Biscuits with Sausage Gravy

Buttermilk Biscuits and Sausage Gravy - ButterYum

Want to show your family how much you love them?  Make them flaky buttermilk biscuits smothered in creamy sausage gravy.  Okay, I realize this is not a meal you should eat very often, but sometimes you need a little southern comfort... and yes, this lick-your-plate-clean comfort food at its best!

I'm sharing this recipe here on Cozy Home Scenes.


Sausage Gravy
makes 3-4 cups (about 6 servings)

1 pound breakfast sausage, cooked (reserve fat drippings)
4 tablespoons fat (any one or a combination of the following: sausage or bacon drippings, or melted butter)
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 teaspoon rubbed sage
1 teaspoon dried parsley

In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, melt fat and add flour; whisking until until the mixture bubbles for a full minute.  Add milk, salt, pepper, sage, and parsley; continue whisking until the mixture comes to a boil and thickens.  Turn off heat and stir in cooked sausage.  Serve over homemade Buttermilk Biscuits.  The gravy will thicken as it cools - if needed, stir in a splash of milk to thin (works well when heating leftover gravy as well).

Buttermilk Biscuits - Photo Tutorial

Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits - ButterYum

We recently found out we'll be moving further south so I've decided it's time to start honing my biscuit skills.  Today will be the first of several biscuit recipe I post in the coming weeks while I search for the best recipe I can find.  First up is one I found a couple years ago on Food Wishes, a video blog by Chef John.   I adore how fluffy and tall these biscuits turn out.  Start to finish, they take about 30 minutes to make.  The family devours them.  And hey, these biscuits are fabulous with sausage gravy.

(excuse these nighttime photos, but let me show you Chef John's technique)

 Once the ingredients are mixed and they start to clump together, pour them out onto a floured surface or pastry cloth.  Gently press into a rectangle.

 Use a pastry scraper to fold the right third on top of the center of the rectangle.  Don't worry if the dough is crumbly at this point.

Repeat on the left side to complete one letter fold.  This process will done a total of 3 times.

Carefully turn the dough 1/4 turn.

Press into another rectangle and repeat the 3-step "letter fold" 2 more times (fold, fold, turn).

You can see how much smoother the dough is after the 2nd letter fold is complete.

After the 3rd letter fold, press or roll the dough into a 1/2-inch thick rectangle.  Cut biscuits and place on a lined sheet pan (push cutter straight down, don't twist).

Make a slight depression in the center of each biscuit, brush with buttermilk, bake.

   NOW YOU GET TO EAT!!!!

Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits
recipe courtesy of Chef John
makes 12-15 biscuits (2 to 2 1/2-inches)

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into thin slices and chilled in the freezer
3/4 cup cold buttermilk, well shaken (plus a little more to brush onto unbaked biscuits)

Preheat oven to 425F.  Using a whisk, combine dry ingredients in medium mixing bowl.  Using a pastry blender (or your fingers), cut the butter into the flour mixture until the butter is broken down into the size of small pebbles (toss the whole bowl in the fridge to chill if the butter starts to soften).  Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the icy cold buttermilk into the well.  Using a spatula, gently mix until most of the flour is moistened and the dough starts to form into a ball.  Dump the dough onto a well floured surface or pastry cloth.  Pat the dough into a rectangle and fold the dough into thirds (similar to folding a letter), turn the dough 1/4 turn and pat into a rectangle again; repeat folding and pressing 2 more times (for a total of 3 letter folds).  Roll or press dough into a 1/2-inch thick rectangle.  Cut biscuits using a floured biscuit cutter.  Gently place the biscuits onto a parchment or silicone lined sheet pan.  Using your thumb, gently press down on the center of each biscuit to make a slight depression.  Brush biscuits tops with buttermilk and bake for 15 minutes.  You can gather the scraps together and re-roll the dough to get 2 or 3 more biscuits, but they never rise as nicely as the first biscuits.  Instead, I prefer to make what I call Biscuit Bites by cutting the scraps into oddly shaped bite-size pieces.  Brush with buttermilk and bake until they're nicely browned - they make tasty little nibbles; great four soups and stews.

buttermilk brushed biscuit on left - no buttermilk on right

I did a little experiment to see if there would be a difference between biscuits that were brushed with buttermilk before baking and those that were not.  Can you guess which one got the buttermilk?  If you chose the biscuit on the left, you're right!     
  
Note - if you don't have any buttermilk in the house, you can make a good substitution using regular milk and vinegar.  To make one cup of buttermilk, mix 1 tablespoon white vinegar plus enough milk to equal one cup.  Give the mixture a stir and allow it to sit for about 5 minutes before using.

Southwestern Chicken Noodle Soup

Southwestern Chicken Noodle Soup - ButterYum

I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays - I certainly did.  I've been cooking up a storm so stay tuned for lots of yummy posts.  Let's start with Tina's Crazy Cooking Challenge.  This month's challenge - Chicken Noodle Soup.   I make my own chicken noodle soup often, so it felt a bit odd searching the internet for someone else's recipe to make, but I knew I found the one I wanted to try when I stumbled upon a blog called My Big Fat Geek Recipes. The Southwestern Chicken Noodle Soup sounded so good.  Let me say this, it did not disappoint - very, very tasty.  I'll definitely be making this one again.



This soup is made in a slow cooker, but it can easily be made on the stove top if time is limited.  To further reduce cooking time, serve with tortilla chips or corn chips instead of taking the time to cook pasta.  And feel free to use leftover cooked chicken if you have it (hint - or pick up a rotisserie chicken).  Add the cooked chicken to the soup just before serving; long enough to heat it through. Also consider changing the veggies to suit your family, and/or add beans, cheddar cheese, and a dollop of sour cream.  


Southwestern Chicken Noodle Soup
makes 10-12 servings

1-5 boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite size pieces
3 large carrots, chopped
4 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup frozen green beans
1 tablespoons minced garlic
1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes (no need to drain the juice)
8 cups water
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1 tablespoon Kosher salt
1 tablespoon Mrs. Dash Southwestern Seasoning Blend (see my note below)
2 tablespoons Mrs. Dash Original Seasoning Blend (see my note below)
Cooked noodles, reserved

Place all the ingredients except the pasta in a slow cooker and cook on high for 6 hours.  Add cooked pasta to bowls just before serving.

My Notes - I at least doubled the veggies.  Also, I initially was tempted to use homemade chicken stock instead of water, fearing the finished soup wouldn't have enough flavor, but the seasoning blends, onions, and garlic provide plenty of flavor.  Lastly, I didn't have either of the Mrs. Dash seasoning blends the recipe called for, but I did have Mrs. Dash Fiesta Lime and Mrs. Dash Southwestern Chipotle so I used 1 1/2 tablespoons of each.

This recipe is being shared at Shannon's Your Cozy Home linky party.

Two-Tone Ganache Sandwich Cookies - Secret Recipe Club

Two-Tone Ganache-Filled Snowflake Cookies - ButterYum

Snowflake Cookies - ButterYum

Chocolate Snowflake Cookies - ButterYum

Ganache-Filled Snowflake Cookies - ButterYum

This month's Secret Recipe Club assignment was Vivian's blog Let's Try These.  Vivian and I share a love for baking, so it was hard picking just one recipe to feature today, especially since she has so many yummy options to chose from, but I wanted to find a recipe that I could use with my snowflake cookie cutters.  I settled on Vivian's Two-Tone Cookie Crinkles, a Better Homes and Gardens recipe.  I don't know why they're called crinkles - there's nothing crinkled about them, but they sure are tasty, and they're so fun to make.

Two-Tone Ganache Sandwich Cookies - ButterYum

Two-Tone Ganache-Filled Snowflake Sandwich Cookies
makes approximately 30 cookies

For the cookies:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

For the ganache filling:
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 ounces high quality semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

To make the cookie dough:
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the blade attachment, beat the butter on medium high speed for 30 seconds.  Add sugar, baking powder, and salt; beat until combined, scraping bowl as needed.  Add egg and vanilla; beat to combine.  Add flour until incorporated.  Divide dough into two portions; adding sifted cocoa powder to one portion.  Wrap each portion with plastic wrap and chill for 1-3 hours.

Preheat oven to 375F.  Roll each dough portion to 1/8-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface.  Cut out desired shapes with floured cookie cutters, leaving the bottom halves solid.  Place cookies 2-inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet; bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes or until edges are set (tiny cutouts bake for 5-6 minutes).  Transfer cookies to racks and cool completely.

To make Ganache:
Gently heat cream and chocolate together; stirring until completely smooth and combined (I did this in the microwave).  Cover and chill for 30 minutes (or make the ganache several hours in advance and let it sit at room temperature until it reaches the proper spreading consistency).

To assemble cookies:
Spoon about 1 teaspoon of the ganache in the center bottom of each cookie and make a sandwich by adding a decorative top cookie.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.

To store, place unfilled cookies in an airtight container, separating layers with waxed paper, at room temperature for 3 days or frozen for up to 3 months.  Thaw and assemble just before service. 

My notes:  I'm not a fan of rolling cookie dough on a floured surface - the extra flour makes the cookies look messy, and it has a tendency to dry out the dough, making the cookies cut from the re-rolled scraps a lesser quality.  Instead, I prefer to roll my dough between two layers of waxed paper - completely eliminating the need for extra flour and enabling the scraps to be re-rolled over and over again (chilling when needed).  To prevent distortion, I cut my cookie shapes while the dough is still on the waxed paper, then slide the waxed paper onto a cookie sheet and chill for at least 10 minutes before transferring the shapes to a sheet pan. 

This recipe is taking part in a cookie blog hop on Lizzy's blog.

Bailey's Irish Cream and Pistachio Fudge

Bailey's Irish Cream and Pistachio Fudge - ButterYum

Time of this month's Crazy Cooking Challenge - FUDGE!!

Please take a moment and vote for my photo below :)

My selection, Bailey's Irish Cream and Pistachio Fudge.  It's so good, and it's so easy to make - it takes about 10 minutes from start to finish, requires only 4 ingredients, and there's no need to use a candy thermometer.  I found the recipe on the blog Eat Good 4 Life by Miryam.  She also has a tempting Kahlua and Dark Chocolate Fudge recipe that's just as easy, as well as all kinds of sweet treats and savory fare.  Lovely blog - I hope you'll stop by and pay her a visit.

Bailey's Irish Cream and Pistachio Fudge

makes one 9x9 square pan

adapted from Eat Good 4 Life

36 ounces white chocolate chips

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
6 tablespoons Bailey's Irish Cream
1/3 cup pistachios, blanched and chopped (more is okay)

Lined a 9x9 pan with foil and lightly grease with butter (or use nonstick foil); set aside.

In a heavy-bottom sauce pan over low heat, combine the first 3 ingredients and stir constantly until the mixture is completely combined.  Remove from heat and stir in pistachios.  Pour into prepared pan and chill until set. Cut and serve.

Note:  I reduced the recipe to 1/3 which worked perfectly with one bag of chips and a small airplane size bottle of Irish Cream (50ml).

Please vote for me below

Thanks!!

Aunt Joan's Blueberry Buckle

Aunt Joan's Blueberry Buckle - ButterYum

One of the things I most look forward to during the holidays is sharing yummy food with loved ones, and this Blueberry Buckle that our Aunt Joan brings to family gatherings is one of my favorites.  Bursting with juicy blueberries and finished with a cinnamon sugar crumb topping, my mouth waters just thinking about it.  Great served for breakfast, afternoon snack, or dessert - no adornment needed.  I should mention it stays moist for days if refrigerated in an airtight container, but you may not need to worry about that once your family tastes it.

Aunt Joan's Blueberry Buckle
makes one 9x13 pan

Cake:
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup shortening
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2-3 cups blueberries

Crumb Topping:
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup butter
dash of salt

Preheat oven to 375F and butter a 9x13 baking dish.  Make the cake batter by creaming together the sugar and shortening; gradually add eggs and milk.  Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt; add to batter.  Stir in blueberries and pour batter into prepared pan.  In a small bowl, combine topping ingredients and pour on top of cake batter.  Bake for 60 minutes.

Blueberry Buckle - ButterYum

Triple Chocolate Cheesecake

Triple Chocolate Cheesecake - ButterYum

Hubby loves chocolate.

Hubby loves cheesecake.

I love Hubby.
Happy Birthday Hubby.
XO

This is a fantastic chocolate cheesecake - not only does it taste A-MA-ZING, it bakes evenly without cracks and you don't have to fuss with a water bath.  Plan ahead and prepare this cheesecake at least a day before you want to serve it.  After baking, it will take several hours to rest and cool before chilling overnight in the refrigerator.  We think it gets better with age, so make it a few days in advance if you wish.

 

Triple Chocolate Cheesecake (adapted recipe form Martha Stewart)

makes one 9-inch cheesecake

Serves 12-16

Crust

9 ounces cream filled chocolate cookies (like Oreos), ground in food processor

4 ounces unsalted butter, melted

Filling

4 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature

4 eggs

1 cup sour cream, room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, melted

Topping

4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate

4 ounces heavy cream

Garnish (optional) 
blanched and chopped pistachios

To make the crust:

Preheat oven to 325F.  In a food processor, process cream-filled cookies to fine crumbs (cream filling and all).  Add melted butter and combine; press mixture into the bottom of a 9-inch spring form pan.  Place springform on a sheet tray and bake crust for 10 minutes.  

To make the filling:

In the bowl of a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat together on low speed the room temperature cream cheese, sugar, and salt; scraping sides of bowl if needed.  When mixture is silky smooth, add eggs, one at a time; scraping sides of bowl if needed.  Finally, add the room temperature sour cream, followed by the melted chocolate; mix on low until combined; scraping the bowl if needed.  Pour mixture into springform pan and return to the oven for 1 hour.  Make ganache and blanch optional pistachios while cheesecake is baking (directions below).  After the cheesecake has baked for an hour, turn off the oven and do not open the door for another hour, then open the door slightly for yet another hour (that's a total of 3 hours so far).  Finally remove cheesecake from oven and rest on counter until completely cool.  Top with cooled ganache and optional pistachios, cover with plastic or place in an airtight container and refrigerate overnight preferred before releasing the springform sides from the base.  For neat slices, heat and dry knife blade between cuts.  

To make ganache topping:

While the cheesecake is baking, prepare ganache by bringing cream to a boil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.  As soon as the cream boils, remove from heat and stir in chocolate; stir to combine.  Pour ganache into a bowl; cover with a tea towel and allow it to rest until the cheesecake has cooled completely (several hours).

To blanch pistachios:
Put shelled pistachios in boiling water; remove from heat and wait 1 minute.  Drain and rub with a clean kitchen towel to remove the skins.  You can use the pistachios right away, or toast them in a dry skillet over medium heat until they're fragrant (just a minute or two).  Cool and chop.  

Triple Chocolate Cheesecake - ButterYum

Caramelized Brussels Sprouts

Caramelized Brussels Sprouts with Pecans - ButterYum

I usually make Oven Roasted Brussels Sprouts, but I wanted to try something different this time.  Thanks to Pinterest, I found this recipe - the combination of pecans, garlic, and brown sugar might sound a bit odd, but it works.  In fact, it works so well that my vegetable hating picky eater helped himself to 3 servings.  Use the feed tube of a food processor to quickly slice the sprouts into ribbons - once you have that done, the dish is complete in less than 10 minutes.  Don't let my horrible nighttime photo scare you away - give this one a try!


Caramelized Brussels Sprouts
from Eat, Live, Run
serves 4

12-14 large Brussels sprouts
1 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
pinch sea salt
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup roughly chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted

Slice each Brussels sprout very thin until you have a mound of feathery Brussels sprout ribbons. In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat and saute garlic for 30-60 seconds. Add the Brussels sprouts and salt; saute for another 5-6 minutes until the sprouts are bright green and tender. Add the brown sugar and pecans: to together well.  Serve immediately.

Slow Cooker Caramel Apples

Slow Cooker Caramelized Apples - ButterYum

I recently had an opportunity to make a "fruit dish" to feed a group of 40 men.  Being apple season here in apple country, I initially thought about baking pies, but to be completely honest, I didn't think the men serving this meal would be able to handle cutting 40 slices of pie very neatly.  So I searched the internet for some sort of crustless apple pie-like recipe, which led me to this one for Slow Cooker Caramel Apples on a blog called Kate from Scratch.  They're super yummy and were a big hit at the meal - thanks Kate!!

The original slow cooker recipe is listed below - my notes for multiplying the recipe and converting to cook in an 18-quart Roaster Oven will be listed below that.

Slow Cooker Caramel Apples
serves 10

8 cups diced apples (peeled and cored)
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 dash freshly grated nutmeg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Put all the ingredient in a slow cooker and mix thoroughly.  Cover and cook on high until apples are tender, about 3 hours.  The yummy salted-cinnamon-vanilla-caramel sauce that coats the apples will thicken slightly upon cooling.  Cool uncovered for a thicker sauce.

My conversion to feed a crowd of 40:  I quadrupled the recipe and cooked it in my 18-quart electric roaster set to 300F for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally.  I used a mix of apples - galas, golden delicious, golden supreme, and Nittany.  Any apple that keeps it's shape during baking will work well.

I'm linking this recipe to
Simply Food
Cook Eat Delcious
Foodie Friday

Honey Vinaigrette Grilled Chicken - Secret Recipe Club

Honey Vinaigrette Grilled Chicken - ButterYum

I'm happy to be joining the Secret Recipe Club again this month.  What's the Secret Recipe Club?  Basically, it's a once-a-month blog hop party for food bloggers where participants are assigned another member's blog to secretly spend time perusing, pick a recipe, make it, write a blog post about it, and then everyone reveals their secret by publishing their posts at the same time.

My assigned blog - A Pretty Life in the Suburbs by Jo-Anna, a wife and mother of 3 living in Canada. Wow, I am so impressed with Jo-Anna's blog - she's got a little bit of everything - cooking, baking, decorating, crafting, housekeeping, organizing... and it's all documented with fabulous photographs and a great sense of humor.  And did I mention Jo-Anna's blog is just over a year old and she already has 390 published posts - this girl is amazing!

On to the recipe - thinking I had another week to prepare this post, I had originally chosen a yeast bread which required an overnight rest in the fridge before baking, but a reminder email late last night contradicted my failing memory and I realized my post was due in a few hours - Yikes!  I quickly changed my recipe selection to Jo-Anna's Honey Vinaigrette.  Of course it's great used as a dressing on salad, but I thought it would make an excellent marinade for chicken as well.  Yummo, I was right - the honey pairs perfectly with chicken!  The vinaigrette went together in a matter of minutes; then I marinated my chicken for about an hour before grilling on my stove top.  The house smelled divine!!  I saved some yummy chicken to have on my salad for lunch this afternoon, sliced thin and drizzled with some reserved vinaigrette.  Great recipe Jo-Anna!

 

Honey Vinaigrette
makes 1/2 cup

1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon grainy mustard (I used 1/2 grainy, 1/2 Dijon)
salt and pepper to taste

Place ingredients in a jar and shake.  Pour onto salad greens and toss.

Alternately, use as a marinade for chicken breasts - simply put uncooked chicken in a zipper bag and pour enough marinade to cover; close bag and rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour (reserve some vinaigrette to drizzle over the cooked chicken).  Preheat oven to 350F.  Heat a grill pan on the stove top.  Remove chicken from bag and discard used marinade.  Place chicken breasts, top side down, on the pan; cooking until you get nice grill marks before turning over.  Immediately after turning, place the pan into preheated oven until chicken is reaches about 160F (about 10 minute).  Remove chicken from the oven and rest for 5 minutes before eating (the temp of the chicken will continue to rise during the rest period - it should reach 165F).  Enjoy!