Homemade Biscuits and Gravy

Our family loves breakfast!
We love breakfast for dinner as well!

This biscuits and gravy recipe is super simple to make and packed full of flavor. It's perfect for breakfast or breakfast for dinner.

We generally have sausage in the freezer, so its a great meal to make as we have all the ingredients on hand. It also doesn't take long to prepare or cook, so it works out if you need a meal in a hurry.

What a great combination of biscuits and gravy together. Some people break up the biscuit and pour the gravy over top. Some split the biscuit and half and pour the gravy. Or simply just pour the gravy over the whole biscuit and break it up as its being eaten.

I simply make drop biscuits for the biscuit part of our meal. You can also use biscuits in a can, but once you try homemade biscuits, you won't want to go back. It only takes a few minutes longer to prepare.

Biscuits and Gravy

For the biscuits:

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 tbsp sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup milk

Directions:
Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl. Add the shortening and mix in so the mixture looks like small clumps. Then add the milk and stir together. Use a hand blender to mix all the ingredients together. Drop the dough on a greased baking sheet and bake at 450 degrees F for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Yields about 12 biscuits.

For the gravy:

Ingredients:
1 lb of ground sausage
1/3 cup of flour
3 cups of milk
Black pepper to taste, about 2 tsp.

Directions:
In a pan, brown the ground sausage until fully cooked. Chop up into small pieces for the perfect size for your gravy. If there is a good amount of grease from your sausage, drain off the grease. If not, skip that step. Once the sausage is cooked, slowly add the flour to the sausage. Gradually stir so that the sausage gets coated with the flour. Add the milk and pepper and stir occasionally until thickens, about 10 minutes. Add more pepper to taste if desired.

PRINTABLE RECIPE HERE

What a simple and easy meal for breakfast.....or dinner! For a bigger more complete meal, also serve bacon, eggs, and fruit.

This post is sponsored by Clabber Girl Baking Powder but my

 thoughts/opinions are always 100% my own.

Parmesan Herb Roasted Potatoes

We always enjoy freshly dug potatoes from the garden and look forward for them to be ready! These Parmesan herb roasted potatoes are one of our favorite ways to fix the new potatoes and add to our meal.

Every year we plant several hundred pounds of seed potatoes. We like to plant Yukon Gold, Kennebec, Irish Cobbler, Pontiac Red and All Blue potato varieties. We plant them in April and about mid June check, we like to dig some to check on size. A lot of our customers like the smaller fresh potatoes. This past week, we dug a good amount and enjoyed them with our dinner.

My farmer really likes to have potatoes with our meals and likes them prepared several ways, but this recipe of Parmesan herb roasted potatoes is one of his favorites.

Parmesan Herb Roasted Potatoes

Ingredients:
2 pounds of new potatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 dried onion
2 Tbsp butter
Sprinkle of parsley

Directions:
Clean potatoes and cut them into bite size pieces. Place potato pieces in a mixing bowl and add the olive oil, garlic powder, thyme, oregano, basil, Parmesan cheese, and dried onion. Mix potatoes, oil, cheese, and herbs together to the potatoes are coated well. Place potatoes spaced out on a baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees F for 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from oven and mix in the butter and sprinkle the potatoes with parsley before serving.

PRINTABLE RECIPE HERE

We love eating from the garden and look forward to harvesting what we have grown. These potatoes are definitely a favorite among what we prepare from the vegetables we harvest. 

Quick Breakfast Puffs

I was looking forward to looking the Rumford Complete Cook Book again this month to try another recipe. It is fun to read how the recipes are written from 1908. This time I picked the Quick Breakfast Puffs. I always look for easy breakfast ideas for the kids, sometimes needing something that is "grab and go."

After making these Quick Breakfast Puffs, I definitely think they would be great for breakfast!! My kids loved them too!

The Quick Breakfast Puffs recipe is on page 120 of the Rumford Complete Cook Book. Below is the photo that is in the cookbook.

Here is my version of the recipe. 

Quick Breakfast Puffs

Ingredients

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1 Tbsp melted butter

1 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp Rumford Baking Powder

1/2 tsp salt

Directions

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs well. Then add the milk and melted butter and mix. Add the flour, salt, and baking powder to the liquid mixture and beat with hand mixer for roughly 2 minutes. Pour the batter into a greased muffin pan, or add muffin liners.  Bake at 450 degrees F for 15 to 18 minutes. 

PRINTABLE RECIPE HERE

They have a light and fluffy egg taste and are so yummy! Cut in half and add a little butter or some bacon and cheese for a complete breakfast. 

This post is sponsored by Clabber Girl Baking Powder but my

 thoughts/opinions are always 100% my own.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

One of my favorite summer desserts is homemade Strawberry Rhubarb Pie! I am a big fan of fruit pies, so this is one I make every summer when we can harvest the ingredients right from my own garden. The combination tartness from the rhubarb and sweetness from the strawberries is just SO delicious. Paired with the crust from the pie making it truly a summer dessert must have!!

Our strawberries in the garden and producing so good! We have a decent size patch and the end of May/most of June we enjoy strawberries fresh from our own patch. This is the second year for our rhubarb plants and they are producing good stalks as well for us to harvest! What better way to use both the strawberries and rhubarb than in a pie!!

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Ingredients: 
Crust:
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. Clabber Girl Baking Powder
1/4 tsp. salt
10 Tbsp. butter, cold and cut into chunks
4 oz. cold water

Filling:
2 Tbsp. Clabber Girl Corn Starch
2 cups fresh rhubarb, chopped
1 cup granulated sugar
3 cups fresh strawberries, sliced
2 Tbsp. butter
1 egg white
2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla

Directions:
Pie crust:
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the chunks of cold butter and mix the butter into the flour using a pastry blender. Continue to do this until the mixture looks like bread crumbs or small pieces of butter. Add the cold water and stir it into the mixture so that it all sticks together. Clump the dough all together to form a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1-2 hours. You want the dough chilled and cold, but not hard.

Roll out the dough to a 13 inch circle on a lightly floured surface. Save some dough for your top lattice strips.  Lay the circle of crust dough in your greased pie dish. Roll out the remaining dough and cut into 1 inch wide strips for the lattice top and leave aside until fruit in the pie crust.

Pie Filling:
Whisk Clabber Girl Corn Starch together with 1/4 cup water until well blended. Combine with the rhubarb and sugar in a medium pot and heat until thickened. Then add to strawberries. Add the vanilla and stir all together. Then let sit for about 30 minutes for your filling to thicken. Pour the fruit mixture into the pie crust. Add the butter chunks on top.

Arrange the crust strips in a lattice pattern over the fruit mixture and press the strip ends into the crust. Brush the egg whites onto the top of the crust strips and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 400 degrees F for about 35 minutes or golden in color. Let cool for filling to settle and thicken.

PRINTABLE RECIPE HERE

 This post is sponsored by Clabber Girl Corn Starch but my

 thoughts/opinions are always 100% my own.

What is the difference between onions and how they grow?

Growing onions is simple. Poke a hole in the ground and plant a small onion plant or an onion set and you're on your way to a great onion crop, grown easily. So what are the different types of onions, how do they grown, and what are they used for?

Different types of onions can be grown from seeds, sets, and plants, with planting from seed taking the longest to mature as it starts out much smaller. For green onions, plant onion sets. For larger red, white, or yellow onions (sweet onions) plant onion plants.

Which onion is right for you to grow?

Onion sets are small, dry bulbs that are grown the previous year. They are the easiest to grow. When you buy a bag of onion sets, simply pop them in the soil, cover slightly so the tops are showing, and the onion quickly starts to grow. They are sold as white, yellow, or red onion sets and are grown for green onions or left in the ground a little longer to form a onion bulb.

Onion plants are best if you are wanting large, firm onion bulbs. You'll most likely find the plants bundled together around groups of 25 or so. These plants are grown from seed the year they are sold. They are pulled and bundled to sell and grow for larger onions. To plant these onion plants you simply can did a trench and lay them in. Straightening the plant and covering the end with soil as you completely plant them. Generally they are planted in the spring and harvest large onions in the fall. These onion plants come in an assortment of different varieties like, Walla Walla, Candy, Red Candy, Yellow Spanish, etc. You would choose the right varieties that fit the needs you are looking for in onions (short day, long day, sweet onion, best for storage, etc).

Onions are always a must on our "To Plant" list every year! We plant both onion sets for green onions  that we pull and harvest in spring and mid summer, as well as onion plants, that we plant in the spring and harvest the large sweet onions in the fall and later in the growing season.

If you don't already grow onions in your garden, be sure to add them in the following years to come! They are super easy and great to cook with!

Corn Casserole

I always love a good side dish to go with out main part of our meal. This simple corn casserole recipe is a great companion to any meal or perfect to take to any potluck dinner.

We just got done planting our second round of sweet corn this past week. Our first planting is coming up nicely. We plan to plant 2 or 3 more sweet corn plantings throughout the rest of the early summer to be able to harvest sweet corn continuously in the upcoming months.

We sell out sweet corn at our local farmers market and also include it in our CSA weekly basket shares. Then at some point in our sweet corn harvest I put up a good amount in the freezer to enjoy during the late fall and winter months.

Using sweet corn from the freezer is great for this recipe! You can also used canned corn. The recipe is super simple and a great way to enjoy sweet corn from the garden or to make it any time of the year.

Corn Casserole 

Ingredients: 

10 oz can corn, drained or about 1 1/2 cup frozen sweet corn, thawed

10 oz can cream-style corn

1 egg, beaten

1/3 cup milk

1 stick of butter, softened

8 oz box corn bread mix 

Directions: 

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium mixing bowl, add all the ingredients together and mix well. Pour mixture into a 2 quart casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes. Add shredded cheese on top if desired. 

PRINTABLE RECIPE HERE

Add a sprinkle of shredded cheddar or Parmesan cheese add in another flavor. Yummy!

Enjoy!!

Apple Turnovers

A simple grab and go breakfast, a dessert after a meal or a snack, apple turnovers are a great recipe to make! A childhood favorite continuing and make for my kids as well. Everyone loves them!! The delicious pastry outside with a hint of sugary icing on top. Then when you bite inside you get the gooey deliciousness of the cinnamon apples!

Apple turnovers for me go way back! I remember my mom, aunts, and grandma getting together one day and preparing and backing up big batches of apple turnovers! My cousins and I would help anywhere we could. We would make up several eat then and for each family to take home to put up in the freezer for later. I continue to do this today for my own family as everyone loves them! My daughter enjoys helping make them too! She rolls out her own crust and works at making her own turnovers. They are even great to take to the field for dessert. 

Apple Turnovers

Crust:

Ingredients:
5 cups flour
2 cups + 4 tablespoons shortening
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 eggs
1 packet yeast

Directions:
Mix together the flour, shortening, and salt. Dissolve the yeast in slightly warmed sweetened condensed milk. Let stand for a few minutes and then add the beaten eggs. Mix together with the flour, shortening, and salt mixture. For a ball and leave in refrigerator overnight.
Set crust ball out in room temperature. Roll out thin. Cut circles for the turnover crust. Use any shape depending on what size you want your turnovers to be. I use a small bowl for my circles.

Filling:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 dozen apples diced
1 Tablespoon flour
1 Tablespoon cinnamon

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together in a large pot and cook until apples are tender. I put a little bit of water at the bottom of my pot.

Directions for Turnovers:
Place 1 tablespoon of filling in on each turnover crust piece. Fold over the crust and press the seams down with a fork. Dip fork in flour to prevent crust from sticking to fork. Brush a little melted butter on top of each turnover before baking.

Optional: Sprinkle with sugar before baking.

Bake at 375 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. Recipe makes about 3 dozen turnovers.

Optional: If you didn't sprinkle sugar before baking on each turnover, you can also make a glaze from powdered sugar and water and drizzle over top of the turnovers after they have cooled. (This is how I have done it in this post).

PRINTABLE RECIPE HERE

The apple turnovers can easily be split over 2 days to make as well. One day make the crust and the filling and the next day cut out the individual crusts and bake them all. They are so tasty freshly baked, but will also keep for a few days after as well. They are great for freezing!

If you love to bake with apples, especially in the Fall season like I do, then be sure to add these apple turnovers to your recipe list!

Our chickens sure enjoyed the apple peelings too!

 This post is sponsored by Clabber Girl but my

 thoughts/opinions are always 100% my own.