 degrees (NOTE: Bake time will depend on baking vessel used and oven type – general rule is to bake until the top is golden brown, then check the inside with a toothpick. It should come out relatively clear). Cut into pie pieces and serve.