Greetings from South Carolina! I know…Grits!…I’m so predictable. So New-Yorker-trying-to-be-a-Southerner! Well, yes. The thing is — you should know this about me — I’m so helplessly impressionable. Remember about eight years ago when brown was the new black? Or I should say, when brown paired with any other color — pink, green, light blue — was the new black? Those combinations were all I wore for an entire year. When my friend Jim was cooking for me while dancing to Graham Parker’s “Hold Back the Night,” I cooked and danced to that song in my own kitchen for my next three dinner parties. And so whenever I cross the Mason-Dixon line, which I do at least a few times a year, it is absolutely a non-negotiable requirement for me to make grits. And I don’t feel as spineless as I usually do about it because I think this particular brand of impresionable-ness falls under the very forgiving category of “When in Rome.”
It seriously never occurs to me to eat grits any other time the rest of the year, even though there is in fact a shrimp and grits recipe in Time for Dinner, and even though the girls (and Andy) have been coming to South Carolina their entire lives — Phoebe’s first trip was when she was 3 months old; Abby’s when she was 6 weeks. Tonight, we tossed in some sweet, plump shrimp (the shrimp down here deserves a different shellfish category altogether, btw) some fresh summer vegetables and had ourselves a Lowcountry Lovefest. (more…)
