Nobody puts Baby in the "Corn"er

When my sister was pregnant with her first child I was a single, enrolled in grad school and working at her office. It was a time in my life when I would spend a lot of time with her when I wasn't in school or studying. We worked together, so naturally during the day we would make tons of plans that centered around the arrival of her first baby. One thing that we used to do almost every Friday was take shopping excursions to Babies R' Us. We would buy necessities like bottles and diapers and non-necessities like duck-shaped bathtub thermometers and miniature Nike socks. It was great fun and a period that was filled with so much excitement. I will always treasure those outings because it was her last pregnancy that I lived in New Orleans for and I am grateful to have been a part of the preparation of arrival of her first newborn, my Godchild.

Whenever we took those Babies R' Us outings we would always go to the same restaurant for dinner and meet her husband. Almost every Friday for several months we dined at Zea's. Zea's is a rotisserie restaurant that serves any kind of meat you can imagine roasted to perfection on their rotisserie grill. Although their meats are the star of their menu there was another menu item that stole my heart. They served a side dish that is to this day still one of my all time favorites - corn grits. Corn grits were the perfect accompaniment to the bold flavor of the beef or chicken. They were rich, sweet, smooth and crunchy all at the same time. I have never been able to find a recipe for corn grits although I often look for one when serving a hearty meat as my main course. I was happy to find this recipe below during one of my searches and it did an excellent job of satisfying those characteristics of my treasured corn grits.

Corn Casserole
Adapted from Cooking Light September 2007

Yield

8 servings

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup egg substitute or 1 egg
  
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 (8 3/4-ounce) can no-salt-added whole-kernel corn, drained
• 1 (8 3/4-ounce) can no-salt-added cream-style corn
• 1 (8 1/2-ounce) package corn muffin mix
• 1 (8-ounce) carton fat free sour cream
  
• Cooking spray

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350°.

Combine first 6 ingredients in a medium bowl;

stir well. Pour into an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray.

Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until set.

This dish was ready for the oven in no time at all. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a special side dish to compliment the main course, but with the ability to stand out on its own. I was very pleased with the moisture, flavor and appearance of this side. It was light and fluffy and very addictive.