Breakfast gets “Gritty” for New Minnesota Couple
There was a television show on from 1976-1985 called “Alice”. The show was based around newly single mother who took a job as a waitress in a diner. Alice was the main character, but one of the secondary characters was named “Flo”. Florence Jean Castleberrry to be exact and she had this saying anytime someone was getting on her nerves, “Kiss My Grits”.
The television rules in the 70’s and 80’s about language on the air were much different than they are today.
My wife has been sick for the last week or so, with a sinus infection and bronchitis. The medicine she’s taking along with some of her other medicines have caused her to be sick to her stomach, meaning she can’t eat just anything. On Sunday morning she was hungry, but she wanted something that would settle easily on her stomach.
Thus began an exhaustive search for “grits”, which are very popular in the South. Grits are made of dried, ground corn cooked with water, milk or broth that make a creamy consistency. Even though Grits are popular in the South, I’m one of the few true Southerners who doesn’t eat them.
Some say that grits and porridge are similar, but not similar enough to my wife though. So, this wasn’t as simple as it might appear.
After looking at what I’m thinking was every restaurant that served breakfast in St. Cloud, no grits were to be found. My wife in a weakened state turns to me and says with all seriousness “We have to move, if there are no grits in Minnesota, then I can’t be in Minnesota either”. We just moved here September 20th, so this was big speedbump after only being here for a month.
I did get some mashed potatoes that were made at the grocery store, and those helped just not for breakfast. We ended up with her normal biscuit choice for breakfast which didn't make her feel better. After having her heart set on grits, I'm not sure much would have filled the void.
We know that you can find some grits that you need to cook yourself, but she didn’t feel well enough to cook them and my culinary skills aren’t that advanced.
Of course, she was kidding about moving, but it does leave us in the position of having to figure out what to do the next time she wants grits