Wednesday, October 14, 2009

my favorite comfort food

Comfort food. We all have a favorite. Mine happens to be biscuits and gravy.

This week has been perfect weather for warm comfort foods. It seems that our weather went from Indian Summer to Thanksgiving overnight. The rain and cooler temps can chill one right to the bone. Yesterday was no exception.

I wanted comfort food for dinner. I let Madison pick ~ blueberry pancakes or biscuits and gravy. She picked my favorite. Ah. A girl after my own heart.

What makes it comfort food? For me, it's the fact that it is something my mother would have prepared on a cold, wet night.

The original recipe came from my niece, Marcy. I've modified it to suit our family's taste. You're gonna love the taste. And the name.

Truck Stop Gravy
1/2 # sausage, browned
2 1/2 c. milk
1/4 c. flour
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
6 oz. cream cheese

In a large skillet brown sausage. In a jar, with a lid, combine milk, flour, and spices. Shake well until flour is mixed in. Pour milk mixture into skillet with browned sausage (don't drain the sausage*). Cook on medium heat for about 3 or 4 minutes. Turn the heat down just a bit, add the cream cheese and stir often until cheese melts and mixture thickens. Serve over biscuits.

*This is not a low-cal or heart healthy recipe. Um, that's why we don't eat it every week. Don't drain the sausage once it is cooked. The grease is necessary for the flour to brown. Trust me on this.

The biscuits ~ Lawman makes them. He's a pro at rolling out biscuit dough. (A talent he gained through his high school days as an employee at McDonalds.) His recipe of choice is on the box of Bisquick.

The gravy recipe can easily accommodate more biscuits than a single recipe makes. So go ahead and make a double batch. If you have extras, they're good warmed in the morning (wrap in foil and put in the oven for best results) served with leftover gravy or butter and honey.

10 comments:

Jenni said...

Mmmm, I love biscuits and gravy when it's done right. It seems like one of those dishes that is either really good or really nasty with no in between. The problem is usually too little seasoning with a gravy that tastes like paste or dishwater. Your recipe sounds like a winner though.

Anonymous said...

Okay, no offense but I have never been able to stomach biscuits and gravy : ) I love the name of yours though. Homemade Mac and cheese is by far by favorite comfort food. I could eat the whole dish of it.

Nancy said...

dmoms ~ none taken. if the opportunity ever presents itself, i'd be more than happy to eat your homemade mac & cheese!

Anonymous said...

I'm with dmoms. Macaroni n cheese is a definite family favourite. We also put cauliflower and leeks in ours.

I'm not too sure what you mean about biscuits as they're sweets over here.

I love how everyone has a favourite comfort food but why is it usually a winter food?

Nancy said...

blueskyhi ~ biscuits here in the states are not sweets. they're a bread that the dough is rolled out and they are cut into circles and then baked. also served with butter and honey or jam.

as for why comfort foods are winter foods, i'm going to go with the fact that in the summer it's just too hot to cook or eat. i also think comfort foods transport us to a different place in time. for me, my comfort foods take me back to my childhood.

Anonymous said...

how funny! one of the girls brought biscuits and gravy in this morning for everyone at work. it is cold and miserable and rainy.

my ex made the best sausage, biscuits and gravy ever and like you said he left the drippings in the gravy.

we had our favorite comfort food, potato soup, this week

kimj said...

Nanc - You must have been reading my mind...I was just thinking about biscuits and gravy the other night, and trying to decide if I've ever made them, or not! And thinking that I needed to find a good recipe for them...so thanks, girlfriend!

kimj said...

Also...LOVE your new header!! :)

Wren said...

Love your new banner!! So cute!!

Okay..I have to say my fave is homemade mac and cheese. Haven't had biscuits and gravy in years. I am not a fan of sausage. It makes me think f the 'sausage biscuits' from when we lived in the south. I do like chicken sausage though. Weather here has been rotten overcast here again today - for like the fourteenth day! oh, and 34 degrees. I am not going to make it through winter...

JC Mom said...

This is our favorite holiday breakfast... Funny because i got the recipe from a healthy cookbook! :) If you use fat free cream cheese and hamburger and add some poultry seasoning it is still pretty good. However that being said we use sausage now too and lower fat cream cheese instead of fat free. it just melts better.