It's all gravy…

Hey all.

I am convinced that accomplishment + a dollop of laziness = perfect weekends.  It’s also a seasonally adjusted formula, whereby October through February those weekends must include either roaring fires, hot chocolate or stew, and then March through September they must include sno-cones, frozen custard or a swimming pool.

Our formula:

Jonathan (Laziness = Prison Break, Sopranos) + Meagan (Laziness = I is for Innocent) + Jonathan (Accomplishment = frisbee, mowing our huge ass lawn, building compost pile) + Meagan (Accomplishment = making an awesome Sunday breakfast,  painting, staking tomatoes, housework) + FROZEN CUSTARD = Perfect Weekend.

Biscuits? Who said biscuits? I want biscuits...

This weekend I promised Jonathan I would make biscuits and gravy.

I have never made biscuits and gravy.

I know. It’s shocking. I grew up in a good Southern family, I promise. I have eaten biscuits and gravy. I have watched my mom make biscuits and gravy. I, however, have never made biscuits and gravy.

To say I felt intimidated is an understatement. Think of that act I had to follow: generations of Southern cooks, Paula Deen, my mom and my grandmother.

However, it was time to claim my heritage.  I busted out the cast iron, the buttermilk, the bacon, the eggs, the dark coffee and the butter.  I stood in the kitchen and said a prayer to the Southern women watching over me and began.

It actually wasn’t that hard, though, to get it all hot at once I had no time to take pictures. I rolled out the biscuits, arranged them in the cast iron and set it in the oven. Jonathan manned the coffee as I tried to time the eggs and bacon so that neither became cold while I made the gravy.

And yes, I did use the bacon grease for the cream gravy. The result?

Eggs, biscuits, bacon cream gravy, bacon and dark roast coffee with cream

Heaven. Pure Texas/Southern bliss. Jonathan and I agreed that the most surprising thing was that it actually didn’t feel heavy in the stomach. The ingredients were fresh and mostly organic. I light-handed the bacon grease with the gravy. The result was satisfying and hearty, to be sure, but both of us were ready to work afterwords instead of laying comatose.

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How I made the cream gravy:

I cooked the amount of bacon that we wanted, which was a total of five strips. After I removed them from the pan I poured all of the grease into a glass jar and let the pan cool for a minute. I probably used a tablespoon of the grease and then added two tablespoons of flour. Stirring constantly I made a quick roux—paste with fat and flour—and then began adding milk in a constant stream. This is a two handed project—one hand streaming the milk, the other hand constantly whisking.

For the two of us, with some to spare, I probably used 1.5 cups of milk. The amount will depend on preference (of saltiness, of meat flavor, of viscosity, etc.)

After I had the amount of milk I wanted I added salt and fresh cracked pepper to taste. I continued cooking over low until the gravy thickened.

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We ate until full and then worked in the garden for hours. Later in the afternoon I made green smoothies to balance our our animal-product intake. A little bit of the old South and a little bit of health-nut Austin.