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This Is What’s For Dinner In Central America!

By Jane Goodwin | June 22, 2007

Corn, or “maize,” as Columbus named it, has been a Mexican and Central American staple for thousands of years. Cornbread is featured at most meals, in fact.

Here is a recipe for a typical Central American cornbread. Serve it tonight with your red beans and rice, why don’t you? Mmmmm, sounds delicious!

Makes me want to grab a plane and move to Mexico RIGHT NOW. And hey, if you’re retired, or thinking about retiring, there’s really no reason why you shouldn’t!

Here’s your dinner; eat it and dream of Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Belize, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Then call your travel agent!

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal (not self rising) (not coarsely ground, either. Central American cornmeal is finely ground)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (or cinnamon)
3/4 cup sugar (Central American cornbreads are very sweet) (Yes, you can use Splenda)
1/2 cup vegetable oil or melted margarine
1/2 cup milk
1 large egg, beaten
1 8-ounce can cream-style corn

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease or spray with PAM on a 9 x 9 inch baking pan.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg and sugar and stir with wire whisk or fork until well blended. Combine oil or margarine, milk and egg in small bowl and stir to blend, then add to flour mixture, stirring just until ingredients are mixed. Stir in creamed corn and then spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake cornbread 30- 35 minutes at 350 degrees or until top is golden brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Remove from oven and cool in pan on wire rack 15 minutes before serving. Cover and refrigerate any leftovers. This cornbread will keep for a week or more, although it’s generally eaten up long before then.

This cornbread is good hot OR cold.

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Topics: Recreation, Food, Culture, Friends and Family, Lifestyle, Travel / Relocation, Retirement Overseas |

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