Creamy Cheddar Grits
- By Katie Roche
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- 21 Aug, 2019
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The moment we've all been waiting for (not): a person from the Hamptons gives us a grits recipe! For the most part, I don't really support this concept. I think people need to stick to their strengths. You are unlikely to find me using a salmon recipe from someone in the Midwest, and the Pioneer Woman isn't out here trying to give us lobster chowder recipes. (For what it's worth, you're also unlikely to find me using Pioneer Woman recipes ever.) Nevertheless, Ina decided to include grits in her side dishes chapter so here we are.
ItemQuesting for grits actually happened several months ago when I tried a different Ina recipe involving grits (I know, I just said I'm not a big fan of people coming out of their lane) and had to go on the hunt. Having never bought grits before, my first strategic decision was to go to Lowe's Foods because 1) they have a lot of products there so I figured I'd have a good array of options and 2) it's a southern grocery chain so I figured if I had any grits questions, someone working there would be able to answer them. WELL, it turns out that I was wrong about anyone in that store knowing anything about grits. I should have known, based on the Coffee Incident - "the beans are from America", yeah ok - but I figured, ok, they're SOUTHERN in there. Southern people *love* to tell you how much they love grits/how if you don't like grits you *haven't had their grandma's*/how grits are the *food of their people*. Based on my extensive experience being told how amazing grits are, I just assumed more southern people would have preferences on brand, variety, etc. There are LOT of kinds of grits. I also assumed it would be easy to find locally milled grits (I think that's what it's called, milling?) because there are some local companies around here for that, but Lowe's had a large selection of Quaker brand, which I believe Ina recommended, LOL INA, and their own store brand. I assume a southerner would side-eye Ina with her Quaker brand grits, but I now know they really have no room to talk since none of them seem to actually make grits on a regular basis or, really, at all. So what do they know??? Lowe's brand it is, Ina specified to buy "quick" but not "instant". Not sure why we're drawing a line between those two measurements of time in the grits department, but oh well.
The most crucial element of the ItemQuest was for shredded Tillamook cheese. Tillamook cheese is THE cheese. Since cheese is IN THE TITLE, I went in search of the best cheese money can buy. You used to have to basically pay an entire paycheck for like 2 ounces of mild cheddar in the fancy cheese section at Publix, but HATER BE LEARNER, the southern grocery stores have slowly started carrying more Tillamook products since we moved here - including the ice cream, for which WE GIVE THANKS!!!
ItemQuesting for grits actually happened several months ago when I tried a different Ina recipe involving grits (I know, I just said I'm not a big fan of people coming out of their lane) and had to go on the hunt. Having never bought grits before, my first strategic decision was to go to Lowe's Foods because 1) they have a lot of products there so I figured I'd have a good array of options and 2) it's a southern grocery chain so I figured if I had any grits questions, someone working there would be able to answer them. WELL, it turns out that I was wrong about anyone in that store knowing anything about grits. I should have known, based on the Coffee Incident - "the beans are from America", yeah ok - but I figured, ok, they're SOUTHERN in there. Southern people *love* to tell you how much they love grits/how if you don't like grits you *haven't had their grandma's*/how grits are the *food of their people*. Based on my extensive experience being told how amazing grits are, I just assumed more southern people would have preferences on brand, variety, etc. There are LOT of kinds of grits. I also assumed it would be easy to find locally milled grits (I think that's what it's called, milling?) because there are some local companies around here for that, but Lowe's had a large selection of Quaker brand, which I believe Ina recommended, LOL INA, and their own store brand. I assume a southerner would side-eye Ina with her Quaker brand grits, but I now know they really have no room to talk since none of them seem to actually make grits on a regular basis or, really, at all. So what do they know??? Lowe's brand it is, Ina specified to buy "quick" but not "instant". Not sure why we're drawing a line between those two measurements of time in the grits department, but oh well.
The most crucial element of the ItemQuest was for shredded Tillamook cheese. Tillamook cheese is THE cheese. Since cheese is IN THE TITLE, I went in search of the best cheese money can buy. You used to have to basically pay an entire paycheck for like 2 ounces of mild cheddar in the fancy cheese section at Publix, but HATER BE LEARNER, the southern grocery stores have slowly started carrying more Tillamook products since we moved here - including the ice cream, for which WE GIVE THANKS!!!
For any of my friends who have ever wondered what a grit looks like - here it is. Or rather, here they are. Lots of them. A whole cup full. The only other time I have made grits, I neglected to understand that the adding of the item to boiling water was more kin to making rice (which I very rarely make) than to making pasta (which I make all the time), and you need to actually measure the water. I just kind of put some water in a saucepan the first time, and set it to boil, and then stirred in my grits and was like..."Ok, yeah, something is off here." I'm sure no one else is that dumb, but in case anyone IS that dumb, I have shared this mistake to prevent others from making it. Measure your grits AND your water. It's kind of important. LOL.
After simmering the grits in just salted water for a few minutes, all of this half and half goes in and the grits settle into an occasionally-stirred simmer for about 45 minutes. There's nothing "quick" about these "quick-cooking" grits. I'm figuring this is an Ina improvement since this is not how you make them according to the package directions. Also, the occasional stirring is no joke, otherwise the clumping and sticking to the bottom of the pan is real. I'll never forget that my very first introduction to grits as a food was at one of my best friend's houses when I was in high school: her brother had decided to make himself some cheese grits and burned the whole mess to the bottom of the pan, which he then left in the sink for her to clean like the monster that he was. Hopefully when he went to West Point, they taught him that he needs to scrub his own burned-grits pans while they were teaching him how to, you know...make a bed and whatever else.
Once the grits are done simmering and all thicc and ready to go, you stir in some green onions and the cheddar. I bought the "farm-style thick cut" cheese. Do they cut cheese extra thick on farms? If they do, I want to live on a farm - one with alpacas that I can pet and whose wool I can spin into yarn for mittens. I want to be Laura Ingalls Wilder. I want to be a character in a Willa Cather novel. I want to live in Hope Valley from When Calls the Heart. And I want thick-cut cheese.
So here's my lil blate of grits! I love a good chance to use my blates!!! In the background, you see my baby bowl of peach slices - I had just bought South Carolina peaches at the Saturday market thingy Columbia has. I just figured, you know...in for a penny, in for a pound on those southern meals. Also, not pictured is my leftover barbecue pulled chicken in vinegar sauce from Big Bulls Bangin' BBQ - the BEST BBQ place in Columbia. Yes, that is a plug for it. Go try it!!! So yeah, really hit the highlights of southern dining right here; all that's missing is some fried chicken and mac and cheese. Don't let anyone persuade you that any other southern foods are important. Sweet tea is just the poor man's iced coffee. Fried okra is gross. Boiled peanuts? THE WORST. You get what I'm saying.
For your enjoyment (Dan won't be pumped about this), here is a picture of Dan dipping a grilled cheese sandwich in his grits. He did not have leftover barbecue, and I did not feel like making another main dish, so he made himself a grilled cheese but was still forced to try the grits and this is how he decided to try them.
The verdict: grits are great, BUT, it really does depend on how you prepare them. My second encounter with grits, and the first time I actually tasted them, was in Alabama and they had been prepared with sugar. This is NOT the correct way to make grits. A thick, sugary, gritty porridge is not appetizing. Would I eat that if I was starving? Sure. But I'm not, and if you're reading this off of a smartphone or a computer, I'm guessing you're not starving either. So stay away from sugared grits until you're starving and that's the last food left on earth. But cheese!!! Cheese REALLY IS always the answer! The south is finally learning about Tillamook - I had a whole conversation with the Publix manager about it the other day and he was like, "How are all of these dairy products SO GOOD???" and I was like, "Bro, cows are happier when they're not sweating to death, holla @ Oregon." - and so the usage of superior cheddar in my grits-making endeavor was my northwestern-er improvement.
So this recipe was good. I super-approve. I'm still a bit confused, as is Ina I think, about how to classify grits; South Carolina uses them with dinner food *sometimes*, as in, shrimp and grits. But I think they're primarily a breakfast food. Nevertheless, I don't think they'll be making their way into the culinary traditions of northerners, which is fine, because we make do with mashed potatoes and rice, but if you find yourself longing for another creamy and fattening thing to eat in the dead of winter, I recommend this. I'm still not clear on what to serve it as a side dish for OTHER than grits, but I suppose if you want a savory substitute for oatmeal at breakfast, it would work well. Ina, in her recipe notes, is like "I knew about polenta but then I learned about GRITS! Serve with some cheese and your guests will be so SURPRISED!!!" (That's not an exact quote, but you know.) Let me just be clear: the only thing surprising to guests about grits is if your Yankee self decided to serve them at all. Cheese is a necessary addition for edibility, not a surprise. This is, in my opinion, only basic if you, like Scarlett O'Hara, languish on porches in the August heat or whatever. It's completely new territory for us northerners. Ina should know that, but perhaps she's trying to introduce it as the new normal for what to eat during a vicious nor'easter. I approve, as long as you use "the good Vermont cheddar" to keep it in the family.
The verdict: grits are great, BUT, it really does depend on how you prepare them. My second encounter with grits, and the first time I actually tasted them, was in Alabama and they had been prepared with sugar. This is NOT the correct way to make grits. A thick, sugary, gritty porridge is not appetizing. Would I eat that if I was starving? Sure. But I'm not, and if you're reading this off of a smartphone or a computer, I'm guessing you're not starving either. So stay away from sugared grits until you're starving and that's the last food left on earth. But cheese!!! Cheese REALLY IS always the answer! The south is finally learning about Tillamook - I had a whole conversation with the Publix manager about it the other day and he was like, "How are all of these dairy products SO GOOD???" and I was like, "Bro, cows are happier when they're not sweating to death, holla @ Oregon." - and so the usage of superior cheddar in my grits-making endeavor was my northwestern-er improvement.
So this recipe was good. I super-approve. I'm still a bit confused, as is Ina I think, about how to classify grits; South Carolina uses them with dinner food *sometimes*, as in, shrimp and grits. But I think they're primarily a breakfast food. Nevertheless, I don't think they'll be making their way into the culinary traditions of northerners, which is fine, because we make do with mashed potatoes and rice, but if you find yourself longing for another creamy and fattening thing to eat in the dead of winter, I recommend this. I'm still not clear on what to serve it as a side dish for OTHER than grits, but I suppose if you want a savory substitute for oatmeal at breakfast, it would work well. Ina, in her recipe notes, is like "I knew about polenta but then I learned about GRITS! Serve with some cheese and your guests will be so SURPRISED!!!" (That's not an exact quote, but you know.) Let me just be clear: the only thing surprising to guests about grits is if your Yankee self decided to serve them at all. Cheese is a necessary addition for edibility, not a surprise. This is, in my opinion, only basic if you, like Scarlett O'Hara, languish on porches in the August heat or whatever. It's completely new territory for us northerners. Ina should know that, but perhaps she's trying to introduce it as the new normal for what to eat during a vicious nor'easter. I approve, as long as you use "the good Vermont cheddar" to keep it in the family.
For this post, I wanted to combine two summertime flavors into the crisp recipe one of my oldest Alaskan friends passed on to me years ago. Rhubarb, if you're unfamiliar, is a reddish stalk that kind of resembles really big celery. It's very tart and is most commonly paired with strawberry. I've rarely seen it star in its own show dessert-wise, but my friend Kylee has been making rhubarb crisp for years and it's the best crisp I know of. Blueberries are usually in season in late summer; I have not been home for a blueberry season since Dan's last deployment in 2018 so in order to make this recipe I actually used blueberries from a friend's parents' farm in upstate SC! They're a little sweeter than the blueberries I'd have picked at home, but they worked well. I'm going to pretend like I was actually picking blueberries at home in Alaska for the purpose of showing you what that would look like.
I was getting all ready to write this post, going through my process with photos starting in my kitchen when I realized that a lot of my friends probably don't know what fireweed is or where it comes from and this recipe actually starts far, far away from my kitchen. This will be the first of a few posts highlighting iconic Alaskan ingredients. I've wanted to do this for a while because my home inspires me in so many ways, writing and cooking particular among them. Fireweed is a wildflower that is rather ubiquitous in southcentral Alaska and is often considered a gauge for how long summer will last. It is said that when the blooms reach the top of the plant, winter is six weeks away. Whether or not that's accurate, fireweed is found all over in late summer in Alaska. Here is some I spotted in mid-July by Eklutna Lake:
If you know Dan and me very well, you probably know by now that if our life were a sitcom, he'd low-key be the funniest character. Because that is true, I thought I'd include his bottom ten with accompanying remarks before giving the actual bottom ten. His are hilarious, but aren't as legitimate as mine because he actually tried way fewer of these than one might think. I realized as he was flipping through the book that my old coworker Cam probably ate more of these foods than anyone else did. The overarching theme of Dan's song of Ina Garten hatred is not the actual taste of the finished product but more how asinine he finds that particular recipe to be. So here you are, Dan's bottom ten.
#1: Butternut Squash Soup
#1: Butternut Squash Soup
You guys asked for my top ten from the blog, so here we go! And I'm thinking that what you *really* want is actually the bottom ten, so I'll go ahead and give you those next week. That post will probably be A LOT funnier. While preparing to write this post, I had Dan flip through the cookbook to give me HIS top ten and he was all disgruntled as he did so and only came up with eight that he even liked at all. "I'm not a picky eater!" he insists. Yeah ok. Although to be fair, I've seen some cookbooks I would only make, like, one thing out of and plenty I'd make nothing out of, though sometimes that's because I find the chef so annoying. @ the Pioneer Woman. I just don't trust someone who puts sour cream in spaghetti and then bakes it. Plus all her recipe intros are about, like, Ladd or Tadd or whatever the heck her husband's name is "coming in from the fields starving for dinner". If I came in from working in a field and you tried to give me sour cream spaghetti, I'd be like, "How about a hot pocket instead? Thx." Anyway, this is not Dan's blog so these are not his top ten. You can ask him which ones he liked, but you'll end up in a long convo about how much he hates Ina Garten. Anyway, these are not ranked or anything, they're just in order from the cookbook.
So with that, #1: Juice of a Few Flowers
So with that, #1: Juice of a Few Flowers
It was Sunday afternoon and I thought to myself, "What a perfect time to make jam!" I mean, how positively quaint: just sitting in my home in suburbia, finished with weekend chores, relaxing with some knitting...why not? Why not make some jam? I mean, obviously my afternoon-kitchen-activity was directed toward jam-making because it was next up in the book BUT whatever, I was kind of excited! Also, this is the last recipe in this book!!! I'm still in the process of deciding what I'll do now, so if there's something you'd like me to make and tell you about in my own fashion - you know, with lots of tangents and jokes - please do let me know! I'll likely continue to tackle Ina content, but may start including some recipe faves and/or foods people text me about a lot! I get a lot of cake questions, a LOT of frosting questions (because meringue buttercream is bae and I've got everyone in my social circles who eats my food on board), and a lot of fish questions. So look for more food to come, even though this is the last recipe in Back to Basics.
We went to Publix to ItemQuest for this and Dan said, "Don't we already have strawberries???" And I had to confess that I had eaten them all because it's honestly amazing how good fruit can be when it's 1) in season, 2) somewhat local, and 3) not ludicrously expensive. I'm about to travel home to Alaska for about a month, and it's going to put a real damper on my current fruit-snacking habits when I go into Fred Meyer for some strawbs and they're like, $7/lb and already trying to be moldy. Also needed blueberries (partly for the jam, mostly for the snax), one Granny Smith apple, and more superfine sugar. Publix had all of these things, plus about a million old people 'cause Sunday + Publix = Old People City.
We went to Publix to ItemQuest for this and Dan said, "Don't we already have strawberries???" And I had to confess that I had eaten them all because it's honestly amazing how good fruit can be when it's 1) in season, 2) somewhat local, and 3) not ludicrously expensive. I'm about to travel home to Alaska for about a month, and it's going to put a real damper on my current fruit-snacking habits when I go into Fred Meyer for some strawbs and they're like, $7/lb and already trying to be moldy. Also needed blueberries (partly for the jam, mostly for the snax), one Granny Smith apple, and more superfine sugar. Publix had all of these things, plus about a million old people 'cause Sunday + Publix = Old People City.
I was glad Ina gave me something easy for this week, because I was packing for Alaska and just *did not have the time* to mess with hunting lobsters or weird cheeses from the internet or whatever. ItemQuest was fairly straightforward, just took Dan a trip to the liquor store next to the Publix for some limoncello. I grabbed this particular lemon curd in the British aisle of Publix; I think last time an Ina recipe called for lemon curd I bought it from Trader Joe's and it was DISGUSTING. I mean, truly awful. I would like to recommend making your own lemon curd if you have the time and the inclination. Ina's lemon curd recipe is phenomenal and it is one thing for which I can say she is truly correct: homemade is BETTER and store-bought is not at all as good. The most beloved cupcakes I have ever made were filled with Ina's lemon curd, and had the lemon curd mixed into the meringue buttercream frosting. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!! Anyway, the rest of this was fruit that I had on hand, mint, and Greek yogurt which we did have to buy because I don't, as a rule, eat Greek yogurt of my own free will. It's chalky and disgusting.
Dates are something I honestly never even thought about until I did Whole 30. I have mentioned my Whole 30 experience several times over the course of this journey through Back to Basics, but if you're new to reading the blog, this is what happened: I did Whole 30 one time, just to prove that I could, because salvation-by-diet apologists were obsessed with it as the newest fad in righteous eating practices. It was a terrible experience; on top of hating every minute of it for myself and finding exactly zero wellness benefits, I also hated it for Dan who was not allowed to eat popcorn for 30 days. Dan is in love with popcorn; his addiction to it is almost at the level of my addiction to coffee. He gets rage-y without it. But anyway, Whole 30 recipes are big into dates as sweeteners and some of the things you can eat, like Lara Bars, are made with dates. Dates are impossibly chewy. I ate more of them in that 30 days than I ever wanted to, and now when I see them in recipes I can't help but think of that Whole 30. Fortunately for me, I got to begin this recipe by chopping TWO CUPS' worth of dates. Oh, they also kind of look like cockroach bodies, so there's that. The only thing I actually had to get at the store for this was oranges! I had everything else on hand, even Cointreau, thanks to many previous Ina recipes.
Alright so, I'm not the Muffin Man. I don't really make a whole lot of muffins, for a lot of reasons, one of the main ones being that on the rankings of breakfast foods they definitely do not crack the top five, maybe not even the top ten. If I have an option for a bagel or a waffle, I'll pick one of them over a muffin every single time. I also prefer cereal, cinnamon rolls, or *cue eye roll* avocado toast. I've just never risen from my slumber and been like, "You know what would really hit the spot right now? A MUFFIN." But!!! In recent months, since my friend Logan came into my life, I've been making muffins a lot more frequently because he really loves them. So the last blueberry muffins I made were from a 99cent Betty Crocker mix packet which he brought into my house and asked me sweetly to make, because they're what he grew up with and along with many preservatives, they are full of nostalgia for him. Here is Logan and me, preparing to mix the muffin batter. Out of respect (and to make up for the disrespect of rolling up with muffin mix), he wore one of my aprons. I will treasure this picture forever.
You guys...Ina has "a thing" about commercial granola bars. Her beef with them, apparently, is that they say they contain real fruit and nuts but that all she sees when she looks at the labels are like, ten different kinds of corn syrup. I'm going to go ahead and guess, just based on this, that none of the lunches her mom packed for her growing up contained any Fruit By the Foot. And surely if we introduced her to Gushers, she would die. This is a real shame. I also feel like this disdain for corn syrup is maybe just a tad self-righteous, coming from the woman whose frosting recipe calls for literally six entire sticks of butter. At that point, what's a little corn syrup to you really? People's nutritional hills-to-die-on really fascinate me (and also kind of annoy me sometimes) and the ones about sugar might get me the most. I feel like, at some point, sugar is sugar and whether you're baking with honey, white sugar, brown sugar, molasses, maple syrup, etc you're still probably making something that's not amazing for you so, in terms of sugar, why not just be in for a penny in for a pound, amirite? So while I'm on this topic, before I even get to the actual point (please, I know you're here for the tangents), I would like to just let anyone and everyone know that I'm absolutely not interested in your "healthy substitutes" for things that taste good in their original form. I do not WANT a chocolate chip pancake made out of bananas and grains you harvested in your field this morning. If I want a banana I will eat one, and if I want a chocolate chip pancake I will eat one, and that's that. And DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT come @ me with "cashew cheese". Just don't. I don't even think I should honor that concept with an explanation of why it's so wrong. If that's not self-evident, I can't help you.
So down to the granola bar ingredients. I rolled up to Kroger only to find that their already meager bulk bins had been EMPTIED because if you scoop dates into a bag and then someone else scoops dates into a bag, you might get the coronavirus. I'm glad they've taken the precaution of removing this shopping option, since I cannot resisting licking my hands after every grocery trip I make. Thankfully, they still had the lil tower of small containers of some of the weirder items right there in the organic section, which was where I was able to find dates. The rest of this stuff was on the baking aisle, with the exception of wheat germ which was, for some reason, with the cereal. I'm still kind of unclear on what wheat germ is actually used for by people, and the context of it being located on the cereal aisle makes me wonder even more. Do people eat it like grape nuts? Sprinkle it on stuff like how people like to do with nutritional yeast right now? ("It tastes just like cheese!" You know what else tastes like cheese? Actual cheese. You're welcome.) Anyway, I was very grateful that Kroger at least had everything I needed and I didn't have to go on a for real ItemQuest.
So down to the granola bar ingredients. I rolled up to Kroger only to find that their already meager bulk bins had been EMPTIED because if you scoop dates into a bag and then someone else scoops dates into a bag, you might get the coronavirus. I'm glad they've taken the precaution of removing this shopping option, since I cannot resisting licking my hands after every grocery trip I make. Thankfully, they still had the lil tower of small containers of some of the weirder items right there in the organic section, which was where I was able to find dates. The rest of this stuff was on the baking aisle, with the exception of wheat germ which was, for some reason, with the cereal. I'm still kind of unclear on what wheat germ is actually used for by people, and the context of it being located on the cereal aisle makes me wonder even more. Do people eat it like grape nuts? Sprinkle it on stuff like how people like to do with nutritional yeast right now? ("It tastes just like cheese!" You know what else tastes like cheese? Actual cheese. You're welcome.) Anyway, I was very grateful that Kroger at least had everything I needed and I didn't have to go on a for real ItemQuest.
At first I saw the pictures of this and thought, "YAY!!! Cinnamon rolls!" And then a couple of weeks ago, I actually tried making cinnamon rolls for the first time and realized that my inability to roll/shape/slice yeast doughs is still a thing. AND THEN I read this entire recipe and realized these get filled with raisins. So here we go!
ItemQuest was only dramatic because the stores just DID NOT have puff pastry sheets; I was only finding it in "shells". I tried Bi-Lo and Dan tried Food Lion before he finally located sheets at Publix. The rest of the ingredients, I already had on hand!
ItemQuest was only dramatic because the stores just DID NOT have puff pastry sheets; I was only finding it in "shells". I tried Bi-Lo and Dan tried Food Lion before he finally located sheets at Publix. The rest of the ingredients, I already had on hand!