With Thanksgiving just around the corner, you’ll need to have a few side dishes and I suggest this outstanding Southern Corn Pudding. The recipe appears on page 120 of my latest book, Southern Traditions. I learned this many years ago while having lunch at the Blue Willow Inn in Social Circle, Georgia. This dish was truly memorable. I could not stop thinking about it. The following recipe is just like the corn pudding I remember.
One of my favorite autumn paintings is by Kathy Anderson. You may see more of her paintings at Horton Hayes Fine Art, 12 Queen Street in Charleston. https://www.hortonhayes.com/artist/311
Named after a favorite china pattern, the Blue Willow opened the same year Hollywood released the sweetly nostalgic “Fried Green Tomatoes,” based on a novel by Alabama’s Fannie Flagg. In March 1992, Atlanta Constitution columnist Lewis Grizzard rhapsodized about its home cooking in a nationally syndicated piece that proved to be a game-changer.
Blue Willow Inn, Social Circle, Georgia. If you haven’t been there, well, bless your heart. It’s Southern hospitality at its finest!
Not only is this a Thanksgiving side dish but you will want to serve it year ’round at all your Sunday suppers. Surely when we die and go to heaven, we can expect meals up there to be served at a celestial branch of the Blue Willow Inn. (I believe it has been sold since the time when I was there and closed last March when Covid arrived.)
Their meals defined Southern eating at its best, from hot biscuits to fried green tomatoes to tables crowded with desserts. I can just taste those hot from the oven biscuits as I write this story!
By far, this Southern Corn Pudding will be the only recipe you will ever need when it’s time to make Southern Corn Pudding.
“Dining with one’s friends and beloved family is certainly one of life’s primal and most innocent delights, one that is both soul-satisfying and eternal.” Julia Child
I call it “Simple, Soulful, Southern.”
Southern Corn Casserole
This is fluffy, creamy and will be the star of your holiday dinner. It takes just 5 minutes and 7 ingredients.
1/2 cup butter
1 (8 ounce) container Sour cream
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 (15ounce) can cream-style corn
1 (15 ounce) can sweet corn drained
1 (8.5) ounce box Jiffy corn muffin mix
1/4 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 350-degrees and grease glass 9×13 inch baking pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
Whisk together butter, sour cream, and eggs until well combined.
Stir in sugar, cream-style corn, sweet corn, corn muffin mix, and salt.
Pour mixture into the prepared pan.
Bake in preheated oven for about 30 minutes until the mixture has set. It may be a little jiggly, but that is o.k.
