From the Kitchen of WoodmenLife EVP & CMO Kyle McMahan: Mama’s Cornbread

WoodmenLife is committed to supporting your family. So we thought it would be nice to get to know each other better by sharing a little from the WoodmenLife family. Here, Executive Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer Kyle McMahan shares a family recipe and the memories that make it so special. Hopefully when you make it, you can create special family memories of your own.

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My mother is a fantastic cook who never gets stressed in the kitchen. She cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner practically every day.

Any time I would bring friends to the house, one of the first things she would ask was, “Are y’all hungry?” Of course, the answer was always yes. She would laugh and have a good time, and before you knew it, we had a full dinner on the table — no matter what time it was — plus sweet tea to drink. My friends loved visiting because they knew they would not go hungry.

My mother would say, “Cornbread, or at least bread of some kind, is supposed be served with every meal.” This was the case as I was growing up. I can never cook cornbread, biscuits — or really anything — to taste as good as what Mama cooked.

Mom is now 89 years young and has been a widow for 26 years. My father died at age 65, and my mother said their relationship was like a piece of paper: Once you tear it in half, there is no other piece that will fit. She loves my father — still talks about him every day — and her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They all can share stories of Mama’s cornbread and many other great meals.

Mama’s Cornbread

Ingredients:

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 cup milk

1/4 cup butter

1 egg

1 Tbsp. butter

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Place cast iron skillet into oven as it preheats.
3. In a large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients, stirring until well mixed.
4. Add milk, butter (1/4 cup) and egg. Stir until just combined.
5. Carefully remove skillet from oven and add 1 Tbsp. of butter.
6. After butter is melted, pour in batter, spread it around evenly.
7. Place skillet back in oven and bake for 18-22 minutes — or until cornbread is lightly browned on top and an inserted knife comes out clean.

Enjoy with more butter and real maple syrup. Store leftover cornbread wrapped in plastic for up to two days. Reheat cornbread in a toaster oven or a 325-degree oven in foil for about 15 minutes. Mama loves to eat it for breakfast the next morning sopped in milk.

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