INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

We are not talking about a food product here so much as we are talking
about a memory, a life-style, a childhood, a commitment, a dish that
was popular during the worst times in the history of the South. When
there was little else to eat one could always have grits. Following
the War Between the States everyone ate grits--poor white trash,
landowners, black farmhands. Now it is eater, not because one has to
but because one can choose to eat this old recipe left over from
difficult times.  I can just hear you grits lovers yelling that I am
being unfair. No,  the truth of the matter is that I love grits. When I
was in graduate  school studying theology, the inevitable would happen
each evening.  Several of us could take only so many hours of studying,
so we would  run out to eat an extra meal about ten or eleven in the
evening. We  found a place in Chatham, New Jersey, called Mother's,
though Mother  was a Greek fellow who bore no resemblance to my mother.
None at all.  He would cook us fried eggs and potatoes for very little
money, and  we went often. One night Carrol, a big lad from the South,
yelled, "I  can't stand it any longer. These eggs are perfect but there
are no  grits." I did not know what grits were, so he wrote to his
mother and  she shipped us a box. Since we had no kitchen we took them
to our  Greek "Mother" and Carrol taught him how they were to be
prepared. At  last we sat down to grits and eggs. Carrol smiled and
said, "That's  better!" I then realized that he was not hungry for
grits as much as  he was lonely for home. That's what grits are for.
Buy a box in the supermarket and cook according to the instructions  on
the box. You cook them just like cream of wheat. A puddle of grits  is
placed on the plate and topped with butter and black pepper. Fried
eggs and toast go on the side. The egg yolk must run into the grits.  .
. . Oh, I think I'll go call Carrol.  This is another treat from my
Texas cook, Harriet Fields. You will  know that it is Harriet's recipe
because she puts Tabasco in it . . .  for breakfast! Harriet puts
Tabasco and hot green peppers in  everything, so this dish should not
strike us as strange. It is  unusually good and she serves it as a side
dish at dinner as well as  at breakfast.  Cook the grits according to
the directions on the package. Blend the  milk and egg together and
stir into the grits. Add remaining  ingredients. Be careful with the
salt as the cheese makes it a bit  salty to start with.  Pour into a
greased 8X8-inch glass baking dish and bake at 375ø for  45 minutes,
stirring once after the first 30 minutes.  From <The Frugal Gourmet
Cooks American>.  Downloaded from Glen's MM  Recipe Archive,
http://www.erols.com/hosey.

A Message from our Provider:

“You don’t have to be brain-dead to live for Jesus, but when you are, you’ll be glad you did”