A couple days ago one of my Twitterfriends sent out an open call for Thanksgiving dishes. I grew up in a somewhat unremarkable region of the country for cuisine – there’s a reason you don’t see any Appalachian-cuisine-oriented restaurants, and most of the good local food in southwestern Virginia is borrowed from nearby regions (North Carolina barbecue, peanut soup, country ham).
But one of my favorite legitimately Appalachian dishes, spoonbread, is delicious and Thanksgiving-appropriate if you want a variation on cornbread. Essentially it’s a cornbread souffle, which, as you can imagine, is pretty good. It’s also not that difficult, if recent experience is any guide, and I’m very good at making food difficult; I’ve always found David Mamet’s “they could fuck up a baked potato” insult mean-spirited because c’mon baking a potato is harder than it looks.