All About Grits

This has been a crazy weekend! We are all exhausted, and we didn’t make it to church this morning. But part of my Sunday every week involves grocery shopping, so I woke up early this morning to get my shopping done at my FAVORITE store in Atlanta: DeKalb Farmers Market. I WISH I could show you all the inside, but they have a huge sign at the entrance that says no photography is allowed. Essentially it’s a massive indoor international farmers market. The variety of goods that they have is amazing, there’s almost nothing you can’t find there. Even though I can’t show you the inside, I can show you some of the goods I got!

They package a lot of their own goods and have great prices. I actually haven’t been here since I started being more health conscious, but turns out that it’s a health foodie’s dream! Lots of great organic products.

The flour is for my starter, Javier. I only want to feed him the best! 🙂

So today of course is Soul Food Sunday, and I wanted to do a breakfast dish today that’s good for the soul. The first thing that came to my mind was grits. Grits are probably one of the most quintessentially southern foods ever. I am often reminded of this hilarious clip from My Cousin Vinny:

Haha, NEVER gets old!

Well as the nice gentleman in the video explained, grits are essentially ground corn. They have their roots in Native American culture, and are very popular in the South for a breakfast food. So popular in fact that the area from Texas to Virginia is called the “grits belt” and apparently the state of Georgia recently declared grits our official prepared food.

There are lots of different types of grits, but we like to use quick grits because they just make the process go a little faster. NOT instant grits, but quick grits, which is just a slightly finer ground corn than regular grits.

The cooking process is really easy and very similar to cooking oatmeal, so really anybody can cook grits with no problem. And the result is oh so delicious.

Typically grits are just cooked with water but in our house my mom does it a special way that makes them really creamy and even more flavorful. I’ll show you how to do both ways.

Traditional Grits

• 6 T. quick grits (a scant 1/2 c.)
• 2 c. water
• 1/4 t. salt

-Bring the water to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir in the grits and salt and lower the heat to medium-low. Cover the pot, removing it to stir every couple of minutes. After a few minutes it will look like this:

-Continue to cook until the grits are very thick and the water has been absorbed, about 8-10 minutes for quick grits.

-Remove from heat and pour into bowl. Top with a little butter and eat hot! Grits are not good cold. Makes 2 breakfast portions.

Rich & Creamy Cheese Grits

• 6 T. quick grits
• 1 3/4 c. water
• 1/4 c. half & half or milk
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1/3 c. shredded cheddar jack cheese

-Bring the water to a boil over medium-high heat. Stir in the grits and salt and lower the heat to medium-low. Cover the pot, removing it to stir every couple of minutes. After about 7 minutes when the liquid has been evaporated, stir the half & half into the pot.

-Cover and cook for a few more minutes. Stir in shredded cheese until melted into the grits. Serve hot! Makes 2 breakfast portions.

It doesn’t get much better than this.

If you haven’t tried them you should! I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Thanks for reading and enjoy your Sunday! I’m off to give Jason a haircut!

-Lauren