Extra Corny Cornbread

I created this cornbread as an attempt to make a dent in the many ears of beautiful corn that were handed to me at the end of dinner with dear friends last night (get ready for a corn-themed week, dear readers). As usual, I skipped the sugar; in this case, the sweetener is the corn itself: big juicy kernels of Connecticut's finest. There wasn't any baking powder in the house, so I used only baking soda as my raising agent and used plain yogurt, which works wonderfully in quick breads anyway. The vanilla extract may seem a little odd, but it adds some nice depth to the flavor of the bread.

And it goes:

- 1-3/4 cup stone ground cornmeal
- 3/4 cup whole wheat (bread) flour
- 1-1/2 tbsp. baking soda
- 1 tbsp. salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup (low-fat) milk
- 1/2 cup (low-fat) yogurt
- 3 tbsp. neutral oil
- corn kernels, cut off the cob
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees and grease a 9 inch pie dish. In a large mixing bowl, sift together the dry ingredients.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, yogurt, oil and vanilla.
3. Add the wet to the dry ingredients and blend well. Toss in the cooked corn kernels. Pour the mixture into the pie pan and bake 15-20 minutes, until it passes the clean-knife test.