The Alex Special

My parents owned a Chinese restaurant when I was growing up. Being the dutiful children we were, we worked at the restaurant on Friday and Saturday nights every weekend except Sundays which was the only day the restaurant was closed. Sundays were reserved for our little mini vacays..read: Disney World. Just about every year we would get season passes to some Orlando theme park, mostly Disney World, and go there EVERY weekend. We loved it. On those special Sunday mornings we would often go to Shoney's located at the hotel across the street from our neighborhood for their morning breakfast buffets before driving an hour to Orlando to the "happiest place on earth." For those of you that don't know, Shoney's is sort of an 'All American' restaurant popular in the south in the 90's. Was there anything really fabulous about this breakfast buffet? No, just your typical breakfast foods. But they DID have grits, and you already know how much I love grits.

My oldest brother Alex, would almost always get the same thing. He would pile on a healthy helping of grits, throw on some home fries and top it all with some strange yellow 'cheese sauce' (which I'm not at all sure had an once of real cheese in to begin with). My middle brother Allen, and I would follow our oldest brother's lead - our Disney World fuel of choice. This strange, now somewhat disgusting original breakfast combo is what inspired this grown-up, dare I say it, gourmet version of what I lovingly now call, the Alex Special.

We headed to Alex's house this year for Christmas so I decided to make this dish for the one person it's named for. It was a big hit for Christmas breakfast!

Another great part about the 'Alex Special' is that it is great for using up leftover vegetables, potatoes in particular. I never usually make this unless I had leftover potatoes from dinner the night before. Any breakfast that takes more than 30 minutes to assemble just isn't really within my morning mental capacity.

The Alex Special
Makes 4-6 servings

Cheese Grits

4 c. water
1 c. quick grits (not instant, please!)
1 tsp. salt
4 tbsp. butter (1/2 stick)
1/2 tsp. fresh pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic powder (optional)
1.5 c. extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (extra for sprinkling)

Hash
4-6 c. roasted yukon gold potatoes, cubed (about 3-5 lbs.)
1 roasted large yellow onion, optional
6 slices bacon, precooked
1.5 c. sliced mushrooms
1/3 c. green onions, sliced
1/4 c. fresh Italian parsley, chopped
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. fresh pepper
Extra virgin olive oil

1 egg per person

Bring water to a boil. Salt the water and wisk in grits slowly to avoid getting lumps. Cover and let simmer whisking every few minutes to make sure the grits don't settle and everyone gets cooked evenly. After about 6 minutes when the grits are creamy, throw in the butter and stir until melted.

Add the shredded cheese and mix in until blended. If there are some chunks of unmelted cheese, it'll make someone's (Christmas) breakfast even that more special, mmmmmmmmmm.

Take leftover potatoes and onions and toss in a skillet with bacon and mushrooms.

Heat on medium heat until everyone is warmed through, about 7 minutes.

Throw in the green onions and parsley last.

Turn the burner off and let the hash sit in the pan while you cook the eggs. This gives the green onions a chance to cook a tiny bit without the parsley losing its color.

I just throw an egg on top, sunny side up (don't forget to salt & pepper your eggs!).

To plate, lay down a creamy bed of cheese grits first. Pile on some potato bacon hash, sprinkle w/ more cheese. Throw an egg on top. More cheese. More cheese. More cheeeese. Mmmmm.

Be still my heart.

Closer..

Here Alex is demonstrating the reaction you should expect:

Note: If you're making potatoes the night before (which I highly suggest - who wants to get up at 6am to bake potatoes?), just cut potatoes and the onion into 1" cubes - toss with about 2-3 tsp. olive oil and 1.5 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. pepper.

Bake at 425F for 30 minutes until fork tender.

I always use the Costco pre-cooked bacon as a shortcut but if you're using raw bacon, slice the bacon and start in a large cool pan or skillet on medium heat. After it's browned, remove the bacon and pour off the excess bacon grease but leave whatever sticks in the pan. Heat the potatoes and onions in the same pan and proceed as above, just add the bacon back in after the potatoes are heated through.

This is what you can expect after the second helping:

Garlic Cheese Grits (Gritlets)

I consider myself lucky to have grown up in the south. Now, "south" in my case means Florida. I know what you're thinking. Florida? To some known as only the land of newly wed and nearly dead, I've found that at least to the northwesterners, Floridians equal Key Westers. Total misperception. To me, Florida is its own little pangea made up of the following: Deep South (north FL and some panhandle areas), Tourist Trap (central FL, Disney, etc.), and Latin pangea (basically all of south FL). I'm most familiar w/ Tourist Trap and Deep South. We are bordering Alabama and Georgia, right? It's the deep south.

One of my absolute favorite things I brought w/ me to the great Northwest is grits. Most people native to the NW don’t even know what grits are. It’s just corn, people. And eating grits doesn’t turn you into some country bumpkin, I promise. Would it make people feel better if I called it polenta..or hominy? Same thing. Stone-milled corny deliciousness. Here’s a variation one of my friend Carrie's (a.k.a. The Dame) favorite grits recipes that's now one of my favorites:

Garlic Cheese Grits

2 c. chicken stock
2 c. water
1 c. uncooked quick grits
2 eggs, beaten
4 tbsp. butter
1.5 c. grated sharp cheddar, more for sprinkling if desired
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp Tony Chachere's Cajun Salt
2 tsp kosher salt
1 c. green onions, chopped

The Dame's recipe calls for a whole stick of butter and uses a mix of Monterey Jack & cheddar, if you want to keep it totally traditional. I figured 1/2 a stick would scare you NW friends enough but if you're feeling like those arteries are looking a little too clean, go for it. The green onions are also not part of the original. I thought something green would help people feel like maybe these weren't completely carbs, right?

Preheat oven 350 °F. Grease or spray an oven safe casserole dish and set aside. Bring water, broth, cajun salt and salt to boil. Whisk in grits stirring constantly for a minute. Reduce heat to low. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally until grits are thick and creamy.

Temper eggs with 1/2 c of the hot cooked grits, whisk vigorously to avoid cooking eggs. Add egg/grits mix back into remaining grits and stir until incorporated. Combine butter, cheese, garlic (and green onions if you're using them) into mixture and stir until cheese is mostly melted.

Traditionally, I make this in a 9" square casserole pan and bake for 45 minutes until golden & bubbly. I've been in a total mini mood lately and decided to put my new mini muffin tins to use.

Even if you have the non-stick kind like me, you need to use some cooking spray or else they'll stick. I know, yes, you did already put half a stick of butter in there but trust me, you need it. Or whatever, if you're adventurous then don't use the cooking spray - let me know what happens.

I use my handy mini ice cream scoop to make these guys all even sized. And as if these needed anymore heart stopping goodness, I sprinkled w/ some more cheddar on top. Don't mind the overly long strands of cheddar in the pictures, that's just how my food processor rolls. Yours will look better.

Mini muffin tin route takes about 25 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool for 10 minutes and serve. Great as portion control for those of you worried about all the cheese and butter. Also ideal for parties, this stuff tastes just dandy at room temp ya'll.