O.K., ya’ll, I just couldn’t resist this! I have a television on the kitchen counter and when I’m cooking I usually have the Food Network on. So I’m making country fried steak with cream gravy (that’s a post for another day – I make the best chicken fried steak ever – I got it from a cook in Dillard, Ga.). At any rate, I have Paula Deen on and she’s making a cheese grits casserole. paula oneAnd she starts cutting up an entire block of Velveeta and she doesn’t even apologize for it! She acts like it’s just the only kind of cheese you could use to mix in with grits and, of course, she’s absolutely right. So I grab my camera and I’m just praying that Paula goes really slow so I can get a shot of that block of cheese, but she goes right on without me and the best I could do was snap the grits pot topped with multiple thick slices of Velveeta.

paula twoSo after she mixes up her grits and cheese and garlic and egg and milk and pops them into a baking dish, she tops it with more cheese! But, as we all know, Velveeta is not a grating cheese and she has to resort to regular Cheddar. That’s alright. The girl’s trying.

Now here’s the curious part. I thought I’d just pass along her recipe to you because Paula Deen probably makes grits better than me, although I think I can hold my own in this category. Here’s her recipe. And the Velveeta has been replaced with regular Cheddar! What happened? Did the Food Network people shame her? Did she think folks in other parts of the country were unfamiliar with Velveeta. I don’t know, but I sure wish I had that photo of the block of Velveeta. It was pure and conclusive evidence.

paula threeAt any rate, here she is eating her grits casserole and it sure does look good. I love that Paula eats her own cooking and doesn’t push it around on a plate like Rachel Ray does.

Just remember when you make the recipe, substitute Velveeta for the chunks of Cheddar you mix into the grits. I promise you it will make all the difference in the world. And Paula knows that.

2 Comments

  1. Betsy Everett
    October 30, 2009 at 12:53 am

    This is just like when Paula makes things with Ritz crackers and she has to use another name for them. I think since she’s a big celebrity and on tv, she has to use generic terms in her published and publicized recipes. There is nothing like Velveeta, so she had to use”cheddar” in the recipe.

    Maybe it’s a legal thing, a money thing, or a network & publisher thing or all three.

  2. Terrell Jones
    Terrell JonesReply
    October 31, 2009 at 1:05 pm

    Any time you are ready I would love to have the chicken fried steak recipe. One of my favorites and the ones I have are not very good.

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