Good ol' southern grits. You can make them fancy or you can make them plain. This grits recipe is for making plain grits. What that means in "The South" is stone ground grits cooked with water instead of milk, cream or broth. Seasoning would be salt and maybe a little black pepper and you can cook this "any meal food" with butter or add butter after you have served it onto your plate.

Southern Grits Recipe:

Whatever amount of grits you want to cook, the ratio is 4 cups of liquid per cup of grits. Plain grits would be with water so:

1 cup of Palmetto Farms stone ground grits (white or yellow)

4 cups water

1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

2 tablespoons butter

Put everything into a medium sized saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring often. The stone ground grits at the bottom of the pot closest to the heat will want to thicken faster than the rest of the pot so stir it to blend it all back together and smooth out any lumps that may have formed. Once the pot comes to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. This makes quite a few servings. You can put the leftovers in the fridge and warm them up in the microwave or stovetop. I know some pretty fancy restaurants that cook all of their grits ahead of time and warm them up as needed. If you do this leave the butter out of your recipe and add it when warming up.

You can serve this with eggs, bacon and biscuits or just eat it plain. It's pretty tasty.

Creamy Grits with Bacon and Mushrooms

1/2 pound bacon

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons garlic, minced

1/2 pound button mushrooms (cleaned and chopped)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons parsley (fresh, chopped)

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

FOR GRITS

3 1/2 cups water

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 tablespoons buttter

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup Palmetto Farms Stone Ground Grits (yellow or white or mixed)

DIRECTIONS

In large saute pan cook bacon until crisp. Remove bacon from pan and drain on paper towels. When cool, chop and set aside. Remove all fat except 2 tablespoons. Add butter and saute garlic for 2 minutes. Add mushrooms and continue to cook until tender. Salt and pepper. Stir in chopped parsley. Keep warm until grits are finished cooking.

In a medium saucepan, bring water, cream, butter and salt to a boil. Stir in grits and bring back to a boil, stirring constanly. Reduce heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes (stir often).

Fold cheese, mushroom mixture and bacon into grits and serve.