Thank God for the cornbread.....

My life is like the cornbread that I cook for my family.....Here's a short story to get you to my point...
For years and years, I have cooked cornbread for the gang...I have used buttermilk, sweet milk, even mayonnaise and water.  I have used 1 egg, 2 eggs, shortening, lard, butter and vegetable oil.  I have greased the pan, "pammed" it, heated oil in it, put cornmeal on the bottom as well as strips of bacon.  I have seasoned my weapon of choice...the trusty, heavy iron skillet.

I have added corn, chiles, cracklins and even extra flour so it won't be gritty....and it seems that no matter what I have done....the CORNBREAD sticks!  Yes! Sticks!  Torn up, ugly, a mess....and I frown and say, "So much for a nice presentation." 

No matter what I have done or tried differently, the outcome has always been the same....Until I need to cook basic cornbread for the dressing at Thanksgiving.  This makes me so dang mad!!!  The cornbread never sticks....ever!  In all my years of cooking the stuff for dressing has it ever stuck.

Then one day, I was watching Paula Deen and she made cornbread in a way that I wanted to try....She made waffle cornbread!   I thought, "Why didn't I think of that???"

So, the next time I wanted cornbread with my meal, I made waffle cornbread in the waffle maker and guess what.....not one of them little jokers STUCK!  I was so happy with myself (with Paula by my side), that I didn't even care about the strange looks from the kids when I served it up.  I told them that the little cups helped hold all the butter and goodness in one spot.

This is a complete metaphor of my life at times....No matter what I have done, no matter if I have stuck to the tried and true...What worked for some just doesn't work for me.  While each time I tried something new, I had to experience failure in order to find what worked well for me.  I had to ignore the looks, the comments and the fear of failure and try, try again....until I found....MY WAFFLE...

So, with this in mind, the next time you look at a waffle, think about what the waffle stands for.  It might be thin in spots, it might be a little more done in spots than in others but, it still has is shape and had held together, coming out of the heat with no tears of breaks and being fully intact.  It has dents and nicks but each nook and cranny holds the goodness close and sometimes it just overflows!

Thank you, Lord, for the cornbread!  :) Thank you for letting me find all the wrong ways to do a task instead of giving me the easy way out.  Thank you for letting me find my waffle...I hope that you can find your waffle too....


Stay tuned for more ramblings from the Lost Southerner.... :)