« A brief note on the decline of Southern culture | Main | One last design deconstruction »

Garlic Cheese Grits (the recipe)

OK...I've written at some length about the evils of torture carried out on behalf of the security of the United States of America, about the carnage of mountaintop removal, and one or two things about music and the music business. But what's gotten the most audience response, this last little while, is garlic cheese grits.

So, in fairness to all, allow me to publish the recipe we use down here. And a correction: My father e-mailed to note that his fondness for grits began at the Wade Hampton Hotel in Columbia, South Carolina, October 1967, where he was reading his first paper on the Jesuits (his historical specialty is the economic history of the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Portuguese empire in the 16th and 17th centuries, which makes my modest foray into roots music seem positively mainstream; although at present he's working on a book on Barbary Pirates and their prisoners).

The recipe, then, comes from Mrs. Betty Philley, who lives still next to the home where my wife and brother-in-law were raised. My hunch is that it's pretty typical. And, as Peter's mom noted, you don't need the garlic cheese roll, it's quite possible to substitute velveeta and garlic powder, or garlic salt. Since we tend to keep unsalted butter around (it's somewhat sweeter and typically fresher than salted butter), we would probably use garlic salt. No matter. This is good stuff, sure to harden your arteries if eaten regularly. Susan is making two batches just now for Maggie's fifth birthday party, from which event I am temporarily playing hookie.

GARLIC CHEESE GRITS

4 cups water
1 cup Quaker quick cook grits (not instant)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 pound oleo (margarine, for you young folks; butter for we purists)
1 roll Kraft Garlic Cheese
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk and Tabasco sauce (mixed together, a few shakes will do, more will do better if, like me, you like hot spices)
1 cup cornflakes, crushed

Cook grits according to directions on the package. Remove from heat and let cool for 15 minutes. Cut up garlic cheese and butter, add to cooling grits. Stir well. Add eggs and milk beaten together. Pour on 2 quart greased baking dish. Top with crushed cornflakes. Bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

If you're making it in advance it can be frozen, so long as you add the cornflakes when you thaw and bake.

And now back to the NFL draft...and trying to read the Titans' tea leaves...about which, perhaps, I shall bore you anon.

Posted by grant on April 27, 2008 12:21 PM | Permalink

TrackBack