green chile cornbread and Mt. Monadnock

As the nights ( and days) get chilly, I start thinking with excitement about Thanksgiving dinner. A few days ago, I was driving back from physical therapy, saluting, as always, "the mountain" - Mt. Monadnock, just a few miles away from my house. Actually, it's so big, you can see it from at least four towns, but it seems much closer. So between admiring the mountain, and the beautiful day, my memory wandered around in the kitchen of ones mind, and I realized I'd never made a cornbread stuffing for the turkey. So I started experimenting. What I came up with was a terrific, slightly grainy cornbread flecked with green chiles, scallions, and fresh oregano. It could be served alongside the turkey, or used as a stuffing.

I used stone ground cornmeal from Bob's Red Mill which is quite a bit coarser than the cornmeal I've been using for polenta and spoonbread.

Adapted from About.com's Southern Food

How to make:

Grease an 8" square baking pan and set aside.

Preheat oven to 400F.

1 3/4 cup stone ground cornmeal

3/4 cup King Arthur all purpose flour

1 t. salt

2 t. baking powder

1 1/2 cups milk

1 large egg

4 T. olive oil or bacon drippings

1 T. minced onion

2 T. finely sliced green onions ( scallions)

1 T. finely chopped green chiles ( canned or fresh)

1 T. finely chopped yellow or red sweet pepper

1 T. fresh oregano, finely chopped

Measure the cornmeal, flour, salt, and baking powder into mixer bowl.

In another bowl, mix the milk, egg, and olive oil , then the onion, scallions, chiles, sweet pepper, and fresh oregano. Whisk well.

Add the milk mixture to the dry cornmeal mixture and beat until well incorporated.

Scrape into the prepared pan and bake 25 minutes.

Let cool well before cutting into pieces.

Stay warm and enjoy the season!