At our house last night

As recorded in camera phone photos, our house was a bit of a disaster zone last night.

I attempted to make Southern skillet cornbread but ran into two obstacles:

1. Our cast-iron skillet is about 52 inches wide since it's what we take camping and like to fit pancakes, eggs and bacon in one pan over a fire.
   
2. When I opened the bag, I realized I bought corn flour instead of cornmeal.

Since I didn't feel like quadrupling the recipe, I used a standard cake pan. Since I didn't have cornmeal, I plunged ahead with the flour because the bag promised "AUTHENTIC MEXICAN FLAVOR." And surely that's a plus with Southern skillet cornbread.

When I reached the end of the recipe, the part where I was supposed to "flip cornbread onto a cutting board so the hard butter-crusted bottom would show," this was what I got:

Only a truly loving husband would hear my groans, come over to the counter and declare, "Looks great to me." The sweet part is he actually meant it.

I'm pretty sure he was delirious with hunger at that point.

Then about a hour after we put Madeline to bed, Joe went to check on her. He came back to the living room and told me I had to go see our daughter.

I took this as a sign that I should also bring my phone to snap a picture. And I was right.

I promise, she only had water at dinner.