Okay, we're down to sharing recipes!
I’m gonna take a wide end run here, and share a recipe.
Grits are a Southern thing. You go to New York and ask for a bowl of grits, and you’ll get stared out of the neighborhood. I like mine simple, with lots of butter and a little garlic salt, but I have strange tastes.
This is for all my Yankee friends, and y’all know who you are. It’s not as tasty as deer liver cooked over an open fire with green pine straw, but it won’t get you cussed out in fine restaurants. I once had an elegant diner in a tuxedo hurl a plate of pasta at me for divulging the secret recipe for deer liver.
Start with a pie crust of crushed Rice Krispies™. Roll them up in a clean towel, grease your casserole dish with butter, and proceed.
This is not a low-cholesterol meal. We have a saying down h’yar: “If it ain’t fried, it ain’t cooked.” I promise you this can be made in the oven; start by pre-heating to 400°.
Then you add the first layer of grits. About halfway up the dish will suffice. Instant grits will do, but you should really cook them while the oven pre-heats. Grits are traditionally made from cracked corn, and you need to cook the dickens out of them. Quaker Oats™ and some of these other companies have versions that can be microwaved in two minutes, but that’s cheating.
Once you have the first layer of grits smoothed out over the Rice Krispies™ crust, you start with the bacon. This also requires pre-cooking. We have to have something fried in the mix. Raw bacon is a bad idea. Iron skillets are best for this chore; they give you a ration of iron in the preparation.
Lace the bacon strips like you’re weaving a basket. Don’t be stingy; the cheese comes next. Completely top the bottom layer with strips of bacon, and then add the cheese. I prefer pepper jack, but you might want to start with something milder.
Then you add the second layer of grits. Smooth them out with a spatula, like you did the first layer. Then lace some more bacon strips across the top, and smother that under grated cheese. As mentioned, this is not for the calorie- or cholesterol-conscious.
Then you pop this terrible concoction into that 400° oven, and wait for the edges of the cheese to turn brown, like a pizza crust. Then you pop it out, cut it with a knife, and wait for it to cool sufficiently.
This will probably take ten years off your life if you are one of those politically correct cholesterol-counters. It’s also some mighty fine eatin’ if you’re from the South, where we eat black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day, because that’s supposed to bring us prosperity in the coming year, and a possum or squirrel is often our only source of protein. Actually, I think the black-eyed peas are supposed to bring us luck, and the collard greens, the color of money, are supposed to bring us good fortune.
Whatever, if you’re some benighted Yankee who wonders how we nearly won the Civil War powered by grits, this casserole will make you a believer. It’s not something to indulge in every day, but for the holiday season, it beats green beans with onions and pecans.
I only shared this recipe because my buddy Shelly [over at Shelly’s Place; check the links] did a little something about holiday cooking. She’s a lot funnier than I am, but I guarantee this casserole will make you a grits fan, and it’s tastier than deer liver cooked in green pine straw.
Grits are a Southern thing. You go to New York and ask for a bowl of grits, and you’ll get stared out of the neighborhood. I like mine simple, with lots of butter and a little garlic salt, but I have strange tastes.
This is for all my Yankee friends, and y’all know who you are. It’s not as tasty as deer liver cooked over an open fire with green pine straw, but it won’t get you cussed out in fine restaurants. I once had an elegant diner in a tuxedo hurl a plate of pasta at me for divulging the secret recipe for deer liver.
Start with a pie crust of crushed Rice Krispies™. Roll them up in a clean towel, grease your casserole dish with butter, and proceed.
This is not a low-cholesterol meal. We have a saying down h’yar: “If it ain’t fried, it ain’t cooked.” I promise you this can be made in the oven; start by pre-heating to 400°.
Then you add the first layer of grits. About halfway up the dish will suffice. Instant grits will do, but you should really cook them while the oven pre-heats. Grits are traditionally made from cracked corn, and you need to cook the dickens out of them. Quaker Oats™ and some of these other companies have versions that can be microwaved in two minutes, but that’s cheating.
Once you have the first layer of grits smoothed out over the Rice Krispies™ crust, you start with the bacon. This also requires pre-cooking. We have to have something fried in the mix. Raw bacon is a bad idea. Iron skillets are best for this chore; they give you a ration of iron in the preparation.
Lace the bacon strips like you’re weaving a basket. Don’t be stingy; the cheese comes next. Completely top the bottom layer with strips of bacon, and then add the cheese. I prefer pepper jack, but you might want to start with something milder.
Then you add the second layer of grits. Smooth them out with a spatula, like you did the first layer. Then lace some more bacon strips across the top, and smother that under grated cheese. As mentioned, this is not for the calorie- or cholesterol-conscious.
Then you pop this terrible concoction into that 400° oven, and wait for the edges of the cheese to turn brown, like a pizza crust. Then you pop it out, cut it with a knife, and wait for it to cool sufficiently.
This will probably take ten years off your life if you are one of those politically correct cholesterol-counters. It’s also some mighty fine eatin’ if you’re from the South, where we eat black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day, because that’s supposed to bring us prosperity in the coming year, and a possum or squirrel is often our only source of protein. Actually, I think the black-eyed peas are supposed to bring us luck, and the collard greens, the color of money, are supposed to bring us good fortune.
Whatever, if you’re some benighted Yankee who wonders how we nearly won the Civil War powered by grits, this casserole will make you a believer. It’s not something to indulge in every day, but for the holiday season, it beats green beans with onions and pecans.
I only shared this recipe because my buddy Shelly [over at Shelly’s Place; check the links] did a little something about holiday cooking. She’s a lot funnier than I am, but I guarantee this casserole will make you a grits fan, and it’s tastier than deer liver cooked in green pine straw.
posted by Robert at 6:40 AM
3 Comments:
Grits and rice crispies?
What, no beer?
I've only tasted grits once in my life (what a Yank), but anything with that much bacon and cheese in it would be worth at try for me!
I'm a little fuzzy on the crust, too.
I've been told that my various uses of grits are tantamount to sacrilege...as if I care. They are, after all, just a bland medium that practically begs to be spiced up somehow...
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