Baked Two Cheese Bacon Grits

Thanksgiving is at the three-decker, as it always is. Maureen has started the prep sequence early this year because Colleen is seven months pregnant and on her feet less and Maureen is adding Colleen's portion of the work to her own list without comment. I told Maureen I would take the cornbread and the green beans. She said she would let me take the cornbread and the green beans if I promised to make enough. I asked her what enough was. She said for twenty-two people. I said when did we become twenty-two. She said Sean's brother is bringing his girlfriend and her parents and also Father Donnelly said he might come by. I said that was twenty-two people. She said yes.

I did a practice run of the cornbread on Saturday because I have been making the same recipe for six years and I still do not quite trust it for a crowd. The version I use is half corn meal, half flour, with buttermilk and a little honey and a little bacon fat stirred in -- my own hybrid of Maureen's and a Virginia version I picked up from a Savannah nurse who did a travel rotation with me in 2014 and who would be horrified to see how much sweetener I use. I bake it in Maureen's cast iron, which I absconded with in 2019 under the theory that I would return it and have not returned it, a theory that no one including me still believes. The practice run was fine. I will make two pans on Wednesday.

Colleen is visibly relieved every time anyone offers to do anything. She is pregnant and a full-time ICU nurse at BI-Deaconess and she has not taken her foot off the accelerator, which means Patrick comes home from shifts and finds her standing in the kitchen at 10 PM making something that needed to be made two days earlier. I drove over Thursday and did dishes and folded laundry and took her dog out. She tried to protest. I told her Maureen sent me, which was a lie, and which stopped the protest because Maureen is not negotiable. She cried a little. We ate Trader Joe's dumplings. She said thank you four times. I told her to stop.

Nora has a new word: mine. She says it with the clarity of a person who has discovered a fundamental organizing principle of the universe and intends to apply it. The blocks are mine. The cracker is mine. Sean's coffee cup, across the room, on the table, is mine. The word is correct about fifty percent of the time and aspirational the other fifty. We are letting her work it out. Liam finds it outrageous and also hilarious. He has started saying "okay, mine" and handing her things. Older-brother protocol emerges.

The clinic had a long week. An admission I am not going to write about. I am noticing that I am writing that sentence more often lately. I do not know if it is the fall or the cumulative load or the time of year we are in collectively. I am carrying it. I am not going to put it down on this page either. I am going to cook a Thanksgiving and hold the babies of my family and sit at the long table in Southie and be there, which is the only medicine I trust for what I cannot write about.

The cornbread I described above is mine in the way that most inherited recipes become yours — half someone else’s, half something you made up on a Saturday when no one was watching. What I love about the baked grits below is that it lives in the same neighborhood: corn, bacon fat, something sharp and melty in the middle, built to feed a table that keeps getting bigger. If you are the person who took on two people’s worth of prep this year and you need something that goes into the oven and holds, this is it. Make it in whatever cast iron you have not yet returned.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Total Time: 1 hr | Servings: 10–12

Ingredients

6 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1/2 cups stone-ground grits (not instant)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 cup Gruyère cheese, shredded
6 strips thick-cut bacon, cooked and crumbled, drippings reserved
1 tablespoon reserved bacon drippings
3 large eggs, beaten
3/4 cup whole milk
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking dish or a large cast iron skillet with the reserved bacon drippings.
Cook the grits. Bring the water and salt to a boil in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan. Whisk in the grits, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook uncovered, stirring frequently, until thick and creamy, about 20–25 minutes.
Add fat and cheese. Remove the pot from heat. Stir in the butter until melted, then add 3/4 cup of the cheddar and 3/4 cup of the Gruyère. Stir until fully incorporated. Season with black pepper, cayenne, and garlic powder.
Temper and add eggs. Let the grits cool for 5 minutes. In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk. Slowly stir the egg mixture into the grits to avoid scrambling. Fold in half the crumbled bacon.
Bake. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish. Top with the remaining cheddar and Gruyère and the remaining bacon crumbles. Bake uncovered for 40–45 minutes, until the top is golden and the center is just set.
Rest and serve. Let the grits rest 10 minutes before serving. They will hold their shape and slice cleanly for a crowd. Serve directly from the pan.

Nutrition (per serving)

Baked Two Cheese Bacon Grits — The Cornbread Side of the Family Table