Don't You Think it's Time to Pimp Your Grits?

I love the idea of pimping my grits - you might wonder where in the world this idea came from and what it means.  I see it as a metaphor for changing or adding to some long standing situation, belief or activity in your life, in other words opening yourself up to new ideas and new ways of doing things.

What Do Yankees know?  Well, Maybe More Than I Gave Them Credit For

I grew up in the south, first South Carolina until I was ten and then we moved to Georgia where I ate grits for breakfast almost every day of my life - the same way each time.  Hot with butter and eggs, sometimes with bacon or sausage and homemade biscuits.  That's the way my mama prepared breakfast and I ate it up.  Later as an adult when I ate grits, that's how I cooked them as well.  It never occurred to me to eat them in any other way, in fact when I still lived in Atlanta new people would show up, people from up north as we would say,  and they would put sugar and milk on their grits as if it were cereal. All us Georgia Crackers simply called them Yankees and laughed at them.

Then one day I happened to watch a PBS show called A Chef's Life about a woman and her husband who worked in NYC as chefs.  Then out of the blue they got a call from her parents who offered to set them up in a restaurant of their own - but as she says, there was a catch, they had to open it in eastern North Carolina where she was from and had sworn never to return.  She had decided that her grits would be cooked in NYC and she would not be doing any pimping of her grits - until she got an offer she could not refuse.

Old Fashioned Grits Tastes Good but So Does Adding Some Wonderful New Ingredients 

Then one night she decided to run a new item on her menu - Pimping Your Grits.  Her whole show is based on the idea of re-inventing, if you will, all these southern favorites with new twists on them. I had seen others and tried them so I decided to try this one as well.  This recipe, of course, was way outside the box of my mama's grits, but it occurred to me that in truth, I was bored with the old school girts I usually ate.  As I watched her prepare one of these dishes, I said to myself, why not?  I like all the things she used in the recipe and so the next day, I made the recipe for myself.  OMG that dish was scrumptious and out of this world delicious!

Cooking Up Some New Grits Might Just Be the Ticket 

I'm using a cooking metaphor here but any change or addition to something you now do or believe in, is on the menu for today - think about it.  What could you change or add to your life that might pimp your grits, might just be the thing that brings some new energy into your life.  I'd love to hear back from you if you decide to do this.  Meanwhile here is the recipe for grits in a whole new way.

Cheesy Apple Grits

2 cups of cooked grits - use the five minute variety and use the instructions on the package
4 apples cored,  peeled and sliced - I used Gala apples but most any will do
1/4 - 1/2 cup sugar to taste - check after the first three minutes
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Zest of one lemon
5 strips of cooked bacon - crumpled
1 cup Monterey Jack or White Cheddar - grated

Cook the sliced apples with the sugar, lemon juice and zest in the microwave for three minute intervals - check after each interval - I cooked mine for 9 minutes - until the apples are soft and the liquid is syrupy.

Put the cooked grits in a medium size shallow glass baking dish.  Layer the rest starting with the bacon, then the cooked apples, then the grated cheese.

These grits can be eaten for lunch or as a side dish with other meals.  If you serve it for dinner and it gets a little bit cold, then microwave it for 1 - 2 minutes to melt the cheese and keep it hot.

Enjoy,  Lorraine