Instant grits are a joke, ( and a bad one ) but quick grits are fine IMO. Now you need to try and learn if you prefer hominy or meal grits. Both work for me. The real secret to making grits IMO either long or quick, is to boil the hound out of them. I start 6 parts water to 1 part grits and without regards to what the label directions say, I boil them for 10 minutes at a full rolling boil. This means either constant stirring or use of a tall pot such as a stock pot. (no lid) They come out nice and creamy and well worth the effort for me. I think you will find that the problem with any non stir method is that your grits will become a pasty cake with the water floating on top. Try the quick grits at a full boil for 10 minutes and see if they don't suit you.

Yes, I have unplugged everyting & re-plugged it all back to where it should be. I haven't tried the system restore yet. This is where I'm at now.... we found another old huge monitor & got it hooked up & it works just fine! Wonderful picture! But hate the size of that monster! So the problem must be in the flat screen monitor, right? Are they repairable??? The white screen with the blue triangle showed up again...it said that the desktop screen couldn't work, so I choose another desktop screen & everything seems to be fine. I really appreciate all the help here! Thanks so much!!!

As I understand it, southern grits are made from dent corn--it has a soft endosperm and makes great grits. On the other hand, polenta and other types of corn meal are made from flint corn. Here's a posting from another site which is said to have originated at Anson Mills website, although I couldn't find it there just now: "Dent or Flint? Corn is classified by the type of starch (endosperm) in its kernels. The premier mill corn of the American South, known as dent (the name derives from the dent that forms on the top of each kernel as it dries), has a relatively soft, starchy center. Dent corn makes easy work of milling--it also makes phenomenal grits. "Flint corn, by contrast, has a hard, starchy endosperm and produces grittier, more granular meal that offers an outstanding mouthfeel when cooked. One type of American flint--indigenous to the Northeast--was, and remains, the traditional choice for Johnny cakes. In Italy, flint has been the preeminent polenta corn since the 16th century when Spanish and Portuguese treasure hunters brought Caribbean flint to the Piedmont on ships." The first corn was taken to Italy in the hold of ships to hide gold and other treasures from pirates on the high seas. However there were famines and the people used it for food. Finding that they liked it, they began to cultivate it in Italy and another New World crop became part of Italian cuisine." Be that as it may, both polenta and grits are cooked corn meal mush made from slightly different forms of corn. As far as the flavor of grits, it depends on both the freshness of the grits and the particle size. Good grits are larger and take a long time to cook; the smaller the particle size, the more quickly they cook and the more likely they are to taste like library paste. (Instant grits are an abomination.) But the most important part of the preparation has been mentioned by the late Lewis Grizzard, and that is to serve them 'with enough butter to choke a goat'.

And that is the Gospel! "Bless her heart, she cain't help being ugly, but she could'uh stayed home." I first heard that from my Daddy. Also he would tell us about the old fellow who always took his wife with him every where he went. He said he would rather take her than kiss her Goodbye. Bless his heart. Thanks Ruthie, for the refresher in proper Texas twang-talk. I lived there from age 5-7, an' I aint forgot it. Sue