Recycled Grits and Cane Syrup

Another beautiful morning and time to fry up some leftover grits!

I did a post on fried grits last year but I can't resist talking about these grits. These were a gift from Claui's folks and they may be the Platonic ideal of grits. One catch -- you have to cook them forty-five minutes -- not ideal for breakfast.

So I made shrimp and grits for supper -- and when making shrimp and grits, one embellishes and enriches the cooking grits with butter, light cream, and as much cheese as one dares. I used a particularly tasty extra-sharp Vermont white cheddar.

But I'm not here to talk about shrimp and grits. It's the leftover grits I'm here to praise. Poured in a pan and refrigerated overnight, they congeal nicely so that they can be lifted from the pan in tidy squares to be floured, egged, and fried.

Sausage is a nice accompaniment. And I dump in the leftover egg (which contains Tobasco and seasoned salt --Jane's Krazy Salt, to be precise.)

The presentation isn't elegant but, oh my, it's tasty. And in a nod to John's and my Florida Cracker heritage, I've got a bottle of cane syrup on the table.

Our grandparents would have poured syrup over the whole mess -- too sweet for our tastes. But I do save my last bite of grits and douse it with the delicious cane syrup -- a mini-dessert at breakfast.

The cane syrup was a gift from my brother and I am enchanted by the label he put on it: "Claimed to be pure cane syrup squeezed by a man and mule operation in Two Egg, Florida."

The perfect way to start a day!

UPDATE!!! Follow this link for some great recipes and to find out the difference between hominy grits and stone-ground.

UPDATED UPDATE_
(Vagabonde has pointed out that these recipes are full of typos -- here's ANOTHER LINK
to the place the grits came from and some more recipes -- maybe more usable.)

Answers to Food Mystery Photos

I think was too easy.
You guys all did a GREAT job guessing!!

The Winners are Shannon & Brown-Eyed Girl!

Congrats!

Here are the answers.


It was watermelon.

Hot Dogs/Sausages

Pretzels

Tomatoes

Lettuce

and whole-wheat buns.

Thanks for playing!!

And next time will be much, much, much HARDER!!!

Mystery Photos - The Food Edition

It's that time again!!

Mystery Photos: The Food Edition!!

Give me your best guesses, and good luck!!

If you can't come up with anything, give me a creative guess.
I love those.

I will post the answers by tonight or tomorrow morning.

Starting the New Year Out Right - A Texas Word Tangle Giveaway

In my mind, there's only one way to bring in the New Year...

besides rocketing in a space ship from NASA up into outer space to look for aliens...

ahem.


and, that's with a fabulous giveaway!!!

The gift package will include three books:

When her plane en route from Glasgow to London experiences horrible turbulence, Emma Corrigan is convinced she is going to die. She babbles all of her most intimate thoughts and secrets to the handsome American man sitting next to her. But the plane lands safely, and Emma bids him an awkward good-bye. When she enters the office on Monday and learns the CEO of the company, Jack Harper, is in for a visit, Emma is horrified to learn Jack is actually the man in whom she confided on the flight. He knows everything, including that she hates her job and that she is not quite sure she loves her boyfriend. But Jack does not fire her on the spot; instead, he quietly replaces the office coffeemaker she hates and gives her advice about her personal life, which she finds infuriating. So why can't she stop thinking about him?

Something Borrowed is as much about the meaning and value of friendship as it is about love, and it takes some risky chances that pay off. Rachel is celebrating her thirtieth birthday with her friends, including her lifelong best friend, Darcy, and Dex, Rachel's handsome friend from law school and Darcy's fiance. One thing leads to another and Rachel ends up in bed with Dex.

Goodnight Nobody stars Kate Klein is a feisty, charmingly insecure Connecticut housewife who trades in a life of late-night karaoke sing-a-longs and West Village brunches with her best friend Janie for a world of mini-vans and Mommy and Me pilates classes. Life in Upchurch, Connecticut, heats up when Kate discovers picture-perfect wife and mother Kitty Cavanaugh dead on the pickled maple hardwood floor of her recently remodeled kitchen. A former chronicler of celebrity gossip, Kate takes it upon herself to solve the mystery of Kitty's murder and the disappearance of Lexi Hagen-Holdt, another Upchurch supermom. Along the way, the mysteries and disappointments in Kate's personal life begin to unravel, including her marriage to the kind-yet-uptight Ben, and her unresolved crush on Evan McKenna, a former neighbor with whom a one-night tryst ended in disaster.

So, I'm giving away those three books
as well as:

this 11" Thomas Stir Fry Pan free from my grocery store.
(and since I have plenty of pans) I've decided to pass on to you.

It's dishwasher safe, oven safe, comes with a glass lid and is $70 in value.

And with this fabulous piece of cookware I am including
a package of Cajun Magic Jambalaya mix.




And this yummy chocolate brownie mix.







I might throw in some more stuff as a surprise, like a picture frame or a photo album...

But only the winner will know for sure.

Leave me a comment a day to earn an entry each day,
Tweet about it for 5 extra entries,
blog about it for five more.

Giveaway ends Tuesday, January 6th at midnight U.S. central time.

Devil Spawn

Pink Frosted Sugar Cookies

Are taunting me.


What's taunting you?