Shrimp + Grits

Several of my friends have encouraged me to get on Pinterest, and after much procrastination, I finally succumbed. I arrived at Kelly's Game Night excited to report of my internet savviness. But when I told Kelly and Traci that I'd joined "Pin Interest," instead of the congratulatory and "it's about time" sentiment I expected, I received a giggle. "Pin Interest, Kelley? You mean Pinterest, right?"

Rightttt...that's what I said.

Note to self (and all other uneducated readers): it's one word, pronounced "Pin.trest."

Apparently, the pronunciation of this site has been somewhat elusive to many a user, as is evidenced by my google search of "How do you pronounce Pinterest?" that yielded many a result. Vindication!

At any rate, now that I'm using it, I enjoy easily browsing through various boards and find many interesting things that would have remained undiscovered by yours truly. This recipe for Shrimp + Grits, for example. But beware! Just like Facebook (not The Facebook), a quick perusal can unexpectantly cause the loss of an hour of life that can never be recovered.

In my opinion, it should be quality over quantity my fellow pinners! What is the point of pinning 1000s of items without actually making the recipes, creating the craft projects, going to on the shopping trips, or reading the books? It's not about pinning -- it's about all that pinning leading to doing. That's what makes memories, after all. To that end, we shared this delicious dinner with our friends, Tommy + Jessa. Tommy said the it was better than the Shrimp + Grits at The Fourth Street Filling Station, and Jason said they were the best grits he'd ever had. If that doesn't make you want to get busy in the kitchen immediately, there's no hope for you ;)

As I mentioned above, I found this Shrimp + Grits Recipe on Epicurious via Pinterest. It's from the Sept. 2011 issue of Bon Appétit and was created by chefs Preston and Ginger Madson at Peels in NYC.

I adapted the recipe in several ways:

Grits
1. I used white corn grits instead of yellow corn grits.
2. Instead of one jalepeno in the grits, I used two.
3. I added 2 1/2 pieces of coarsely crumbled bacon to the grits.
4. The recipe calls for one cup of sharp white cheddar cheese; I used 8 ounces, which is technically one cup in weight but not in volume.

Shrimp + Sausage
5. Because Jason is allergic to shrimp I cooked them separately using a 1/4 cup chicken broth, 1/4 cup beer, and 2 cloves garlic.
6. Apparently, the Whole Foods in Winston-Salem only carried Tasso once year (boo!) so I used andouille sausage. I used about 2 cups to make up for the fact that Jason couldn't eat the shrimp. I browned the sausage in a skillet on high heat and then cut them into bite sized pieces. I drained most of the grease from the skillet and then sautéed 1/2 of a diced white onion and 8 large cremini mushrooms, sliced. I then added 1/2 cup beer, 1/2 cup chicken broth, 2 cloves garlic, and then it simmer for several minutes.
7. I skipped the extra tablespoon of butter altogether.
8. I substituted thyme for tarragon.

Egg
9. I fried my eggs over medium instead of sunny side up. Sunny side up presents better, but I don't like my whites runny. And given the fact that Tommy had never had a friend egg (!!), I suspect easing him into over-medium was the right way to go.

Pin it and Eat up!