Biscuits and Gravy

I didn't grow up eating biscuits and gravy - in fact, I don't think I ever had them until about a week ago!  Kent has always loved having breakfast for dinner.  And, since I've been crazy with my new work schedule, Kent's been doing a lot of cooking lately!  Last week he made biscuits and gravy one night - I have to say that they were pretty amazing!  Even if you don't like gravy, the biscuits are great on their own.

Biscuits
Ingreients:
2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons shortening
1 cup chilled buttermilk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Using your fingertips, rub butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. (The faster the better, you don't want the fats to melt.)
Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.
Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Press into a 1-inch thick round. Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough. Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch. Reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting.
Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15 to 20 minutes.

Gravy
Ingredients:
1 lb sausage
3-4 tbsp flour
3-4 cups milk

Directions:
Brown sausage.  Add flour to sausage (add amount to make fat into paste-like consistency), season with salt and pepper, cook for 1-2 minutes.  Add milk (#of cups equal to # of tbsp of flour) and stir; cook until desired thickness.

Angel Wing Cupcakes - from Mavis

My grandmother's sweet cousin, Mavis, baked these cupcakes this summer.  They make a great presentation and are easy to put together.  Of course, they taste great, too!

Angel Wing Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 box white or yellow cake mix

3 eggs

1 cup water

⅓ cup vegetable oil

Powdered sugar for dusting

Vanilla (or cream cheese) icing

Directions:

Put all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix at a low speed for 4 minutes. Mix on medium speed for 5-6 minutes.  Put mixture 2/3 full in cupcake pan - line the cups with paper fillers. Cook for 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees.  When the cupcakes are done, allow them to cool for a few minutes.  Cut the tops off gently.  Then, cut them in half (to make "wings").  Spread icing over the flat tops of the cup cakes.  Turn the wings on their sides and place them on top of the icing (see picture).  Then dust the cupcakes with powdered sugar.

Quiche - from BLC

My adorable friend, BLC of TCSK, recently sent me this recipe.  Kent tried one of her breakfast quiches a few months ago and is still raving about it!  She adapted if from the Joy of Cooking cookbook by adding in whatever ingredients she has in the fridge - so feel free to add anything to the mix!

Breakfast Quiche
Ingredients:
3 eggs
2 cups of cheese
1 cup of spinach
Sausage/bacon/ham/etc. (as much as desired)
A dash of salt and pepper
1 pie crust

Directions:
Spray cooking spray into a pie dish, lay down the pie crust, stir all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl, and pour onto pie crust.  Add a top layer of cheese with a dash of paprika.  Bake it for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.