“Grits” with Fried Egg & Soft Goat Cheese

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The other half of Faux Pasta came to visit me in April and we cooked up a storm. A real storm. Unfortunately, over 75% of what we made was really disgusting. Like so gross we thought we had somehow lost our cooking mojo forever. The combined force of our wooden spoons inspired some sort of priori incantatem like Harry vs. Voldemort and around us a protective shield grew, keeping decent ingredients from reaching honorable ends.

Fortunately, we rarely screwed up the most important meal of the day. Witness our triumphant beginning (breakfast)! Look away from the sickening fall (dinner). The phoenix is reborn daily.

This recipe is not even a recipe: it’s a suggestion to include more grits in your daily routine, especially if you’re gluten-free and you’re tired of oats.

So, I recommend that you cook up a pot of grits. We actually just used cornmeal, so technically this is not true grit, but we aren’t all that gritty of gals unless you count pony camp, daily braids, and that one day we all dressed up for Pioneer Day in 4th grade. Uh, and that 9 month long backpacking trip where we uh… set up the camp… and foraged for the wood… and called our naturalist friends to see if we could eat the white root under the nice leafy wild carrot fronds because we were tired of wild sorrel and dandelion greens.

If true grit means knowing what poisonous hemlock looks like, then I am chock full of it (and a whole heck of a lot of other stuff).

Anyway, cornmeal mush doesn’t sound as good in a recipe title as grits.

“Grits”

• 1 1/4 cups cornmeal
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• pepper
• 3 tablespoons of salted butter

Heat the water to a simmer, then pour the cornmeal in slowly. Add 2 tablespoons of butter, salt, and pepper. Stir as the mush cooks, maybe about 10 minutes. Add the last tablespoon of butter at the end. If it tastes bland, add more salt.

We used Harley Goat Farms cheese from our journey up to Pescadero/San Francisco. Don’t bother with the logs. They’re fine but nothing special. You wanna go for the soft, fresh goat cheese. Fry up an egg and put the cheese and chopped chives on top. Enjoy with your sister. Or someone who is like a sister. Maybe a brother. Maybe not Matt Damon. He’d probably try and steal your goat cheese while you weren’t looking.

- Nellie