Sausage Gravy over biscuits

Yep....you read it right. I flew right off the handle and straight into the loving land of Comfort Food. I guess I am stressing about a few things and just needed the comfort of my mother's cooking. Sausage gravy was something my mother made frequently. Sometimes she even made it with plain old hamburger. It depended only on what was on sale or how much money she had for groceries that week.

Sausage gravy:

(2) rolls of mild sausage gravy (the kind you slice into patties)
Fresh ground black pepper
Almost room temperature whole milk (if you are going to cheat, do it right!)
Flour


Instead of cutting the sausage into patties, I just squeezed the tubes out into a large, deep pan and crumbled and fried it until nice and done and lightly brown. Liberally pepper the sausage as you fry it. When it is done move it out of the pan to a plate.  The remaining drippings left in the pan - you decide how much you want to use.  I did not drain any of it as I wanted all the flavor. I added approximately 1/2 cup of flour into the drippings and stirred well to make a light brown roux.  Slowly stir in the milk.  I used almost 2/3rd's of the gallon of whole milk. I keep it over medium heat and keep stirring until it starts to thicken up. At this point I add my cooked sausage back into the pan.

As I am standing in my kitchen and stirring I start to get rather melancholy.  I realize as I stand here by myself that my children won't really know how to make these recipes that are so dear to my heart.  They won't know what it is like to stand in the kitchen with my mother and learn the old ways. Sometimes I think this blog will end up being the only way they will ever know how to make the comfort food that I used to make for them after I am gone.  But then in walks a hungry teenager asking if dinner is almost ready and I snap out of my sorrowful state and get back to the business at hand!

The gravy thickens up nicely and I call everyone to the table.  Nothing like breakfast for dinner! We pour our sweet, milky comforting sausage gravy over flaky biscuits and enjoy.

 I love sit-down dinners with my husband and my kids.  I hope some day they do the same thing with their families, whether they have children or not.  Dinner should be eaten together, at the table, thanks given to God and laughs and stories of the day shared.  Reminds me of the words that I try very hard to live by:  In ALL things give thanks.  Thank you Jesus for my family and my life.

Red Beans and Rice

Okay....right out of the box I will admit this is not the best picture I could have taken.  It is dark.  That is because instead of taking it with my awesome camera, I took it with my yucky phone that does not have a flash.  BUT in my defense, teenagers were hovering and I knew if I did not snap a picture soon that it would be gone.

This was tonight's dinner.  I was sad.  I was not sure what to do but I knew I needed to make dinner.  I leaned back to my favorite and busted out the rice.  As the rice boiled away nicely, I chopped up two medium sized sweet onions and about eight cloves of garlic.  I threw the onions and garlic into my large skillet with some olive oil to get all soft and yummy.  While the onions got tender I chopped up a large package of Andouille sausage.  I added this to the pan.  Of course, the next item to hit the pan was some of my favorite Soul Seasoning and then the Chipotle chili powder. I really love this stuff and it is worth every penny!

Next I added a rinsed can of red kidney beans.  Rice was finished so it was dumped next into my large skillet where the onions, garlic and sausage were cooking.  I mixed it well and through in a healthy dose of Kitchen Bouquet and stirred well.

Now, I know that the above is not some Cajun secret recipe for red beans and rice.  It was mostly just me doing what I do best:  going into the kitchen and throwing stuff into a pot and making dinner!

It turned out well!! And, quite frankly, I don't think I have ever tasted authentic red beans and rice anyway!

Meatloaf two ways

Tonight my sweet husband requested meatloaf.  I had not made it in quite some time!  Most of my family does not like it with the ketchup baked on top but that is my favorite! I decided to accommodate both of us!

The meatloaves started out with the same basic ingredients.  I went to Harris Teeter today and purchased approximately three pounds of a meatloaf mixture:  ground chuck (poor chuck), ground veal and ground pork.  To this mixture I added two chopped sweet onions, one full sleeve of saltine crackers that I had crushed (great stress reliever!) and two raw eggs (cracked, shells discarded of course!).  I also added some freshly ground sea salt and black pepper, Soul Seasoning and garlic powder.  I mixed it together with the two BEST utensils God gave us (my hands). 

After the meatloaf was mixed well, I made four medium sized loaves into two pans.  To two of  the loaves, I poured on the ketchup! I love ketchup baked on my meatloaf! The other two I added two strips of uncooked turkey bacon to the top.  Into a 350 degree oven for approximately 45 minutes they went!

While the meatloaf baked, I peeled potatoes and made mashed potatoes (or as I call them:  mash-a-taters) and also made some mixed veggies.  

Tonight's dinner had to feed two adults and five teenagers.  Fortunately, there was enough.  I am grateful that God has blessed me with so much.  May I never take it for granted.

Time to go do some laundry so that I can be respectable for church tomorrow! Make sure you say your prayers and get ready and go! Do not forsake your fellowship needs!

Talk to you soon!! :)  

PS...I would love to hear from you! I know I have quite a few readers that are not in America.  Please let me know what you think and if you have any recipes to share. I can't wait to hear from you!

Chili....really quick!

Last night I was smart and sorted through a rather large bag of pinto beans, got out all the rocks, rinsed them and put them in my crock pot (turned off) to soak all night.  Even smarter, I remembered them this morning! Rinsed them off again, put them back in the crock pot and this time turned it on at the 8 hour setting and went to work!

When I got home at 4:00 today I was greeted with a large pot of pintos that were soft and yummy.  I put in a stick of butter and let that melt.  While this was melting, in a separate pot on the stove I put in a pound of ground chuck (poor chuck) and an onion, chopped to cook.  I also added about four cloves of garlic, smashed and minced.  Once the chuck (poor chuck) was done, I added two small cans of Hunt's Tomato paste and some of the liquid from my crock pot of pintos.  I also added chili powder and my very favorite chipoltle chili powder, more beans and liquid from the crock pot and one can of V-8 tomato/veggie juice. 

This has blended into a very flavorful, tomato-ey chili.  While it simmers on the stove and deepens in flavor, I threw in a batch of cornbread.  All of this delicious food is heading to the nursing home.  I know my sweet momma and  Uncle Buck will enjoy the homemade food.  Well....not ALL of it is going.  I have to feed teenagers and the hubs too!  It was fast and it is healthy and that makes me a happy mom!

Desperation Dinner

Last night I was in desperate straights.  I have been working so hard and been so busy I have not had time to shop for groceries!  As I looked at my almost bare cupboards, I knew that I could not ask the natives to eat another sandwich but I was just too tired to go to the store. 

I spied a can of peach pie filling I had picked up on a whim one day then forgot about it.  Inspiration hit! I would make Stuffed French toast.  Thank you God so much that I had enough bread to do it.  I just was not so sure about the stuffed part as I do not have a sandwich grill press thingy! (I know, so technical).

I made four pieces at a time and layered the peach pie filling (that I had heated in the microwave so it would be good and warm) between each piece of bread.  I sprinkled some powdered sugar on top and served it with some Cinnamon Vanilla syrup.  Nick and Paulina loved it and I was happy that they had a hot meal for dinner. 

Knowing Billieanne does not like peaches, I altered the recipe for her.  Instead of peach french toast, I made a brand new egg batter with Eggnog and dipped her bread in that. I also topped hers with some powdered sugar and served with the same syrup.  She loved it! That girl loves anything eggnog!!

I was not able to shop today either.  I ended up working 11 hours.  God bless my husband.  He took them to their favorite spot, Taco Bell.  He is a good man.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Hurricane Sandy and Monday's dinner

Today is Monday, August 29th.  Hurricane Sandy has been blustering and showing off since yesterday.  She has been a naughty girl, that Sandy!  We are safe and dry here in Virginia.  We have not yet lost power (thank you God) and so far even though our canal has turned into a river, we have not had a flooded house or vehicles.

Instead of the usual three teenagers tonight, I had four.  I needed a way to make dinner stretch.  My initial thought was to make scallopped potatoes and fried chicken.  I decided against it as I just did not feel like standing at the stove for a long time.  I had already sliced the potatoes thin.  That is when it came to me to do a variation of the Hobo dinner I made a few weeks ago.

Step one:  slice potatoes thin and put in the bottom of the roasting pan.

Step two:  rough chop an onion and put it on top of the taters.

Step three:  layer chicken breast on top

Step four:  sprinkle liberally with Soul Seasoning and a little bit of Chipoltle chili powder.

Step five:  Add one can of chicken broth

Step six:  Cover with aluminum foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for one hour.

It was very good.  The only problems I encountered with this were the following:

1.  I used very thin cut chicken breasts and an hour in the oven is a little too long for them.  The got a little tough.  I might should have put them under the potatoes?

2.  It was kind of bland.  It needed a little more "oomph".  I wanted to put carrots in it but I did not have any and because of the storm, I could not go to the store.

3.  I think next time I will use regular chicken breasts and not the thin ones.  I might even add some cream of chicken soup or whip up a bechemel cheese sauce for it.

If you have any suggestions, let me know.  I would love some help! 

I pray you are all safe and dry! Take care in this storm and in the everyday of things.
In all things give thanks!!

Hog on a Dog

Tonight was another night I did not want to go to the grocery store.  I stepped into the kitchen and do what I do best:  create!  Here is what I started with:

The hot dogs and bacon were in my freezer.  I put them in the sink in hot water to help thaw them out quickly.  The crescent rolls were on hand as well although honestly I would have preferred using canned biscuits.

Fry the bacon until good and crispy.  Remove from pan and drain on a paper towel.  Turn the heat down a few (don't smoke up your kitchen!)

Cut about (8) hot dogs first in half then in half again lengthwise.

Add them to the pan in the bacon grease and fry for just a few minutes to heat through.  Remove to a paper towel to drain.  Open the crescent rolls (preheat oven to 375 degrees) and separate. 

Lay 1/3 of a slice of American cheese lengthwise on the rolled out crescent dough.

Add a slice of hot dog and some of the crispy bacon ontop of the cheese and dough and then roll it all up and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake in the oven for about 12 - 14 minutes. I actually put them too close together and some of the sides when they expanded stayed a little big doughy.  They need to have room to spread out and turn brown.  Overall it was a little weird but when feeding teenagers, weird can be okay.

I served it with baked beans with my leftover hotdogs and bacon that I did not use.  It is not "Iron Chef" worthy but it did the trick for tonight.  It definately was not a favorite of mine or Breezy but it was fun and creative.  I think I would have liked some barbeque sauce added in before baking.  And please, don't anyone hit me because I used so much bacon and bacon fat.  I was DEFINATELY not going for low calorie!

Are you brave enough to try it?

It doesn't always have to fancy, sometimes it just needs to be QUICK!

It's Monday! I was tired after a stressful day of work and then running around grabbing children from their school activities.  I was also HUNGRY!!  What to fix?

I chopped an onion and threw it in a skillet with garlic and ground chuck (poor chuck)!

I pre-heated the oven to 350 degrees while browning the chuck (poor chuck).

In a separate bowl I mixed one standard size can of Cream of Mushroom soup with a soup can of milk.

When the hamburger was done I mixed it with the soup mixture and put in the bottom of a 9" x 13" glass pan.  After spreading that in the bottom, I put a layer of jalapeno jack cheese slices over it all.  I then put a layer of frozen tater tots over all of it.

I baked it in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.  After 20 minutes I sprinkled some shredded cheddar cheese over the top and put it back in the oven for 10 more minutes.

This is what it looked like (after I had already dipped some out).  We all liked it and it must have been good as evidenced by the next picture.....

It's all gone!!!  It was quick and it was good.  It certainly was not very low calorie! Stuff like this feeds teenagers really well!! I am sure I will make it again!