White gravy is a staple of Southern cooking. In the South and Southwest we use it to top everything from biscuits to French-Fries. Every family has its own unique method of making Gravy, and most families will tell you theirs is the best gravy ever made. (They’re all right, by the way. It’s a family thing.)

Then of course, there’s the stuff you get in restaurants across the country. In the South and Southwest it’s pretty close to what’s made in homes all across the area but once you start moving North, the story changes. The gravy starts turning into a floury-tasting ooze with all the culinary soul of preschool paste. This affront to gravy is usually made from a pouch or bag by someone who has never had real Southern gravy and has probably never cooked anything for themselves at home.

Some companies have obviously noted that this foul mix needs more attention. I’ve seen it labeled as “Southern style with ham” in which tiny bits of processed ham are added in an attempt to mask the utter blandness of it all, and I’ve seen the same done with bacon and sausage.

It doesn’t help, it’s still awful and there’s no getting away from that. It’s usually too thin. It sets up like mortar if not eaten promptly, and is usually used to hide even worse attempts at biscuits or other southern staples.

So restaurant owners, listen up and let me tell you how to do it right! I was raised on white gravy, and I just can’t take it any more!

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Popularity: 37% [?]

Texas has its own rules when it comes to cuisine. I’ve seen foods here that I’d never heard of prior to meeting and marrying a Texan, then moving to her state as well. (O.K. She’s an Expat, we’re just stationed here, her license plates are Alaskan.)

This little gem is a tribute to football games, warm Texan nights and the fact that foods, especially snack foods, change by region.

Ladies and gentle-people, I give you the venerable Frito Pie!

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Popularity: 2% [?]

Ever since I made my version of Kielbasa Stew from the recipe at La Mia Cucina, I’ve been dying to try out a version that used different types of sausage. Knowing that, I suppose it was somewhat advantageous that a tummy bug caught hold of me earlier this week, and that a good soup was the only thing on my mind. It was also fortunate that even though it was the day before payday, I had everything I needed in the larder to whip up a soup.

You keep calling it a soup. I thought the recipe was for sausage stew?

OK, you got me. It is a stew, but only in light of the absolutely outrageous amount of meat and chunky veggies it contains, and the fact that they were stewed. Usually I would have made a roux before adding the stock, but as I said, I was having tummy trouble, so I avoided thickening the broth at all.

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Popularity: 2% [?]

So simple, yet so satisfying. Pound cake has got to be the simplest recipe in the baker’s repertoire. A pound of flour, a pound of sugar and a pound of butter. How in the world this simple set of ingredients becomes something as sumptuous as the cake Mrs. seat of Her pant made this weekend I’ll never know. but I’ll enjoy it!

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Popularity: 1% [?]

It’s been said for a very long time that chicken soup is good for a cold. It’s been proven that the vapors help with congestion, but I still think it’s the comfort factor that makes us feel so much better when we’re under the weather.

Mrs. seat of her Pants was down with a bug over the weekend and the only thing she could tolerate was soups and broths. In true style, she fussed at me that I didn’t need to go out of my way to make her anything “special” and that she would be quite happy with the soup in the little red box.

Powdered soup… For my sick wife… I don’t think so. Read more…

Popularity: 8% [?]

Beef and tomatoes go together just as perfectly as pork and apples. One of my favorite methods of preparing a Round Roast is braising, since the meat has little fat and tends to be tough without the proper love and attention paid to it.

To top it off, it just doesn’t get a lot easier than this. It’s almost a “Set it and forget it” kind of main dish, which is always great in my opinion. Read more…

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If you say beans in the southwest, it’s taken for granted that you mean pinto beans. In Tex-Mex cooking they serve ‘em up refrito, or refried, you get ‘em in the stores with or without jalapeños, or kick ‘em up a bit with some chili powder and cumin and call ‘em Ranch Style.

Up in Oklahoma where my family hails from, you serve ‘em with ham hocks or bacon, with cornbread and fried potatoes on the side. Of course, you can serve what you’d like, but I’ll stick with my old standby. Read more…

Popularity: 5% [?]

I’ll just start out by saying, this is not a fancy recipe. These are the fried potatoes I grew up eating; made in a cast-iron skillet and fried in bacon grease over controlled heat. The recipe isn’t complicated, but mastery of it takes time. A lot of time.

In my case it took somewhere around 10 years.

There are no times associated with this recipe. In all actuality, it’s more a set of guidelines. You have to be able to feel when it’s time to move on to the next step. It’s not hard, but it’s not easy, either. It’s kind of like walking, simple as an adult, but it was a bugger when you first started doing it! Read more…

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I was trolling my usual food blog haunts the other day when I stumbled across a post about cast iron pans and cornbread at The Homesick Texan. I realized two things very quickly. One, she has as much dislike for sweet cornbread as I do. Two, I hadn’t made cornbread in quite a while.

For those of you from the northern climbs; In Texoma we make our cornbread for dinner. It’s not a dessert item and therefore has no sugar. (I know she would disagree and say all of Texas, but I’ve been served sweet cornbread more than once since I moved here. and since I’ve never visited Southern Texas, I can’t speak for them.) Read more…

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I’ve learned a few things over the weekend.

I’ve learned that the very first workout you’re going to get from your new Ab Lounger is going to take place when you assemble it. I’ve learned that if you want to make stuffed mushrooms and get them done all the way through you should roast the mushrooms first. And I’ve learned that no matter what you tell yourself, the tastes of your youth are something that will never let you down.

I stumbled across my mothers’ old York Cookie recipe while I was digging around in some paperwork that had absolutely no business having a recipe attached to it. (I scribble on envelopes sometimes.) It wasn’t long before my fear of baking was overcome by my dire need to have one or three of these tasty, fluffy, crumbly little delights, and it was off to the market to pick up some fresh lemons for juicing. (Mom used the really fresh kind… The little yellow squeeze bottle with leaves for a tag, but I figured I’d go low-brow and use fresh lemons.)

Note: I’ve adjusted this recipe to make enough dough to cover a full sheet pan. If you’re using a 9×13″, you can half it, or it will require 2 9×13″ pans.

What I wold have done differently had I thought about it at the time:

Well, nothing really. The cookies came out fantastically. My only issue is that spreading York Cookie batter is just slightly less difficult than spreading mortar on a wall with a toothpick. This is a very sticky dough, and none of my utensils wanted to play nice with it. At one point I thought of abandoning the whole idea and eating the dough raw.

In the end, I got to relive several moments of my childhood. Especially the ones that concern the smell of York cookies wafting through my house and the smile on my mother’s face in the light of our little kitchen window. Even after 8 years I terribly miss that smile sometimes.

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