Excellent Cornbread w/ Black Pepper, Sage & Feta

This is not your everyday cornbread.

This is SO good! I made 2 and froze one for Thanksgiving to serve w/ the turkey.

Sage is a lovely herb, but I only use it for poultry. It lasts in my garden pretty much thru to December in pots.

It's really about the decoration here. It is like an upside down cake.

You butter a 9" glass pie dish, then decorate with sage leaves in a daisy fashion (btw, my nickname is "Daisy", used by Henry and good friends only).

Mix up the cornbread batter and spread on top of the leaves.

Once it cools, you have this beautiful cornbread! and tastes good too.

I like my cornbread on the sweeter side, but made it savory w/ the addition of black pepper and feta cheese.

You can certainly make your favorite recipe for cornbread and add in the sage, feta and pepper.

Feta Sage Cornbread (adapted from this recipe)

• 1 teaspoon unsalted butter, softened for the pan
• fresh sage leaves, try and keep them uniform size
• 3/4 cup stone-ground cornmeal
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup sugar (if you don't like it sweet then reduce sugar)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup melted & cooled coconut oil (I like Tourangelle from Calif, because it has no smell)
• 1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
• a few grinds of black pepper

Butter a 9" Pyrex glass pie dish. Spread that butter on, you don't want any sticking.

Lay the sage leaves in a pretty pattern and press them down into the butter.

Mix up the dry ingredients in one bowl, then add in the wet ingredients. Don't overmix.
Add in the cheese and pepper last.

Pour the batter carefully over the sage leaves, trying not to disturb them.

Bake in a 375F oven for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.

Let COMPLETELY cool, or it won't come out of the pan! Run a knife around the outside of the bread and invert onto a cake plate.

Slice and serve.
No butter needed! SO GOOD!