No Holes Barred Shrimp, Sausage and Grits

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Alrighty...before we give you this next recipe, we are going to tell you straight up...We do not want to hear from any health food gurus telling us how seriously bad it is. We know that. It is bad...so bad you will want to punish yourself for eating it! But don't! Just enjoy it and promise to do better tomorrow. We do not recommend making this dish once a week or even once a month, but once a year, if you want to pull out all the stops and assuming you have been squeaky clean the rest of the year, we say go for it. And remember, we just gave you a recipe for kale slaw, so don't judge us too harshly! What is it? Shrimp, sausage and grits and it hits all the danger notes: bacon, butter, cream and sausage. Seriously, can it get any worse? And, yes, we thought about lightening it up, but since we had never before attempted shrimp and grits on our own, we decided to go full throttle and try it with all the flavor and fat. Maybe next time we will try to come up with a lighter version, but for now this is it...No Holes Barred Shrimp, Sausage and Grits. Oh, and lest we look bad all by ourselves, you should know that our sweet friend, Deborah G., inspired this recipe and she is one of the healthiest people we know. She truly knows how to balance her life and this is one example. Recently at a beautiful brunch at her home, she created a wonderful grits bar with all kinds of toppings and one of the toppings was a tomato gravy with Andouille sausage. It was divine and the inspiration for this recipe. Try it (just once) and let us know what you think.

Here's what you will need:

1 lb. large fresh shrimp, peeled, deveined and grilled
1 lb. Andouille or smoked Conecuh sausage
2 cans fire roasted tomatoes
6 slices of bacon, chopped into pieces
1 small onion, diced
2 T. flour
3 cups beef broth
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 c. heavy whipping cream

For the grits:
1 c. quick grits
4 c. water
1 stick butter
1 t. salt
1/2 c. heavy whipping cream


Brown the bacon and sausage in a large Dutch oven. Remove the bacon and sausage when the bacon is browned and completely cooked. Drain on paper towels to remove excess grease. Pour all of the grease out of the pot except for 2 tablespoons. Add the diced onion to the pot and cook until the onion becomes translucent. Stir in the 2 tablespoons of flour. Put the bacon and sausage back in the pan along with the tomatoes and beef broth. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the sauce thickens slightly. Then add whipping cream, grilled shrimp, salt and pepper. Serve over creamy grits.

Grits:
Slowly cook 1 c. grits in 4 c. salted water until grits are thick and creamy. Add butter and whipping cream and stir well.