Biscuits and Gravy

The best biscuits and gravy I ever had was made by Mom Nealon and I was craving for it this past weekend. I was trying to get John or Mike to make them on Saturday because Aunt Jane was in town and I wanted a hearty breakfast before we go to Seattle and see the Chihuly Museum, but they kept insisting I make them. I was hesitant at whipping it up because I can never be up to par with Mom Nealon's cooking. Alas, I had to challenge myself. I had Mike and Tatiana taste it before it was served and Mike said it was about 90% match of Mom Nealon's gravy. Yay!!

I searched on pinterest for a recipe and landed on this keeper, Mama's Southern Cooking. Basically this is fool-proof gravy. Really easy to make.
Instead of making the biscuits from scratch, I bought Pillsbury Dough Boy Buttermilk Biscuits and followed the instructions there. Later, I will learn how to make biscuits from scratch and post them on the blog, but for now, it is all about the gravy.

Ingredients:
1 pound Jimmy Dean Sage sausage
2-3 tablespoons of shortening or bacon dripping (Mike had made mung bean soup and had bacon drippings left over so I used it).
~1/4 cup all-purpose flour
~3 cups of milk
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt (I didn't use this because I also added other seasonings that had salt like garlic salt)
Sprinkles of Garlic Salt
Sprinkles of Onion Powder
Sprinkles of Italian Seasoning


Directions:
In a large heavy skillet, brown the sausage breakfast, breaking it up with a spatula over medium heat. Do not drain. Add the shortening or bacon drippings, flour, salt and pepper and other seasonings. Stir constantly until the flour begins to brown. Slowly stir in the milk. Or You can skip the keyword "slowly" and dump the whole 3 cups of milk and stir constantly and bring to a boil, like I did. It still turned out just fine. haha. Reduce heat to a simmer and continue to stir until the gravy thickens. If the gravy is too thick for you, add a little more milk to get the gravy thinner. and Serve!!!


Don't forget to put the biscuits in the gravy!

Pictures coming up soon once I make this again!! :D

Quick update

It's been a while (about 4 months) since I've posted something new. I have a very good reason why I haven't been posting anything. I was offered my dream job in a Family Childbirth Center in Washington as a nurse! I was in their perinatal residency program for about three months and then I had a couple weeks of classes so there weren't anytime for me to be posting. Plus I live at home and my mom makes most of the meals. OH and I have some good news! I got engaged on December 10, 2011! My Fiance turned 25 and my sister turned 16! So there are so many things that are going on at the moment especially with wedding planning. But now that I am done with my residency, I work the night shift. This means I work at night and sleep during the day. I get my days messed up occasionally. Anyways I really love my job and I am blessed to have such a great start to my career. In the mean time, there's new thing called Pinterest! which I am addicted to. I repin lots and lots of new recipes that I look forward to make and to get back to posting them on my blog again!

My fiance is visiting this weekend and we are re-celebrating my sister's sweet 16 (because she had two drill competitions in the past 2 weeks) so maybe I'll be in the mood to make something!

xoxo,

Michelle

Candied Sweet Potatoes (Yams) w/ Marshmallows

The BEST sweet potatoes ever!!!!

First off, I have never made this before Thanksgiving. Also I had never had it until the beginning of this year at a Ski Trip with WSU. I've had different versions of it and I really like this recipe. In fact, my boyfriend loves it! It has a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg. It's not too sweet but just right. I've had some candied sweet potatoes that were cubed, sliced, and mashed. This one is mashed with some chunks of it. I liked the mix of it being mashed and having some of the chunks.
Here's a secret: John said it was better than his mom's! 

Here is the link that I got the recipe from: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/candied-sweet-potatoes-5/.

This calls for a 9" x 13" pan. About 12 servings. 

Ingredients:

4-5 pounds of sweet potatoes, quartered. 

1 1/4 cups of margarine or butter. 

1 1/4 cups of brown sugar

3 cups of miniature marshmallows, divided

ground cinnamon to taste

ground nutmeg to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.

2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add potatoes and boil until slightly underdone, about 15 minutes. Drain, cool and peel. 

3. In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine margarine, brown sugar, 2 cups of marshmallows, cinnamon and nutmeg. Cook, stirring occasionally, until marshmallows are melted. 

4. Stir potatoes into marshmallow sauce. While stirring, mash about half of the potatoes, and break the other into bite-sized chunks. Transfer to prepared dish. 

5. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cover top evenly with remaining marshmallows. Return to oven and bake until marshmallows are golden brown. 

Diaper Cake

My boyfriend's sister is having her first baby in January and her baby shower was on Saturday this past weekend. Their mom asked me to be in charge of games which will be found here: Baby Shower Games. Since she asked me to help plan the baby shower, I wanted to create a diaper cake which is a tiered cake made out of diapers. **Warning: Diaper cake is not edible!!! It's mainly for decorations and part of my gift to her as well.

Final product. Got a lot of compliments on it!

Popular Baby Shower Games

This weekend I was in charge of baby shower games and I compiled a list of popular games for our party. It was a successful baby shower!
Here is a lis of the games we playedt:

1.   1. Don’t Say “Baby” or Egg Nesting

a.       Materials: Diaper Pins/ or necklaces

b.      Everyone gets a baby diaper pin and pints it to their clothes.

c.       Everyone tries not to say the word “BABY” at anytime during the party.

d.      When someone does say the word “baby” and another guest catches the slip, they get to keep the pin.

e.      The person with the most number of pins at the end of the party wins a prize!

f.    This can also be done with Easter Eggs. Each guest gets an egg. They must keep the egg with them at all times. If the egg is dropped or left unattended, another guest may adopt the egg. You cannot hide the egg or put it in your pocket. You can have a babysitter watch the egg. The person with the most eggs at the end of the party wins a prize!

2.      2.  Guess Mom’s Tummy Size

a.       Materials: Yarn/ String/ Scissors    

b.      Each guest pull the yarn to the size you believe would fit perfectly around Mother-To-Be’s center of her pregnant tummy. After everyone cuts their string, compare the results to the mommy-to-be’s actual tummy.

c.       The person closest wins a prize!

3.     3. Baby Word Scramble

a.       Materials: Pen and Print-out

b.      5 minutes for everyone to try to unscramble the words.

c.       The person who gets the most right in 5 minutes gets a prize.

4.   4.  Dirty Diaper

a.       Materials: 6 assorted candy bars, as many disposable diapers as candy bars, microwave, permanent marker, paper, pen for guests.

b.      Pass each diaper around and have each guest guess what the baby food is. By smelling and writing it down.

c.       The person with the most correct answer wins a prize.

5.      5.   Baby Animal Name Game

a.       Materials: Pen and paper.

b.      Everyone gets 5 minutes to write down as baby names for its young.

c.       For an example: Cat- Kitten

d.      The person with the most correct answers wins a prize.

6.     6.   Baby Food Game

a.       Materials: 6-8 jars of different baby food: meat, vegetable, fruit/ pen/ paper

b.      Cover the labels of several jars of baby food and number them.

c.       Give everyone a plastic teaspoon and have everyone sit in a circle.

d.      Select one of the number bottles and hand it to one guest who takes a small sample of it before passing on to the next guest.

e.      Each person writes down what they think that food was.

f.        The person with the most correct guesses wins a prize!

7.      7.  Finish the Baby Rhyme:

a.       Materials: baby rhyme sheet/ pen

b.      Write down the missing word of each nursery line.

c.       Have guests read aloud their answers and then you read the correct answer.

d.      Whoever gets the most correct is the Nursery Rhyme Champion and gets a prize.

8.      8.  Bottle Races

a.       Materials: baby bottles with milk/ alternate drink.

b.      Have each participant take a bottle filled with a liquid and suck the bottle as a baby would.

c.       The person who drinks the most in an allotted time wins!

9.      9.  Baby Shower Bingo Card

a.       Materials: bingo card print out, paper

b.      Make a master copy and cut it up into individual squares and put these squares into a hat and draw them out one at a time.

http://www.plan-the-perfect-baby-shower.com/babyshower-bingo1.html
or purchase the game at a local party store. 

Pizza Crust and Pizza Sauce

Who doesn't love pizza? I've made this recipe over and over again. First at Megan's house in 2010 and then at John's house! I've owed it to my friends to make them pizza for over a year now and we made it tonight! This is a simple pizza crust that helps the flavor of vegetables and other ingredients come through. The pizza tastes great and is good (whole wheat) for you, too!

It was a little chaotic this time around but we managed.

Three-Cheese Chicken Spinach Penne Pasta Bake

Three-Cheese Chicken Spinach Penne Pasta Bake

The first time I made this dish was at Megan's house and that was probably our first time baking/cooking together too!!! This is such an easy dish to make and I recently made it this weekend with my boyfriend and his friends! The recipe was found on Kraft.com.