It's Farmers' Market season and to me, that means loads of good corn at cheap prices. Decent corn is so seasonal, I tend to load my summer cooking with it, buying it every week to use one way or another. I'll steam it and grill it whole or I'll include it in any dish I can, like salads, chili, soups and the best of all... cornbread. In my not-so-humble opinion, if it doesn't have fresh corn in it, it's not real cornbread. A little bit of cornmeal does not make a cornbread. I'm a pretty flexible guy and don't believe in a right and wrong when it comes to cooking, but I'll go 12 rounds with you on this if I need to.

To welcome corn season, I present to you my most-requested party dish of the summer, my Bacon Cheddar Cornbread. I'll admit it, this isn't the healthiest dish in the world but sometimes it's okay to spoil yourself. Cornbread is far too often dry, something I can't stand; it should go down smoothly, not get caught in your throat. I'm willing to be a bit on the unhealthy side in order to enjoy a moist, flavorful, delicious cornbread every once in a while. It's worth the calories. Trust me.

A 12” castiron skillet is pretty important in this process, though you can use a regular or nonstick skillet for the searing and a baking pan for the baking if you absolutely must. But considering how inexpensive good cast iron pans are, I'd say it's worth the investment. You're going to get better flavor, presentation and authenticity this way.

Let's start with the bacon, shall we? You'll need about 12 pieces. Cut them into pieces with a sharp knife, approximately an inch to an inch and a half wide. Don't make them too small as they will shrink during the cooking process and larger chunks of bacon are better in cornbread. In your preheated cast iron pan, cook the bacon over a medium heat until it's not quite done. Put the majority of it in a mixing bowl where you'll put the rest of the filling, but set aside a bit of bacon to put on the top. Leave a little bit of the grease in the pan and reserve the rest.

Next, the corn. Four ears should do you just fine. For taking corn off the cob, I've recently gotten into the Kuhn Rikon corn zipper that I carry at Kitchen a la Mode. It makes such an easy job of it and gives you nice, consistent kernels with minimal waste. And if you use it with the corn laying horizontally on the counter as opposed to on its end, you won't have to deal with the kernels bouncing around and flying all over the place.

Preheat that same cast iron pan to a high heat (no need to clean in between). Add a tablespoon of butter and then throw in the kernels. Sear until slightly browned but not too soft, about two minutes or so. Mix it with bacon. Add three or four chopped scallions to the mix, but reserve some for the top. Next, you'll need three cups of grated cheddar cheese. This is the last ingredient you're going to have to reserve a bit of for the top. Mix the rest with the bacon, corn, scallions and cheese. Set that puppy aside. You've now completed the filling and the majority of the work.

Mix together the dry ingredients. You'll need three cups all-purpose flour, one cup yellow cornmeal, one quarter cup sugar, two tablespoons baking powder, two teaspoons kosher salt and one tablespoon garlic powder.

Separately, combine some wet ingredients. You'll need three lightly beaten eggs and two cups heavy cream. Melt two sticks of butter and add in the reserved bacon grease from earlier. Mix it all together. Next, stir the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry items until the majority of the lumps are dissolved, but don't over mix that baby. Finally, gently fold in the bacon, corn, scallion and cheddar mixture just until evenly distributed. Let the batter sit at room temperature for twenty minutes.

Dump it all into the cast iron skillet (it will still be greased enough from the cooking of the bacon and corn, so don't worry about greasing it again). Even it out and top with the remaining cheese. Then comes the layer of reserved bacon and on top of that, the scallions. Cook in a 350 degree oven for approximately 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Serve hot or at room temperature. This is a great make-ahead dish!

Since I've been asked to make this dish for a lot of gatherings recently, I've been varying it with great success. Keep the dough the same while changing the filling for a fantastically different dish. I've recently done a tomato and basil cornbread as well as a jalapeno Gouda cornbread, both of which came out quite well without altering the rest of the recipe. Let the offerings at the Farmers' Market inspire your cornbread making!

Ben Salmon is a former literary agent and the owner of Kitchen a la Mode: Accessories for Cooking & Entertaining in the heart of downtown South Orange. Each week, his local food column at Patch explores the food and drink scene in the area.

Have an idea for something you'd like me to explore? Email me. I'd love to hear from you.