Cornmeal Anthropology

Today, students, we are going to talk about grits. Most specifically, the Pioneer Woman's Cheese Grits (p. 164).  When a lot of people think of grits, they just think of a mushy, soupy cornmeal mash - and Southern people. And, while grits are a mushy, soupy cornmeal mash, they are exceedingly tasty and have a very interesting history. Enter here Food Anthropology 101.

Grits are made of roughly ground corn, or maize. Corn is something we take for granted. We eat it. Cows eat it. Our cars eat it. Most highly processed foods contain corn in the form of syrup. But corn was not always so ubiquitous. It was domesticated from a grass in Mexico 8,700 years ago, according to National Geographic. Corn is older than dirt, y'all. Well, kind of.

Grits are a form of ground corn that is baked and mixed with a variety of ingredients. The word grits is an English variation of the German word, "grutze," and the Italian word, "gruzzi". And we thought it was just an American word derived from the sound it makes between your teeth. Okay, so maybe all this history doesn't automatically make grits into the high-class food we were trying to persuade you that it was. But, we do promise that this 8,700-year-old food, with a little help from cheese, cayenne and garlic, will hit the spot. Add it to your comfort food syllabus.

We started by boiling nine cups of salted water. To the boiling water we added two cups of quick grits. These took about five minutes to cook.

On the side, we whisked together four eggs, tempering them with small spoonfuls of warm grits. We then added the egg mixture to the large pot of grits.

Then came the butter. Someday we'll lecture on the origins of butter, since we know you've yet to have your fill of food history.

Sharp cheddar cheese was added. A yummy and obscene amount of sharp cheddar cheese.

We stirred until all the cheese melted. Next we added the garlic and cayenne. Ree even suggests jalapenos, green chiles or Rotel. This time we decided to keep it simple. Ree's directions say to place this in a baking dish. We, however, were a bit weary of doing dishes at the time and decided to leave it in the Dutch oven to cook. This tasty mush baked for about 40 minutes, due to the deepness of the Dutch oven.

This recipe is like macaroni-and-cheese, without the macaroni. Or maybe blended macaroni-and-cheese. On second thought, don't try that. Lou was craving mac-and-cheese after her wisdom teeth were removed, tried the blended version and found it to be less than stellar. Too many pudding cups will cause you to try strange things. Especially after anesthesia. But, we digress. All of this to say, the grits are oh-so-mushy and oh-so-good.

The guys roasted two, whole chickens on the grill, we roasted broccoli and cauliflower in the oven and had a feast.

Thank you for your attention. You've earned three credit points and a bowl full of cheesy grits.

Happily full,

You know you're old when...

...you request vegetables for your birthday.

Now, these are no ordinary vegetables. These are a party for your tastebuds.

Mr. Fabuful turned 30 last week. Welcome to the fourth decade, Mr. Fabuful. We celebrated with a small, family shindig this past weekend. It just so happened that the day of the party was his sister's-in-law 23rd birthday.

Per Mr. Fabuful's request, we made the spicy pulled pork tacos (just as great, grand and wonderful the second time around). To accompany this, we decided to make the Pioneer Woman's Pico de Gallo (p. 16) and her Guacamole (p. 20). Her guac uses the pico, so we killed two recipe birds with one stone...or rather, used one potato masher, in our case.

We began by dicing red onions, tomatoes, cilantro and jalapenos. Lou and Jo both got to work chopping because we were preparing such a large batch for the party. Thanks to Mr. Fabuful for manning the camera during our 10 years hard labor. Teehee.

These ingredients were mixed together along with some lime juice.

Pico: straight forward and delicious. A party in your mouth.

Next, we sliced avocados and removed the pits. Please admire Jo's manicure. Thank you, Momma Vickie!

We removed the flesh to a mixing bowl and salted it to taste.

Any stress from the party prepping was resolved with a good avocado mashing.

Next, we introduced the pico to the guac, and they entered the bonds of culinary matrimony. Actually, the ingredients just married really well.

 Lime juice was sprinkled on top to keep the avocado nice and green. A party in your mouth, again.

Here is the full spread for the birthday meal.

After the meal, the pyrotechnic show began. No angel food cakes were harmed in this display.

Happy birthday, Mr. Fabuful!

Happily full,

Youmana, Imana. We all Numana.

Last Saturday Lou and Jo headed up the interstate to McPherson. The gold minivan? We didn't drive her. So we didn't get lost. And Lou didn't navigate. And Jo didn't listen to Lou's navigating. Instead, we ate muffins and minded our own business.

When we arrived at the McPherson College sports arena we were greeted by a large semi trailer parked outside full of food for Haiti.

All of the volunteers were very helpful in getting us to the registration table, the bathrooms (very important) and showing us to our table.

Here we are. Undeniably hawt.

These are the packets that contain rice, vitamins, soy/chicken bullion and dried beans. We took turns with different tasks at our table of enjoyable octogenarians. The McPherson event further proved volunteers can be of any age to donate their time to Numana.

When we arrived at 10:30 in the morning, 50,000 meals had been packaged. By the time we left at 1:00 in the afternoon, 97,000 meals were ready to go to Haiti. The grand total for the day was over 217,000 meals. Way to go McPherson County!

As we've mentioned before, a gong is rung for every 5,000 meals packaged. What a great morale booster.

We had a chance to meet Rick McNary, Numana's CEO, as he went around thanking volunteers for their time and efforts. Mr. McNary shared his passion for feeding the starving. That passion was first ignited by meeting a small child asking to be fed and has grown into an organization that has fed millions in the past year-and-a-half. It was a joy to be a part of such a giving group of folks working for a common cause. If you, your friends or family would ever like to help out or donate to Numana's fight against hunger, check them out here.

Gong-ngngngng!

Thankfully full,

This Little Piggy Went To...

...the Dutch oven.

That's right. This is one of the tastiest and easiest things we've made thus far. We are talking about P-Dub's Spicy Pulled Pork (p. 94). Next to the Perfect Pot Roast, this recipe is our favoritest. Yep, we used a made-up word, it's that good.

Start with a food processor. Make friends with your food processor. It's about to make you some tasty stuff. Into the food processor goes onion, garlic, salt, olive oil, white wine vinegar, brown sugar, chili powder, oregano and cumin. Then stick your nose close to the top of the bowl, and take a whiff. You won't regret it.

Pulse the food processor five or six times to fully blend and emulsify the ingredients. You'll feel really chef-like using the food processor. Jo sure did. Lou gave it a spin too. We never out-grow our toys. We just change the type of toys we play with as we age. The mixture should be about the color of Oklahoma clay.

Next, take your pork shoulder (we ended up with a six-pounder)...

 ...and spread the mixture over both sides making sure all surfaces are covered.

Place this in the Dutch oven, pouring the remaining spice mixture on top. P-Dub calls for adding two cups of water. We had enough mixture left, so we added it along with just one cup of water. The liquid helps the meat to remain tender and moist as it cooks.

We put the lid on the Dutch oven and placed it in the oven at 300 degrees for about five hours. We have found with roasts a good ratio, generally speaking, is roughly an hour per pound. With this recipe you turn the roast about every hour of its cooking time.

Once it's finally done, it should be falling apart. We noticed it was slowly falling apart as we turned the meat the last couple of hours. We set the meat aside to rest a few minutes and joined a mariachi band.

Next we shredded the pork using two forks. We would be lying if we did not say we sampled a few bites. You know - just to make sure the meat was good enough to share. Unfortunately, it was.

The remaining mixture was still in the pot. We thought this could create a great sauce. Mr. Fabuful added corn starch and let it boil as it thickened. He also made refried black beans. That boy can make some mean food.

We readied the rest of our food: tortillas, lime wedges, queso fresco and alcoholic pineapple. Yes, that's right. That pineapple was not as fresh as we had hoped when Jo cut it up that afternoon. We wondered why The Bean made such a face when he tried the pineapple first. It tasted like there was a shot of bourbon in the pineapple. Weird. It perhaps was incorrectly advertised in the "fresh" produce department at the grocery store. That, or it fermented on its ride from Hawaii to Kansas.

See here the plated, finished product. *Sigh...*

Please try this. Or, if pork is not kosher to you, do a brisket.

Happily full,



P.S. Join us at the McPherson County Numana event, this coming Saturday, June 4! Register here.

Soul Food

So if it's not obvious by now, we and our fellas like food. We like to eat it. We like to make it. We like to look at it. And we like to eat it.

We also realize we are very blessed to live in the part of the world with an abundance of food. Living in the Breadbasket of America, food is often something that we can take for granted. Both of us have traveled to different parts of the world and have seen poverty and hunger first-hand. Since we're doing a food blog, we thought it would be a good idea to feature organizations that give everyday people like us a chance to make a difference, both locally and around the world.

El Dorado, Kansas, is home to an extraordinary organization called Numana. Numana helps local volunteers package meals that are sent to areas affected by disaster or dire poverty. For example, Lou volunteered with her local church to help package 137,000 meals for Haiti after the earthquake last year.

Numana's operation runs like a well-oiled machine. Volunteers are organized by table. Each person is given a specific job. The best part is anyone from age two to age one-hundred-and-two can help with this process. Each table is responsible for packaging meals containing rice, beans and spices. These meals are nutrient rich and are easy to prepare in places with few resources.

The fun part: wearing gigantic aprons and hair nets. The other fun part: the gigantic gong that is rung every time another 10,000 packets of meals are packaged. Will work for gongs.

If you are interested in volunteering for or donating to Numana, please check out their website.

Thankfully full,

You say potato. I say potato.

Yep. We say 'potato' the same way. This recipe is that good.

First, allow us to show you the inspiration for trying this recipe. *Girly sigh.* Uncle He-Man made a stop by Yoder Meats, and Mr. Fabuful made these pretty baby-back ribs tasty.

So, of course, we had to make something delicious to compliment the ribs. We went with P-Dub's Creamy Rosemary Potatoes (p. 204).

Jo started by slicing russet potatoes.

Then we really got busy slicing potatoes.

Vanna White, whoops...Vanna Lou will showcase the potatoes. We love our starches.

Next we poured a mixture of half-and-half and heavy cream over the potatoes, setting them aside to soak.

We chopped garlic. Start the mincing by the aggression-relieving practice of pounding the flat of the knife with your palm to release the flesh from its papery skin.

We added this and a diced onion to a skillet of melted butter. Next we prepared the herbs. We began by removing rosemary from its stems and chopping it.

The chives were chopped next. The kitchen smelled heavenly. Like a garden of herbs. Thank you, Captain Obvious. We'll be here all week.

Once the onions and garlic began to look translucent, we added cream cheese to the mix and did a little dance. This was melted together and created a great dip for crackers. Just sayin'. But, really, this was melted together and the half-and-half and heavy cream mixture was poured in.

You know how you were told in elementary school to read the directions at the top of your worksheet before beginning any of the problems? Well, apparently we didn't quite learn our lesson. The recipe calls for adding the rosemary and green onions (Say what?!) to the cream cheese mixture. Instead, we added the rosemary and chives. We get half-credit, right? Chives are the little cousins to the onion.

Next we sprinkled in Parmesan cheese.

We buttered a 9x13 baking dish and dumped our potato slices in.

This was then covered with the cream cheese mixture. Parmesan cheese was sprinkled on top. This is the point at which the chives should be the acting garnish. Welp. They weren't. Neither were the green onions. They were in detention in the fridge.

This was baked for one hour.

Despite flunking Cookbook Instructions: 101, the potatoes turned out quite tasty. We all enjoyed the fresh, rosemary taste. We will definitely be making these again soon!

Happily full,