Fried Cornbread

2 cups self-rising cornmeal
2.5 cups boiling water

Pour boiling water into cornmeal and mix. Add a smidge of salt if desired. Form into balls and pat into oval patties about half an inch thick. Fry in hot oil; turn to get both sides golden brown if not using a deep-fryer.

Authentic Southern ways to eat fried cornbread include crumbled into buttermilk (ick!), crumbled into the "potlicker" that's left in your bowl after you've eaten all the collards or turnip greens, or cut in half flatwise and smothered in butter and cane syrup. Or just eat it. That's my favorite. :)

Friends

"You can date the evolving life
of a mind, like the age of a tree,
by the rings of friendship formed
by the expanding central trunk."

Mary McCarthy, How I Grew