cornmeal mush in the crockpot?

I am on another resurgence wave of frugality. It seems to come every few months. I research frugal ways online, hang around The Dollar Stretcher for info I might have missed, lurk the frugal living forums in my free time, and, of course, refresh my memory with one of my Tightwad Gazettes. No frugalite is truly dedicated unless they own The Tightwad Gazettes. You may think if you're a true frugalite, you would borrow them from the library. That would be my first inclination, too. But, trust me, you need to own them. I read them from front to back at least once a year, broken up into my random spurts of frugal intensity, and I always catch dozens of things I didn't catch on the last (several) readings.

Well, I was reading The Tightwad Gazette, Edition II, the other night, and Ms. Dacyczyn (pronounced "decision"), claimed that cornmeal mush for breakfast costs her 4 cents per serving. I quickly did the math on the cornmeal mush I was buying (Jaxon brand--my grandpa loves to tell the story about how he went to school with the Jaxon boy of local cornmeal mush fame), and realized this "cheap" food (at $1.09 per package) was costing me over 35 cents per serving! This, to my shame, was more than Ms. Dacyczyn pays for cold breakfast cereal, the epitome of spendthrift breakfast options.

So in my search for homemade cornmeal mush this morning, I came up with this:

Rub butter on the inside of a 3 quart crockpot (or spray with a cooking oil - olive oil spray works well for a more flavored italian polenta.) Sprinkle 2 cups of dry cornmeal into the bottom of the crockpot and 2 teaspoons salt. Stir in 7 cups of boiling hot water, stir until lump free. Cook on high for 2-3 hours or on low for 7-9 hours. No stirring required!

Pour into a buttered loaf pan and allow to cool completely. This firm loaf can be sliced and fried or made into a polenta lasagna.

(Quotes from Some Finer Things.)

I love my crockpot! It's a lazy housewife's dream. Now I'm off to let my crockpot work for me all day baking some black beans that I'll freeze tonight.

ETA: I just tried the finished & cooled cornmeal mush this morning. I cut it into thin slices & fried it in a generous amount of olive oil until both sides were brown. I ate it with a little local honey. It was so good. So, thumbs up for this recipe!