cornbread from the box but playing with it...

I make an awesome cornbread from scratch, modifying a Greek dessert recipe, but it is very time consuming, even though it tastes awesome.  If i want something quick, this is what i do.

Corn bread from the box

modifying the box

1.   2 boxes Jiffy corn muffin mix

2.   4 eggs (twice what the box tells you), whipped

        (makes it fluffy and light)

3.   1/3 cup flour

        (adds strength so it does not crumble so easy from the gluten)

4.   1/2 cup milk

       (creaminess)

5.   1/3 cup beer

       (carbonation so it rises more and bitterness)

6.   1 tablespoon raw sugar

7.   12 oz sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

       (adds firmness and the sharp flavor of the cheese)

8.   1/2 cup whole kernel corn (frozen is great, but thaw it first)

       (adds texture)

9.   1 tablespoon hot, green peppers, diced

10.                     1/4 stick of butter, melted

             (adds sweetness and makes everything more moist)

11.                     1/4 cup shelled, roasted pumpkin seeds

             (adds crunch)

12.                     standard large baking dish 9 x 12, greased

pre-heat oven to 400 F

into the dry mix add:

the eggs, milk, beer, sugar, peppers, corn and half of the cheese

mix thoroughly, it should pour into the pan, if not add more beer

top with the remainder of the cheese and the pumpkin seeds

cooked at 400 F for 20 minutes.

turn off the oven and watch carefully for 5 minutes while it is in the oven

do not let it turn dark brown!   The cheese will be dark, but there is a difference between dark and burned.

remove and pour melted butter around the edges and center of the pan

cool and then cut (do not cut while hot!)

Expirements

My background is chemistry and that means several things;
the first is i like to "play" with my food,
sometimes they succeed and sometimes they fail and great messes are made in the kitchen.
And so you know, i clean up my own messes.
The second is that, although i was never a synthesis chemist, i know the rules and there is always an order to how things are added together.

there are times i forget those rules.
I make an excellent whip cream from scratch which has a little bit of sugar (so it is not like ready whip or cool whip) and has some great flavors (vanilla and cinnamon).
Then i go and want to do more with it and that is when i get into trouble.
I wanted to add fruit and had some frozen blackberries from a time they were on sale.
So why not add them to the whipped cream, so this is when things went "south" so to speak.
blackberries are acid and these were frozen.
I defrosted them in the microwave and add sugar to them AND THEN I PUT THEM IN THE MIXER FIRST!
What was i thinking?
The cream has to set first, adding an acid not only did not let the cream set, but curdled it!
Turning on the mixer let the mixture fly every where.
The next day i did it in the proper order, whip the cream with sugar and when it was set add the macerated blackberries slowly to the whipped cream.
This worked without a mess and the topping was great.

Next experiment went well, took leftover part skim ricotta cheese (from making spinach breakfast cups), mixed it with egg and sugar (1 cup ricotta, 2 eggs, i tablespoon of sugar) and put the mixture in a souffle baking cup.  25 minutes at 350 and everything was set.

Next, i make some fine cornbread, but it is time consuming and takes a lot of eggs, so i added beer instead of water to a premix cornbread.
I have done this before, but it really did nothing save add a nice flavor, but this time i covered the top with cheese.
2 boxes corn mix, 2 eggs, 2/3 cup beer and about 8 oz of yellow cheese on top.
What i did not think of is that the cheese melted and covered the top, trapping the carbonation of the beer (so you could use seltzer water as well) and the cornbread became light and fluffy and beautiful to behold.  It did require more time than the box said 30 minutes at 400 F, but oh how good!.
there you have my experiments for the evening!