While I’ve shared a basic Southern gravy recipe here before, if you’re thinking of making biscuits and gravy it can’t be done with restaurant style gravy. It must be made with sausage gravy.  Sausage gravy is a Southern staple.  It can be found in nearly every restaurant and diner in the South and the Southwest and is undoubtedly made in nearly every home in the area as well.

Nothing quite compares with biscuits and gravy.  It’s not a fancy meal.  It shouldn’t be made into a fancy meal.  It’s peasant food at its best.  Pure, simple and filling.  It is food born from a need to feed a family with only what was on hand and feed them well.

This is my mother’s recipe.  I have not adapted it, modified it or otherwise mucked with it.  On the contrary, I’ve invested over 20 years of my life trying to perfect my mother’s technique. At first I tried to make it my own. These attempts resulted in some pretty good gravies, but they just weren’t “right.”  It’s taken a long time, but I think that if my mother was still with us, this gravy would make her proud.

The real secret behind sausage gravy is in both the sausage and in the way it is cooked.  The sausage used in this dish should be of the bulk store variety and preferably be very fatty. Also, low, gentle heat should be used to cook the sausage.  This low cooking temperature allows the fat in the sausage to completely render out of the meat.  The resulting grease is the heart and soul of a great gravy.  It ads the base flavor, body and character of everything that comes later.

Another key to success is in cooking the sausage properly.  The aim here isn’t to just barely get your sausage cooked through, but to take it just a tiny bit past that point.  At the end the sausage should be slightly dry.  It should then be strained for at least five minutes through a fine mesh sieve or colander and the drippings should be reserved.

From this point making sausage gravy is an identical process to any other flour-based pan gravy.  Return the oil to the pan, add flour and brown, season, add milk and stir, stir, stir!  I use all-purpose flour in my gravies, but there are those who swear by Wondra.  I’m not going to judge, but I’ve never ended up with lumpy gravy, so all-purpose is just fine by me.

Of course a gravy of this caliber needs something to be lavished upon.  The go-to (and highly preferred) vehicle for gravy delivery is the plain ol’ buttermilk biscuit.  The light, flaky, multilayered biscuits of the North are not appreciated here.  The gravy just makes them soggy and they don’t have the right texture.  You gotta have a biscuit with some heft to it.

And there, my friends, you have it.  The ultimate experience in breakfast, brunch or late night munching fare. The culinary pinnacle of flour, milk and flavor.  A humble food that deserves a place in every kitchen.  My mother’s sausage gravy.  Give this a try the next time you’re craving a little love. Trust me, there’s a lot of love in this recipe.

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Popularity: 5% [?]

Beef Ribs.  For me, the very mention of this wonderful finger food immediately conjures up memories of the massive wood fired pits I became accustomed to in Texas.  Those BBQ places that actually had ribs on the menu were few and far between, but they were invariably my favorite places to eat.  Brisket is great, but for me ribs are far more succulent and I was there for the grease-covered jaw gloriousness of the affair.

Sure, you can be completely civil and eat ribs with a knife and a fork, but where’s the fun in that?  Part of the experience with bone-in foods is the sheer joy of foregoing the flatware and getting down and dirty with your meal.  It’s just fun!  The kids love it too, and there’s always room for a few chuckles and good-natured ribbing (pardon the pun) about messy faces and lack of manners.

While I usually smoke or grill my ribs, this particular version was made in the oven with a balsamic dressing.  The flavors are amazing, the meat it fall-off-the-bone tender, juicy and absolutely sumptuous.  I don’t think I could have done better in my smoker, and the flavor that the balsamic vinaigrette adds to the beef is both subtle and stunning at the same time. This is a definite keeper.

Are you a fan of the K.C. Style, sauce covered ribs or, spicier Louisiana style?  If you’re like me, sauce just covers the flavor, but we’ve all got different tastes. What are yours?

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Popularity: 3% [?]

Sometimes the aim of a dish is simply to get something on the table that everyone will eat.  Add-in that you have a house full of kids who cringe at the thought of anything made with vegetables and it can become an issue.  The answer?  Cover those veggies in something they’ll gobble up so that the dog doesn’t get fed under the table.

This is one of those dishes that has its roots in necessity more than any plan of culinary greatness.  it was designed to be something that my whole family would eat with a minimum of funky faces or groans about how nobody in the house but me likes broccoli or mushrooms. (They do like mushrooms, but not if they know they’re there.)

The simple solution was to smother everything in a nice, creamy Alfredo sauce, with the addition of some lightly sauteed mushrooms for some extra body.  Not only did the kids eat their vegetables, but they asked for more!

This recipe was created for the FoodBuzz Family Bites series, sponsored by Newman’s Own products, so the sauce used was not my usual classic Alfredo, but in this case I don’t think that was an issue at all.  The kids loved it, from the 11 year-old picky eater to the 3 year-old with a diet of four items total, all enjoyed this dish. (And the sauce was pretty darned good for a cream based Alfredo.)

In the end, i’ll give this meal a 5 for creativity, but a 10 for kid-friendly, and that’s what it was all about.  Give it a try with your picky eaters and I hope you get the same results!

What’s your favorite simple kid friendly meal?  We’d love to hear about it. (Especially me, because my kids are extremely picky!)

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Popularity: 3% [?]

Simple, quick and tasty.  That’s what comes to mind when I think of this salad.  The sweetness of honey, the tang of mustard and a good hearty blast of sweet red grapefruit make this a sure-fire winner on even the hottest day. It puts a smile on my face every time I make it.

It only takes a few minutes to put this together, which makes it a great choice for a quick lunch.  Alternately, just pack up the ingredients separately and assemble it right at your desk in a few seconds for a light alternative to a standard office lunch.

This recipe was created for FoodBuzz Family Bites. The ingredients used were provided by Newman’s Own, which is why there is a brand specified, but any Honey Mustard dressing that you love, whether home made or store bought will work wonders here.

On a final and unrelated note, my recipe for Chili Stuffed Cornbread is a finalist in the RO*TEL Across America recipe competition.  I’d love it if you could pop over and vote for it.  I’d love for it to end up in the top three places. (Winning would be nice, too!)  You can vote once per day up until June 30th, Show some love!

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Popularity: 3% [?]

Summer dishes should be quick.  Who wants to stand in a hot kitchen when you could be out enjoying the weather or escaping the heat in the pool?  There are other, better uses for your time in the long days of summer than standing in front of a stove. (Unless you happen to be a food geek like me of course.)

Heavy meals and warm weather make for terrible bed fellows. A great warm weather meal should also not weigh you down and make you feel sluggish, it should entice the palate and nourish both body and spirit. I think this dish manages to do all of these things.

This dish mingles the heady flavors of fresh baby bell peppers and tomato with the light texture of gently poached cod and just enough rice to make it a more than substantial dinner or with a bit less rice, a great lunch.  It’s a simple meal to make but tastes like something that has had hours of love and caring poured into it.  It’s definitely something I would be happy serving to friends or family on any given day.

Poaching the fish directly in the sauce brings everything together into one unique whole, but still allows the individual flavors of the ingredients to stand out. If you love fish, peppers and tomatoes, this is one dish you really must try.

This dish was prepared as part of the FoodBuzz Family Bites series, so be sure to go check out what others came up with in their series of family friendly meals.

What’s your favorite fish recipe?  Do you prefer smoked, grilled, poached or fried.  We’d love to hear about it.

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Popularity: 3% [?]

With temperatures in the high double and low triple digits, it’s time for lighter meals that pack a ton of flavor without being heavy.  This dish provides all the flavor you could ever want and mingles it with an abundance of color and simple preparation.  From idea to plate in less than five minutes and no stove required.  It’s the perfect summertime snack.

I made this dish as a part of the FoodBuzz Family Bites series featuring Newman’s Own products, and as part of the program, I dressed these lovely veggies in some of Newman’s own Olive Oil and vinegar salad dressing that they provided, but any good vinaigrette will do marvelously, especially if it has a good bit of zing to it.

While a three ingredient salad may seem a bit minimal, I promise that this dish is perfect summer fare.  It’s light, crisp, cool and flavorful.  All things that appeal to me when it’s blazing hot outside, but don’t let the lack of ingredients stop you from adding anything else that makes you smile to the dish.

Goat cheese would have been a welcome addition, as would queso fresco.  A little green onion or red onion would have been nice as well, but they aren’t necessary.  If you’ve got a few fresh tomatoes hanging out, they would add a wonderful acidic note to the party as well.  Have fun with it!

What’s your favorite summer salad?  Is it a classic slaw or an iceberg salad?  Do you prefer potato or macaroni salad as a quick summer snack?  We’d all love to hear what you crave in the summer months.

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Popularity: 3% [?]

It’s grilling time here in Northern California. While this normally means making up a batch of burgers or dogs to appease the always-starving hordes of small people running around our house, every once in a while it’s also time to get seriously creative and try something new and completely different.

This recipe is inspired completely by my wife.  We were discussing her preference for thinner burgers vs. the thick ones that my boys and I generally prefer when she stated matter-of-factly “If they’re stuffed I like them thick!  you should have tried the feta stuffed lamb burgers I had the other day. “

I couldn’t argue that feta stuffed lamb sounded amazing.  In fact, since I had a freezer full of ground lamb that had been diverted from another recipe I wasn’t equipped to handle right now, it sounded absolutely perfect.  Feta is always on hand and low and behold, I even had some buns tucked in a corner.

Armed with the most fantastic method from Savory Sweet Life on how to form the perfect patty (which is also the ultimate method for making a stuffed patty) and a circle cutter just slightly larger than the buns I was using, I set out.

This method of forming patties is remarkably simple and yields absolutely perfect, uniform patties every time.  My circle cutter is pretty tall, so we ended up with 4 very substantial patties.  If I’d used a lid as suggested in the original article I probably would have ended up with 6 or 8 but big is good when feeding pre-teens and I was happy with the results.

I decided that I needed something besides the standard lettuce, onion and tomato topping and opted for thin slices or cucumber and radish.  The boys still went for lettuce which is fine by me, but for my tastes these toppings were perfect.

Note, there were no condiments used here. These burgers were more than juicy enough to stand without them.  If you really must have some kind of sauce, try tzatziki or some yogurt with a squeeze of lemon juice and dill or mint.  You definitely don’t want to overpower the burgers themselves.

What’s your favorite grilling recipe?  Are you a burger and potato salad type or do you go for chicken, pork or ribs?  Have you ever made a stuffed burger? We’d love to know!

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Popularity: 8% [?]

I Love SPAM.  I do.  It’s silly, I know but I can’t help it and I really don’t want to help it.  I’ve made SPAM dishes on CbsoP before and I’m sure I will again… In fact I have a new dish that features SPAM all lined up and waiting for a sunny day.

That’s one of the best things abut SPAM. It’s like smoked oysters, sardines, olives or pickles.  You buy it and it’s just sitting there waiting for you when you have the urge for it.  Shelf stable is good, and especially good if you’re in a crunch for something to make in a hurry.

This dish is actually brought to you by the fine folks at Hormel, who emailed me to ask if I’d be willing to get in on a program they’re running called the “SPAM: Dish This! program.”  Of course my answer was well, thought out, cordial and written in a welcoming, but not to eager tone…

Oh who do I think I’m kidding?  I answered back with barely enough restraint to keep the “Hell Yes!” out of my response. Someone offered me free SPAM!  I ain’t turning that offer down for anyone.

Of course the FTC requires that I disclose that I was given product to work with, so here’s the legal stuff before I get into why of all the things I could have made, I chose an extremely simple sandwich…  So, in the words of the Legal Department:

To participate in the SPAM: Dish This! program, I was provided with complimentary samples of SPAM product and merchandise, valued at approximately $35. Hormel Foods did not tell me what type of creations I should make nor did they require me to use any specific ingredients. My statements reflect my honest and truthful opinions and actual experience.

There.  Now that we’ve got that out of the way; on with the subject at hand.  The wonder meat in a can, the glorious, jiggly, bright-pink SPAM.

As promised, the guys from Hormel sent along a package containing a few varieties of SPAM.  It also included a SPAM spatula and a hand painted art tile depicting a can of SPAM that I’m not going to show you because you would want it really, really badly and I can’t find one anywhere to send you to, which is a bummer because it’s COOL.

Upon closer inspection, there was one package in the box that I wasn’t prepared to see.  Among the classic, low fat and individual-serving sized containers was a tin of Bacon SPAM.  I’d never heard of this particular variety, but since I was specifically asked to make a sandwich with some part of the package, I saw “bacon”, thought “BLT” and this post was born… sort of.

I didn’t want to make a standard BLT, I wanted something a little different.  I also just happened to have some of my favorite little sourdough rolls handy, which are perfect for sliders.  Also, the bacon flavor in this product is very subdued even after cooking, so to give the whole thing a deeper, richer flavor I added some Worcestershire sauce to the equation.

In the end, this was the perfect combination, or at least was for me.  I took care of both of those sliders in one sitting and had another today. (In penance I swear I’ll have salad for breakfast and lunch for the next week!)

Do you love SPAM as much as I do?  If not, WHY NOT?!? what’s your favorite way to cook/make/serve the stuff.  I’d love to know.

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Popularity: 4% [?]

This recipe is inspired completely by my wife, who told me about something similar she had in Turkey shortly after her return there.  It’s nothing more than Squeezed lemon, a bit of mint and sugar with boiling water added but like so many simple dishes the final product is something that is somehow ethereal and infinitely sublime.

Perhaps it’s that this simple drink looks as magical as it tastes.  The mint leaves and lemon pulp swirling slowly in the glass are equally as enticing as the combination of sweet, sour and savory that greets your tongue when you take a sip.  sure, it could be made with perfectly strained lemon juice, but why in the world would you do that?  It would take something away from the experience in my opinion.

I have no idea what the Turkish name for this drink is, nor does my wife (Nor can she find the restaurant she had it in again.).  I’ve searched all over trying to find it, but haven’t been able to, so if anyone knows the proper name for this drink, please let me know.

Thanks to Oz for letting me know that this drink is called “Nane-Limon” or simply “Mint Lemon”.  I’m glad to have the proper name of the drink, but whatever you want to call it, it is extraordinary!

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Popularity: 46% [?]

Before anyone starts anything, I know that you probably have your own ideas on what makes the perfect grilled cheese sandwich and I’m pretty sure that this one isn’t it. For me though, nobody will ever make a more perfect grilled cheese sandwich than the one I’m discussing here.  Why?  Because my son made it and you can’t top my son’s very first grilled cheese sandwich for the perfect sandwich.

Sure, I helped a little and I stood by while he made it, but this is Lil’ E’s moment, not mine.  this almost 12 year-old is taking his first steps towards learning to be independent (and avoiding the pitfalls of an all fast food diet in college).  It’s an amazing thing to be the one teaching him  some of the skills that will help him through life. And he did a pretty darned good job for a first try, don’t you think?

Please be aware that I’m all for a panini-pressed masterpiece of good aged cheeses and all varieties of additions from ham to prosciutto or veggies and tomatoes, but around the Russell house a grilled cheese sandwich has a few well defined criteria:

1. It’s cooked in olive oil, not butter.  This makes for a crisp sandwich that isn’t slathered in butter.

2 .It must be over-stuffed with cheese.  Cheddar cheese. sharp cheddar is preferred

3. It also must be messy, gooey and dripping copious amounts of cheese all over the eater and the plate.

In all, you are free to have your grilled cheese in any manner you choose.  This particular sandwich will stand out in my memory as the best I’ve ever seen for quite some time, I’m sure.

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Popularity: 6% [?]