Some days I am just tempted to write down what I ate the day before and let you know if it was good or not. This day I am giving in. In advance of this supposedly epic storm that was supposed to bear down on us, last night I decided to make chili mac despite being on strike from cooking family dinner for the time being. I wanted chili mac and it's hard to make it for just one. I asked Steve to get some cornbread mix while he was at the store--normally I don't make cornbread but it was a suggested side from the Real Simple recipe I was using.) Steve picked up Famous Dave's.

I didn't expect much. It's cornbread from a box--cornbread is good, especially when you're waiting for your real food (usually in the form of barbecue or something), but it's never the thing I want most. I'm actually trying not to eat too much bread right now so I figured I could skip this random cornbread and just enjoy the chili (which, I know, had pasta in it). But the chili still had a half hour to cook after the cornbread came out of the oven (I made it in muffin form so I could freeze the leftovers) and so I decided to try one of the smaller ones.

It was SO good. Now, I'm aware it might not be what everybody looks for in cornbread. It had a really sweet, almost caramelized exterior (I baked it on the longer side) and the inside was super spongey and soft, instead of crumbly like a lot of cornbread. It was definitely more of a sweet than a savory cornbread, but I have to admit it's always a letdown to me to discover actual corn or peppers in my cornbread. It's too close to a salad in that instance.  I ate a second one just to make sure I wasn't crazy. Still delicious.

Steve and Paul each had two (Paul is having a popsicle in the above photo, in case you were wondering why he looks like a Goth kid) and I had to force myself to put the rest in the freezer. The chili mac? It was perfectly adequate (like, I have to be honest, a lot of Real Simple meals are, yet I keep trying them.) But I'd buy those cornbread muffins again and think you should, too.

(One caveat: I gave up sweets for Lent so it is possible that my tastebuds just grabbed onto the nearest sweetest thing I ate and tricked my brain into thinking these muffins were the best food I ever had, but I still suspect that, Lent or no, they were pretty damn good.)