Cottage Bacon and Red Eye Gravy with Parmesan Pepper Biscuits

We had a breakfast eye opener this morning.  Red eye gravy is a yummy way to get some caffeine into your day.  It's made with the drippings from cooking ham, or in this case cottage bacon.  To that, you add strong hot coffee and a little brown sugar.  If you like coffee with cream and sweetener, you'll love red eye gravy.
The biscuits are out of the can, just sprinkled with some Parmesan cheese and cracked black pepper before baking them off.  They tasted awesome with a little gravy over the top!
If you can't get cottage bacon where you live, you could certainly substitute a ham steak.  We have Clark's Meathouse in Riverton Wyoming, and they smoke an awesome cottage bacon, so we always have some on hand.

Red Eye Gravy

3 pieces of cottage bacon
2 T butter
2 tsp flour
2 T packed brown sugar
1-2 C hot strong coffee (it depends how thick you want the gravy)
1 C milk

Brown cottage bacon in the pan with 1 T butter.  Remove bacon and add remaining T butter, and flour to the ham drippings.  Stir with a whisk until butter and flour is browned and nutty smelling.  Add coffee, stirring to prevent lumps.  Add in milk and bring to a boil.  Sprinkle in brown sugar, and simmer 5 minutes.

Not for Everyday Brown Sugar Waffles

I am on a quest to be better about baking, so I've been trying out some new recipes.  Now, you can follow the recipe exactly like it was written, but for me that is no fun.  I want to have my own personal stamp on things, so I like to play around with ingredients, and make my own recipes.  Sometimes, like Martha, it's a good thing, and sometimes it's a big ole fail.  That just means I need to go back to the drawing board, and look at it a little differently.
Mostly, at our house, if Don wants waffles for breakfast he has to buy them in a box, and heat them in the toaster.  He gets up sometimes as early as three AM to get to where he needs to be that day.  I cannot function well enough to make waffles at three AM.  He's lucky if I manage coffee and eggs.  I can, however make them for the kids, and save him back some leftovers for the next few days, and he can heat them up like store bought ones.  We've kind of got in a rut of either yogurt and fruit, or hot cereal for the kiddies in the morning, so waffles will be a welcome change to them I'm sure.
This morning's breakfast fare was a fairly good success.  Not only did Joel and Little Bit like it, but the dog did too apparently, because just minutes after taking this picture above, she helped herself to one.  She was wolfing it down (no pun intended) under the table  when I came back in the kitchen after changing Lainey.  She has been hiding in the basement ever since I found her and scolded her.
This is one of those recipes that aren't good for every day, but during the holidays are a treat.  The reason being that they are so sweet they make your teeth hurt just reading the recipe.  There is no need for syrup, which made them wonderful for one year old Lainey to eat, and they make the house smell amazing, like the holidays. 

Brown Sugar Waffles

1 T vegetable oil
1 egg
1 1/2 C buttermilk
1 C packed brown sugar
1 1/2 C whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves

In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients.  Add more buttermilk if necessary to make the batter to your liking.  Melt a couple T butter in the microwave, and spread with a basting brush on the hot waffle iron for each waffle.  Ladle  onto grill, and cook until the steam is almost gone.  Because of the high sugar content of these waffles, you won't be able to get a crispy waffle.  Makes about five or six cakes.  Brush with melted butter and serve hot.

Cinnamon Sugar Scones and Making Dumplings 101

For my friend Sammi:  A new scone recipe.  If you love snickerdoodles, you'll love this moist light scone.   It would be really good with some maple butter, or I liked it warmed up with just a little butter.

Cinnamon Sugar Scones
1/2 C sour cream
1/2 t baking soda
Combine sour cream with the baking soda in a small mixing bowl.  Set aside.
2 1/4 C flour
1/2 C sugar
1 t baking powder
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 t salt
1/2 C cold butter
2 t cinnamon
garnish with addition cinnamon sugar before baking
Preheat oven to 350*F.  Combine dry ingredients except cinnamon.  Cut in butter with a pastry blender until it resembles fine bread crumbs.  Whisk egg and cinnamon into sour cream mixture, add flour mixture and stir until it just comes together in a ball.  On a pizza stone, or baking sheet, pat dough ball out into a circle about 3/4 inch thick.  Cut into wedges, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden.   

I love chicken and dumplings.  We always have stock on hand, and I have cooked chicken or turkey in the fridge at all times, too.  I just make a thick chicken gravy and add a bag of frozen mixed vegetables, or the leftover cooked potatoes, carrots, and onions from a roast and some peas from the freezer.  Then comes the dumplings, which are so easy.

Butter Dumplings
2 eggs
1/2 C all purpose flour
6 T softened butter
1/2 t salt
1 pinch ground nutmeg

In a medium bowl, beat the eggs and add the flour and mix.  Into this mixture, beat the butter, salt and pinch of nutmeg to make a smooth batter.  Bring the soup to a boil,  Drop half teaspoonfuls of batter into the gently boiling soup.  Cook 6 to 7 minutes at least. 

My Week at a Glance: Breakfast- Angel Biscuits, Marshmallow Balloons, Pumpkin Apple Streusel Muffins, Sourdough Hotcakes

This is my week's menu.  I will post the recipes for the items highlighted with an * as the week goes on.
I do a whole week at a time, but to start with, you can just do supper for a week, or just main dishes.   Whatever seems manageable to you. Today I am sharing the breakfast recipes. 
When I learned how to plan menus, we lived far enough from town that we only shopped once or twice a month.  I had to plunge in head first, and it was overwhelming at times.  I got a system down, and already had experience with keeping a well stocked pantry, thanks to my mother.  We were lucky enough to have chickens where we lived, and a milk cow, so I had ready access to milk, eggs, and the ability to make cheeses and butter.  In the summer, I had a big garden, and I canned as much of our produce as I could for the winter.  We lived very well, and very cheaply then.  It became a habit to live this way, and I found once I was organized and confident about what I was doing, I really saved a lot of time in the long run.
 Here are some of the breakfast recipes:

Angel Biscuits
5 C flour (I use prairie gold wheat)
1/4 C sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
Cut in 1 C shortening or lard
Add:
2 1/2 tsp yeast that has been dissolved in 1/4 C lukewarm water
2 C buttermilk
Mix well, and keep in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.  To use, pat out a batch amount on a floured board, cut with a cutter, and bake at 400*F for fifteen minutes.  You can let these rise for fifteen to thirty minutes also.  For best results, bake on a pizza stone. I have included these biscuits in several meals.  It is so nice to have these on hand, and they are very much superior in flavor and tenderness to store bought cans of biscuits. 

Marshmallow Balloons
Pat out angel biscuits, and cut with a standard size cutter.  Brush with melted butter and cinnamon and sugar on one size, and place a large soft marshmallow in the middle.  Pinch dough around the marshmallow, and bake in a muffin pan at 400*F for fifteen minutes.  The marshmallow will dissappear, leaving a wonderful spicy filling inside.  We are having these for a snack, but they are good at breakfast.

Baked Grits and Eggs
Boil grits according to the package directions, but substitute the amount of milk or water with chicken stock.  Add a T of dried parsley at the end of cooking, and stir in 1/c C cream cheese, salt and pepper to taste.  Pour into a greased baking dish, and top with raw eggs.  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese, and bake in a 400*F preheated oven until eggs are just set.

Pumpkin Apple Struesel Muffins
2 1/2 C flour
2 C sugar
1 T pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
a grate of fresh nutmeg
2 eggs
1 C canned pumpkin (not pie filling)
1/2 C oil
2 C finely chopped tart apples
Combine wet ingredients except apple.  Sift together dry ingredients, and add to wet.  Fold in apples, and spoon into muffin tins lined with paper.  Top with streusel topping.  Bake in preheated 350*F oven for 35 to 40 minutes. 
Struesel Topping:
2 T flour
1/4 C sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
4 tsp cold butter
cut in butter to other ingredients and top muffins before baking.

Sourdough Hotcakes
1 1/4 C flour (white or wheat)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 T sugar
1 egg
1 C Sourdough Starter
1 T oil
The recipe calls for 1 1/2 C buttermilk, but due to varying thickness of sourdough starters, I use it as a guidline, and usually add more than it calls for to make a good batter.
This is a quick version of sourdough omitting the need to make a sponge the night before, and then add part of the sponge back into your starter.  I don't like having to make the sponge, so I use this batter.  It is delicious!  I think the perfect combination for eating sourdoughs is with real butter, and chokecherry syrup.

Catch Up Day: Porcupine Meatballs, Lamb Curry, Strata and Spotted Pup

I didn't cook yesterday, so today I am playing catch up.  It wasn't a big deal that I didn't cook, as I had leftover Ballymaloe and my husband treated us to take out pizza for supper.  Those extra meals that I have tucked away in the freezer could have been pulled out and heated up also, instead of eating out.  I wasn't complaining, though. It's nice to eat someone else's cooking once in a while.

When we cook and eat at home, and make homemade lunches for Don, we can have a lot more room in the budget to eat out. We usually we go someplace nice, like our favorite steakhouse, or Chinese or Mexican restaurant rather than eating several times at a fast food place, and eating junk.  

Tonight, we are having breakfast for supper.  I have a whole dozen sourdough rolls that went hard before we could use them, so I needed a recipe that included breadcrumbs or stale bread.  I chose strata, as I had thawed out some turkey sausage to make soup, and it will be delicious with the bread and eggs and vegetables.  

You can use whatever vegetables you like for strata.  Today we will use mushrooms, onions, and roasted red peppers.  

I had hamburger and lamb burger that didn't get used yesterday, so I will make some porcupine meatballs with the beef, and a quick lamb curry for lunch today while I am cooking. 

I am also making some spotted pup.  Spotted pup, or some people call it cowboy pudding, is rice pudding with raisins.  It is a favorite lunch item for my husband to take with him, and the babies love it.  

I make mine with the addition of canned coconut milk, and this time instead of all raisins, I'll be adding in some snipped dried apricots left over from holiday baking. 

It is a good idea when you are turbo cooking many meals at once to pick recipes that have similar ingredients.  For instance today, the spotted pup, the porcupine meatballs and the lamb curry all have rice.  

Often my meals will come from a master recipe.  Like my meat gravy.  I will make a huge batch, and then divide it, and season it differently to make three or four recipes.  I'll make bolognese sauce, sloppy joe filling, taco filling, chili topping for hot dogs, etc...All taste very differently, but have similar ingredients, just different spicing.  Once I've seasoned, I can serve one meal, and freeze the rest in zip lock bags, flat on a cookie sheet, and then store them like books in my freezer.  I can brown three pounds of hamburger , open three cans/quarts of tomatoes, and chop three onions just as easy as one, and so I have saved time in the long run.

Here is my Porcupine balls recipe.  I loved these as a kid, because they come out of the oven with the rice sticking out in all directions, just like a porcupine.  These have a sauce based on grape jelly, and tomatoes.  You can omit the jelly, or in my case, use sugar free.  I might sound weird, mixing catsup and jelly, but you won't be disappointed if you try it! 

Porcupine Meatballs

1-2 pounds ground meat

1/2 C uncooked rice

1/2 yellow onion diced

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp celery salt

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp pepper

2 T Worcestershire Sauce

1 egg

12-14 crackers crushed (or 1/2 C breadcrumbs, or 1/2 C oatmeal)

Mix together all ingredients.  Form into balls, and place in a 9x13 baking dish that has been greased.  

Top with sauce:

1 C catsup

1 jar grape jelly

add enough hot water to make a thin sauce

Mix with a whisk until well combined and pour over meatballs.  Cover with foil, and bake at 350 F for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.  You can also do this in the crock pot on low for eight hours. 

This is my quick curry recipe.  It starts by making a masala of fresh ingredients, blended together in a food processor.  They are then added to browned ground meat.   I am using lamb, but you could use turkey, beef or even cooked fish.  

The stems of fresh cilantro are edible, and extremely flavorful.  They get blended in the masala in this dish, but you could also tie them in a bundle with butcher's string, and add them to soups and stews.  You can also lay them on the cooler side of the outdoor grill when you are cooking meat or vegetables, and let them smoke and add flavor that way. 

Lamb Curry in a Hurry

1 pound ground meat browned

Masala:

2 tomatoes
1 yellow onion
the stems from a bunch of cilantro
1 T or two cloves garlic
1 T garam masala
a pinch of red pepper
1/3 C drained jalapeno chiles
1 tsp curry paste or dried curry

Add all the masala ingredients to a food processor or blender, once it is processed, add it and 1/2 C dried fruit, we used cherries, to the lamb.  Keep on the burner until it is just heated through. Serve this over boiled white rice or for an even quicker version, you can make Couscous with beef broth and a tsp of cumin. 

If you don't have Garam Masala, here is my homemade version: 

Garam Masala

2 T black pepper
4 tsp cumin seeds
1 T coriander seed ground
2 tsp cloves
1  tsp cardamom pods
1 tsp cinnamon

Toast all the spices in a hot dry skillet, and then grind them, or place them in a plastic zip lock when they cool, and smash them with the rolling pin, or a heavy bottomed pan. 

My rock hard sourdough rolls are soaking in a C of buttermilk.  I will crumble them and use them to make my strata.  As long as bread hasn't become moldy, you can certainly use it this way, or bash it into breadcrumbs and store it in the freezer.  

Strata is a great weekend breakfast or brunch, as you can assemble it the night before, and then pull it out of the refrigerator and bake the next morning.  

Strata

1 dozen stale rolls, or enough bread to cover the bottom of a 9x13 pan

soaked in 1 C buttermilk, and crumbled reserving milk

1 pound breakfast sausage browned with

1 pkg sliced mushrooms and

1 diced onion

Add meat mixture to the baking dish and top with

8 eggs scrambled with reserved buttermilk from soaking the bread

Salt and pepper to taste and

Roasted red peppers.

1 tsp dried basil

Bake at 350 covered for one hour. 

I serve this with a hot cheese sauce, a chopped fruit salad and hot fresh coffee. 

Spotted Pup

1 C sugar or splenda

2 C uncooked rice

2 cans coconut milk plus enough regular or canned milk to make 3 quarts

1 pound of raisins 

1 tsp fresh ground nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

Mix all ingredients

I make this in my slow cooker with a plastic liner that I have sprayed with cooking spray.  It needs to cook on low for eight hours.  If would not recommend making it on the stove, as the high sugar content and starch plus milk make for the perfect conditions to scorch.  

You can pour it into a greased 9x13 baking dish, or covered  corning ware casserole, and bake it at 325 F for one hour.  You should put the casserole or covered 9x13 pan in a larger pan and add about an inch or so of  hot water to the larger pan to keep the pudding from scorching.  This is called a Ban Marie.  If you have an oblong crock pot, a roasting rack, and a casserole that will fit in the crock pot, you can add water to the bottom, and cook it in the crock pot Ban Marie style.  Either way, make sure to tightly cover the pudding with foil, or a lid.

Eggs in Purgatory

It's official, we are lambing.  We had three of our ewes lamb this weekend.  Thankfully, it's been very warm, up in the fourties during the day. The lambing barn was so warm yesterday, I uncovered down to my t shirt, and got some sun while Don and Joel went home for a bottle for one chilled down lamb.  The new lambs were very appreciative of the warmth as well, and the comfy straw beds.
Our life is on high speed now until all the babies are on the ground.  I am so glad I made food ahead!  I even got to sneak in a nap yesterday, as I already had the chicken casserole done!
I have to use my easy, quick filling food recipes now, as we are going to be super busy for a while.  I am not a sweet breakfast person.  I like the savory breakfast items like grits and eggs, biscuits and gravy, etc...much more than pancakes and other breakfast breads.
This is my take on Eggs in Purgatory.  It is great when you are in a time pinch, as it takes only about ten minutes to make.  I served it over some biscuits leftover from yesterday's breakfast, but they would also be good with grits.

Eggs in Purgatory
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
3 pickled jalapenos diced
In a skillet, bring the tomatoes and jalapenos to a boil.  Reduce heat to a simmer, and break in eggs.  This will make enough sauce for four people, so you can top with up to eight eggs.  Salt and pepper eggs, and cover with a lid.  Simmer until eggs are set, and serve over biscuits or grits, or toasted bread.

My Sourdough has Bought the Farm

I have been "under the weather" lately, and haven't been doing the normal baking and cooking I usually do.  Consequently, my sourdough has died.  It sits on my counter lifeless with a layer of black ooze liquid on top.  I feel a tremendous amount of guilt, as I had cultivated a very tangy and tasty starter, and now I will have to start over.  Poor little bugs.  I neglected them to death. (Don't let the HSUS know! They'll file a lawsuit against me!)
All is not totally lost.  I can do one of two things:  Try to rehabilitate the old starter and hope some spark of life is left, or start fresh with a new one.  To rehabilitate a dying starter, I would stir it up, black gunk and all, and add a cup of milk and a cup of flour.  After 24 hours, I would pour off half that starter and add milk and flour again, until I get a bubbly fresh starter going again.  It could take several days to bring it back to life, which means wasting a lot of milk and flour.
It seems at this point, it would take several tries to get this baby alive a kickin' again, so I will opt to dump it down the sink (great for your septic system, if you live out of town) and start over.   Here is my recipe for sourdough starter:
Sourdough Starter
1 C plain yogurt with active cultures
1 C milk that has been scalded and cooled
1 1/2 C flour
1 tsp yeast
Mix all ingredients together with a whisk in a plastic or glass jar/container.  Let the mixture set out in a warm place for 24-48 hours, (uncovered) or until it becomes bubbly and smells sour.   If at any time your starter turns pink, throw it out and scald the container before using it again.
You can store this in the fridge for a week without feeding it, or leave it on the counter if you use it frequently during the week, just remember to add a cup of flour and a cup of warm water to feed it, every time you use it, and at least once a week.

With this starter, I can provide my family with tasty warm breads and cakes that are much cheaper than buying store bought.  It really doesn't take much more effort to use sourdough in my pancakes, or make up a batch of refrigerator biscuits, or fill the freezer with waffles to pop in the toaster.
I have about three or four standby recipes that I use every week, but you can add sourdough to any recipe.  You just add 1 cup of sourdough, and reduce the liquid and the dry ingredients by 1/2 C each.  You can also add in a cup of sourdough to store bought cake mix, or brownies, and not reduce the ingredients, and get a very moist and tangy product.  Just follow the directions on the box, and add the 1 C sourdough also.


Sourdough Refrigerator Biscuits

1 T yeast proofed in 1/2 C warm water
6 C flour
1 T baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 1/2 t salt
3 T sugar
1 C Crisco or Lard
1 C Sourdough starter
2 C Buttermilk

Cut shortening into dry ingredients, in a separate bowl, mix wet ingredients, and add to flour mixture. Turn into a greased 10 C plastic container with a tight fitting lid, and store in the fridge. This is good for five days if kept cold.
To make biscuits, take out desired amount of dough, and pat out to 1/2 inch thick on a floured board. Cut biscuits, place on a baking sheet or pizza stone with sides touching, and let rise for half an hour. Brush with melted butter, and bake at 400 for 15-18 minutes. This makes about five dozen light as air biscuits.

You can make a quick starter the night before, if you are wanting to make sourdough pancakes for a special occasion, but don't want the responsibility for keeping a starter full time.  Just use 1 C warm water, 1 C flour, 2 T sugar and 2 1/2 T yeast.  Mix the ingredients up in a bowl the night before, and then dip out 1 C of starter and make the pancake recipe below.  

I like to use this recipe instead of a more traditional one where you make the "sponge" the night before, and then measure out 1/2 C of the mixture to put back in your starter.  I am not disciplined enough to remember to set out the sponge, so I just dip out of my starter jar and make these. 

Sourdough Hotcakes

1 1/4 C flour (I use a whole wheat) 

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 T sugar

1 egg

1 C sourdough starter

2 T oil

about 2 C buttermilk, (just add it until you get the desired consistency)

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl with a whisk.  Fry on a hot greased skillet until lightly golden brown on both sides, and serve with hot syrup and butter, or stewed spiced apples. 

As I bake this week, I'll add more sourdough recipes to the blog, and take pictures.