June 15: Green Chili Cornbread, Curried Beet-Apple Salad, Mint Brownies

Cheers erupted when the beautiful blue bowl of beet salad arrived. The beet salad has already established a fan group. The June 15 beet salad, however, packed considerable surprise: apples, celery, and .... drum roll .... a stunning curry vinaigrette.

We had 19 quality Supperians this week - the smallest group ever, including, as always, some people attending a Supper for the first time. The conversations, the tastes of all the foods, and the pace, and possibly the high ratio of bottles of wine to humans, all gave the evening a special character. Green Chili Cottage Cheese Parmesan Cornbread

Green Chili Cottage Cheese Parmesan Cornbread

Cornbreads for the night included a green chili onion cottage cheese Parmesan casserole and some overly soft lemon blueberry cornmeal muffins. Other foods included slow-cooked black beans with Elmwood kale, a noodle dish, and an array of salads.

Mint Iced Brownies

Lovely mint-flavored brownies with a light icing, and a large bowl of beautiful crunchy-fresh grapes finished the meal and delighted adults and children alike.

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Boone Tavern Spoon Bread, the 1950s recipe

We have tried spoonbreads (soft, luscious, buttery—described by James Beard as a "heavy, dense soufflé") as Cornbread Supper mainstays before, and used great recipes, but the spoonbreads always did what spoonbreads (and soufflés) do: deflate. Through serendipity, and thanks to a Cornbread Supperian, I lucked into the old Boone Tavern (Berea College) recipe for spoonbread, and it is far less droopy. Perhaps Boone Tavern developed an approach to spoonbread that preserves all its goodness while still working for a busy restaurant. In any case, with thanks to Kentucky food and foodways author and guru John van Willigen, here's an excellent recipe for that can be doubled, tripled, and quadrupled to feed spoonbread to a crowd. It did just that on Monday, February 25, 2013. From Richard T. Hougen. Look No Further: A cookbook of favorite recipes from Boone Tavern Hotel, Berea College, Kentucky. New York: Abingdon Press. 1955. Southern Spoon Bread 1955 Ingredients 3 c...

We remember Vicky Schankula, 1947–2016

Vicky Schankula, at right, in purple One of life's most gracious and delightful people, Victoria Fairbanks Schankula, found Cornbread Suppers early on, and took joy in the weekly gatherings. She came to Cornbread Supper faithfully, bringing beautiful food, laughter, a camera for her "picture of the day," a lovely British accent, a commitment to helping clean up, and a constant interest in each other person in the room. When Vicky entered the house on Monday nights carrying a particular large round plate, children (and a few adults) trailed her to the dessert table to see what she had brought. The favorites: lemon bars, brownies and her mother's most unusual, delicious carrot cake. Vicky graciously shared and allowed us to publish recipes for Lemon Bars and Isabel Fairbairns's (Gangy's) Carrot Cake on this site. Gangy's Carrot Cake on Vicky Schankula's special dessert plate When illness prevented Vicky from returning to Cornbread Supper...

Cornbread Supper now is resting

For all the Cornbreadians and would-be Cornbreadians -- it was a good run. A bit more than nine years. You came on Mondays. Conviviality ensued. You made community. Gratitude to all. It was a gift to us.

Cornbread Supper

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