Anyway. Snow days
are exciting and fun and they feel like a perfect excuse to not really work,
but instead just lounge around and watch shows and eat. Which is exactly what
I’ve been doing today. But I did have it in my mind to do a little cooking
today, and I wanted to use my cast-iron skillet, which I haven’t used yet. (You
may remember the skillet from Seasoning Your Staples.
So, today I
ventured out to the plaza, which was definitely treacherous. But, I was on a
mission for cornbread supplies, and that is what guided my car into the Loblaws
parking lot. And by “parking lot” I really mean giant snowdrift with cars
strewn about in no obvious order.
I should mention
at this point that I was also starving. None of the food in my house was
appealing to me, so I decided I would just get something in Loblaws. By the
time I arrived, I was so hungry and stressed that I just opted for a small
package of potato wedges. Which I proceeded to eat immediately as I moseyed
through the produce section.
Now, you would
not expect to come across someone you know on a snow day such as this in the
Loblaws. You would certainly not expect to come across a personal trainer that
you happen to know. Absolutely, never in a million years, would you expect to
come across said personal trainer whilst eating a free chocolate dipped strawberry
sample and holding a fried potato wedge in the other hand.
In case this is
so far out of the realm of possibility for you that you cannot imagine how this
might feel, let me take a moment to explain the feeling for you. It is akin to
running into your ex on house cleaning day. You know, that day where you are
about to scrub your bathtub, but you realize you’re out of the damn Vim. So you
hop over to Shoppers, in your cleaning garb, hair undone, possibly last night’s
mascara on your face, where you decide that you might as well grab other
various embarrassing pharmacy items to go with that Vim. As you head to the
checkout (up the family planning aisle, no doubt) you run into your ex, who is
buying family planning products and looking very handsome. At this point, you
attempt to drop the most mortifying items in your arms behind the Magic Bags
and desperately try to smooth those sticking up bits of hair down.
He, of course,
knowing how perfectly awkward you are, enjoys this sight and tells you how
great it is to see you. You also say how great it is to see him, despite the
fact you know perfectly well that if he is, in fact, looking at products in the
family planning aisle, he is not wallowing in self pity on his couch every
night, dialling your number and hanging up, drinking rye, and consulting a
Ouija board on whether you miss him or not. Which is of course what you want
your ex to be doing after you breakup.
Which is why this situation in Shoppers is not fun. Nor is it great to
see him. You leave Shoppers vowing to never leave the house without makeup on
again.
Oh. That’s never
happened to you either? Well anyway. The situation was embarrassing, but not
embarrassing enough to prevent me from eating a free sample of cheese when I
came across it. My cashier was of course confused when she rang through the
empty wedges box (which, I might add, I did not actually break the seal of. Instead,
I pulled the wedges out through the sides of the box, one by one, because in my
mind, I was going to make it home with those wedges to eat in the comfort of my
own home at some point.) Mercifully, the cashier through the box in the garbage
at her station, rather than making me bring home the empty box as a reminder of
my chagrin.
On a cold day
such as this though, I sometimes feel like cooking a summer meal, to make me
forget that in reality it is -25 outside and pounding snow. For dinner, I’m making
trout with cornbread and coleslaw. I’m using a recipe I saw on Southern Cooking
classics and giving a slight adaptation of my own. (Mostly that I could not find
self-raising cornmeal mix, so I’m using standard cornmeal with some baking soda
thrown in. Surely this will suffice.)
Start with one
and a half cups of your cornmeal (or cornmeal mix, if you can find such a
thing) and a half-cup of flour. Add baking soda if it’s not self-raising. (I
think. This is verging on baking and we all know how I feel about that.) Mix in
a can of cream-style corn, a small tub of sour cream, 3 eggs and some chopped
cilantro. I also would add chopped jalapenos if you want a little spice. I
threw in a bit of sugar, salt and smoked paprika too. Why not?
Using your cast
iron skillet, pre-heat your oven to 450° and once
it’s heated, throw in your skillet for five minutes. Then I used some butter to
grease the skillet, if you have extra butter that can only add to the
deliciousness. Top with some cheddar cheese. Bake for 22-25 minutes, until
golden and it pulls away from side of the pan. It was incredibly moist, no
doubt from the creamed corn and sour cream.
My trout
recipe basically consists of lime, cilantro, garlic powder, salt and pepper.
You can find the full recipe here.
With the easy-peasy coleslaw (read: pre-prepared salad mix and dressing) you
have a delightful summer meal that will chase your snow blues away! 
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