MONTEREY SAUSAGE PIE

I had this quite a while ago and used to make it for my boys. It really filled them up and is a delicious guilty pleasure. 

Ingredients:

• 1 pound Bulk Pork Sausage
• 3 teaspoons Minced Garlic
• 2-½ cups Shredded Monterey Jack Cheese, Divided
• 1-⅓ cup Milk
• 3 whole Eggs
• ¾ cups Biscuit/baking Mix
• ¾ teaspoons Rubbed Sage
• ¼ teaspoons Pepper

Directions

In a large skillet, cook the sausage over medium heat until meat is no longer pink. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Drain. Stir in 2 cups cheese. Transfer to a greased 9-inch deep-dish pie plate.

In a small bowl, combine the milk, eggs, biscuit mix, sage and pepper. Pour over sausage mixture.

Bake at 400°F for 20-25 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Sprinkle with remaining cheese; bake 1-2 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting.

 

Mana's Buttermilk Pancakes

A Saturday morning tradition. As she was blessed with grandchildren, they would demand her pancakes or waffles when visiting. And why not; they were delicious. Bisquick mix....yuck!

Stir well 1 t. Baking soda into 2 cup buttermilk. Add two beaten large eggs.

In large bowl, stir together well...
2 level cups flour
2 teaspoons Baking powder
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon Salt
(or 2 c. Self rising flour if you have it and leave off salt and baking powder)

Dump dry mix into buttermilk mixture. Add 2 T. Oil (or 2 T. Melted real butter).

Wisk just to mix well but don't over beat it or pancakes will be tough instead of tender. It will be a little lumpy. No problemo! For waffles the batter should be a little thicker, so not quite as much buttermilk. (Freeze extra waffles, after they are cooled off, in freezer bag and reheat in toaster oven).

I use a flat iron skillet and grease lightly with Pam or you can use a coconut oil. The pan should be hot but not smoking (med-hi). Pour 4" pancakes and watch it start to sizzle in the edges and little craters appear in top. That's when you flip. Brown other side. Add butter and you favorite syrup and/or fruit topping and dig in.

Optional Additions:
Gently fold into batter 1 c. Blueberries.
Or- sliced bananas and walnuts
Or- chocolate chips
Or- whatever!

These are also yummy cooked in a little hot bacon grease, but then again, what isn't better cooked that way!

Mana's Classic quiche Lorraine

Southern Sausage Gravy

How about putting a little south in your mouth! Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits & Southern Sausage Gravy. I don't think any dish can get anymore southern than that. Breakfast on the weekends was a big deal in our house. Saturdays was usually the day I made the big country breakfast. You know the choices eggs, toast, homemade biscuits (with spicy apple butter or homemade peach preserves), bacon, sausage or country ham (the salty kind), buttered grits and scratch gravy made with sausage or bacon (I'm partial to sausage). You gotta serve this over split piping hot homemade skillet buttermilk biscuits (you'll find the recipe in my blog).

Ingredients:
1 - 16 oz roll breakfast sausage - 8 oz works just as well
1/4 - cup flour
1 - cup water
1 - cup milk
salt and pepper to taste

Crumble and cook sausage in large skillet over medium heat until browned. If the sausage does not render enough drippings you can add 2-3 tablespoon of shortening or bacon grease. Stir in flour until dissolved (this makes a kind of roux). Mix the milk and water together and gradually stir in one cup of milk mixture to the sausage.

When the gravy starts to thicken add the remaining cup of milk mixture and continue stirring. Cook gravy until thick and bubbly. Season with salt and pepper.

NOTE:  A roux is a mixture of equal parts of oil, butter, or fat renderings and flour. The roux mixture is cooked at least three to five minutes over low heat to remove the raw flavor of the flour, then the liquid is added which thickens into the gravy. The roux method is least likely to produce lumpy gravy.

To make a roux gravy, the basic formula is 2 tablespoons fat, 2 tablespoons flour, and 1 cup of liquid to equal 1 cup of gravy. It's the bones of just about any gravy.