I made biscuits with sausage gravy for dinner tonight. I love biscuits and gravy, but will only eat my home cooked biscuits and gravy. Restaurant sausage gravy tends to be a tastless, floury mess with a couple of sausage patties cut-up and stirred into it. We used to eat biscuits and gravy all the time because they were a popular request for our Thursday night game parties when we lived in Springfield, but I hadn't made them since we moved, which is probably a good thing heathwise. I used to try to make my own biscuits because I hate the ones that come in the tubes in the refrigerated section of the grocery store, but I just use the Pilsbury frozen biscuits now. The method for the gravy is as follows:
Brown 1 lb of ground sausage, preferably a sausage with sage in it, in a large non-stick skillet. When the sausage is cooked add in 2-3 rounded spoonfuls of flour, stir this in and let cook for another minute or so. Add in enough milk, preferably whole milk, to cover the sausage and give you the gravy to sausage ratio that you prefer. Add salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a bubble and stir until the gravy starts to thicken. Remove from heat and let cool. The gravy will thicken up more as it cools. Pour over halved biscuits and enjoy!
In an effort to try to show Mara that there is more to the holiday season than getting gifts, we have been doing advent activities every day. Today's activity was to "bake a special christmas treat". Instead of keeping it simple, I decided we should make stollen (of course Mara decided that stollen wasn't much of a treat, so we ended up making cupcakes as well). Nevermind that I have never made stollen before and don't have much experience baking bread at all. I also decided that I should candy my own orange and lemon peel as I don't really like commercially candied fruits. I spent last night candying fruit and most of today working on the bread. The candied peel was really good, but I don't think that the bread came out very well. I think it ended up like most of my bread does, too dense and doughy, but I won't know for sure until we cut into it. Maybe one of these days I will learn my lesson and stick to easy recipes that I know I can make well.
Show us something sweet.
Submitted by Gina Argentina.
Do you keep a journal or diary? How often do you write in it?
Submitted by Kim.
I have tried on numerous occasions to keep a diary. I don't really have the discipline for it and end up deciding my life is too boring to chronicle anyway, so I quit. My 92 year old grandmother has kept a daily diary all of her adult life and she still has all of them. A couple of years ago she made a cookbook of all of her favorite recipes for her grandchildren for christmas. My favorite part of the cookbook is the great little notes that accompany many of the recipes, like "Aunt Fern brought this jello salad to christmas dinner in 1965" or "I made this dish to ring in the new year of 1972". I'm assuming that she came up with some of those dates by looking through old copies of her diary, and I think that maybe I should try the diary thing again.
What's your favorite Thanksgiving dish?
Submitted by Brennan.
I don't think I could pick a favorite. However, my family's big traditional it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without dish is oyster dressing. We are spending Thanksgiving with Dave's family so I won't have oyster dressing this year, but I'm going to try to convince Mom that it wouldn't be sacrilegious to have it at Christmas. This is mostly because it struck me the other day that Mom doesn't have a recipe written down for it, and I don't know how to make it, so I want her to teach me how it's made.
Show us why you love the city you live in.
Submitted by meg.
I tend to get on kicks where I'll use one particular type of herb or spice in almost all of my cooking. For a long time it was rosemary, but lately it has been dill. When I was flipping through my family reunion cookbook recently I noticed that my grandmother's dill dip recipe was included. I loved this dip as a kid. Grandma would make it in the summer and take it to the lake and my cousin and I would eat it on chips or raw vegetables. She would also make it in the winter and put it in a hollowed out bread round with cubes of different varieties of bread to dip in it. I haven't had grandma's dill dip in years, so this afternoon I made up a half batch of it and have been dipping triscuts in it. It's definitely as good as I remember it being.
Dill Dip:
2 C. Mayo
2 C. Sour Cream
2 Tbsp dill weed
2 Tbsp parsley flakes
2 Tbsp chopped dehydrated onions
2 tsp seasoned salt
Mix well. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.
What food or drink do you love when it's cold out? (Recipes and recommendations, please!)
Whenever the weather turns chilly, my mom brews up a big batch of hot spiced tea. She and I have spent many an afternoon or evening sipping hot spiced tea and chatting. I have already warned her that I am expecting her to make a big batch when she comes to visit next month.
Hot Spiced Tea
Mix 3 3/4 quarts water and 2 cups of sugar in a large pot and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to low and add: 1/2 cup lemon juice, 1 cup orange juice, 1 1/2 teaspoons whole cloves, 4 sticks cinnamon broken into peices, 2 regular or 1 family sized tea bag(s).
Let steep over low heat for around 20 minutes. Store in a cool place, will keep for about a week. Reheat to serve.
In case you have forgotten what to do with wet wipes:
