To make grits, purchase the best stone-ground you can buy – all that was available to me at the supermarket were Bob’s Red Mill.  There are many artisanal brands available through the internet or specialty food stores.  Grits can be white hominy or yellow corn.  As a child I knew them as “mush” and around the world they are eaten in many guises – the most recognizable these days is the Italian polenta.  Grits can be eaten fresh from the stove or packed into loaf pans and left to firm up.  They are then sliced and, usually, fried in butter to be eaten with gravy or, as I did as a child, with maple syrup.

You can follow the instructions on the package.  For breakfast grits, I use half water and half milk for the liquid and add about 2 tablespoons of butter just at the end of the cooking.  They don’t take long to cook and make a very nutritious addition to a meal.

Once I removed the ham slices from my gigantic, 10-pound cast iron skillet, I poured in about ¾ cup of my leftover coffee and brought it to a boil.  Mixed up some Wondra flour and about 3 cups light cream and whisked it into the boiling, salty coffee.  Seasoned with lots of freshly ground black pepper and had enough gravy for biscuits, grits, and enough to make a leftover biscuit and gravy breakfast later in the week.