Pantry Essentials for the Holidays
With Thanksgiving and Christmas just around the corner, these are three simple pantry staples we're keeping close this holiday season: stone-ground yellow grits for feeding a crowd, fine-ground yellow cornmeal for incredibly tender cornbread and dressing, and a cookbook full of inspiration for everything in between.
This time of year has a way of making the kitchen the gathering place for friends and family for the entire holiday season. At McEwen & Sons, these are some of our favorite days of the year: time for family, great food, and really good grits. So, as we get ready for Thanksgiving and the Christmas season ahead, here are three holiday pantry staples we're loving at McEwen & Sons.
What Should You Keep in Your Kitchen This Holiday Season?
For us, a well-stocked Southern holiday pantry starts with ingredients that can do more than one job. You want something that can feed a house full of people for breakfast. Something for the cornbread that eventually becomes Thanksgiving dressing. And a little inspiration when you aren't sure what to cook next.
Our three picks this season are:
McEwen & Sons Stone-Ground Yellow Grits
McEwen & Sons Yellow Fine-Ground Cornmeal
Glorious Grits Cookbook
Good holiday cooking doesn't always require a pantry overflowing with specialty ingredients. Sometimes it starts with a handful of really good staples and knowing the best way to use them.
Stone-Ground Yellow Grits: Our Pick for Feeding a Crowd at Breakfast
Hosting friends and family this holiday seasons means a breakfast table ready to feed a crowd. Our stone-ground Yellow Grits are one of our favorite things to keep around when the house is full because a relatively small amount of dry grits cooks into a generous pot. A little goes a long way.
What Do Yellow Grits Taste Like?
Yellow grits have a fuller, more pronounced corn flavor than some of the milder varieties of grits. Ours have a beautiful golden color and the kind of hearty corn character that makes them delicious with nothing more than good butter, salt, and pepper. But they're also remarkably versatile. And during the holidays, versatility is always useful.
What Can You Serve With Grits for a Holiday Breakfast?
Put a big pot in the middle of the breakfast table and let everybody make them their own bowl.
Serve yellow grits alongside:
Bacon
Breakfast sausage
Country ham
Scrambled or fried eggs
Biscuits
Leftover Thanksgiving ham or turkey
You can also turn them into cheese grits, breakfast grit bowls, shrimp and grits, or serve them underneath sausage and gravy. One pot can go in a lot of different directions. That's why stone-ground yellow grits are one of our favorite breakfast staples when we're feeding a crowd.
Stone Ground Yellow Cornmeal: A Thanksgiving Pantry Essential
If yellow grits earn their place at the holiday breakfast table, our Stone Ground Yellow Cornmeal earns its place at Thanksgiving dinner. Why? Cornbread dressing. Good Southern cornbread dressing starts with good cornbread, and good cornbread starts with good cornmeal.
Our fine-ground yellow cornmeal has the texture we love for a classic skillet of cornbread, which makes it one of the products we especially like keeping on hand this time of year. Bake the cornbread in a hot cast-iron skillet and let it develop that beautiful golden crust, and you've got something worth eating on its own.
Or let it cool, crumble it up, and you're on your way to Thanksgiving dressing. Stay tuned for our McEwen & Sons Southern Cornbread Dressing recipe coming soon!
What Can You Make With Yellow Cornmeal for Thanksgiving?
Cornbread dressing may be the obvious answer, but fine-ground yellow cornmeal can earn its keep throughout the holiday season.
Use it to make:
Cast-iron cornbread for the Thanksgiving table
Southern cornbread dressing with celery, onion, sage, and good stock
Cornsticks alongside soup or stew
Hoe cakes for breakfast or brunch
Cornmeal-crusted vegetables
Spoonbread for a classic Southern side
Cornmeal pancakes for overnight guests
Cornmeal toppings for savory casseroles
It's simple, useful, and versatile. In other words, exactly what we want from a pantry staple.
What Is the Best Cornmeal for Cornbread Dressing?
We prefer to start with fine-ground cornmeal and make the cornbread ourselves. The reason is simple: the cornbread isn't just filler in dressing. It's the foundation of the dish. The flavor and texture you put into your skillet of cornbread eventually become the flavor and texture of the dressing you put on your Thanksgiving table. Starting with a good stone-ground cornmeal allows the corn itself to contribute real character to the finished dish.
Glorious Grits Cookbook: Inspiration for All Your Holiday Cooking
The last thing we're keeping close isn't technically a pantry ingredient. The Glorious Grits Cookbook is one of our favorite resources for seeing just how far a humble bag of grits can go. Because as much as we love a simple bowl of buttered grits for breakfast, grits certainly don't have to stay at the breakfast table. They can become appetizers, side dishes, entrées, grit cakes, casseroles, and the foundation for all kinds of Southern cooking.
How Can You Use Grits During the Holidays?
The holidays are a particularly good time to experiment because there are so many different meals to cook. There's breakfast when everybody wakes up. Lunch while you're preparing the big meal. The day-after-Thanksgiving brunch. Appetizers when friends come over. Christmas morning. And all those dinners in between.
The Glorious Grits Cookbook offers plenty of inspiration for putting grits to work throughout the season, including ideas for:
Cheese grits
Shrimp and grits
Grit cakes
Savory grits served with roasted meats
Southern appetizers
Comforting casseroles
Breakfast and brunch dishes
Classic Southern recipes
Pair the cookbook with a couple of bags of stone-ground grits, and it also makes a mighty good gift for somebody who enjoys spending time in the kitchen.
Why These Three Holiday Staples?
Because they're simple. And simple ingredients tend to be the ones we reach for again and again. Yellow grits can feed the whole family on a cold morning. Yellow cornmeal can become the cornbread—and eventually the dressing—on your Thanksgiving table. And the Glorious Grits cookbook gives you somewhere to turn when you're ready to make something new.
The holidays aren't really about making the fanciest meal you can manage. They're about getting everybody around the table. And we've found that having a few good staples in the pantry makes doing that a whole lot easier.
Stocking Your Pantry for Thanksgiving and Christmas
If you're getting the pantry ready for the holidays, start with the things you know you'll actually use. For us, that good grits, good cornmeal, and plenty of ideas for what to cook with all of it. Because pretty soon the house will be full of the ones you love the most, the cast iron will be hot, breakfast will need to be made, and your pantry will be equipped with all that it needs!
Our Stone-Ground Yellow Grits are milled in small batches using 100% certified organic corn to create the rich, buttery flavor and hearty texture. Naturally sweet and full of whole-grain goodness, these grits deliver true Southern character in every bowl. Whether you’re cooking a comforting breakfast or a classic shrimp and grits dinner, their depth of flavor and stone-ground quality make them a staple in any kitchen. These classic Southern grits have become one of our most popular products and a favorite among chefs from coast to coast.
Our Stone-Ground Yellow Cornmeal – Coarse Ground is made from certified organic yellow corn and stone-ground to a hearty, rustic texture. Its naturally golden color and slightly sweet, buttery corn flavor make it ideal for classic Southern breads, cornsticks, hushpuppies, and polenta-style dishes. The coarse grind delivers a bold, satisfying texture that holds up well in baked and fried dishes.
First printed in 2009, Glorious Grits is an excellently written cookbook by Susan McEwen McIntosh that features old-fashioned grits and shows how to turn them into new and sophisticated dishes. This cookbook includes recipes by professional chefs from across the country, as well as recipes developed by Susan herself. It is a wonderful piece of our history and the only guide to grits you will ever need.
Other key elements of Glorious Grits include:
100+ recipes for yellow, white and blue grits, cornmeal and polenta featuring fresh ingredients, step-by-step instructions and variations
Contributions from renowned Southern chefs including Frank Stitt, Bottega (Birmingham, Ala.); Mark Hibbs, Ratcliffe on the Green (Charlotte, N.C.); and Chris Hastings, Hot and Hot Fish Club (Birmingham, Ala.)
Chapters for Breakfast, Appetizers & Snacks, Breads, Main Dishes, Side Dishes and Desserts
Grits, Polenta & Cornmeal 101: An informative introduction to the grains—what they are, how to cook them and how to maximize their nutritional value
50+ full-color, mouthwatering photos
Updates on time-honored, beloved grits recipes such as Breakfast Grits and Sausage Casserole and Apple-and-Walnut Grits, as well as surprising and creative concoctions including Grits Jambalaya and Cranberry-Port Sauce over Cornmeal Pound Cake
