BISCUITS W/ BACON GRAVY

"First, you make a roux..."
There's nothing quite so simple as breakfast for dinner! It's what most harried moms turn to when the dreaded question gets asked, "What's for dinner mom?" and they have no clue!
I believe the test of a seasoned cook is whether she can make good gravy or not! LOL I suppose I'm teasing a bit, as there are a lot of good cooks out there who just cannot make good gravy. It really isn't as daunting as it seems though. As long as you can master making the roux without burning it. This has never been a problem for me, as the perfect color for a finished roux is the color of peanut butter - my all time favorite breakfast treat! I've looked at that color every morning of the world for nearly 53 years! It's emblazoned in my brain! If you are prone to dumping your "instant gravy" out of a jar or out of a bag and mixing it w/ water.... do yourself and your family a favor and learn to make homemade gravy! It will be the star of the show!
Most of you are probably more familiar with sausage gravy than bacon gravy. I have never been a huge fan of sausage or sausage gravy. I grew up eating my mother's bacon gravy and it was the BEST!

BACON GRAVY

1 lb of good bacon - cut into bite size pieces (I use my kitchen scissors for this)
1/4 cup of all purpose flour
2 - 3 cups of milk (depending on how thick or thin you like your gravy)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

In large skillet or dutch oven, over med-high heat, fry cut up bacon until golden brown and lightly crisp. Remove pan from burner and with slotted spoon, removed bacon bits from the fat in the skillet. Leave bacon grease in skilllet. If it is very greasy bacon, you may want to pour a little bit of it off into a bowl. To the bacon fat in the skillet, add 1/4 cup of flour, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp black pepper. Stir constantly with wooden spoon or whisk until flour is cooked through and begins to turn a medium golden brown (the color of peanut butter). Don't let your roux burn! Quickly add milk and whisk to prevent any lumps forming. Add in bacon bits. Let simmer until thickened, stirring occasionally to prevent clumping or sticking.  Taste test to add more salt and/or pepper. I season mine pretty heavily. Serve over warm biscuits w/ a side of tender, scrambled eggs! ENJOY!

Here are a couple of good recipes for buttermilk biscuits or Classic biscuits.

HOMEMADE BREAKFAST SYRUP

For years I've tried to get away from as many processed food items as I can. It began when our little 6 yr girl was diagnosed w/ cancer. During her year of chemo we ate a whole foods diet and down through the years I have tried to continue that as much as possible. Real maple syrup is just the best, but who can afford it? I don't like the sticky "what is this stuff" taste about bottled syrup. Plus I love, love, love to make my own food rather than dumping it out of a bottle, can or box! This is super easy to cook up and who doesn't love nice warm syrup on their pancakes, waffles and french toast?!

HOMEMADE BREAKFAST SYRUP

1 cup water

2 cups white sugar

1/4 cup light corn syrup

1 tsp maple flavoring

1/2 stick butter

Combine water, sugar and corn syrup in saucepan. Heat, stirring occasionally until mixture boils. Cover and boil gently for 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in butter and maple flavoring and blend thoroughly. Serve warm over pancakes, waffles or french toast.

Yeild: 1 1/4 cups syrup



THAI PEANUT SAUCE

See this?! You MUST try it at your earliest convenience!! It is so YUMMY! I started to make one of my good ol' standbys tonight for dinner, but just wasn't thrilled about using the same ol', same ol' Frank's hot sauce. I was in the mood for something a bit different. So on a whim, I grabbed from the store shelves: Teriyaki sauce & marinade, Frank's hot sauce, and Bangkok Padang Peanut Sauce. I figured once I got home, I could be a little more decisive! I prepped the wings for frying, then cracked open the teriyaki sauce and the peanut sauce, letting my nose lead me! The peanut sauce smelled so spicy and wonderful! I fried up my wings (w/ no coating or batter), drained them, then coated them well in the peanut sauce and put them into a 375 degree oven for about 5 minutes to get the sauce sizzling hot.
One finger licking, lip smacking taste at dinner was all it took to tell me it was a real winner worth keeping!
I will be using this sauce over and over again! Plus looking for other ways to use it!

UNFRIED CHICKEN

This is the best "unfried" chicken you will ever have. The coating also works well on skinless, boneless chicken tenders to make into chicken fingers for the kids. You could serve that with honey mustard dipping sauce (I'll add a yummy recipe for that at the end of the chicken recipe). This particular chicken went really well with steamed white rice and the roasted veggies that we had for dinner tonight. My daughter Sarah cooked dinner tonight and surprised us with this meal. It was delicious! The black specks on the chicken is fresh ground black pepper. I sprinkled it on just before I dug in. Mmm!

UNFRIED CHICKEN

1/4 cup Fat free mayo
1 t. dijon mustard
2 t. grated lemon zest
1/2 t salt
4 drops hot pepper sauce (more or less to taste)
1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 c. cornflakes, crushed

* Preheat oven to 375. Spray a large baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
*whisk together mayo, mustard, lemon zest, salt and hot pepper sauce in a bowl. add chicken, toss to coat.
*Place cornflake crumbs in a large zip-close plastic bag. add chicken, one piece at a time and toss to coat.
*place chicken in the baking pan, drizzle lightly w/ olive oil.
*Bake until golden brown and cooked through - about 30 minutes.

Number of Servings: 4

WW points value: 3 pts

HONEY MUSTARD DIPPING SAUCE

3/4 cup mayonnaise 3 tablespoon honey 2 tablespoon yellow mustard 1 tablespoon lemon juice or juice from 1/2 lemon 1 dash paprika 2 tablespoon orange juice (more or less as needed)
Combine all ingredients except orange juice; stir well. Thin to pouring consistency for dressing or dipping consistency for dips with orange juice. Cover and chill for 2 or 3 hours.

LET'S TALK ABOUT PERFECT GRAVY

I sat next to a newly married lady this afternoon and she commented that she had difficulty making gravy without lumps. So I took a few minutes to give her some tips, but was quick to add that I've never had lumpy gravy so I couldn't truly empathize with her. LOL I'm so compassionate. I try hard. haha Smooth gravy is one of my passions! I LOVE making a nice bowl of creamy gravy that is smoother than a baby's bottom! A couple weeks ago, my girls got home before me from church (I was driving my church bus route) and when I walked in the door and looked at the dinner preparations going on (my girls are tremendous cooks) someone had already made the gravy!! How dare they?! I couldn't help myself, I looked at it, gave it a stir, tasted it..... haha. I think I even thickened it a bit more! I'm so bad! I just love making gravy!

There are several important things to remember when making gravy.

* Make sure the broth or base you intend to thicken, is boiling.
* Make sure the thickener you are using is well stirred with no lumps in it.
* Be sure to stir continually while you slowly pour your thickening into the gravy.

You can thicken your gravy 2 different ways: flour and water, or cornstarch and water.
If you use cornstarch, it is equal parts of cornstarch and cold water, mixed well with a fork or whisk. I like to use flour and water, that's just my personal preference. I use a Mason jelly jar, fill it half way with cold water, add 1/2 cup of flour, screw the lid on and give it several good hard shakes. When I take the lid off, I always check to make sure there are no lumps inside the jar to begin with. If there are, I fish them out with a fork.
I get my broth to the boiling point, and slowly drizzle in the flour thickening, continually stirring with my handy dandy whisk. Season it with salt and pepper and VOILA! PERFECT gravy!

Now perchance you have a disaster, don't toss your gravy and serve naked potatoes. YIKES! There are a couple ways to recover from the tragedy of LUMPY gravy. First, you can strain it through a wire mesh strainer. That would probably remove most, if not all of the lumps. If it's "really" lumpy, dump it in the blender and give it a good whirl! Or if you have one of those new fangled hand blenders, pop it in your pan of gravy and give it a good stir.

But whatever you do, DO NOT serve lumpy gravy!