Monday, February 1, 2016

Local Style Cornbread


Homecoming is done!  Another one in the books!  For the first time in a long time, Homecoming this year was held during basketball season.  This was also the first year I've actually seen alumni visiting the school during homecoming.

Many of my colleagues remarked that THIS was the homecoming they remembered.  I had to agree (even if I'm not an alum of the place I work).  There was friendly, spirited competition between classes.  As always, the seniors came out looking strong.  This was especially apparent in the tug-of-war competition.  I'm sure you can imagine how large the senior boys were (several of them were starters on the district-winning football team) compared with the freshmen.  Thankfully, the freshmen never had to challenge the seniors.

The Student Association should be commended for putting the activities together (the school events for the week), and the entire student body also deserves a huge shout out.  While there was indeed the desire to win, the students were generally well behaved.  In previous years, there was a lot of boo-ing, but this year, there was hardly any, if at all, boo-ing.  Even when one student had a particularly difficult time with the marshmallow cube, nobody jeered.  Whew!

I really wasn't expecting to go, but I found myself at the culmination of homecoming, the basketball game against the Pahoa Daggers.  Although the Daggers play in a different division (school size), they are a scrappy team and very capable of hitting the shots.  They were the first to draw blood and at one point, they had double the points we had.  Luckily, we managed to squeak by, winning by less than a half-dozen points.  As I've said before, it's always nice to win your homecoming game.  Matsu, wish you could've been there.

With the craziness of homecoming, recovering from the Honolulu trip, and dealing with a few disgruntled students, there was hardly any time to cook dinner.  Luckily, we have several places in town which make really good chili. . .Don's Grill, Blane's Drive-In, and Zippy's.  Since he was in the area, The Help picked up a quart of chili on his way back from a late-afternoon errand.  This left me just enough time to make a pan of cornbread.  Having cornbread with chili is my idea of a great meal.

click on recipe title for printable recipe

     2 blocks butter, melted
     4 eggs
     2 c milk
     4 c Bisquick
     1 1/2 tsp baking powder
     1/2 tsp baking soda
     1 1/2 c sugar
     6 tbsp cornmeal

Grease a 9 x 13" pan.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Gently combine all ingredients.  Bake 45-50 minutes.

*I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but in Hawaii, cornbread is usually sweet, almost like a cake.

06-06-17:  I absolutely hate measuring Bisquick so today I decided to get smarter and weigh it instead.  After doing some research online, people wrote that 1 cup of Bisquick weighs between 120-130 grams.  Someone also said she found that 4 cups of Bisquick weighs 500grams (or that's the equivalent she uses in her recipes).  I made this with 482 grams today, and it came out great.  I believe I will be weighing my Bisquick from now (instead of measuring it in a cup).

15 comments:

  1. Yay HHS! Yes, I wish I could have been there too! Take care! - matsu

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  2. Fond memories of going to Woolworths at Ala Moana with my grandparents and having cornbread for breakfast.

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    1. When I moved to the mainland for college, I was pleasantly surprised to see cornbread on the food line in the dorm. But one taste was all it took for me to realize it was not the same as the cornbread back home!

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  3. Can i us flour instead of bisquick?

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    1. I would not recommend substituting flour for Bisquick, as Bisquick contains leavener and other ingredients.

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  4. Does it have to be bisquick? Can it be some other pancake brand?

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  5. Thank you for a delicious recipe!!

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  6. Is 2 blocks of butter a typo? That a lot of butter. Please advise.

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    1. It is not a typo. This is a recipe for Hawaii-style cornbread. It is often served for breakfast or even as a dessert. Its more like a cake.

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  7. Aloha and Mahalo for the recipe! It has always been a local favorite growing up small kid time! My father is Hawaiian and my mother is a Native American from the Arapaho tribe in Wind River. Growing up her version of corn bread was WAAAAY DIFFERENT! Lol … with definitely less sugar and no bisquick. But I cherished her cooking and ways of preparing her corn bread. Best of two worlds! Mahalo again! Stay blessed!

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    Replies
    1. Yes, Hawaii-style cornbread is very different from cornbread elsewhere. We eat it for breakfast and dessert!

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  8. My mom used to add pineapple to this recipe. When I do it I can never get the cornbread to cook all the way in the middle. What am I doing wrong? She passed in 2013 so I have no one else to ask :(

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