Cheesy Grits Quarantine

The other morning, I reheated a couple containers of leftovers and assembled them for our breakfast. You’ll notice a bed of spinach topped with cheesy grits and an easy-over egg, crowned with bacon. Wayne wondered what it was and my response was Grits Florentine because of the spinach. He suggested instead Cheesy Grits Quarantine (in honor of the current pandemic); we’ll go with his idea.

In case you want to replicate this yourself, here’s how we make our Cheesy Grits. The original recipe is here, but I usually take a couple of shortcuts.

Cheesy Grits

2 cups milk
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup stone-ground grits
3/4 cup Cheddar cheese grated
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese freshly grated
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

Combine milk, broth and salt and bring to a boil. Stir in grits and cook until thickened, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in cheeses, butter and Tabasco sauce. Serve.

These cheesy grits by themselves are delicious, but you can increase the deliciousness factor by adding various toppings. We had leftovers to serve for our breakfast because we had Cheesy Grits for dinner earlier in the week. We like grits topped with shrimp and mushrooms, but that night we substituted canned salmon for the shrimp, and that turned out well (although it didn’t look as pretty).

Fry a couple slices of bacon, remove them when done, but leave the drippings in the skillet. Saute mushrooms until softened, with some onions and garlic and shrimp (or salmon). Stir in a bit of chicken broth (thickened with flour if desired), a splash of lemon juice and a dash of Tabasco sauce. Crumble the bacon, add it back to the mixture, then serve over warm grits.