Mush, Mush!

It's Friday. Yay, Friday! But that means I'm wiped out, and don't feel like cooking an 18-course meal. I looked in the freezer and everything looked too time-consuming (there is a pork roast in there that was tempting, but it's roughly the size of my leg), and there are only so many times you can feed your family cold cereal or sandwiches. So it's breakfast for dinner night! My daughter loves breakfast for dinner night. It cracks me up that it's the easiest meal but one of the favorites. Just like how my mom used to make fried mush when she needed something cheap and warm and filling, we had no idea that it was mush night because we were out of other groceries; we just knew we got to slosh maple syrup on something yummy and have sausages.

As much as I love doing things last minute, you CANNOT do this last-minute. If you try to fry fresh mush it will just spatter and spit and spread out in the pan and basically just totally disappear and you'll be really, really disappointed. Because OF COURSE I did that. But it's really easy - make a pot of mush, let it chill, slice it up and fry it. But start it the day before.

I used this recipe, from https://www.tastesoflizzyt.com/fried-mush/. You can use either cold water or milk mixed with the cornmeal to make a slurry (mmm slurry) to pour into the boiling water, which is how I like to do it, or just dump the dry ingredients into the boiling water. Either way, make sure you're stirring, because no one likes lumpy mush.

Ingredients

• 3 cups water
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 cup cold water or milk
• Salt to taste
• Butter or oil/grease (for frying)

Instructions

1. In a large saucepan, bring the water to a boil.
2. In a small bowl, mix together the cornmeal, cold water or milk and salt.
3. Slowly pour the cornmeal/milk mixture into the boiling water, stirring constantly.
4. Bring it to a boil again, then reduce heat and stir almost constantly for about 15 minutes or until the mixture is thickened to the consistency you like. (I find this too long - I usually cook it for like 5 minutes)
5. Pour this mixture into a lightly greased 9x5 loaf pan and allow it to cool to room temperature. (if using a non-stick pan, no need to grease, it will pop right out when
   

   

   cold - see?)
6. Once the cornmeal has cooled, cover it with plastic wrap and place the pan in the refrigerator overnight or until the mixture has become firm.
7. Remove the cornmeal loaf from the pan and slice it into 1/2" to 1" slices.
8. Heat the butter in a skillet over medium heat.
9. Once the pan is hot, add the slices and fry for 3-4 minutes on each side until they are golden brown and heated through. Watch them closely so they don't burn.
   Serve immediately with maple syrup.

I usually just slice the pieces like a regular loaf, but this recipe suggested these lovely smaller chunkers, which worked wayyyyy better; my slices pretty much always fell apart. And I only refrigerated this batch about 5 hours, it was just fine.
The other thing I did differently this time was to use my griddle, which I’m constantly forgetting about. Omg it worked GREAT, I didn’t really need any butter or oil or anything to fry them. But I may have nudged a little tiny bit of sausage grease their way.

And that’s it! I usually cook a couple eggs, maybe some breakfast potatoes to make this a full dinner meal. If you’re having a plate of fried, just make sure to take the dog for a walk or go for a swim or do something healthy after, so that you don’t feel guilty. I mean, so that you get in some healthy activity. And my dad would probably say to take a vitamin C. If your arteries clog after this meal please don’t sue me.

In my defense, I shared quite a bit of this with my dog. Not the onions though.