Grits

What do to with most of a 1.5-lb package of grits?  They're delicious cooked up with parmesan, but four servings of that only uses about 3/4 c of grits, and it's not like I'm going to eat that every night.  

Fortunately I found the baking soda.  So I started tonight with lime polenta cake, adapted from a Cooking Light recipe.  Grits are basically polenta, no?*  The cake was very yummy, kind of like a rough-textured cornbread, but soaked with lime syrup (which I made up).  It only used half a cup of grits, but it quelled somewhat my desperate yearning to bake.  I brought it to Mike and Kathryn's house and we gobbled it up.

I am further tempted by Martha Stewart's polenta cookies and perhaps a vanilla polenta pudding.  The thing is, none of these recipes use a large amount of polenta (or grits), and they use a lot of other ingredients... not to mention the fact that I would be faced with a lot of dessert.

More research, more good options.  Polenta is the pasta-equivalent for Northern Italy and can be used as a base for pretty much anything.  So perhaps my opening line of "not gonna eat that every night" was premature... lots of people do!  I'm liking the idea of topping polenta with white beans and black kale, very Tuscan.  But maybe too white, with the white grits... some prettier bean, maybe.  Sausage and cabbage is another very northern-italian combination.  And apparently the slow cooker (which I have not yet packed!!) makes perfect, creamy polenta with no stirring.  I am seeing tomorrow's dinner in my mind...

* If this horrifies your gourmet sensibilities, sorry.