Archive for Recipes
Homemade Sausage Gravy
Posted by: | CommentsHave I ever told you about the time I made a cream gravy for a special boyfriend many years ago? We had reached our six month dating anniversary, and so, to celebrate, I was making him a dinner of hamburger steak, mashed potatoes, gravy, and I can’t remember what else.
Everything was coming along pretty well. I called my mom five or twenty times while I was preparing the food, mostly so that she could walk me through the gravy making process. I thought I had it all figured out and soon, it was time for us to enjoy our meal together.
But the gravy. Somehow between hanging up the phone with mom, calling my boyfriend in for the meal, and serving the food – the gravy (if, in fact, we can call it gravy) had turned into a thick, heavy paste like substance. How could this have happened?
Never fear. My boyfriend was very kind. He simply got a butter knife and spread chunks of gravy onto his meat and potatoes. Then he proceeded to eat heartily, and even complimented me on the great flavor of the food.
Yeah, he was a nice one all right. I shouldn’t have let that one get away. Oh wait. I didn’t. A few months after I made him choke on gravy, that nice boy asked me to marry him. I guess he figured that if he could survive my gravy, we could get through anything – thick and thin. (Ha, get it? Thick and thin? The gravy was thick. Get it? Okay, it wasn’t that funny.)
I have since then perfected my gravy making skills, much to the delight of my boyfriend husband, and all of our darling offspring. Here is my sausage gravy recipe and a picture tutorial that will hopefully spare you all from making the same pasty mess that was once my “gravy”.
Homemade Sausage Gravy
1 pound turkey sausage (I like using this homemade recipe.)
1 Tablespoon plus 3 Tablespoons butter
3 Tablespoons flour (I use freshly ground white whole wheat)
2 1/2 cups milk
Sea salt and pepper to taste
Begin by browning the sausage with one tablespoon of butter in a large skillet until it is cooked thoroughly.
Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter, stirring it around until is has melted.
Sprinkle in the flour. Stir it around with the meat and butter until it is absorbed.
You should now have kind of a thick, meat mixture in your skillet. Turn the heat on your burner up to “high”.
Pour in the milk, and stir constantly. I find that I must leave the burner turned to “high” in order for the gravy to thicken.
Continue to stir over high heat until gravy becomes thick and bubbly. Remove the gravy from the heat, add salt and pepper to taste, and serve.
Trouble shooting your gravy: If your gravy turns out too thick, simply add more milk, small amounts at a time, continuing to stir, until gravy is the desired consistency.
If your gravy fails to thicken, mix a “paste” of 2 Tablespoons flour with 3 Tablespoons of water. Stir the mixture into your gravy, little bits at a time until the gravy thickens to desired consistency. Do NOT sprinkle flour directly into the gravy. That’s how lumpy gravy is made. :)
We love this gravy served over these Whole Wheat Biscuits.
Have any fun stories about boyfriends or gravy you’d like to share? :)
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Quick Eggnog Muffins
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If you have eggnog on hand (especially if you made this Homemade Eggnog Recipe), you’ll find that these muffins can be thrown together very quickly. They taste just like Christmas if you ask me!
Quick Eggnog Muffins
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground hard white wheat)
3/4 cup sucanat
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup melted butter
2 eggs
1 cup eggnog
2 teaspoons rum extract (optional)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Stir together flour, sucanat, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Add melted butter, eggs, eggnog, and extracts. Stir until well combined. Scoop batter into 16 paper lined muffin cups. Bake in a 400° for 15-22 minutes or until muffins are golden brown.
Makes approximately 16 muffins.
The rum extract in this recipe is optional, but it sure does add some great flavor! These are a perfect addition to your Christmas brunch. And did I mention they are easy to make? :)
(Be sure to leave a comment on this post for a chance to win one of four $10 gift certificates to the Heavenly Homemakers Shop, as a part of our Christmas Brunch!)
Sweet Pepper Fritata
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I can’t decide which I like best about this dish: looking at it…or eating it. I love that the red and green peppers make this fritata look festive for Christmas. This is very easy to make and can be put together ahead of time and baked just before serving. If you want to add a little extra protein, throw in some leftover cooked chicken or sausage.
Sweet Pepper Fritata
1 small onion, chopped
3/4 cup chopped green pepper
3/4 cup chopped red pepper
2 Tablespoons butter
5 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Saute onion and peppers in the butter for 5-7 minutes or until veggies are tender and your family comes running into the kitchen to see what smells so good. Meanwhile, combine remaining ingredients in a bowl. Stir sauteed vegetables into egg mixture. Pour into an ungreased pie dish. Bake in a 350° oven for 25-30 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle of the fritata comes out clean. Serves 6-8.
Which would you rather do – look at this, or eat it? Or maybe you could just really enjoy looking at it while you eat it. ;)
(Be sure to leave a comment on this post for a chance to win one of four $10 gift certificates to the Heavenly Homemakers Shop, as a part of our Christmas Brunch!)
Homemade Healthier Eggnog
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Let the Heavenly Homemakers Second Annual Christmas Brunch begin! (I wish we really were sitting around my fireplace chatting and “brunching” together.)
First up in the brunch line-up, a traditional holiday beverage made just a little healtheir. I think eggnog is incredibly tasty, but just way too sugary. I played around with recipes this year and found a healthier variety that is sweet, but not too sweet. Feel free to add or take away from the maple syrup amount to make this to your liking.
Homemade Healthier Eggnog
6 eggs
4 cups milk, divided
3/4 cup real maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
In a large saucepan, whisk together eggs, 2 cups of milk, maple syrup, and sea salt. Cook and stir over medium heat until the mixture reaches 160°. Remove from heat. Stir in cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and the remaining two cups of milk. Mix well. Pour mixture into a jar, cover, and refrigerate overnight or until chilled.
Whip 3/4 cup cream until it is thick, but not yet “whipped cream”. Stir the thickened cream into the eggnog mixture. Serve in glasses. Top with additional whipped cream and sprinkles of nutmeg if desired.
Are you an Eggnog lover?
(Be sure to leave a comment on this post for a chance to win one of four $10 gift certificates to the Heavenly Homemakers Shop, as a part of our Christmas Brunch!)
Chocolate Mint Soother
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My friend Emily is always full of good ideas. She’s often sending me fun links, or sharing her creative inspiration with me while we visit after church. Last week, Emily did it again. Since I’d recently shared about my Warm Vanilla Soother and Warm Chocolate Soother recipes, she suggested, why not adding some mint extract to those?
After reading that comment, I think it may have taken me a grand total of five minutes to go into the kitchen and try out this idea. (Good thing she didn’t share this idea with me in the church foyer – I may have left Emily standing alone and driven home without my family.)
This recipe is just like the Warm Chocolate Soother recipe, except that you add peppermint extract instead of vanilla. Sounds like we’re coming up with some great ideas for using our peppermint extract, aren’t we? :)
Chocolate Mint Soother
3 cups whole milk
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup real maple syrup
3 Tablespoons sucanat
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 Tablespoons arrowroot powder or corn starch
1 Tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
In a medium saucepan, whisk together milk, egg yolks, maple syrup, sucanat, cocoa and arrowroot powder. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly (I use a whisk) until mixture begins to thicken. Remove from heat and add butter and peppermint extract. Stir until creamy. Pour into mugs and serve warm.
Aren’t you glad I have such smart friends? :)
Caramel Popcorn (no corn syrup!)
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For years and years and years (give or take a year or two), I’ve been wanting to find a good Caramel Popcorn recipe that did not contain corn syrup. The recipes I found that didn’t contain corn syrup were either complicated, or they contained other ingredients beyond corn syrup that I didn’t feel comfortable feeding my family.
But just leave it to you all to solve my Caramel Popcorn dilemma. A big thanks goes out to everyone who suggested that this new Caramel Sauce recipe might be able to be used on popcorn. Over the weekend, I decided to give it a try. I figured the outcome may not be blog-worthy, but surely my family would eat it regardless of whether it was great or not. My men are always so good to eat my experiments. Especially if it’s an experiment with Caramel Sauce on top.
This got rave reviews, which came, as you can imagine, while they were chewing. Since they were saying such nice things to me about my cooking, I lovingly allowed them to talk with their mouths full. Far be it from me to scold my popcorn munching children when they are in the middle of boosting my ego.
Caramel Popcorn
1 cup unpoppped popcorn
1 recipe of this Caramel Sauce
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Pop 1 cup of popcorn and put it into two 8×13 inch baking dishes. Stir together the caramel sauce ingredients, stirring in 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt. Drizzle the caramel sauce over the popcorn.
Stir the caramel sauce all around the popcorn the best you can without making too many popcorny messes. Good luck with that. (Bigger pans might be helpful, but two 8×13 pans is what would fit best in my oven.)
Bake in a 250° for 10 minutes, then stir the popcorn. Bake for an additional 10 minutes. Remove Caramel Corn from oven and serve.
If there is any left after you feed this to your family, package some up to give as gifts. Yep, people everywhere will be talking with their mouths full. It’ll be a beautiful, Christmas moment.
Homemade Caramel Sauce (no corn syrup!)
Posted by: | CommentsA few weeks ago, Busy Mom in AL left a comment stating that she’d used my Caramel Frosting recipe to make Caramel Sauce. Then, a little while later, the people at Challenge Butter sent me a package and asked me to come up with a recipe using their butter. Well, what’s a girl to do but make Homemade Caramel Sauce with one of those sticks of butter, and then blog about her experience?
I didn’t think you’d mind. Especially if you think about the possibilities this Caramel Sauce presents. Not only can you make it for your own family and serve it on ice cream or cheesecake – wouldn’t this make a perfect Gift in a Jar?
Why yes, I believe it would.
And then, what if you took it a step further and created a big Ice Cream Sundae Basket to give as a gift? In your basket you could include a jar of this Caramel Sauce, a jar of Homemade Hot Fudge Sauce, a container of nuts, an ice cream scoop, some bowls and spoons – who wouldn’t love to receive this inexpensive, yet thoughtful and fun gift?
Alright, now I’m giddy and need to figure out who I can make an Ice Cream Sundae Gift Basket for.
Here is the very simple – and sort of healthy because at least it doesn’t have corn syrup in it - recipe:
Homemade Caramel Sauce
2 cups sucanat or brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup cream (heavy whipping cream)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Place the sucanat, butter, and cream into a medium sized saucepan.
Cook over medium to high heat until ingredients are melted and well mixed, stirring constantly. Bring mixture to a boil and boil for one minute, while continuing to stir.
Pour mixture into a mixing bowl and add vanilla extract. Whip with beaters for three minutes so that it will thicken.
Serve immediately or pour into a pint sized jar for a gift. Store in refrigerator and reheat before serving if desired. (This recipe makes one pint jar or two cups of sauce.)
Beyond ice cream, cheesecake, and the Ice Cream Sundae Gift Basket, don’t you think I should come up with some sort of Caramel Swirl Brownie recipe? Or maybe a Turtle Fudge Something or Other? We could even use it as an apple dip I bet!
What do you think? How could you use this Homemade Caramel Sauce?
P.S. Be watching for an upcoming giveaway from Challenge Butter, in which you too might have no choice but to use their butter to make some Homemade Caramel Sauce.
Homemade Peppermint Patties
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This post is all Amy’s fault. ;) She linked to a recipe for peppermint patties last week and made me very hungry for them. I figured you wouldn’t mind me testing and adapting the recipe, then sharing it with you. These would be perfect holiday treats to make and share with co-workers or neighbors, or to wrap up to take to a gift exchange.
This recipe actually calls for leftover mashed potatoes – how fun is that? Since I had a pound or four of mashed potatoes left over after Thanksgiving, I decided I could spare the 1/2 cup needed to make this recipe.
But before we go any further, I need to let you know that this recipe is a little different from those that I usually share. There is not much about this recipe that is healthy. These peppermint patties consist mostly of sugar. Do not make this recipe and serve it to your family for breakfast. Do not assume that since there are mashed potatoes in these, they can be considered a vegetable to be served as a side dish to your pot roast. Do not sit down and eat this whole batch by yourself. Do not make this recipe very often, for these patties are addicting. I will not be held responsible for you getting sick off of homemade peppermint patties. In fact, I hereby relinquish any responsibility for influencing you to make these. Just because a recipe is posted here does not mean you have to make it. Nobody here is forcing you to get out your mixing bowl. Actually, you really shouldn’t make these at all. No. You should just read through this post, then nod and smile. Then you should promptly move on to read about something less sugary, like this Angel Ornament post.
Yes, whatever you do, do not make these peppermint patties.
Homemade Peppermint Patties (adapted from Domesticated)
1/2 cup leftover mashed potatoes
1 Tablespoon melted butter
2 teaspoons peppermint extract
5 cups powdered sugar (told you there was a lot of sugar)
1 cup chocolate chips
1 Tablespoon coconut oil or palm shortening
Stir together the mashed potatoes, butter, peppermint oil and powdered sugar to form a thick dough. Spoon a teaspoon at a time onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. (I was able to form 38 teaspoon sized patties from this dough.)
Press down the dough and shape as small patties. Refrigerate for 3 hours, or freeze for 45 minutes.
On the stove top, melt together the chocolate chips and oil. Dip the chilled patties into the chocolate to cover them. Chill until set. Admire the peppermint patties, but do not eat them. Do not even lick your fingers.
Good luck with that. ;)
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake
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It could be that I’ve been going a little overboard on the pumpkin recipes recently. I can’t help it. Between the pumpkins we got at the pumpkin patch this year, the awesome home grown pumpkins my friend shared with me, and my newly found easy method for cooking a whole pumpkin – I’ve had lots of pumpkin puree to play with. Yes, my house smells like the holidays. No one seems to mind.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake (adapted from Diva Entertains Blog)
2/3 cup butter or coconut oil, melted
1 1/2 cups sucanat or brown sugar
4 eggs
2 cups pumpkin puree
2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup milk or water
1 cup chocolate chips (I use either homemade chips or these these soy free chocolate chips)
Cream together butter and sucanat. Beat in eggs and pumpkin puree. Add flour, baking powder, salt, spices, vanilla and milk – beating until well combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour batter into a well buttered 9×13″ baking pan. Bake in a 350° oven for 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Serve as it is…
Or top with whipped cream…
What’s your preference? With cream or without? I’ll take three dollops, myself.
Simple One Dish Meat and Potato Meal
Posted by: | CommentsNow that I have posted my Cream of Mushroom Soup recipe, I will share with you the promised One Dish Meat and Potato Meal recipe. A friend of mine shared this with me years ago, back when my 14 year old was just a baby.
Let us all pause a moment and reflect on how much taller Asa is since the day I received this recipe.
Have I mentioned that he’s jumped three and a half shoe sizes since last winter? I guess that answers any questions you may have had about who is eating half the pan of my simple, one dish meat and potato meals. Good gravy. (literally)
One Dish Meat and Potato Meal
1 Pound beef or venison stew meat, cubed
4 medium sized potatoes, scrubbed and cubed
1 1/2 cups homemade cream of mushroom soup
2 Tablespoons homemade onion soup mix
2 cups frozen peas
In a 9×13 inch baking dish, stir together meat, potatoes, soup and onion soup mix. Gently stir in frozen peas. Bake, uncovered, in a 300° oven for 2 -2 1/2 hours or until potatoes are tender. If you think of it, give this dish a stir half-way through baking time. Warning: Contents in casserole dish will produce an enticing aroma during 2+ hours of baking. Make plans to distract yourself during this time so that you aren’t tempted to burn your tongue on a raw potato before product has finished baking.
Serve this with a salad, or serve it all by itself since there’s a veggie included. This recipe serves 4-6 people, unless you’re feeding a 14 year old boy with uncontrollably growing feet. ;)
