Biscuits and Gravy

Sorry about the long delay between posting recipes. Between blogger being down for me, a broken oven, and a husband that asked for no new recipes I've been busy. However I am back now with a few recipes to share. The first is biscuits and gravy. This has to rank among my all time favorite anytime dish ever. I could eat biscuits and gravy at anytime of the day and it shows up for dinner quite often in our house. The flavor of this dish was so good that I'm drooling as I think about possibly making it again very very soon. I used the homemade breakfast sausage I posted a few weeks back for the sausage in this recipe. I also used my all time favorite biscuit recipe, which if you haven't tried you really need too. It makes the flakiest and most tender biscuits every. I ended up borrowing a neighbors kitchen and making the biscuits for the county fair. I then used the leftovers for this recipe. Also I always top my biscuits and gravy with paprika. I don't know why but it was how I was first introduced to biscuits and gravy and I much prefer them with a sprinkling of it on top.

Biscuits and Gravy
adapted from Cookingbytheseatofmypants

5 tbsp. unsalted butter
4 tbsp. all purpose flour
Approximately 2 cups milk (vitamin D milk, not skim, fat-free, fat-less, or other, and nothing heavier, it won’t work.)
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
about 3-4 shakes of Tabasco
1 1/2 pounds breakfast sausage, cooked and chopped (I used my homemade but feel free to use your favorite brand)
biscuits (again I used my favorite recipe but feel free to use whatever you have)

Melt butter over low heat in a small saucepan. Add flour and combine. Add ¼ tsp salt and around 10 grinds pepper.

Stir until the flour is about the color of peanut butter and smells nutty. Add ½ of the milk and increase heat to medium.

Allow to come to a simmer, stirring constantly to avoid sticking. On the first run, the gravy is likely to nearly seize, be ready with more milk.

Add milk by quarter or half cups until gravy has thickened considerably. If using a whisk you’ll know the gravy is ready when drawing the whisk through the gravy leaves “tracks” from the wires that remain visible for at least 5 seconds.

Add Tabasco sauce and more pepper to your liking, I like to make it very very peppery. Add the chopped up sausage and serve over biscuits.