Savoury cornbread bread pudding

I really like cooking, and I'll happily read about food professionals (chefs, food reviewers, etc.) but all I aspire to be is a competent home cook. My mother is an amazing cook, with a fantastic ability to get home from work, study the fridge/pantry for a minute, and then come up with a solid meal. I feel like cooking is like any other body of knowledge - the better grounded you are in the basics, the more likely you are to be able to think creatively. And so I am still firmly in the apprenticeship years, where by following recipes I learn techniques and principles that will eventually allow me to innovate. I always feel like 80% of the praise I get for any given recipe really belongs to whoever wrote it, so I am psyched to report that yesterday I totally made something up, and it is better than edible!

- approx 3/4 of a 9x13 pan of cornbread your sister made following Leah Chase's recipe that was printed in Offbeat around Mardi Gras, cubed and frozen since February
- 1/2 pint of slightly withered looking grape tomatoes from last Thursday's farmers' market, sliced in half
- 2 very tired zucchini from the Saturday before last's farmers' market, grated
- approx 3/4 pint milk
- approx 2 cups grated cheddar cheese
- 4 eggs, beaten

Mix all, put in 9x13 pan, bake at 350 degrees for ~ 45 minutes, maybe less since my oven runs cold/slow.