Soup Weather

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Well, Sky, get the slowest-cooking grits available. Instant grits are no good; they taste of the box. 5-Minute Grits won't do that to you. Cook 'em pretty slow on a low heat, get 'em spoon-standing thick, turn off heat and butter them in the pan, letting the butter melt down thoroughly, covered, for at least five or ten minutes. Brings out the rather subtle flavor. Sweetening is thoroughly optional, buttering -- I'd say buttering is mandatory.

Cornmeal mush will fill you, but is more humble than gourmet. Bring water to a boil, pour cornmeal out of the canister into a dish, add cold water to soak the cornmeal while the water is heating. Once the cornmeal is good and soaked, stir soaked cornmeal into the boiling water slowly, like adding cream of wheat. This prevents lumping. It can be cooked up pretty solid, and you can make your own polenta of this, even with savory flavorings added in like julienned mushrooms or sundried tomatoes or basil or some other single herb. Or else you can serve it as a hot cereal.

There's not a lot of fiber in either, so if you want fiber in your starch food, add any suitable one. The stealth fiber is the soluble stuff like Benefiber.