Cheesy Grits for Baked Sunday Mornings

Elise,

                As you know, I recently found Baked Sunday Mornings. I have two of the Baked cookbooks and have enjoyed reading them, gazing at the pictures and even baking a recipe or two. Their oatmeal cookie is my go-to oatmeal cookie recipe. So Baked Sunday Mornings has been a fun discovery.

                This week’s assignment is for Baked Cheesy Grits. That seemed pretty straight forward. All you have to do is stir. I can be a pot stirrer.

                Turns out, you also have to start with the right grits. I’m not sure I managed that. I went with Bob Red Mill’s Corn Grits, Also Known as Polenta. The recipe specifies stone ground, but the stone ground ones were just called coarse polenta. And both are yellow, while the grits I have been served in diners are always white. Of course, the grits I have been served in diners also taste like watery paste, slipshod watery paste as the cook didn’t even bother to mix the lumps out, and the texture is, well, gritty.

                After you take your leap of faith and decide on a grit, then all you have to do is stir.

               Water and milk come to a boil, pour in the grits, stir. Keep stirring. It will thicken, just keep stirring. As with polenta, mine thicken way quicker than the recipe suggests. Never mind, keep stirring. 

                I added the butter and the two types of cheese. I don’t like Monterey Jack so I substituted mild cheddar. But, out of character for me, I didn’t add extra cheese. Lewis and Poliafito already incorporate a fair bit of More into their recipes, probably why I like them.

                When I tasted the product at this point, I thought, “Meh, mediocre polenta.” Then you pour it into a pan, put more cheese on top and they would have you stick it under a broiler for a few minutes. I was taking dinner to the bf’s house, so I let it sit in the pan for an hour and then put it in a 400 oven for 15 minutes.

                OMG it was good. Seriously. Nothing like polenta, but soft and smooth, rich and slightly salty. I served it with chicken chili. (I know, I just lost you.) And it was a good accompaniment, but I could have eaten it all by itself, any time of the day, for any occasion. It could be comfort food, celebration food, breakfast.

                The bf said it was the best meal he has ever had, and I don’t think that was the chicken chili talking. 

Love, Margaret