I finished mile 12 of a figurative marathon I am running at work.  Upon taking on the gift shop at work 6 months ago I found a jumbled warehouse, storeroom and overcrowded shop with an outdated and unkempt inventory.  Yesterday at 3:30 I finished hand keying the inventory that remains after six months of cleaning and feverish sales.  Whew.  Now I need to organize and clean up the remains and think about the product mix going forward.  And while I have a way to go I have also come a long way.
When I returned home last night I made super luscious creamy white stone ground grits with gravy smothered andouille for supper.  Mind you we didn’t eat until 8pm but it was lovely and cozy for an October evening.  I modified a recipe of Emeril‘s that I found on foodnetwork.com.  I didn’t want to fuss with shrimp and cut the grits he called for by half.  It definitely still serves 4.   I could also have grits with a couple of fried eggs and a sprinkle of extra cheese and be a very happy girl.

This will easily take you and hour and a half to cook.  But slow cooked stone ground grits are worth every minute.

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1/2 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 large spear of celery (1/2 cup?) diced
• Salt
• Cayenne pepper
• 1 package andouille sausage, sliced 1/4-inch thick(I used New Orleans Style Johnsonville precooked from the market)
• 2 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions
• 1 recipe Creamy Stone Ground Grits, recipe follows
• We splashed a bit of Tabasco on top

Directions

Creamy Stone Ground Grits:
2 1/2 cups water
2 1/2 cups milk
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cups stone ground white grits
1 cup grated white Cheddar

In a large saucepan, over medium heat, combine the water, milk, salt, pepper and the butter. Bring the liquid to a gentle boil. Stir in the grits. Turn way down and cook for 1 1/4 hours, stirring occasionally. (The grits will stick to the bottom of the pan, so make sure not to scrape the bottom of the pan. If the grits absorbed all of the water, add some hot water to thin out I had to add about an extra cup, I suppose it would depend on your grits to begin with.) Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cheese. The grits can either be served immediately or prepared in advance and reheated.

If preparing in advance, grease a pan with a teaspoon of butter. Pour the grits into the pan and reheat in a 400 degree F for 15 minutes.