Grits Casserole

Grits...something Flo told Mel to kiss...yes.

Grits...girls raised in the south...also a yes.

Grits...something The Hunk doesn't like no matter how well I fix them, even when they are mixed with sausage & cheese & garlic...double yes.

The Hunk is not a fan of grits in any shape, form or fashion so when I have an opportunity to make this dish I jump at it.

This recipe comes from my Aunt Mac, her name is really Maxine but we all call her Aunt Mac, people who are not related to her nor her niece or nephew even call her, you guessed it, Aunt Mac.

Aunt Mac made this grits casserole for a Christmas brunch many moons ago.

Then a few years after that I realized that she had entered it in this cookbook I have. The cookbook came from the church that side of my family has gone to for generations. They recently put together a new one & I entered a few of my own recipes this time including some I have featured here on Gone With the Whisk.

So anyway, for the last few years I have been known to pull out Aunt Mac's breakfast casserole recipe, as she calls it.

I made a few tweaks including changing the name to Grits Casserole. I fix it for our birthday breakfast bash at work most often but most recently I took it to our my girls night wine & dine when we had breakfast . But no matter where I take it everyone loves it.

So what it's made up of you ask? Well, right this way...

We have grits (of course), onion, bell pepper, cream of celery soup, sausage & shredded cheese.

First you want to get your water boiling for the grits. For this recipe you'll use 4 cups of water & 1 tsp of salt. I know what you're thinking, that's alot of water for quick grits, but trust me & Aunt Mac when we tell you to use 4 cups.

While you're waiting for the water to come to a boil, dice 1/2 cup of onion & 1/2 cup of bell pepper. That's about half of each vegetable. If you're feeling frisky & really like onion & bell pepper, feel free to chop both of them up & use the whole thing.

  

 Now grab your skillet & toss in the sausage, peppers & onion.

  

Mix that all up really well & cook until sausage is brown & vegetables are tender. And if you take a picture of it make sure it doesn't turn out as bad as this one did.

While your sausage is browning go ahead & get your grits measured out & cooking in the boiling water.

Stir those well, I like to use a whisk to stir my grits. Stirring them right after putting them in the water ensures there are no lumps. Nothing is worse than lumps in your grits.

So now your sausage & vegetables are ready & so are your grits.

Take the both of those & dump in a mixing bowl. Add in the can of cream of celery soup & sprinkle on some fresh ground black pepper.

Mix that together until it's well blended.
 

Add in about a cup of shredded cheddar cheese.

And mix that all up. I know you're thinking this looks the same as the picture two up from here, but it's not, you can see the melted cheese in this one...see...it's right there.

Take your baking dish, about an 8x8 or 9x9, spray it with non-stick spray & pour the grits mixture in. Aunt Mac's recipe calls for a 9x13 which you could do too, it's just thinner. Obviously. 

This is why I'm here, to point out very obvious things to you. What can I say, I'm a giver.

Spread it out evenly in the dish. You could stop here & let it sit overnight. That's what I do when I take it to the birthday breakfast bash at work. Or you can...

...go ahead & top that baby with another cup of shredded cheese & bake it in the oven at 375 degree for 30-40 minutes.

When it's done it looks like this. Cheesey, melty, gritsy & sausagey.

I like putting y's where they don't belong, I think it's funny & clever.

Don't judge me.
 

 Look at that deliciousness.

Go ahead, have some & let me know how it turns out.

Enjoy!!

Grits Casserole

1 cup of quick grits
4 cups of water
1 tsp of salt
1lb sausage
1/2 cup bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup onion, diced
1 can cream of celery soup
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Bring water to a boil, add salt & grits, stir well. Cook grits until done, about 5-7 minutes. Brown sausage with peppers & onions until down. Mix grits, sausage mixture, cream of celery soup, black pepper & 1 cup of the cheese together. Pour into baking dish. to with remaining cheese. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Serve immediately.

Fish Tacos with Chipotle Tartar Sauce

I know these look a mess & that's because they are. They are super messy, especially if you use larger tortillas.

So, note to self: Use small tortillas for the fish tacos unless you want it in your lap.

I had fish tacos for the first time at a restaurant in Destin, FL. I fell in love with them. I dreamed about them. I liked them so much I decided to re-create them.

So, on with the fish tacos.

For the fish you'll be using the recipe for baked fish here on Gone With the Whisk. So get all that ready.

There are several components to this, so be sure to take notes.

To start, the avocado...

First, grab an avocado. A trick to being able to slice this, is to slice it in half around the seed. Then take a knife & stick in the seed & twist it. Then use a spoon to remove the avocado from the skin. It'll scoop right out.

Dice your avocado. Add a touch of lime juice & a dash of cilantro. Mix well & set aside.

Now we're gonna make the chipotle tartar sauce.

You'll need tartar sauce & chipotle peppers in adobo. I use store-bought tartar but if you would like to make your own, by all means, feel free & send me the recipe.

Chipotles are dried & smoke jalapenos & they are suuuupppper hot. I'm talking clear your sinuses while your mouth is on fire hot. Do they not look hot? Trust me, they are.

  

 They are kinda ugly too. You'll be using two whole peppers from this entire can. If you can stand the heat, use more. But have the fire extinguisher handy. Chop up those peppers.

Add the peppers to just over a cup of the tartar sauce.

Mix that together until it makes this beautifully colored, creamy & spice sauce. Set that aside.

Now for the slaw.

 I use pre-packaged, pre-cut cole slaw mix. It's just easier for me that way. You'll use as much as you like, but I used about 3/4 of this bag.

To the slaw add a 1/4 teaspoon of ground cumin.

A heaping 1/4 teaspoon of chili powder.

Then a 1/2 teaspoon of canola oil.

Mix all that up & set it aside.

Grab your flour tortillas. I used the low-carb, whole wheat version this time. They were a little larger than taco sized tortillas, usually that's what you need, taco size.

And the assembly begins...

 Spread a little of your chipotle tartar sauce on a tortilla.

Then lay your fish on one side of the tortilla. We use one fillet per taco.

This is where The Hunk & I differ. I like to cut my fish fillet in half & place it on the tortilla. He likes to chop his fish up. You do what you like. I personally like the chunks of fish I get when it's cut in half, but I'm not here to persuade you. I'll just leave you with this thought...have I steered you wrong yet?

Thank you.

Moving on.

Spread a little of the sauce on the fish. This is probably what makes it so messy, the double-layering of sauce. But it's also what makes it so tasty.

 Throw some slaw on top of the fish.

Top that with the diced avocado.

Fold it over & you've got fish tacos. These are a favorite in our house.

Hope they become one of your favorites too!

Fish Tacos with Chipotle Tartar Sauce
Makes 4 Tacos

4 Baked fish fillets
4 flour tortillas, taco-sized
1 or 2 whole avocados, diced
Dash of lime juice
Dash of cilantro
2 whole chipotle peppers in adobo, finely diced
1 1/4 cup of prepared tartar sauce
1 bag prepared cole slaw mix
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp canola oil

Prepare fish according to the baked fish  recipe. Mix diced avocado, lime juice & cilantro together, set aside. For chiptole sauce, blend well, diced peppers & tartar sauce. For slaw stir together cole slaw mix, cumin, chili powder & oil. Heat flour tortilla according to package directions. Spread a little of the chipotle sauce on the tortilla, half fish fillet & lay on tortilla, top with more sauce, slaw & avocado, fold over. Repeat with next 3 tacos. Serve. Delicious!!

New Orleans, Nawlins or New Orleens & Food

What says New Orleans (or Nawlins or New Orleens, however you prefer to say it) better than Po' Boys? Nothing right? Well, not quite.

I had the pleasure of taking a trip to New Orleans with my best girlfriends to meet one of our displaced best girlfriends this past weekend. (The displaced thing is another story for another time). It's become a tradition for us to make this trip just over 2 hours west for the St. Patrick's Day Parade in good ole Nawlins. The parade is always the Saturday before St. Patty's Day & is at least 4 hours long. There's lots of flowers given to girls by men in kilts & tuxedos, cabbages & beads thrown from floats at lightning speed & plenty of green beer a flowin'. But this post is not about St. Patty's Day. It's about the food I had was able to sample while in our beloved southern city of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Obviously I'm a foodie & even though I've been to alot of restaurants in alot of different places I have yet to go to one by a famous chef I saw on television. This New Orleans tripped marked my first of these experiences & I was very excited.

On our way to the parade we found a cute little spot to have lunch that was connected to a museum named The American Sector &, as the sign states & we discovered, it is one of John Besh's restaurants. John Besh is a well-known chef who is originally from New Orleans & owns seven different restaurants in the city. You may have seen him on Top Chef, Top Chef Masters & The Food Network. My point is, the dude is famous so it was a highlight for me to be eating at one of his restaurants. Onto the food...

After us girls placed our order they brought a little mason jar of homemade pickles to the table. They were very good, a little vinegary for my taste, but good.

As our food arrived at the table I had to click some pictures of it. I went traditional & ordered the shrimp po'boy that you see at the top of the post. It was served on a square wooden cutting board & wrapped in brown paper. As far as po'boys go I've actually had better, but how can you mess up fried shrimp, tartar sauce, lettuce & tomato all on french bread.

And it was served with these fries given to us in these cute tin cans lined with brown paper.

One of the girls ordered the sliders. I know this looks larger than a normal slider, but it was about average size. It was an order of three of these babies served with an onion bacon marmalade which was absolutely delicious.

The star of the table though was this short-rib sloppy joe. I didn't taste any of it because it was too messy to pass down the table to me, but it looked wonderful & my girlfriend reported that it was really good. It was ginormous too, enough for three people, seriously.

A couple of cabbages & several fake flowers (& a few green beers) later we decided to go to dinner in the lobby of the hotel that was around the corner from the hotel we were staying in. Again, as we got there we discovered it was yet another John Besh restaurant named Dominica. It's an italian place. It's very trendy being full of small plankwood tables, leather chairs, crystal chandeliers & black curtains. It was lovely & right up my alley.

After figuring out how to read the menu, it was a touch confusing at first glance, we finally ordered. One of the girls ordered this salad. It was served with very thin sliced apples topped with pecorino cheese, greens, a blood orange vinaigrette & pecans. It was beautiful & vibrant.

Then came the main courses.

Pizza with prosciutto & arugula, mozzarella & tomato sauce.

Then a margherita pizza, the girls added mushrooms to half of it. It was very good, the sauce was perfect.

I ordered the Gnocchi with mushrooms, pancetta & thyme. It was so delicious I could have swam in the sauce. It was a great, rich comfort food.

Later, we're sitting there sipping our wine & deciding where to go or what to do next when we decide to sample dessert or should I say desserts. They were as delicious as the rest of our dinner had been. First up was the Banana Zuppa Inglese which was a moist banana cake layered with butterscotch mousse & topped with peanut brittle. Absolutely scrumptious!

Then we ordered the Gianduja Budino, chocolate & hazelnut pudding topped with whipped cream & candied hazelnuts. It's fancier that it sounds, this was not your average pudding, more like a mousse. Devine!

The last dessert we settled on was the Frittele Di Mele, apple & ricotta fritters served with a ginger zabaione. The displaced girlfriend wasn't big on any of the desserts but she wanted to drink the zabaione with a straw. It was very sweet & rich but when you dipped the fritters in it there was a perfect balance. I loved this one but it was so sweet & rich you couldn't eat much. We actually left one fritter on the plate....we should be ashamed of ourselves, I know.

On our way out of town we did stop at the famous Mother's Restaurant. I forgot to take my camera in for those pictures which was just as well because I had breakfast instead of one of their famous sandwiches loaded with ham & turkey & dripping with debris & their cabbage & creole mustard concoction. You'll have to imagine that yourself & drool over it later.

That's the brief of my food adventures in New Orleans. It was much better than the usual stopping at the closest place you can find & it's good but nothing to write home about. This trip was much different on that level. 

If you find yourself in New Orleans stop by John Besh's place & tell him Gone With The Whisk said hi & she loved the gnocchi.

Until next time!