Baking Powder Biscuits

Since a couple of you asked for a biscuit recipe to go along with the sausage gravy, I'm obligin' by giving you the one I've used for many years. Now I've been making biscuits since I was knee-high to a grasshopper but this is the best recipe I've ever come across. It's from a cookbook my sister gave me that is my favorite. It's the one cookbook that went to Uganda with me and it was the only one I packed in the suitcase to come here (all the other cookbooks took the slow boat to China Argentina).

The Home-Cooking Sampler: Family Favorites From A to Z is out of print but you can pick up a used copy. I checked amazon.com first and Oh.My.Word! the cheapest used copy was $97.63. Good grief! Then I found the site I've linked to where it's only $15.24. I guess all those folks selling their copy on amazon know the true value of The Sampler :-)

Because, people, Every.Single.Recipe.I've.Ever.Tried.Has.Been.Fantastic! Many of the recipes I've shared on my blog have been from this cookbook. It's falling apart and the pages are stained with vanilla or spaghetti sauce or gunked up flour (the biscuit page).

This is a tried-and-true recipe and it's really not hard to make, requires few ingredients, and...well, you just can't compare homemade biscuits to those in the little round tins in the cooler section of the grocery store. Or even the bags from the freezer section. That's like comparing apples to oranges.

But I'm gonna let you in on a few "secrets" that no recipe will be able to teach you. First of all, you really, really need a pastry blender. Don't know what that is? It's a handy-dandy kitchen tool that allows you to easily incorporate the butter into the dry ingredients so you end up with a light, fluffy creation. I have used a large fork in the absence of a pastry blender, but it doesn't do the job as well. You can pick one up for $5-10 at any store that carries basic kitchen utensils.

But even more importantly, biscuits require a "light hand" and by that I mean you want to work the dough as little as possible. Once I add the wet to the dry ingredients, I mix just until the dry is incorporated. AND THEN I STOP. Over-beating is a common mistake and one I don't want you to make.

BAKING POWDER BISCUITS
1-3/4 cups flour
1/4 cup cornstarch (or just use 2 cups of White Lily flour if you're fortunate to live in the South and have access)
4 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 Tablespoons butter
3/4 cup milk, approximately
melted butter for brushing on the tops

Preheat oven to 425°. Lightly grease heavy baking sheet (I actually don't do this).
In a bowl sift together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt. Cut in butter until well incorporated.
Gradually add milk, mixing very lightly. Now at this point I get a clean linen towel ready on the counter, dust liberally with flour and spoon the gooey biscuit mixture onto it. I flour my hands and gently, GENTLY PEOPLE, form the dough into a circle about 8" across.
You can use whatever you like to cut out the biscuits. I had a small wine glass picked up at a garage sale because it was the perfect size for cutting biscuits. I dipped it in flour between each "cut". This last time I didn't cut them into circles at all. I just dipped a sharp knife in flour and cut the circle into 8 pie shaped wedges and baked 'em. Looked more like scones, but who cares?
Brush with melted butter. Place pan on middle rack of the oven and reduce immediately to 400°. Bake until very lightly browned, about 15-18 minutes.

Sausage Gravy

Being from the south, gravy is considered one of the major food groups. We like to put gravy over just about everything. Oh y'all from other parts of the country may call it sauce or some such, but it's just gravy in one of its many forms. You can have white gravy, brown gravy, red eye gravy, pepper gravy, and my all-time-favorite, sausage gravy. Which is really just white gravy with sausage, but keep that under your hats, 'kay?

When I signed on to be a missionary, it was with the understandin' I wouldn't have to give up my gravy. And because a dear friend gave me her amazing recipe for homemade breakfast sausage, I can have some of the best biscuits and sausage gravy anywhere in the world. And you can, too, 'cause I'm gonna share it with you.

Now I realize y'all have access to some mighty fine sausage right at the local Winn Dixie. I'm not exactly a sausage snob but I do like Jimmy Dean for that right amount of fat and seasoning which is absolutely essential to a good gravy base.

HOMEMADE BREAKFAST SAUSAGE
1-1/2 lb. ground pork (or you can mix it up with 1 lb. ground pork, 1/2 lb. ground beef/veal/venison)
1/2 teaspoon ground thyme
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground sage
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dried sweet marjoram
1/8 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon salt (I use coarse salt)
Simply add seasonings to meat and mix together well, forming patties to fry.
NOTE: If you use really lean meat, you will have to add oil to the skillet or it will stick. Having the butcher grind a little fat into the ground meat is a good idea in terms of both flavor and the need for fat to make gravy.

SAUSAGE GRAVY
1 lb. breakfast sausage (homemade or store bought)
butter as needed
2-3 tablespoons flour
2-3 cups milk
salt and pepper to season
As you can tell, this is not an exact science. I fry up the sausage until it's done, then move it to a platter while I make the gravy and then I crumble up the patties and mix them back in.
To make the gravy you need to make sure you have a few tablespoons of grease in the pan. If the sausage was too lean, you'll need to add butter to make up the deficit. Once it's melted, add the flour. And as to how much flour? That depends on how much grease. You want to make a roux with the flour and grease that is thick but not impossibly so. And you want to stir that constantly for 3-4 minutes over the medium heat so that it starts browning just a little but not burning. Take the skillet off the burner for a minute and add in the milk. Again, this is a by-the-seat-of-your-pants skill that you learn as you go. If you added about 2 tablespoons of flour, you can figure on adding 2 to 2-1/2 cups milk, if you added more flour, it will take more milk. What you want to end up with is a gravy that's not runny but isn't so thick you have to cut it either.
Once you have the gravy to the right consistency, add the crumbled sausage back in, and season as you like with salt and pepper. And for goodness sakes, enjoy over steaming hot biscuits for the best breakfast in the world!

Baked Oatmeal

Years ago I came across a recipe for baked oatmeal in an Amish cookbook. In the original recipe, sliced apples were layered on the bottom of the pan over melted butter and brown sugar sprinkled on top before spreading out the oatmeal batter. It created this giant oatmeal cookie but with a wonderful gooey apple bottom. LOVED it!

Than came the sad day when I got up to make this for breakfast and there were no apples in the house! *gasp* Forgetting the breakfast plan, we'd munched down on all the apples with popcorn the night before.

So what's a cook to do? Improvise of course. The sad truth was we had no fruit of any kind in the house. BUT we did have chocolate chips.

A new and grander tradition was born! If I even thought of making it any other way after that, there was a mutiny. So I present The Goodness of Baked Oatmeal that is like a Giant Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie. Yet another vehicle for the chocolate that is my friend :-)

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter (or substitute oil)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a large bowl, mix together oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, salt and chocolate chips. In a smaller bowl, beat together the milk, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla extract. Mix wet and dry ingredients together just until blended. Spread into a 9x13 inch baking dish that you've sprayed lightly with oil.
Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes.

I always served this with a pitcher of warm milk to pour over the oatmeal. Some of us like a lot of milk, others not so much. There is no right or wrong way to serve it. Let everyone doctor it up as they like.

Apple Puff Pancake

Twice in the past week I've served this dish that's so easy and so fast to make, I'm sure it will become a favorite at your house too!

And because both times I was asked for the recipe, which required some translation (i.e., chewing of nails, looking in bilinguial dictionary, asking the hubby for help and finally having my Spanish tutor proof it -- Thanks Marcela!), I'm sharing it in English AND Spanish!

Apple Puff Pancake
3-4 apples
2-3 T. butter
1/3 c. brown sugar
6 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1/2 t. vanilla
2-3 T. powdered sugar
Cook peeled and sliced apples in butter in a large skillet (I use my cast iron skillet but you can use any kind) until apples are soft. Add brown sugar and stir for one more minute, then take off heat.
Beat together the eggs, milk, flour and vanilla until well mixed. Pour over apple mixture and bake at 350° for 20-30 minutes. I know that's a wide range of time but it depends on your oven and skillet. When it has puffed up the sides and turned golden brown, it's done.
Remove from oven, let sit for 5 minutes (the hardest part!), dust with powdered sugar. Slice and eat.

Tarta de Manzana
3-4 manzanas
25 g. manteca
1/3 taza azúcar negra
6 huevos
1 taza harina
1 taza leche
1/2 cucharadita esencia de vainilla
azúcar impalpable
Pelar y cortar en rodajas las manzanas. Cocer en manteca en una sartén grande hasta que esté blanda. Agregar azúcar negra y cocer un minuto.
Batir los huevos, la harina, la leche y la vainilla hasta que tenga consistencia uniforme. Vertir sobre las manzanas. Cocer al horno a 180°C por 20-30 minutos.
Remover del horno y espolvorear con azúcar impalpable.

I'm not much of an apple snob when it comes to cooking with them. I'll use whatever is on hand. Now for eating out of hand, nothing beats a good Honey Crisp. Unfortunately that variety has not made its way this far south yet. So y'all eat a few for me, okay?

Summer Stuffed Tomatoes

Is there anything more wondrous than a sun ripened tomato fresh off the vine? During the season we have tomatoes at almost every meal, including breakfast. Summer Stuffed Tomatoes is a great way to use those large beef steak tomatoes!

SUMMER STUFFED TOMATOES
Remove small slice across top of stem end of LARGE, FIRM, RIPE TOMATOES. Carefully scoop out most of the pulp of tomatoes, leaving shells intact.
Combine chopped pulp with:
1 cup chopped, cooked, cold chicken
1 chopped celery stick
1 teaspoon minced onion (I usually add more)
2 Tablespoons chopped green pepper
2 chopped hard-cooked eggs
2 teaspoons prepared mustard
Enough mayonnaise to moisten and bind ingredients together.
Refill tomato shells with mixtures. Chill. Serve cold.
[Note: Tuna can be substituted for chicken.]

Fettucini Alfredo

I am a fan of the pasta and this recipe has become the fall-back meal when in a hurry, in need of comfort food, or just a crazy bad craving for cheese. Oh, and this is definitely NOT a low-cal recipe! But it is quick, easy, yummy, and uses only four ingredients (not counting salt and pepper).

FETTUCINI ALFREDO
1 lb. fettucini
3 Tablespoons butter
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup shredded fresh parmesan (or asiago or romano or any other sharp, salty hard cheese)
salt and pepper to taste
Cook pasta according to directions. While it is cooking melt butter over very low heat and beat heavy whipping cream with electric mixer until stiff. Fold whipped cream into melted butter and over low heat bring it to a very light simmer (WARNING: DO NOT BOIL!!!). After draining pasta, put back into pan and toss with butter and cream mixture and shredded cheese. Salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy creamy, cheesy goodness!

Chimichurri

In Argentina grilling is a huge part of the culture. It is called "asado" and the predominant meat being grilled is beef. Of which they grill about every part and that could lead to some amount of squeamishness, but my policy is "don't ask, don't tell".

Here in the U.S. we grill beef, pork, chicken, fish... We have found that chimichurri, a typical and very delicious Argentine condiment for beef, compliments ANY MEAT. It's full of garlicky goodness and as one person online described it, "...it's like dragging your steak through the garden!"

Not hard to make, amazingly delicious. You can thank me later :-)

You can either put it right onto the meat (the preferred method at our house) or off to the side for dipping. Some like to marinate their meat in chimi before grilling. We don't but that's certainly an option.

The great thing about chimi (as we call it), is that you can make a big batch and it will keep in the fridge for weeks. Beause of the oil, you'll need to either get it out in time to come to room temperature, or if you're like us and never remember stuff like that, you can just warm it quickly in the microwave or set the container into a bowl of hot water for a while.

Once you've had chimi you'll never go back to A-1 steak sauce again!

CHIMICHURRI
* 1 bunch flat leaf parsley
* 8 cloves garlic, minced
* 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
* 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
* 2 tablespoons of lemon juice (fresh or bottled)
* 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
* 1 teaspoon black pepper
* 1 teaspoon salt

Finely chop entire bunch of parsley, add remaining ingredients and mix well.