A man's breakfast

So one of my favorite foods is biscuits and gravy. So for my new post, I decided to try and make them. I used a recipe from foodday, so of course its gonna be good. Savory Sausage Gravy Makes about 6 cups 1 teaspoon vegetable oil 1 large onion, minced 1 pound bulk breakfast sausage 2 tablespoons unsalted butter .5 cup all-purpose flour 2 cups whipping cream, at room temperature .333 cups water 2 cups whole milk, at room temperature 1.5 tsp sea salt .5 tsp freshly ground black pepper 2 tsp finely chopped sage Heat the vegetable oil in a large (3- to 4 quart) saucepan over mediu heat. Add oion and cook until translucent. Add sausage and cook until browned, breaking it into chunks with the back of a spoon. Reduce heat to low. If desired, drain excess grease. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium low heat. Slowly add the flour, stirring until a smooth paste forms. This is your roux. Continue cooking, stirring very often, until light brown, abo9ut 10-15 minutes. (If the roux becomes too thick or clumpy, stir in a splash of cream.) Add .333 cup water to the sausage. Increase the heat to medioum- high. When the mixture reaches a simmer, stir in the roux a little at a time. Reduce heat to medium and slowly add the cream and milk. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring frequently, until gravy reaches deisred thickness . Add the salt, black pepper, and sage and serve immediately. Leftover gravy can frozen for up to four months. Flaky Buttermilk Biscuts Makes 9 (3 inch) biscutis 8 Tbs butter (divided) 2 cups all-purpose flour 2 tsp baking powder .25 tsp baking soda .5 tsp salt .75 cup buttermilk Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Melt 4 tablespoons butter in n 8 or 9 inch square baking pan. Set aside. Sift together, flour baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut in remaining 4 Tbs butter with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add buttermilk all at once. Stir only to moisten and until dough is free from sides of bowl. Knead gently 10 to 12 folds. Use a light hand in kneading. Do not over knead or biscuits will be tough. Roll or pat out at least 1 inch thick. Cut with a 2- or 3- inch cutter that has been dipped in flour. Place biscuits in the baking pan iwth the melted butter; turn biscuits over so both sides are coated. Place close together in baking pan. Bake 12 to 15 minutes. Serve immediately. So I made both of the two dishes, and they were pretty good. For the biscuits, one of the suggestions is to use a tablespoon of sugar and mix it with the other dry ingredients.So one of my favorite foods is biscuits and gravy. So for my new post, I decided to try and make them. I used a recipe from foodday, so of course its gonna be good.

Savory Sausage Gravy
Makes about 6 cups
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 large onion, minced
1 pound bulk breakfast sausage
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
.5 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups whipping cream, at room temperature
.333 cups water
2 cups whole milk, at room temperature
1.5 tsp sea salt
.5 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp finely chopped sage

Heat the vegetable oil in a large (3- to 4 quart) saucepan over mediu heat. Add oion and cook until translucent. Add sausage and cook until browned, breaking it into chunks with the back of a spoon. Reduce heat to low. If desired, drain excess grease.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium low heat. Slowly add the flour, stirring until a smooth paste forms. This is your roux. Continue cooking, stirring very often, until light brown, abo9ut 10-15 minutes. (If the roux becomes too thick or clumpy, stir in a splash of cream.)
Add .333 cup water to the sausage. Increase the heat to medioum- high. When the mixture reaches a simmer, stir in the roux a little at a time. Reduce heat to medium and slowly add the cream and milk. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring frequently, until gravy reaches deisred thickness . Add the salt, black pepper, and sage and serve immediately. Leftover gravy can frozen for up to four months.

Flaky Buttermilk Biscuts
Makes 9 (3 inch) biscutis

8 Tbs butter (divided)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
.25 tsp baking soda
.5 tsp salt
.75 cup buttermilk
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Melt 4 tablespoons butter in n 8 or 9 inch square baking pan. Set aside.
Sift together, flour baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut in remaining 4 Tbs butter with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.
Make a well in the dry ingredients and add buttermilk all at once. Stir only to moisten and until dough is free from sides of bowl.
Knead gently 10 to 12 folds. Use a light hand in kneading. Do not over knead or biscuits will be tough.
Roll or pat out at least 1 inch thick. Cut with a 2- or 3- inch cutter that has been dipped in flour. Place biscuits in the baking pan iwth the melted butter; turn biscuits over so both sides are coated. Place close together in baking pan. Bake 12 to 15 minutes. Serve immediately.

So I made both of the two dishes, and they were pretty good. For the biscuits, one of the suggestions is to use a tablespoon of sugar and mix it with the other dry ingredients.

When Life Gives You Lemons...

So my dad bought a costco size bag of lemons. He used 1 or two up, (just the peels), and the rest were just sitting there. So I decided to go use some of them up. First I made lemonade, (awesome) and then there were still a lot more lemons left. I talked to my mom, and she gave me the idea to make dinner that night, and I made lemon chicken. My last idea was to make a lemon meringue pie for the desert, so I did! It was hard to make, it was my first time making meringue but it turned out pretty good!

So the first thing I made was the lemonade, I used a fairly basic recipe, first you make a "syrup", by mixing two cups of hot water with a cup of sugar. The reason why you do this is to make sure the sugar dissolves, rather than settling on the bottom. Then you have to juice the lemons, I used about 6 lemons, to get about a cup of lemon juice.


Then you mix it together with another 4 cups of cold water, and you have lemonade! I used a slight variant of this recipe:
http://elise.com/recipes/archives/000479perfect_lemonade.php

The next thing I made was some lemon chicken. The recipe I got from the foodday section of the oregonian, I have yet to check the website if they have it. Its really easy, you just stuff a lemon in a chicken, and let it cook in an oven, for about an hour and a half, flipping it kinda soon. Just make sure the chicken is not undercooked, as it happened to me.



The last thing I made was a lemon meringue pie, and that was pretty hard. I used the recipe from:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Grandmas-Lemon-Meringue-Pie/Detail.aspx
to make it, with a couple of changes. The first thing I did differently was for making the meringue, I either had a bit of an egg yolk in the egg white mixture, or I added not enough sugar. My first meringue did not form little peaks, so I made another one, paying more attention to seperating the eggs. THe meringue when formed correctly looks like this:


Then you have a pie crust and put the sugar mixture in it, then the meringue, and you need to make sure the meringue covers the pie, to the edges. Put it in the oven for a bit and then take it out when the meringue is golden brown.


Let it settle for an hour, and then refrigirate for a bit and enjoy.

Strawberry Pie

So I had to make a dessert for my family during a party. I didn't want to make anything too hard, and I had some strawberries on hand(courtesy of my mom), so i decided to make a pie. It is pretty easy to make, I just got the recipe out of some cookbook I found.

1 qt. fresh strawberries
1.5 cups water
1.5 cups sugar
4 tbsp cornstarch
1 package strawberry Jello ( 3 oz)

You put the strawberries in a pie shell, the mix together the sugar, cornstarch and .5 cups of water in a bowl. Then you boil 1 cup of water and add the jello until is dissolves, and then you put it in the cornstarch-sugar mixture. Stir it together, and let it cool, then pour it over the strawberries in the pie shell, and let it refrigerate for a few yours. And you're done.
Enjoy!

Why I'm cooking this summer, instead of sitting in the basement

This blog is designed so I can fulfill a few creative hours for a class, learn how to cook, and so my mom won't bug me to do something this summer. So in this blog, I'll be talking about my cooking experiences during the summer. Hopefully I'll be posting fairly regularly and some of my creations/disaster so my readers (hopefully plural) can try them out.