EATS! Ham steak breakfast. Yummmm.

Ready? Okay. 

Fried ham steaks w/red eye gravy, butter grits, onion roasted potatoes, and buttermilk biscuits. Amen.

If you have a Southern bone in your body, anywhere, this will make your soul sing...

I couldn't decide on the angle, so I gave you both photos. 

I love food, can you tell?

Can you see the BUTTER melting on the grits? Its...its...its divine. 

Let's get cooking.

• Ham Steaks & Red Eye Gravy
• 2 large ham steaks, thick cut
• ½ medium onion, finely diced
• 1/4 cup flour, heaping
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 2 cups beef stock
• 2 cups coffee
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons green onions, chopped

In a large, hot cast-iron skillet add 2 T bacon grease. It should be starting to smoke, add ham and fry until nicely browned about 2-3 minutes, turning once. When fried, remove ham to a warm plate, tent with foil to keep warm. 

Add onions. When they've started to brown, toss in the butter and when melted, whisk in the flour. Whisk mixture until flour is toasty and just starting to brown (important for correct flavor). Whisk in coffee, stock, and sugar. Let reduce until desired consistency, about 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper and adjust to taste. This gravy is thinner than bacon or sausage gravy - more the consistency of a brown gravy.

Five minutes before serving, return ham, drizzle cream, and sprinkle with green onions. I serve the ham just like this, with a healthy sprinkle of black pepper, or you can whisk to combine (just not as pretty). Serve ladled over grits and fried potatoes.

Lordy.

When we're really going all-out, I make these bad boys:

• Buttermilk "Angel" Biscuits
• 5 cups all-purpose flour, can sub 2 c with cake flour for extra tenderness
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• 1 cup shortening, chilled
• 1 package active dry yeast
• ¼ cup warm water
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Pour some flour for sprinkling and flouring the biscuit cutter in a small bowl.

Sift together flour, sugar, soda, baking powder, and salt. Cut in chiled shortening. VERY GENTLY add warm buttermilk and dissolved yeast. Store dough, covered, in the fridge until ready to use.

Gently roll out on a lightly floured surface or shape into balls--these do not need to rise. I use a HUGE biscuit cutter to make "cat's head" biscuits - a real treat, but mostly just use a large biscuit cutter (don't twist and use a sharp cutter for the best rise). Place on ungreased cookie sheet w/sides touching. Brush tops of biscuits with melted butter.

Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 15 minutes. Quickly brush with melted butter. Bake for 5-15 minutes more depending on size and appearance. Brush again with melted butter before serving. YUM.

Those are called "angel" or "bride's" biscuits because of the yeast-mixture addition. You can take those to the bank - they always turn out. I also love the added flavor and little extra oomph to the rise this gives them. They're so yummy.

But mostly - I make Pioneer baking mix biscuits - 3 cups Pioneer + 1 cup milk = instant fabulosity. I don't know anyone that would know they weren't from scratch. Just please. Please avoid Bisquick.  Whoever is in that factory dumping in the baking soda needs a swift kick in the ass. Just. Yuck.

Und now for the potatoes. My FAVORITE.  There's real magic in the combination of onion-roasted potatoes and red eye gravy. I don't claim to understand it; I just enjoy it.

Oven at 425 (I usually fudge it a little so I can do the biscuits and the potatoes together - just put the potatoes on the bottom rack, making sure there is plenty of space between the two cooking racks). 

• Onion Roasted Potatoes, Simple
• 2 pounds baby red potatoes, quartered
• ⅓ cup vegetable oil
• 1 package Lipton onion soup mix
• black pepper, to taste

Toss ingredients together, roast in 425 degree oven about 30-35 minutes, turning once. 

I try to make sure the cut sides are down and there is plenty of seasoning on the bottom - crunchy and flavorful!

Also: if you're allergic or just opposed to MSG; or if you're just like me and sometimes run out of it - here's an easy alternative to Lipton's Onion Soup Mix:

8 teaspoons instant minced onion
1 teaspoon onion powder
4 teaspoons beef bouillon
1/2 teaspoon celery salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar

I usually double this and give it one quick zing in the food processor to make it more powdery like Lipton's. If I'm feelin' frisky.

Frisky. Ha. Love that word.

And now for the ultimate Southern comfort food: butter grits. Please, if you're a Yank and you've never had anything but that mushy monstrosity called "instant grits", please DO YOURSELF A FAVOR and try these. Outside of the South, you may have to order them. Bob's Red Mill makes a good grind. The label reads, "polenta", as well. See note below.

Grits are a wondrous thing, but these are what they ARE NOT:

They are not instant. They take 30 minutes to cook.

They are not cornmeal. 

They are not hominy.

They are not really polenta. But they are very similar. Very similar. (I find most polenta is a finer grind)

They are not bland. 

They are not sweetened. (though a drizzle of good SORGHUM molasses is very acceptable)

After that admonishment, we may now move forward and enjoy some good grits together:

• Butter Grits
• 4 ½ cups water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup grits, yellow
• 4 tablespoons butter (I don't skimp, peeps)
• 
  
• Bring SALTED water to a rapid boil. Slowly shake in grits with one hand while whisking vigorously with the other. Continue whisking and lower to the heat to where just the occasional bubble breaks the surface. Cook for 30 minutes or so (different stoves), stirring and scraping the bottom occasionally to prevent scorching. Drop in the butter just before serving. 
• Adding some really good cheddar is perfectly acceptable, just not traditional for breakfast.
  

Notes:

NOTES : For fried grits, spread leftovers in a pan to about 1 1/2" thickness. Bake in a 250 oven for 30-45 minutes until slightly dry. Let cool for 45 minutes before refrigerating or slicing into 4 inch squares and panfrying in hot grease until golden on each side, 12 minutes total or so. Polenta is often served this way as well.

I'll make some Shrimp n' Grits sometime for ya'll. Make you wanna slap yo' Momma.

Now. 

Pile your plate as high as you dare; have your cardiologist and your personal trainer on speed dial, and go ahead and DIG IN. Larrapin' good, I say. Larrapin'.

Welcome to South of the Mason Dixon. 

At least for a couple plate-fulls.

Grits-Lover’s Prayer

From Martha White’s Southern Sampler

Our Father, watchin’ my kitchen,

Please help me understand

Why some folks just don’t take to grits

Like I know you planned.

Perhaps it’s ’cause they missed out—

Through no fault of their own,

Their mamas served ’em oatmeal

’Til they were nearly grown.

For that I cannot blame them

And since it’s not too late,

I pray some good soul finds them

And puts grits upon their plate.

I’m sure there are grits in heaven

And angels are eatin’ right.

But there are no grits below us

’Cept those burned black as night.

It's time.

This is it. 

This is the be-all, end-all for me. A thick fall mist with the leaves changing before my eyes, the light soft and filtered and mist sparkling the air, the soft wind has a brisk chill, the storm and rains on their way, the little family together, the heater scenting the air with its first couple uses of the season. I'm searching for something warm and homey for dinner, there's good news of a new baby in the family, we're getting prepared to go visit my Dad, and for just a moment - for one quiet blissful moment - this is it. All is good. So so good.

Thank you.

Dark...

Please meet Jack. 

Aka. Jack Skellington. 

My daughter has been drawing Jack for almost 2 years now. I guess you could call her "dark", for an adorable, four-year-old girl.  "Nightmare", as we familiarly refer to it after these last couple years, is Tim Burton's, "Nightmare Before Christmas". And Jack is her beleauguered, classic-protagonist hero in a story that, somehow, successfully combines Christmas AND Halloween. 

Yes, we're brimming with LPS' (if you don't know, count yourself and your intact bare feet lucky), Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcakes, the requisite army of naked baby dolls, etc. 

But Jack is. just. IT. 

We rejoice at Halloween, because it is a celebration of all she waits for.  Goblins, witches, pumpkins, bats, ghosts, and yes, monsters are welcome everywhere. Dinos are even put in that wonderful category she just can't quite share with her little girl friends. But Halloween is her time. Her favorite characters are the stars of TV, movies, the internet, the RADIO, even. Its their time; its her time.

The child is just, well, dark. 

And I love her for it.

I'm not going to lie. I stole this photo. 

I just stole it. I love it and it makes my heart sing and while I usually recreate a great photo, I have resolved to make this October my most-posts-to-date month yet; this means my camera and I may not be able to keep up. 

I believe in my heart this is the right thing to do since its my favorite month, my favorite weather, my birthday is smack in the middle, and by golly, because I can. 

What are they gonna do? 

Take my birthday away? (miss ya' Kev)

So there.