Sweet Cornbread

     I got to hang out with my mom in Ocala for a few days this week!  I helped out with St. John's superhero VBS! Luckly we were blessed by the school board providing the kids with breakfast and lunch all three days!  Hallelujah! That made my job a lot easier, I made a little lunch for the adults. Wednesday I decided I was going to make chili and cornbread! In all of the excitement, I forgot to pick up jiffy corn muffin mix! Luckly, mom had some cornmeal on hand and I set out to make some sweet cornbread from scratch! This recipe is going to be my new go to! Pastor Christine said it was the best cornbread she's ever had!! That is some pretty high praise!

Sweet Cornbread 

Ingredients: 

- 1 cup of flour

- 1 cup of cornmeal

- 1/2 cup of sugar

- 3 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder 

- 1 teaspoon salt 

- 1 cup of milk or half & half 

- 1 egg 

- 1/3 cup of oil (I used olive oil)
- 1 (14 ounce) can of whole kernel corn, drained

   Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sift together the flour, corn meal, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, and oil. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well. Fold in the corn and pour batter into a greased 8x8 baking dish. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

S'mores Cookie Bars

    I have found the perfect dessert for your summer cookout!! We had THE BEST CAMPING WEEKEND!! We thought it was going to rain all weekend, but in true Florida weather fashion, it held off until Sunday evening for us! We were prepared this time and we had a blast! I'll post some pictures after this AMAZING recipe! Seriously, you're going to love this dessert and you will be the hit of the cookout! I made mine with whole wheat flour but, I'm sure you could make it with regular all purpose flour just as easily.

S'mores Bars

Ingredients:

For the crust:

- 2 and 1/4 cup of graham cracker crumbs

- 1/3 cup of sugar

- 2/3 cup of butter, melted

For the cookie top:

- 2 and 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

- 1/2 teaspoon of salt

- 1 teaspoon of baking soda

- 1 cup (2 sticks) of butter, softened to room temp

- 3/4 cup of granulated sugar

- 3/4 cup of packed brown sugar

- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

- 2 eggs

- 3/4 cup of mini chocolate chips

- 2 cups of mini marshmallows

- 2 large Hershey's bars, broken up

    Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 pan with non-stick cooking spray. In a medium sized bowl, start the crust by mixing together the graham cracker crumbs and the sugar. Pour the melted butter on top and gently mix together with a fork until crumbly. Press the mixture into the bottom of prepared baking pan. Bake the crust for 7 minutes and mix together the topping meanwhile. To make the cookie top, start by stirring together the flour, salt, and baking soda, set aside. Next, cream together the softened butter (not melted) and the sugars. I used a spoon to mix this recipe, but you could whip out the mixer. Once the butter and sugar is creamed, mix in the vanilla and eggs. Once thoroughly combined, slowly add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients only mixing until just combined. Fold in the mini chocolate chips and mini marshmallows (I may have used my hands at that point). Carefully dollop the cookie dough on top of the baked graham cracker crust, pressing the mixture flat without disturbing the crust underneath. Bake the bars for 12 minutes, remove and top with broken Hershey's pieces. Quickly return to the oven and bake for another 15 minutes. It will puff up a lot due to the marshmallows, you want it to do that. Let it cool and slice into bars. Enjoy!

Now for some camping pictures! 

My camp kitchen setup!

My man!

Happy Birthday Heather!!!!