Grits Glorious Grits - a true Southern comfort food that always brings a smile to my face & makes me want to dance with joy! You probably already know this, but I am a GRITS member (Girls Raised In The South) and I have eaten grits ever since my baby food days.
On a rainy day, cozy up with "The GRITS (girls raied in the south) Guide to Life". It's an excellent book. GRITS Pearls of Wisdom are noted throughout the book. My favorite is the GRITS Pearl of Wisdom #24: If you learn to laugh at yourself, you'll never run out of smiles. So true. Nuff said.
Grits, a breakfast staple, is served either as a stand alone bowl or to accompany a full Southern breakfast of eggs, country ham, and biscuits. Southerners do NOT put sugar on grits, but we do use a bit of butter and salt & pepper and cheese (although cheese is optional) (sometimes I like to add a dash of nutmeg or a dash of garlic... but never sugar). Just so you know, I don't eat instant grits... it's just not the same in any way, shape, or form. Quick cooking is fine and stone ground is even better! I probably have a slight preference for yellow grits, but white grits are yummy too.
It seems that grits are probably one of the first truly American foods as the Native Americans ate a mush made of softened corn/maize and introduced it to the colonists of Jamestown. The fact that grits have remained popular is a testament to yumminess.
Did you know that three-quarters of grits sold in the United States are sold in the South stretching from Texas to Virginia, also known as the “grits belt”?
Charleston, South Carolina's "The Post and Courier"
proclaimed in 1952, “An inexpensive, simple, and thoroughly digestible
food, [grits] should be made popular throughout the world. Given enough
of it, the inhabitants of planet Earth would have nothing to fight
about. A man full of [grits] is a man of peace.” I totally agree with this statement!
We eat grits for breakfast, as a side dish to accompany salmon cakes or fish, as an entree dish such as shrimp & grits. You'll see shrimp & grits on the menu of many 5-Star restaurants, each claiming to have the best recipe! Versions are made with mushrooms and garlic, or with tomatoes and onions, or shrimp and bacon... it's fun to experiment.
Now for a couple of funny family grits stories:
The first one is about my beloved Mama, who was a true Southern lady. A few years ago, she & Daddy went to New England with Ken & me. Ken is from New England so he was our tour guide. First morning there, we head out to a local New England restaurant for breakfast in Ogunquit, Maine. Mama orders her usual: one scrambled egg, bacon, grits, and biscuit. Not so fast... No grits are on the menu! My Mom is astounded! No biscuits either! She had to settle for hash browns and a bagel!
Second story is about Ken's Dad. He was born in New York, lived in New England for most of his life until he later moved to Florida. The first time he came to visit us in Chapel Hill, we took him out to our finest restaurant for Sunday brunch... The Fearrington House. He ordered one of the omelette dishes. When his order arrived, he was puzzled and asked the waiter "What is that white stuff on my plate"... When he learned that it was grits, he said "take it away"! He never even tasted one single grit.
I know that there are many more funny stories... my own Ken for one insists on putting sugar on his grits because that's the way he eats cream of wheat. He just doesn't understand that grits and cream of wheat are entirely different animals!
Oh well, to each their own. I will remain a true GRITS person and enjoy my grits as such.
In upcoming posts, I'll share a couple of favorite grits recipes.
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