Cornmeal Johnnycakes with Local Honey

Start with the cornmeal. Stone-ground, from a mill that cares about the grain. You will know the difference the moment you open the bag. Fresh cornmeal smells alive, sweet and earthy, like a field in late summer. The industrial kind smells like nothing at all.

Johnnycakes belong to the American story. Native peoples taught colonists to make them. Rhode Islanders have been arguing about the correct spelling for centuries. What matters is this: they are corn and water and heat, transformed into something crisp at the edges and tender within. The technique is forgiving. The ingredient is not.

Find a local mill if you can. Many farmers markets carry stone-ground meal, sometimes still warm from grinding. This is the kind of food that connects you to a place. The corn was grown somewhere. The bees that made your honey foraged somewhere. When you eat these johnnycakes, you are eating your region.

A drizzle of local honey is the only adornment they need. Good food does not require complication. It requires attention to what you start with.