Bean Bread (Tsu Ya Ga)

This is a traditional Cherokee recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup of Cornmeal
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tbsp sugar *(see below)
2 cups milk *(see below)
1/4 cup melted shortening *(see below)
1 beaten egg *(see below)
2 tbsp honey
4 cups drained brown beans

Mix all ingredients, except beans, thoroughly, and then fold in the beans.  Pour into the greased, heated pan.  Bake at 450 until brown (usually 30 minutes or so)...then cool and eat...Yummy!

*Now, because I don't ingest a lot of the things that are called for in the traditional recipe, my amendments are as follows:

Sugar - I use raw turbinado
Milk - Almond milk
Melted shortening - I use coconut oil
Egg - I use Ener-G egg replacer
Also, I prefer to use a large cast iron skillet to bake in and I oil that with vegetable oil...
In addition, the traditional recipe would call for you to put wood ash into this so that you may leach the lye from it, the belief was that it would prevent worms from growing in your stomach and is a common factor in traditional Cherokee recipes...I would STRONGLY not recommend it and in fact, will probably not mention it in another recipe, I say it now for historical purposes only.
If you try this recipe, I'd love to try it and/or hear about it, especially if you funk it up your own way :)

Peace!!!