Biscuits and Gravy

I didn't make dinner last night. The boys were at a scouting event so it was just me and the little one. I had leftovers; she had a slice of deli ham and some cheese. She was a happy little camper.
So I decided to go through a few of my recipes and find a favorite to post. This particular one is requested by my teen quite often, and most recently I made it for his birthday dinner a few weeks ago. You would not believe just how perfect the gravy turned out. It was SO GOOD. The biscuits, well, that's a whole nother story. Which of course I will get to, in a minute.

Here's what you need for the gravy:
1 pound bulk pork sausage
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
6 tablespoons flour
3 1/2 cups milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper

And this is how it goes together:
You could use a very large sauce pan and it might fit, but I like to use my dutch oven. So, cook the sausage in a dutch oven (or that very large saucepan) until it's no longer pink. If you wanted to add diced onion, do that before you cook the sausage. I think it would be tasty, but I never remember to do it. And do you know why? Because it's not on the ingredient list, that's why.
Moving along....after you cook the sausage, stir the butter in until it's melted. Sprinkle the flour over the sausage, and stir it in. Gradually add the milk. To me this means, add about a half cup, and stir. Add about another cup, and stir. Dump the rest in, and, you guessed it, stir. Add your salt and pepper, and stir (there's a lot of stirring involved in this recipe). Bring it to a boil, and cook and stir (I told you!!) for about 4 minutes. When it's thick like it should be, it's done.

Now for the biscuits. You could use Jiffy or Bisquick and your biscuits should be perfectly fine. Unless you do what I did last time - I used Bisquick, but I didn't quite have enough, and apparently I'm not very good at guessing measurements. We had little hockey pucks on the outside, with a very yeasty tasting bready consistency on the inside. That didn't work out well.
The other option, is to make some drop biscuits from scratch, which is what I should have done.

This is the recipe I've used in the past:
2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons butter or margarine, melted

Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in one bowl. In another bowl, combine the milk and butter, then stir into the dry ingredients just until blended. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet. Bake at 450 for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown.

If you do this, you'll have some delicious biscuits to serve your sausage gravy on. Since I didn't do this, and had hockey pucks, I served the gravy on hash browns, which I had planned on having with the meal anyway. I just used the store-bought rectangular preshaped patties that you pop in the oven so I wouldn't have to try to watch potatoes and gravy at the same time.

This made enough for me, my teen, my tween, and my toddler; with a little left for the hubby to have for breakfast or lunch the next day.

Cheesy Kielbasa Pasta Supper

This is what I made last night, and the kids all loved it. I did not think to take a picture of it, because the idea for the blog didn't come to me until this morning, so you'll have to imagine it. With the cheese, kielbasa, and veggies it's very colorful.

Here is the original ingredient list:

6 oz. (about 2 1/2 cups) uncooked rigatoni
1 (1-lb.) package frozen broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots
1 (10 3/4 oz) can condensed cheddar cheese soup
3/4 cup milk
1/2 lb. kielbasa or polish sausage (halved length-wise & sliced) - you could also use turkey kielbasa if you want to be healthier
1 (2.5 oz) jar sliced mushrooms

Now, when I gathered all this together, I decided that I wanted to use the whole kielbasa, because if I didn't, it would go back in the fridge for a month or two and then get thrown away. But if you're going to add more kielbasa, you have to add more of some other stuff too. So I added:

an additional 6 oz. uncooked rigatoni
about 1/2 of another package of frozen veggies (what was left in the freezer from another meal)
another 3/4 cup milk
I didn't have another can of soup so instead I added a handful of shredded cheddar cheese (probably about 1 to 1 1/2 cups)
and of course the rest of the kielbasa.

I ended up NOT adding any mushrooms at all because my 10 year old doesn't like them right now. I say right now because he used to.

So, there you have the ingredients. Here's what you do with them:

In a dutch oven, cook rigatoni per package directions. According to the recipe you should add the frozen veggies 6 or 7 minutes before the pasta is done. If you like your veggies quite firm, that's what you should do. Me, I like them a little softer, because they're easier for my toddler to chew. Next time I'll add them at 10 minutes so they'll be plenty soft enough.
Once the pasta and the veggies are cooked, drain them and return them to the dutch oven. Stir in the soup, milk, cheese, kielbasa and mushrooms. Cook over medium heat until heated through. You'll want to stir it occasionally.
The only thing I didn't really care for about this recipe was the rigatoni. It's basically a pasta tube with ridges, and there's nothing really wrong with it, but I'm a rotini kind of person, so next time I'll use that instead.

I served this with garlic biscuits, which is simply a tube of buttermilk biscuits (the skinny tube with 10 biscuits in it), with each biscuit dipped in a melted butter/garlic mixture, and placed in a pan (I melted the butter right in the pan I planned to bake them in, which worked really well). They should all be touching. Top them with shredded cheese - doesn't matter what kind. I usually use cheddar, last night I used an Italian blend. If you feel like it, sprinkle some Italian seasoning or whatever suits you on the cheese. Pop them in the oven and bake according to the directions on the biscuit tube.

Hubby got home from work at about 10:30 and heated up a plate of the pasta supper and gave it positive reviews. He didn't get any biscuits, because they were deelish and we chowed them all down.

By doubling the recipe, I have enough left for hubby and me to take some in our lunches, or there was enough for another meal for me and the kids.