Biscuits and Gravy and Slave Labor

Tonight was a special night at our house - we had breakfast for dinner. This is always a special treat for the kids (and us). You see, my kids have to get on the bus at 6:50 am every day. That means that they get up around 6. And their dad works the overnight shift so he doesn't get to go to bed until 4am. We very rarely have the chance to sit down to a family breakfast. They usually eat breakfast at school for two reasons: 1) Even though they get on the bus at 6:50 and school doesn't start until 8, they arrive at school at 7am. 7am! They have to sit down there for an hour so eating breakfast in the cafeteria lets them mingle with friends and waste a good 30 minutes. 2) I do not function properly before 7am.
Sometimes before 8am, just depends on the day. So it's somewhat a win/win. Usually the school breakfast isn't too bad.
Weekends are always hectic around here, too. Between cake deliveries, parties, and babysitting, I rarely have the time to make a big Saturday or Sunday breakfast. So I try to make breakfast for dinner one or two nights a month. The first time that I told my husband I wanted to make pancakes for dinner, he lectured me that, "Pancakes are not a proper dinner food." I find this completely ironic coming from him...a manager at Denny's...or as my kids call it, "The Pancake House". What do you mean pancakes aren't a proper dinner food!? Do you know what Denny's serves 24/7? PANCAKES!
However, tonight was not a pancake night. Tonight was a biscuit and gravy night. And, thanks to Food Network, I have my own Chopped star who wanted to help. So help he did...I let him cook (supervised) the whole meal and enjoyed eating his meal. He even went as far as serving up plates for everybody. He's a keeper!

I quickly set Alex to work making the biscuits.

Biscuits:


2 cups flour
1 T baking powder
1 T sugar
1 t salt
1/3 cup shortening
1 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Gradually stir in milk until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.
3. Turn out onto a floured surface, and knead 15 to 20 times. Pat or roll dough out to 1 inch thick. Cut biscuits with a large cutter or juice glass dipped in flour. Repeat until all dough is used. Brush off the excess flour, and place biscuits onto an ungreased baking sheet.
4. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges begin to brown.

I am also a big fan of keeping things as simple as possible. Instead of rolling out the dough and making a mess, we used an ice cream scoop to portion out the biscuits:

Gravy:

1# sausage

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup flour

milk

salt

pepper

Brown sausage in skillet and drain. *If possible keep the grease to make the roue and skip using butter. I wound up with only 1 T of grease so that wasn't possible for us. In the same saucepan (leave sausage in the strainer) melt butter (or use the grease) and add the flour to make a roue:

*I have a big family so I doubled everything

Once the roue is formed, add milk. Sorry, I didn't measure...just filled the skillet about half way full. I'd say it was about 5-6 cups of milk. Don't forget, I doubled the recipe! And yes, I am one of THOSE cooks. More often than not, I don't measure my recipes unless I remember that I need the measurements. I'm blonde so that doesn't happen often!

Let it cook over medium heat until it thickens, stirring occasionally.  Add the browned sausage and season with salt and pepper to taste. 

 Yes...it is really that simple! And in the style of Chopped and Cake Boss:

(He was trying to raise his chin and stick out his facial features)