Mini Corn Pones

Maybe I'm starting off on the wrong foot here; this recipe didn't come from the text. It came from the blog of a nutritionist friend of mine -- in fact the friend who recommended this course to me -- called Land, Food, and Life.

I've been meaning to try this recipe for some time. When my mom recently gifted me some little Pyrex bowls, that was the final push I needed. My complete obliviousness to what a corn pone is aside, I figured that making a few little ones would guarantee me convenient lunches for a few days.

Hannah noted that her recipe was a little lacking in the spice department. My brutish-but-pretty-effective solution was to double all the spices. Or, rather, I made a half batch but did not half the spices. Here's the recipe:



Throw half a diced onion, two minced cloves of garlic, and a little bit of olive oil into a frying pan. After a few minutes add 1 can of drained pinto beans, half a can of black beans, including some of the liquid, 1 tsp oregano, 1/4 tsp allspice, 1/4 tsp ground cloves, 1/4 tsp chili powder, and 1/4 tsp salt. Heat everything through, then divide it between three oven-safe bowls.



Preheat the oven to 375F. Actually, Probably do that before you start messing around with the beans.

Now combine 1 cup milk, 1 egg, and 1/4 cup pumpkin puree (mine was canned). Gradually add in your dry ingredients (mix them all together with each other before adding them to the wet!): 1 cup cornmeal, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp oregano, and 1/4 tsp allspice. Pour this over the beans.



Put this in the oven for... about 25 minutes? I lost track, for reasons I'll explain in a moment. The top should be golden brown and a toothpick inserted near the middle should come out clean.

Now, if you're like me, the corn mixture may seem really soupy to you. You may think to yourself, "Huh, I guess I've never cooked with corn meal before, I guess it will absorb a lot of liquid." Well, that may be true. But it may also be true that when you meant to grab the 1 cup measuring cup, you grabbed the 1/2 cup one instead.

I realized this about five minutes into baking, as I was cleaning up and noticed that the one cup measuring cup was mysteriously unused.



Obviously, I remained composed. There was no deer-in-the-headlights look of realization on my face, no panicked running to the kitchen, no yelling, and no flailing of my arms. At least, that's the story I'm sticking to. I quickly and calmly removed the pones from the oven, added extra cornmeal, gently stirred it in without disturbing the layer of beans at the bottom, and returned them to the oven.

Considering the disturbance, they turned out pretty well. The spices weren't right, unsurprisingly; I think more than anything else it needed more chili powder. It's hard to say for sure, though -- these are supposed to be eaten with salsa and I didn't have any on hand.