Biscuits n Gravy

One of the world's absolute best food combinations. Biscuits, good. Sausage, good. Country gravy, too good for words. And I bet if you knew how easy they were to make, you would enjoy their comfort food goodiness much more often.

For the biscuits:
2 c. flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. shortening
2/3 c. milk

Heat oven to 350. Mix dry ingredients. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender until mixture resembles "meal". Stir in almost all the milk. If dough does not seem pliable, add enough of the milk to make a soft, puffy dough easy to roll out. (Too much milk makes dough sticky, not enough makes biscuits dry.) Round up on lightly floured board. Knead and handle lightly. Roll and pat out to about 1/2" thick. Cut close together with floured biscuit cutter. Gently fit leftover bits together and roll out again. Place biscuits an inch apart on a ungreased baking sheet and cook in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes.

Sausage and gravy:
Cook 8 (or more) patties of sausage over med-high heat in a large skillet. When fully cooked, remove to a paper towel lined plate to drain. Reserve sausage grease in the pan. Sprinkle flour over the grease to an equal amount to make a roux. (For example if you have 1/4 c. grease left in the pan, add that much flour.) Stir and heat until mixture is smooth and there are no lumps. No lumps in the roux means no lumps in the gravy. Slowly add milk, about a cup. Too much milk will make for a very flavor-less gravy. Continue to heat, stirring constantly until mixture is thickened. Serve immediately by topping each biscuit half with a piece of sausage and pouring a generous amount of gravy on top.

I MUST WARN YOU, it will probably take a few attempts to perfect making the gravy. Have a packet of country gravy mix handy the first couple times just in case you need it. ;) But once you get it right, you will never go back to those powdery packets again!


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