Anyone who knows me and knows my passion for food knows I love cornbread. I’m born and bred in the south so I’m sure cornbread was one of my first real meals. Recently I’ve perfected a cornbread recipe using corn and some other ingredients to really give my cornbread a kick. Pair that with my chicken stock based collard greens and you have a meal that would make a southern grandma proud!!!

Often when cooking my “soon-to-be-famous” cornmeal delight, I would sulk and silently comment that I wish I had a cast iron skillet to cook my cornbread in. I’ve not purchased new cookware in ages. It’s been more than 10 years to be exact. I’m desperately in need of new everything to help my cooking stay on point. Not being in a place financially to allocate my money to the fancy-smancy pots, pans, skillets and the likes I like, I would shrug my shoulders often when I cooked, or become internally defensive when someone said, “Girl, you need some new pans.”

Fast-forward to recently and I was looking for a lid for a pot I received as a wedding gift back in 2001. Already convincing myself that I probably didn’t have a lid or that it might have disappeared in the divorce, I decided to search anyway, and move some things around with hopes of a lid being found. This time I actually took the time to scoot down to see what all was in my cabinet. Much to my surprise I saw, perched atop the shelf on the cabinet not one, not two, but THREE beautiful cast iron skillets. I almost cut a jig at the sight of those black beauties. The immediately took me back to the days of seeing them at my Grandma Scott’s house, or eating out of them at my godmama Ella’s house. Cast iron skillets to me represented grown woman cooking and that was what I wanted for my cornbread! Not only will my cornbread become even greater, but I looked at the sight of those skillets as a gentle reminder to take my thoughts off of what I don’t have so that I can clearly see what I do have.

The moral of this story is: Look again, my friend. What you need is right where it needs to be. And keep on cooking!

@AngelaMMoore316