Two Day Magazine

Bringing Sexy Back to the Kitchen

There’s nothing sexier in the kitchen than baking bread! Biscuits are hot and moist, homemade pizza is fun and delicious... but nothing is better than an iron skillet of steamy, buttery, mouth-watering cornbread!

Tonight, switch the television off, turn the lights down low, get that favorite music playing in the back- ground and ready yourselves for the best meal you and your lover have ever had together. Cornbread and milk. But, as with everything else worthwhile in life, the excitement doesn’t begin with the first bite.

Start by relaxing with one another. Gently massage her tired shoulders. Push those fingers into his tense lower back. Then, lay out pajamas and take a candlelit bath together. If you can keep other thoughts off your mind until later, begin working together using the kitchen’s indirect lighting (over- head bulbs do nothing but destroy a mood!) Get the oven hot and the iron skillet inside it. Then, smile at her while asking her for her eggs. Coyly ask him for his buttermilk. Dot flour on her nose and then kiss it off. Pretend you can’t lift the five-pound bag of cornmeal (works wonders for his libido!). Have fun and laugh together! Cooking is a sensual, romantic experience that needs nothing more than a drop of humor mixed with a dollop of love!

After you’ve made the cornbread mix (see below for all pertinent details), retrieve the hot skillet and pour the batter in, baking for nearly an hour (while you finally give in to other pressing activities!) Believe me. Nothing will be better than hot buttered cornbread and a tall glass of organic whole milk after the afterglow begins to subside. Here’s what you’ll need:

• Relaxation and a warm bath together
• Romantic mood music
• Soft kitchen lighting (candles and lamps work perfectly!)
• An iron skillet
• Canola or vegetable oil
• A hot oven (350 degrees)
• Self-rising flour (only!)
• Corn meal (corn meal mix is even better!)
• One large egg (or two small ones.)
• Buttermilk
• Organic whole milk (or 2% if you must!)
• Butter
• A mixing bowl
• A whisk
• A rubber spatula
• A large spoon
• A steak knife
• A timer
• An oven mitten (or glove)
• Tall, clear glasses (for your ice cold milk!)

Get your oven hot at 350 degrees. Pour a thin film of oil into your iron skillet and put it into the oven. Then, in your mixing bowl, add equal parts of self-rising flour and cornmeal. Mix egg with 2 parts whole milk, to one part buttermilk, and a drop of oil. Whisk together until you have the consistency of cake batter (just a touch tighter than pancake batter).

Using care, retrieve the very hot skillet from the oven and place it on a non-burn surface (the stovetop is usually fine). Pour in your batter and clean the mixing bowl with your spatula. The hot oil in your skillet will rise to the outer edges of the wet cornbread mix. Scoop this up with your large spoon and sprinkle it over the top of the cornbread batter (which has already taken shape in the skillet). Slip this beauty back in the oven, and then slip other things elsewhere as you desire... but only for 45 minutes! Set your timer! Ding! Cut your hot cornbread with a steak knife, slit it open, butter it as desired, pour your glasses of cold milk, and enter the gates of Heaven at last...

Bon Appétit!