weekend breakfast

Disclaimer: The recipe you are about to read is not low fat. It is not low carb, gluten free or dairy free, and was created in a kitchen also used for peanut butter and jelly sandwich processing. While Biscuits and Gravy can provide relief from the doldrums of a gray, snowy Saturday morning, this recipe may not be right for everyone, and serious side effects may occur. Side effects include second helpings, need to wear elastic waist pants, and hardening of the arteries. Ask your doctor if Biscuits and Gravy are right for you.


I made these biscuits along with some basic but fabulous sausage gravy, and yeah, it was sort of worth every sticky-platelet bite. You really don't want to have this for breakfast every morning, and you really don't want to follow it up with a double cheeseburger and supersized fries for lunch, but hey - everything in moderation, right?

The biscuit recipe requires you to cut your butter into thin little slices, dump it into your bowl of dry ingredients, and then smoosh the butter into flat little flakes - this is critical to help create the flaky texture. This isn't hard, but it isn't going to happen quickly; it took me about 15 minutes just to get an entire stick of butter smooshed and flaked. It looked like this when it was done:



While I was smooshing, I was contemplating the fact that if you had a spare 15 minutes on a Thursday night, you could dump your butter in a bowl of plain flour, get it flaked, put it in a ziploc bag and freeze it for Saturday morning, and at that point biscuit prep would be a breeze.

The gravy, again, is a basic, base recipe. Some people like to add worcestershire sauce to their gravy, but I don't, I think that adulterates an otherwise beautiful thing. I use sage-flavored sausage; you might use italian or hot. Adjust the seasonings to accomodate your crowd. Add onions if the mood strikes you. Isn't cooking wonderful?

I didn't take a picture of the gravy because, well - while sausage gravy tastes fabulous, it looks... less than fabulous. So you're just going to have to take my word for it.

Sausage Gravy

1 lb. good quality bulk sausage
2 -3 T. bacon drippings or butter
6 T. flour
1 quart cold milk
salt
pepper
Tabasco sauce

Using a large shallow pan (12 inch skillet or electric skillet, for instance), brown sausage over medium high heat, breaking up into small bits. Add bacon grease or butter and allow to melt. Sprinkle flour over sausage, and stir until flour is slightly colored, 2-3 minutes. Slowly add milk, stirring constantly. Stir until gravy is thickened and bubbling, and then continue cooking for about another 5 minutes until gravy is slightly reduced and thickened. Remove from heat and add seasoning to taste. Let cool slightly (it will continue to thicken as it cools) and serve over biscuits.