Cornbread for a huge appetite

As the school year approaches, everyone is trying to cram in as much summer fun as possible in these last few weeks. The glorious mornings filled with no alarm clocks, sleeping in and breakfast in front of the television will soon be replaced with the mad morning dash of getting your kids out of bed, threatening to ground them if they don't eat breakfast and dropping them off at school just mere minutes before the tardy bell rings.

My advice to you is to make the most of these last few weeks. Fill them with outdoor activities like swimming, camping and rafting. Last weekend, my husband and I joined some close friends on a weekend long rafting trip. Every day, we would wake up, pack up our gear and hit the river for six hours of river heaven. Needless to say, at the end of each run, we would come crawling back into camp with sore arms and a huge appetite.

When it was our night to cook, we whipped up a hearty batch of chicken chili and some jalapeno cornbread. I've featured the chili in a previous recipe, but the cornbread is something new and oh so good when cooked in a Dutch oven! If you can sneak in one more camping trip before school starts, make sure you try this deliciously moist and flavorful Dutch oven cornbread.

Dutch oven jalapeno cornbread

Start 24 briquets while you prepare the cornbread.

Ingredients:

3 c. flour

1 c medium ground cornmeal

1/4 c. sugar

2 tbsp. baking powder

2 tsp. salt

3 eggs

2 sticks melted butter

2 c. milk

8 oz. sharp cheddar

1/3 c. green onion

1 jalapeno, seeds removed and diced into small pieces.

• Before leaving on your camping trip, combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt. Place in a large zip lock.

• After starting your briquets, mix together three eggs, butter and milk. Save just a little bit of butter to coat the inside of your Dutch oven.

• Then mix in sharp cheddar, green onion and jalapeno.

• Add this mixture to the dry ingredients in the ziplock bag.

• Mix well and pour into your Dutch oven.

• Place Dutch oven on 16 coals.

• Cover with lid and put another eight coals on top.

• Cook for 45 minutes and check to see if cornbread is cooked through by sticking in a knife. If not done, cook for an additional 10 to 15 minutes.

• Give your Dutch oven a quarter turn clockwise every 15 minutes.

• Give the lid a quarter turn counterclockwise every 15 minutes.

• Remove from coals and serve immediately.

For additional recipes and photos, visit Shawnna Fields' blog at sfields.hubpages.com.