Polenta

This is a very very - let me repeat it once more - very easy meal to make. My mom used to serve it to us kids and we hated it, but I love it now! It's essentially porridge. Gross sounding, I know, but it's all about what you put in it. It's just cornmeal and water, and it is the cheapest meal to make. It's also quite possibly the fast dinner to make considering you use the stove. No joke - you go from having nothing to dinner on the table in less than 5 minutes.

I'm posting this because I'm about to use it as a base for another recipe, but while I'm posting it at all, I might as well tell you how I eat it when I'm not making something 'fancy' to go on top. You can saute veggies to go on top, or just do what I do. Treat it like pasta, because really, that's all it is. So I smother mine with cheese and our favorite pasta sauce. Serve it with a big ole salad and there you have it. Dinner. Here is the recipe for 2 people (it keeps, but it's not always the greatest the second day - and since it's so easy to whip up, there's no use having old polenta when you can have hot, steamy, creamy new polenta, right?)

Polenta

• 1 cup cornmeal
• 2/3 cold water
• 2/3 t salt
• 2 3/4 cups boiling water

--Mix the cornmeal, salt, and cold water.
--Once your water is boiling, dump the cornmeal mix in, lower the heat, and stir like crazy until the lumps are out and the consistency is nice and thick.

that's it.  you're done and ready for toppings!