Dark Days: Hominy grits with leeks and butternut

Friday, December 21, 2007

I got home from work last night and was all alone - my husband was finishing his holiday shopping.  The idea of making anything I wanted was almost too much for me.  In the kitchen I weighed my options.  And then my eyes fell on that bag of locally grown grits I bought a few weeks ago.  Well…why not?

Having never cooked grits before in my entire life, I winged it - I boiled up a few cups of water and a cup of milk, threw in some salt and parsley, then a cup of grits and waited to see what happened while I stirred like a maniac.  Miraculously, it all cooked up rather nicely.  And while it was, I sauteed up some sliced leeks and cubed, roasted butternut squash in butter.  As a last minute addition to the grits, I stirred in some sharp goat cheese. 

It turned out to be a delicious combination - goat cheese grits topped with sauteed leeks and butternut squash and finished with a couple curls of parmesan and a splash of balsamic vinegar.  Best yet, aside from the salt and vinegar it was all local and in season.  The grits were from Lancaster County (purchased at Kauffmann’s at Reading Terminal Market); the leeks, butter, and milk were from the Fair Food Farmstand; the butternut is a leftover from my last CSA share, the parsley was dried from my garden, the parmesan from Hendricks Farms, and the goat cheese from Shellbark Hollow.