The Solar System Is Chocolate! Of Course It Is!

Cornbread Suppers have been whopper recently. This week, on the eve of the long-awaited presidential election of 2016, we sang happy birthday to a Cornbread Community regular who turned twelve on Monday, and wanted to be among friends at Cornbread Supper.

The table held extraordinary food: salads, homemade chocolate birthday cupcakes, pumpkiny cupcakes, stews, macs-n-cheeses (including gluten free), veggies, pickles, bourbon balls, bourbon cake, rice dishes, exquisite petits fours, fried chicken, homemade applesauce from homegrown applesauce, Cheetos and cornbread.

One of the remarkable treats: a young Cornbread Community member's clever, handmade chocolate truffles, made with characteristics relevant to each planet in our solar system. Here's the plate as he was setting it up. Earth? Extremely delicious—speaking from experience.

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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

Rice Pudding "Gonzo"

Sadly, we have no pictures of this meltaway deliciousness, but Beth Ellen Rosenbaum brought an incredible rice pudding to Cornbread Supper on May 10, 2009. She shared this epicurious.com recipe: Rice Pudding "Gonzo ." The header to this Gourmet Magazine recipe, republished on Epicurious in January, 2002, says that this recipe takes it name from firefighter Steve "Gonzo" Gonzalez, of Company 18 of the FDNY, which suffered a great loss of life at the World Trade Center. Recipes connect us all.

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