Grits with Peanuts and Honey

Anyone who has watched "My Cousin Vinny", one of the very best American movies of the early nineties, remembers the breakfast scene in the Alabama diner where Joe Pesci, an inexperienced New York lawyer, and Marisa Tomei, playing his girlfriend, order their first Southern breakfast of grits and lard fried eggs. Pesci's lawyer knows not much about the law, Tomei knows everything about auto mechanics, but neither know anything about staples of the Southern morning table. By the end of the movie Pesci has learned enough about grits cookery to discredit a witness against Pesci's nephew, who he, Pesci,is defending from a murder rap.

Grits, the polenta of the South, are ground up hominy. Hominy is corn blown up by lye. Both foods are cheap and good. I buy non-instant grits, and when I cook it I cook enough for four, and to use the phrase of one of my Southern friends,"eat on it" for days.

Grits with cheese. Grits with shrimp.

And now grits with peanuts and honey, a rich and hearty Brunchy Sunday recipe. You can make it with any good quality box of grits( such as Quaker Oats).Following package directions, which are not difficult, make enough portions for four. Then puree 1/3 cup dry roasted unsalted peanuts in the food processor. Add a little salt to taste, and mix in 1/8 stick of unsalted butter. Add to the hot grits along with 1/4 cup or more of honey, depending on how sweet you want it. Serve it garnished with crumbled breakfast sausage or bits of crispy bacon-