Because it really is personal…

mmmm creamy cholesterol laden goodness

Terry and I have conflicting philosophies about grits. He likes white, I prefer yellow. It is cause for furrowed brows and audible “hmph”s. This morning, he asked for cheese grits for breakfast. When I set to fix them, (no, they weren’t broken, it’s a Southern colloquialism meaning “prepare”), and dug out the bucket of dried grits from the hutch, I opened it up and YIKES! It was full of teeny bugs! Now, I know there are cultures who eat bugs on a regular basis, and I am sure if I’d made grits out of the bucket, I could have passed them off as black pepper and he’d have gotten a nice dose of protein as well, but I wanted some grits too, and would have known. So…I had to make yellow grits instead. My parents know these people with a grist (not grits) mill who grind feed corn to make these fantastic coarse grits that I love. Nice yellow grits. I can hear Terry right now as he eats them. “mmm” is coming from the nest in the living room. But he doesn’t like yellow grits. Oh well. Anyway. For those of you who aren’t familiar with grits, they are essentially very coarse ground corn. Sometimes you can find hominy grits, which are made from hominy- corn that has been soaked in lye until it swells up huge (think, a soft corn nut. Corn nuts are dried and seasoned hominy). The hominy (which you can buy canned and is quite tasty) is dried and ground. It has a slightly different flavor than regular corn grits, but not enough to justify the extra step, in my opinion. The coarse ground corn is cooked in water to make a porridge that is the perfect foundation for a nicely seasoned breakfast or dinner casserole type thing. Like any other grain porridge, by itself it’s totally bland. Salted, cheesed, seasoned with onion, garlic and hot peppers, it’s fantastic. I’ve heard rumors of people above the Mason-Dixon line (the boundary between North and South) actually putting butter and sugar on grits, but have never actually seen it, myself.

I did hear of a person traveling in the south, suffering a desire to try grits, but feeling trepidatious about it, and asked the waitress if he could just try one.

Anyway, here’s my cheese grits recipe. You can make it with either yellow or white grits, either one is fine tho the flavor is a wee bit different. Yellow grits have a heartier flavor- more corny.

Cheese Grits serves 4-6
1 cup evaporated milk
3 cups water
1 cup grits
Bring the milk and water to a very slow simmer (bubbles around the edge of the pot) and stir in the grits. Keep at a low temp, and stir often.

Add seasonings, all or some, your choice, your taste:
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1-2 teaspoons your favorite hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Stir often, because it will stick to the pot and you know, they use grits to stick the tiles to the space shuttle…it’s not easy to get up once it’s stuck.

After the grits are done (taste them, they’ll be soft), and nice and thick, stir in a big ol’ handful of sharp cheddar cheese (or 4 slices of American cheese, it’s another thing Terry and I suffer a divergence of opinion on). Keep stirring until it’s all melted, and serve.

Cheese grits are great for breakfast, with crumbled bacon and a fried egg on top. They’re also served with fried catfish for dinner, and you can count on someone bringing a crockpot full to a potluck supper. Now, you don’t *have* to make them with the evaporated milk. If you’re craving cheese grits and you just don’t have a can of Pet in the pantry, just make it with 4 cups of water. They won’t be as creamy, but will still be good enough, and if you’ve never had cheese grits before, you’ll never know the difference.

If I really like you (meaning, you haven’t pissed me off recently), and you don’t live in Australia (because their import laws won’t let me) and you can give me a really compelling reason to do so, I’ll send you a bag of yellow grits. Consider this a contest of sorts, with me being sole judge and jury. Convince me that I should send you some grits, and I will.