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Grits
As a child, I never cared for grits. I ate them out of obligation. Born into a southern bloodline, I could not escape grits as part of a “good” breakfast.
My elders served up plenty of them. And I couldn’t stand the texture of the flavorless mush. But I found ways to stomach them. I’d top mine with whatever was available: cheese, butter, eggs, bacon, sausage. It wasn’t easy, but there weren’t many alternatives. As a child, you eat what is served, risk injury for refusing it or go hungry.
As an adult, living in a major metropolis of the South, it’s still impossible to avoid them. Restaurants of all varieties have some variation of shrimp & grits. Each, an attempt to gussy up the down home “fish and grits” that are a soul food staple. In my city they are served stone ground, with white cheddar, lobster – you name it!
But they are so good. I cannot deny that now, I too, have begun to enjoy them. I realized they don’t have to be flavorless mush. I’ll even cook them for myself and toss in some sauteed onions and peppers, or top them with some golden fried tilapia bits. My mom came to town raving about Krystal’s scrambler, which is grits (of the flavorless mush variety) topped with eggs, cheese and a sausage patty.
Unacceptable!
But this woman is one of the people who sequestered me at the kitchen table of my youth until I ate her simple, unadorned grits. I decided to serve her up some new age grits in a scrambler of my own. She tells me “Why did you give me those grits? I can’t eat Krystal’s no more. You put them to shame!”
And they should be ashamed. Here’s how I made them.
Ingredients
Grits
Onion
Green Pepper
Keilbasa Sausage
Shredded Cheddar
Butter
Bacon
Eggs
- In a small pot bring water to a boil for your grits.
- Dice and sautee onions, peppers and sausage in a separate pan.
- Add grits to boiling water along with a pinch of salt and some butter. Stir grits regularly to prevent clumping and reduce heat to simmer.
- Dump contents of saute pan into the simmering grits. Continue to stir grits so they remain loose. If they cook quickly and dry up, just add more water and stir. Hard, lumpy grits are, well unacceptable. We want them to be smoooooth.
- Cook bacon in separate pan.
- Lightly scramble some eggs
- When the grits have absorbed the water, they are finished. You just need to turn them when they reach the consistency you want.
- Layer grits, then eggs, then cheese into a glass. Add bacon for a garnish.
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aoc gold
The Naughty Boy
There was a naughty boy,
And a naughty boy was he,
He ran away to Scotland
The people for to see
Then he found
That the ground
Was as hard,
That a yard
Was as long,
That a song
Was as merry,
That a cherry
Was as red,
That lead
Was as weighty,
That fourscore
Was as eighty,
That a door
Was as wooden
As in England
So he stood in his shoes
And he wonder’d;
He stood in his shoes
And he wonder’d.
—–by aoc gold