I know it’s not very interior design-y of me, but in honor of Thanksgiving, I thought I’d channel my inner Nigella Lawson and share one of my favorite holiday recipes with you: corn pudding.
It’s also known as “creamed corn,” if you’re honoring your midwestern roots; my mom’s from Minnesota.
Many years back, though, I took “creamed corn” to a potluck dinner and people looked at me quizzically when I tried to explain what it was. Not a casserole crowd. On a whim, I said, “Corn pudding?” and was met with encouraging smiles and nods of recognition.
Plus, “corn pudding” sounds fancy. Which it totally is not. (Kind of sums up my whole culinary approach, to be honest.)
I love everything about this corn pudding. It’s ridiculously easy. It’s delicious. It requires no exotic ingredients. Everyone loves it. It involves Saltines. It’s yellow! So without further ado:
Bossy Color’s Super Simple Corn Pudding
- 2 cans of creamed corn
- 1 can of corn kernels, drained
- 2 eggs
- 18-20 Saltine crackers
- Salt and pepper
- Butter
Preheat oven to 325 degrees and grease the baking dish with butter. The pan can be flattish or roundy, like for casseroles. (Pardon the technical terms.) Flatter gives you more crisp on top, obviously.
Dump the creamed corn and kernels into a bowl.
Add the two eggs, beaten. (If you’re my mom or me, you’ll crack the eggs INTO the creamed corn cans and beat them in there. It saves a bowl and gets all of the creamed corn out. Clever!)
Crush the Saltines over the bowl with your hands and dump them in. Don’t put them in whole and try to break them with a spoon: it just doesn’t work well. Plus it’s time-consuming. (See how high my standards are for “super simple?”)
Add salt and pepper. Mix.
Pour into the baking dish, and put little pats of butter on the top. I don’t care what kind of diet you’re on: YOU CANNOT SKIP THIS STEP. Live a little.
Bake it at 325 for about an hour and ten minutes. It’s done when the top is brown and it doesn’t jiggle too much when you shake it. You’ll know.
I should tell you that this is my complicated version of my mother’s creamed corn, which doesn’t involve the corn kernels. I’m so bold!
Look: you could add even more more ingredients if you wanted to gussy this up..but why would you? This corn pudding is perfect as is, and you have other things to do. Like make a turkey. And plan your 2014 decorating projects. Come to think of it, I may even have time to re-paint the bathroom before the guests arrive…
Quoted recently in The Wall Street Journal and on Washingtonian.com, Annie Elliott is an expert in curated interiors, brilliant color palettes, and telling busy professionals what to do in the nicest way possible. Btw, please don’t bring corn pudding to a potluck dinner to which I also have been invited. I’m a one-hit wonder: I’ll definitely show up with this.