I like cous-cous a lot, Cathy. Also barley pilaf. And as IC mentions- stuffing! Especially cornbread stuffing w/ lots of sage and turkey/chicken giblets.

ooops! I corrected my post. I had originally typed "CanMan" above incorrectly- but I just replaced it w/ "IC" for accuracy. Sorry CanMan and IC!

Well a lot of recipes will call for heavy cream but I don't think that is necessary. When I had polenta in Italy they just used plain water and then added some cheese at the end. This is the recipe I normally use. It's really easy

Basic Polenta

6 servings

• 1 1/2 cups yellow cornmeal (not coarse)
• 7 1/2 cups water
• 2 3/4 teaspoons salt
• 2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Bring cornmeal, water, and 2 1/4 teaspoons salt to a boil in a 4-quart heavy saucepan, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring frequently, until polenta is creamy and tender, about 50 minutes. Remove from heat, then stir in 11/2 tablespoons butter


Also grits are delicious as a side dish. Switch out the polenta for quick cooking but not instant grits, switch out half of the water above for whole milk and then add half a cup of sharp white cheddar cheese at the end after the butter. Serve with salmon and it's heaven on your plate.

I was thinking the same thing last night, your recipe for grits sounds wonderful!

MMMMM, I love grits. One of the downfalls of living in the North East. Grits, like sausage sausage gravy are non existent.