Summer Fest: Skillet Corn Muffins

"And sure it was God's good providence that we found this corne for we know not how else we should have done." -- William Bradford, First Governor of Plymouth Colony

Maize, moonshine, cornbread, corn pone, corn mush, hoe cake, hominy.  There's a certain poetry to the lexicon of corn in Southern cooking. As part of Food Network's Summer Fest, we want to talk a little about corn today and share one of our favorite recipes.Corn, which is actually a warm-season grass, is also the grain most commonly used as a vegetable. Corn makes bread and succotash and old Southern whiskey. In Southern and soul food, we use corn in no end of dishes, including soups, breads, puddings, dumplings, hushpuppies, and grits. We use it in salads and succotash, in gumbos and fritters.  We count on it, boiled or roasted on the cob, to herald sun and Summer.  It's the stuff from which childhood memories are made, and few food items are as versatile in purpose or as historically important.Corn kernels, the part we eat, are the seeds of the plant.  Dried corn cobs have been used as bedding and scouring-pads for cleaning.  Husks can be weaved into baskets and used as plates and for wrapping delicate steamed foods.  The pioneers recognized corn as both nourishment and currency.  It was important enough to preserve for food and valuable enough to trade for other crops and supplies.  For the early settlers, learning from the Native Americans about how to grow, cook, and store corn was critical to survival. Kernels were typically planted in hills in shallow holes, along with small fish as a natural slow-release fertilizer.  Then, as now, farmers and growers hoped for their corn to be "knee-high by the 4th of July," to indicate that a good harvest was just ahead. Varieties of corn grow in shades of yellow, red, blue, black, speckled, and white.In the U.S., corn is grown as a food crop and as forage and feed for a variety of animals. Nutritionally, it's a great source of vitamin B1 and B5, fiber, vitamin C, phosphorous, manganese, and folate, which helps to prevent certain cancers and heart disease.Our recipe for Skillet Corn Muffins combines our skillet corn and cornbread mix, two traditional Southern dishes that we are proud to keep as true to form as they were in early America.  Feel free to try our recipe with your own creamed corn. Shake things up a little, by checking out some of the other recipes we've linked to below.Ingredients1 14.5 oz. can Glory Foods Skillet Corn1 7.5 oz. box Glory Foods Cornbread Mix1 large egg, beaten1/4 cup of 2% milkVegetable cooking spray, as neededPaper muffin liners

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Open Glory Foods Skillet Corn and pour the contents into a two-quart bowl.
3. Blend Glory Foods Cornbread Mix, milk and beaten egg into the bowl.
4. Stir until well mixed. Mixture should still appear a little lumpy.
5. Line a standard muffin tin with eight paper liners. Spray lightly with cooking spray.
6. Fill muffin liners full to the top with batter.
7. Bake for 20 minutes. Insert a toothpick into the center of a muffin to check whether the muffins are fully baked. If the toothpick is clean when removed, then the muffins are ready.
8. Remove muffins from the oven and cool slightly before removing them from the tin.
9. Serve immediately with honey or syrup.

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It's corn week at Food Network’s Summer Fest, a season-long food and garden celebration where Food Network editors team up with blogs to share tips and recipes for Summer’s best fruits and vegetables.What’s your favorite corn recipe? Let us know in the comments, or join in the conversation on Twitter using the hash tag #cookingwith.Be sure to visit the other Summer Fest blog posts for even more ideas for using corn this summer:Dishin and Dishes:Kicked Up Creamed Corn From ScratchBig Girls Small Kitchen:Fresh Corn Salsa with Basil and MintZaika Zabardast:Fresh Corn RisottoWhat's Gaby Cooking:Spicy Corn SalsaCIA Dropout:Truffle Roasted Corn Kohlrabi SoupCooking Channel:Fresh Corn MuffinsFood for 7 Stages of Life:Corn on the Cob KormaFN Dish:Southwest Corn RecipesDaily*Dishin:Sweet Corn and Couscous Main Dish SaladPinch My Salt:Peter Reinhart's Fresh Cut Corn Bread with BaconNapa Farmhouse 1885:Corn & Watermelon SaladVirtually Homemade:Summer Corn SaladFood2:Creamed Corn CornbreadVirtually Vegan Mama:Thai Corn SoupSunshine and Smile:Scallops with Corn and Pepper SauceSpices N Aroma:Corn PilafThe Sensitive Epicure:Fresh Corn Fritters with Chive Lemon Chipotle Yogurt (Gluten-Free)Dixie Chick Cooks:Fresh Corn with Basil Slaw and FetaCooking With Books:Corn FavoritesPurple Cook:Corn on the Cob with CilantroCIA Dropout:Truffle Roasted Corn Kohlrabi Soup