recipe: lace cornbread

i consider myself southern.
i was born & raised in florida.
most of my life has been spent in a small town who's teenage population adds slo- as a prefix to the name.
(with the exception of the first year of our marriage, where the hubs was in the military & we were in savannah)
we are considered the horse capital of the world.
that to me doesn't scream big-city life.
but, the hubs says i'm not southern.
(he's from georgia)
he says i'm a city girl.
and i admit, i have some very un-southern characteristics.
primarily where food is concerned.

i don't like greens...collard greens. turnip greens. you can keep them.
i don't like sweet tea. or tea at all for that matter. shocking right?
i'm not really all that crazy about fried okra..
but the hubs biggest beef is with the fact i like jiffy cornbread.
it's pretty much a sin to like your cornbread sweet in his eyes.
what's worse (to him) is i don't like my cornbread to be savory.. nor do i want actual CORN in it.
my mom made jiffy cornbread when i was a kid.. i didn't know any different.
until i met him.
until i moved to georgia & really learned about southern cooking.
(apparently even though my mom grew up eating that kind of food, it didn't fly in our house)

the small town the hubs hails from in georgia had this little family run restaurant in the heart of town.
it was a hopping joint most days, as it was one of maybe two or three places on the short stretch of road that made up the city limits.
they served all the traditional southern fare.
fried catfish.
collard greens.
turnip greens.
corn.
fried chicken.
biscuits & gravy.
cracklins'
fat back
& lace cornbread.

lace cornbread?!
yep. lace cornbread.
it's easy. it's good. it's cheap. & you won't regret making it.

lace cornbread:
3 cups yellow cornmeal
1 tbsp. flour (this particular batch i used gluten-free all purpose flour & it worked great)
1 egg
salt & pepper to taste
water
oil for frying

1. heat oil in a pan. i use a skillet with about a 1/2 inch of oil in the bottom.
2. mix all ingredients except water together in a bowl.
3. add enough water to make it a little more runny than cake batter, but not soupy. there isn't an exact measurement, but i promise you can't really mess it up.
4. drop spoonfuls of the batter into the oil, and spread it out into a circle as you would pancake batter. make sure your oil is very hot, according to my mother in law, this is what makes the bubbles around the edges that gives this particular style of cornbread it's name.
5. eat & enjoy!

hope you have a happy hump day! :)
xo-k