PAUL C. writes:

This is a long rambling article.  The point is that Southern people love grits, and Obama took them away for “whole grains.”  Grits are just corn for goodness sake.  Who doesn’t love a nice buttered, salted piece of boiled corn on the cob?   (There is an entertaining movie starring Johnny Depp 2004, in which he loves corn on the cob.  You need to like Johnny Depp to like the movie, I suspect.)

Grits are very tricky to cook.  African Americans always get it right.  Some whites (at least my mother and grandmother) get it right.  I have done it successfully, but I usually find a good source, and buy them cooked.  They are cheap, cheap for heaps of the stuff.  I do plan to practice, so I can cook them right for myself.  The worst is when they are watery.  My family did not use butter on the stove; we each added butter later according to our tastes.  I added little and still do now only because of the supposed bad effects of butter (margarine).  But when I buy retail, I love them no matter how much butter.  I could eat a ton but don’t in order to guard against weight gain.  They are like rice to Asians.  You can’t get tired of them.

I hate when people add cheese or other newfangled stuff to them.  My friend’s wife does that, but I bear them because I know they can’t hurt me.  So don’t get fancy.  Just plain grits (with salt while cooking) for twenty minutes.  People can add butter or more salt later, no problema.  If too watery, just cook them down more.  You do need to watch them, so the water does not get too low and burning occurs.  (And you therefore have a pot to scrub with Brillo pads.)  They need to be periodically stirred.  You can be cooking the coffee, eggs, bacon or ham, and toast or biscuits in the meantime.  It is a symphony that mothers know how to perform and serve hot.  I don’t have enough experience to get it all together.

I suppose hash browns (which are far too greasy for me) are loved my many outside the South, and I am not being critical.  It is amazing how drastic human tastes are.

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