GRITS!

I don't know about ya'll but grits are one of my FAVORITE foods. I think I pretty much subsided off of grits and EZ mac my freshman year at Virginia Tech. I could literally eat them with every meal (and I did back then). I eat them with butter. I eat them with salt. I eat them with cheese. And I eat them with sugar.

Last year, I was at work in DC trying to obtain some land disturbance permits and I had like three hours to wait so I was killing time watching on the permit center's TV. Of course I was bored out of my mind when suddleny I saw my favorite lady ever, Mrs. Paula Dean, making a GRITS PIE on the TV! So naturally I started paying attention and got to work scribbling down all the steps and ingredients. Naturally, I stopped by the grocery store on my way back into Richmond and picked up all the ingredients because I just had to make it THAT night. I invited my friend Will over and we had dinner and the absolutely heavenly grits pie. Seriously if your a fan of grits this pie is to die for. It's def. not diet friendly (but really what Paula Dean recipe is...)

Usually I top mine with homemade whip cream (I can't stand cool whip) and fresh strawberries or rasberries. Last year I used some leaf cookie cutters I had and trimeed the edge of the pie with little crust leaves and brought it to out Thanksgiving feast. Everyone was a little skepitcal (I have been known to leave "key" ingredients out of whatever I am baking) but I think I made a fan out of everyone at the table. I plan to make 2 this year to share with everyone and I also plan on making one for a pre-Thanksgiving potluck party I am going to this weekend.

Seriously if you like grits at all I totally reccomend making this. After all its a Paula recipe...can't go wrong with that!

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup water
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup quick-cooking grits
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3 large eggs, slightly beaten
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (9-inch) frozen pie shell, thawed
• Sweetened whipped cream and strawberries, optional

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

In a small saucepan, bring the water and salt to a boil. Add the grits and cook for 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the butter and cook for 1 additional minute. Set aside and cool slightly.

In a small bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, eggs, buttermilk, and vanilla. Slowly stir into the cooled grits. Pour into the pie shell and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until set. Serve warm or cold with whipped cream and strawberries as a garnish, if desired.

Reba!

So now that I have people actually following my blog (it's only two at the moment but hey I never even thought that would happen since I never update this thing) I HAVE to post more often!

So my last post was all about my little K-9 furbabies and I feel bad because I have neglected to share anything about my other 4-legged baby, my horse Reba. I've had Reba since I was 10 and I can't imagine life without her! She had quite the rough time her first few years of life and was up for auction when my trainer heard about her and rescued her (most horses that go to auction end up at slaughter houses or are neglected). She was barely trained under saddle but had a heart of gold and over the years she has taught me so much! She is now 17 but still acts (and looks) like she is 5! Since I've owned her we have had so many adventures together...she has had FIVE babies, won a roomfull of ribbons, survived a bout of colic, and even made the trip to Virginia Tech with me!Everyone who meets her ends up telling me that she is the horse version of myself. Thinking about that always makes me smile.



Ya'll might think I'm crazy since I go on and on about my babies but they really are the lights of my life and I'll take any oppuurtunity to brag about them!

The loves of my life (now if only I could find one of the man variety)!

Thats my Shelton laying there in the mudd puddle. Of course he's a complete boy. Always getting into things, always getting dirty, muddy, and disgusting. But I love it. I adore his "naughty" hound personality. If only I could get the rest of my family to embrace it. He is a rescued redbone coonhound mix that I got from the Eastern Shore of VA. He was born in a lumbermill and is such a country dog through and through. He LOVES to run and chase me on the 4-wheeler. Loves to swim and follow trails. His name is Shelton Red after Blake Shelton and his famous song Ol Red (I am infatuaed with the creativity of that song) and Blake himself.

That little furball is my sweet little girl Brewster! I adopted her from my college town (she's a HOKIE girl too) as soon as I moved out of the dorms into an apartment! She's been with me every step of the way and is glued to my hip (may or may not be due to the fact that I took her EVERYWHERE while she was a puppy: I took her on the bus, class, Walmart (got kicked out), the mall, she was even the mascot of my schools snowboard club for awhile!) She is PERFECT. Never gets into anything. Never runs away. Never does anything bad. My dad adores her (unlike her brother) and she eats up as much attention as she can get. She has a boys name because they told me she was a boy when I adopted her...found out real quick they were wrong but a boyish named just seemed fitting!

So those are my K-9 babies...next I will share pictures/bio of my horsey baby Reba!

Ok here we go AGAIN

So I realize my first post was in November and I had the best of intentions of writing every day but as you can see that didn't happen... so here I am again with my 2nd FIRST post. Life is super crazy right now so I figured this would be the prefect opportunity to get my thoughts down, make some sense of things, and hopefully humor yall along the way...