Cornbread Pot Pie

Now that it's getting colder, soups, pot pies, and baked potatoes tend to replace our warmer-temperature favorites like taco salad.

My standard chicken pot pie recipe uses biscuits as topping - but I thought I'd shake things up a little last night and try cornbread on top.

Cornbread isn't something I make regularly, so I cheated a little and used some packaged cornbread mix.

I'm beginning to suspect there's something wrong with my oven. Things are taking longer to cook than the suggested - or expected - times.

Take two:

Alright, now that the cornbread topping is completely cooked...

And the results?

Mixed.

The Texas-raised, meat and potato loving one of us loved it. The picky one took one bite and started to gag. My husband had seconds and praised it highly. I barely made it through my small bowl.

I am very picky when it comes to mixing 'sweet' with anything else. Salted caramel gelato? I can handle. Fruit glazes or sauces on meats or veggies? Never. Jello touching my lettuce? Nope. Reason number one I hate ketchup? It's sugar... that goes on... meat/potatoes? Why?! Potato salad is always suspect. (Did you know some people put sugar in it? I'll try to hold in my shudder.) I'd rather go hungry than eat pineapple on pizza. Actually, I'm incredibly picky about where I get pizza, because both the dough and the sauce are often too sweet for me.

Sure, I like to think I could eat at my favorite Bhutanese and Indian food restaurant every week, but fruit in curry is still more than I can stomach. With the exception of a single, amazing sweet potato/jerk chicken/mango salsa dish I had two years ago, I think fruit/sweet flavors belong locked far away from other flavors.

And yes, I did buy a divided cafeteria type plate for my first Thanksgiving dinner with my then-boyfriend's parents. I still use it. Even when I'm the one cooking. (And yes, bringing a divided tray to dinner is a great ice breaker. If you like explaining how incredibly picky you are. To everyone. Repeatedly.)

And to be honest, I was shocked that the cornbread turned out sweet. I mean, I added two tablespoons of garlic powder, and two tablespoons of ranch dressing powder. How was it sweet!?

I could try it again with a different pre-made cornbread mix... but... Once burned, twice shy I guess.

Next time, I just might make two smaller dishes of pot pie. One with biscuit topping for me, one with cornbread for my husband.