I just made my cornbread early for the dressing.  It does better when it is stale.  I added bacon, garlic and jalapeno!  I sauteed the bacon, and then at the end, threw in the jalapenos and the garlic.  Made my cornbread batter on the side with buttermilk and eggs and melted butter.  Dumped it right on top of the bacon mixture in my iron skillet.  Baked at 450 for about 25 minutes.  Perfection!

Here is the recipe for the cornbread:

Skillet Cornbread

1/2 lb. bacon

2 tablespoons minced garlic

4 jalapenos seeded and diced

3 cups cornmeal

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons of salt

1.2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 cups buttermilk

2 eggs slightly beaten

10 tablespoons melted butter

Preheat oven to 450

Brown chopped bacon in a cast iron skillet.  Add the garlic and jalapeno and saute until soft.

In a bowl, mix the cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pepper and mix it up real good.  in another bowl mix the buttermilk, eggs, and melted butter.  Add to dry ingredients and stir until just combined.  Make sure you stir from the bottom so you don't have dry patches in the batter.  Dump this right into the iron skillet.  Bake for 25 minutes and it is golden brown on the top.  I doubled my recipe because everyone really likes Chicken and Cornbread dressing, and I am serving 16 this year.