Comfort Food and Snow Days

The Washington, DC area is in the grip of a huge snowstorm...or at least huge for us. Our town got about 3 feet over two days. This area is not used to getting large amounts of snow, especially in just one snow event, so things are pretty much shut down. Even the snow plows gave up at one point. Some of the private contractors, who plow many of the neighborhoods' private streets, reportedly ran out of gas and gas stations were either not open or out of gas. Things have come to a standstill.

So here we are, stuck inside (not really, since we've gone out to shovel and we have lots of neighbors to visit if we wanted), but during really cold weather, people turn to comfort food.  This time, I kind of made up my own thing with grits, cheese, eggs and bacon. It might be a thing somewhere, but I haven't heard of it, so I'm going with it.  :-) The boys were outside playing, and I wanted to give them something that would warm their insides physically and emotionally.

It was super simple to make. I baked the bacon, cooked instant grits (I'm sure Southerners are rolling their eyes, but I'm not a Southerner so I have no real reference for grits, so these are fine with me), stirred some cheese into them, topped with a fried egg and put a little hot sauce on for good measure. Easy, peasy!  We all liked it, and we don't have to worry so much about the calories, since we have a boatload of snow to move. :-)

Give it a try and let me know what you think!


Cheesy Grits with Eggs


4 slices of bacon
1 cup instant grits
approximately 3/4 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
4 eggs
salt and pepper (to taste)
hot sauce (optional)

Fry up the bacon (I baked mine: 375 degree oven, put bacon on parchment-lined pan and bake for about 30 minutes, until cooked). Make grits according to package directions. After the grits have cooked, stir in 1/2 cup of the cheese and stir until melted. Set aside.
























Heat non-stick frying pan and add a little oil or butter. Crack 4 eggs into pan and fry, keeping the yolk soft, but the white cooked through and opaque. Crack some pepper and sprinkle salt over them if you like.

To serve: spoon grits into 4 shallow bowls. Sprinkle the rest of the grated cheese on top of the grits, then add one egg to each serving bowl. Top with crumbled bacon and hot sauce, if desired. We didn't have any (our fresh veggies are starting to dwindle), but a handful of baby spinach or kale would be good on top of the grits as well.

Serves 4