A lot of people don’t get grits. There’s the name. Then there’s the unfortunate way some people insist on preparing them, adding too much water and dressing them like Cream of Rice. When I see someone spooning sugar onto their grits, it gives me the same sick feeling as those photos of Hulk Hogan rubbing suntan lotion onto his daughter’s thighs. Oh, the undeniable wrongness.

Here is the key to grits: dress them like a baked potato. Only stir in cream instead of sour cream. Salt and pepper? Yes. Different kinds of cheeses? Yes. Ham? Bacon? Shrimp? Oh, yes. Roasted veggies work. Fresh herbs work. Hot sauce, definitely. And all this versatility means grits are great for any meal, as an entrée or side dish. My mom makes shrimp and grits for our holiday meals. I make grits as comfort food.

Yesterday, Plumber No. 3 finally fixed the plumbing in the kitchen. The repairs required opening the basement ceiling to access the old pipes, which had been leaking some sort of sludge (surprise!), so the house smells like a body farm. But we can use the sink! We can run the dishwasher! And for these things I am truly thankful.

To celebrate, I made myself some Summertime Cheesy Grits inspired by a recipe in Sara Foster’s Fresh Every Day. Grits stirred with grated pepper jack and corn kernels and topped with sautéed zucchini and red bell pepper, fresh basil and bacon. I fully intend on eating these grits for every meal until they are gone.

And then I’m going to wash my dishes INSIDE the house.

Life is good.

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We are moving this week, which means I should be packing boxes. A lot of boxes. Which means I’m making Paula Deen’s Corn Casserole.

Maybe you procrastinate by cooking? It’s not that I’m not excited about the move. I am. I’m actually going to have a closet INSIDE OUR BEDROOM. But our current home has magical drawers. Just when I think they’re empty, I open one, and there are, like, 38 pairs of takeout chopsticks, a 3-foot set of tongs, and two phone books. I thought about using one of those phone books to look up “exorcism,” but what we really need to put things right is this corn casserole.

I’m using the term “corn” loosely, since any nutrients this vegetable might have disappear in the casserole, bending like reeds before the great mass of butter, sour cream, and cheese. Oh, yes, and Jiffy corn muffin mix. But, you know, nutrients aren’t everything. There is beauty in the balance of sweet and tangy, soft and crunchy, whole food and soul food.

Tonight, surrounded by all these boxes, we need soul food. And for the USA Network to stop the “Law and Order” marathons. Seriously. I can’t pack boxes and watch fictional people solve fictional crimes at the same time. And crime-solving ALWAYS trumps packing boxes.

This corn casserole is incredibly easy. Stir the ingredients together, pop the dish into the oven, top them with cheese, and dig in. It’s delicious as-is, but Jeff likes to cut the leftovers into wedges and pop them into the toaster oven to get the edges really crispy. A great dish for potlucks, packing, and crime-solving.

Corn Casserole
From Paula Deen, “Paula’s Home Cooking,” Food Network

• 1 (15 1/4-ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
• 1 (14 3/4-ounce) can cream-style corn
• 1 (8-ounce) package corn muffin mix (recommended: Jiffy)
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, stir together the two cans of corn, corn muffin mix, sour cream, and melted butter. Pour into a greased 9-by-13-inch casserole dish. Bake for 45 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and top with cheddar. Return to oven for 5 to 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted. Let stand for at least 5 minutes and then serve warm.

Ah, comfort food.

You have no idea how much we were looking forward to the Fourth of July. First, we were going to drive to my parents’ house for our annual Red, White, and Blue Breakfast–an event that started after Momma handed Daddy the business end of a sparkler and we had to come up with a fireworks alternative.

Then we were going to drive to Jeff’s hometown for the Fourth of July Family Reunion. Imagine hundreds of people gathered near a huge oak tree with so many grills going that they use refrigerators powered by hundreds of yards of extension cords to store the uncooked meat. Older people explaining how everyone’s related and children underfoot. Taking your turn shooting the potato cannon–a PVC pipe that, with a little pump action, will blast a raw baking potato into the middle of next week.

And after a day with family, we were going to drive to the small-town festival where we got engaged. It’s a sign post on blacktop, but the entire city raises money 364 days of the year for the fireworks show, and it is spectacular. People drive in for miles.

But Jeff got sick. Very sick. The nurse told me to restrict his meals to white flour, which was quite a blow to a man with visions of slathered ribs dancing in his head.

So, I baked him some angel biscuits.

Angel biscuits are the biscuit/roll hybrid that have been a staple of Southern ladies’ luncheons and the dinner table for at least 60 years. They are light, foolproof (thanks to three leaveners), and the yeast gives them a unique flavor. Plus, the dough will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week, so you can bake them off as needed.

While I was looking for the right recipe, I found Kitty Crider’s “Anything For Mother,” a column the food editor wrote about flying to visit her dying mother, a Southern cook who had lost her appetite. Kitty offers to cook anything. Her mother sits silently for a long time, sips her tea, and settles on angel biscuits. It’s a beautiful piece. One worth reading.

Just like Kitty, I burned the first batch. But the second batch was delicious. Jeff ate enough to take his antibiotic, and I ate enough for a third-world country.

After the jump, you’ll find the angel biscuit recipe from The Blue Willow Inn Restaurant in Social Circle, Ga. These biscuits are true comfort food–easy to prepare and proven to comfort the sick, soothe the soul, and serve as an excellent vehicle for both butter and love, which are often the same.
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Summer officially arrives in the U.S. tonight at 11:59 p.m.

This is the year we make friends.

Life’s too short to dread the humidity, chlorine, and mosquitoes big enough to rape a chicken. And the sweating. The sweating! No, I’m not going to focus on that.

Last January, Gourmet printed “What Is Southern?,” a previously unpublished essay by the late Edna Lewis, one of the South’s most celebrated chefs. Here’s the part that caught my attention:

“Southern is a hot summer day that brings on a violent thunderstorm, cooling the air and bringing up smells of the earth that tempt us to eat the soil. Southern is Tennessee Williams and Streetcar … Southern is a pitcher of lemonade, filled with slices of lemon and a big piece of ice from the icehouse, and served with buttermilk cookies.”

Now, there’s a vision of summertime in the South I can get behind.

I promised myself I’d bake buttermilk cookies for the first day of summer, and I did. Sweet and lemony, with a slightly tangy glaze. Cakey on the inside, crispy around the edges. They sneak up on you.

In fact, the experience was so nice, I’ve decided to kick off The Buttermilk Cookie Experiment: a summer of learning how to make classic Southern foods. Fried chicken. Biscuits. Fried green tomatoes. Peach cobbler. Lane cake.

So, welcome, Summer. Bring your appetite. Skip the swimsuit.

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