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Full Belly, Full Wallet

Category Archives: Breakfast

Doughnuts! – I <3 my fryer

02 Monday Feb 2015

Posted by fullbellyfullwallet in Baking, Breakfast, Vegetarian

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apple butter, deep fryer, doughnuts, filled, fresh, home made, James Beard, nutella, pastry cream

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All Hail the might one: James Beard!  I whipped up a batch of doughnuts using the recipe from his “Beard on Bread” book. (A book that I stole from my father, so sorry, sorry that I’m not sorry.)  If you’re looking for a starting point for any dish, after asking your Grandma, next look for recipes from people named Beard, Child or Waters, (listed alphabetically, not in order of preference.) I’ve yet to be disappointed.  Mr. Beard’s doughnuts were no exception.

This is less of a recipe and more of a sales pitch for in-home deep fryers, jeez I love having one.  This was my first go at doughnuts, thank goodness I had my fireman to help!

imageWe just rolled out the dough and cut it into squares (only because I don’t have any circle cutters…) then dropped it into the fryer.  They aren’t a really pretty shape, but who need looks when you taste so damn good?

A fireman approved afternoon snack!

A fireman approved afternoon snack!

Some were stuffed with pastry cream and topped with Nutella, the nectar of the gods.  The rest were stuffed with apple butter and topped with powdered sugar, you know, to be healthy.

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Eggs in Hell – what’s in a name?

12 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by fullbellyfullwallet in Breakfast, Tex Mex, Vegetarian

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breakfast, brunch, chipotle, eggs, poached, salsa, Tex Mex, vegetarian

I’ve been on a bit of a Mexican/Tex-Mex kick lately.  Luckily, Mexican is my fireman’s favorite food genre.  He spent all his summers working in construction during high school and college and was quick to adopt his co-workers tastes in taqueria cuisine as well as all the ‘colorful’ expressions that only North-Mexican construction crew could teach their token gringo.

This recipe is based on Robb Walsh’s The Tex Mex Cookbook, for ‘Ox Eyes’ or eggs poached in salsa.  Served with fresh flour tortillas (recipe from the same cookbook) and mashed pinto beans (my healthier version of refried beans), this is a great dish for breakfast or a vegetarian dinner.  And as I’ve said before, eggs really are a fantastic and affordable protein!

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If you wanted a great time-saver, you could use a jar of your favorite prepared salsa and jazz it up with a few herbs and have a great poaching-salsa for your eggs.

Eggs In Hell – served with mashed pinto beans and homemade flour tortillas

Serves 3-5 – cost approx $.75 per serving, including sides

Ingredients

  • 1 Tbs vegetable oil
  • 1/2 onion, minced ($.11)
  • 5 cloves garlic, minced
  • chipotle chilis in adobo, chopped, to taste – I used 2 and it was super spicy!
  • 1 can diced tomatoes with green chilis ($.50)
  • 1 cup vegetable stock
  • 1/4 bunch cilantro, minced, divided use ($.10)
  • garlic salt, to taste
  • 5 eggs ($.63)

In a large saute pan, heat the oil and saute the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes.  Add in the chipotle chilis, diced tomatoes, and vegetable stock.  Bring to a simmer and continue to simmer 5-10 minutes to reduce, making a yummy and spicy salsa.  Add garlic salt to taste and half of the cilantro.

Make sure the sauce is at a gentle simmer then make a small space or well in the salsa with a spoon and crack in an egg to nestle it into the sauce.  If you’re not confident in your abilities to crack an egg without getting any shell in you dish, go first into a small bowl, remove any shell pieces then pour gently into the sauce.  Repeat with the remaining eggs, spacing them evenly around the pan.  Put a lid on it and cook for 8-15 minutes, until the eggs are the consistency that you like.

DSCN5249I’m a soft-poached, runny-yolk sorta girl and my eggs took about 10 minutes.  Sprinkle with the remaining cilantro and enjoy!

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King Cake – an extra festive cinnamon wreath

12 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by fullbellyfullwallet in Baking, Breakfast, Southern, Vegetarian

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cinnamon roll, king cake, mardi gras

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It’s Mardi Gras time again!  I’m honestly more excited for Mardi Gras and some good Gulf Coast cookin’ than I am for a schmoopy Valentines Day.  Luckily, I get to cook us up some good southern eats and then have a completely un-sappy Valentine’s celebration with my favorite people.  The most excellent plan for this week is to try my hand at red beans and rice and baking a King Cake early in the week and have our house-tradition of ‘Pizza and Zombie Movies’ on Thursday, what’s not to love?

But today, it is time for King Cake!  Some of you not from the South may not be familiar with this Mardi Gras treat, so I will enlighten you!  I gather that this delicious cinnamon roll cake is made to celebrate a collection of different Christian events, including the birth of Jesus and the Carnival/Lent/Easter period of time and is eaten anywhere from Christmas to Mardi Gras.  As Mardi Gras (or Carnival, as it’s called in other countries) is a festival of excess before Lent, King Cake is most popular then.  Long ago, a dry bean was placed inside the cake to represent the baby Jesus, but now plastic or ceramic babies are popular.  The person who receives the piece of cake with the figurine is special some how; traditions range from that person being the Mardi Gras king or queen for the day to that person hosting the party next year, and so on.  Honestly, as a non-religious kid growing up in the South, I just remember getting to eat yummy cake that was violently Mardi Gras-colored in school, it was awesome.

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King Cake

Serves 8 – cost approx $.33 per serving

Ingredients

  • 2 lb rich egg dough – you can use brioche, challah, whatever you like for cinnamon rolls or plain white bread if you want to make it a little healthier.  I used the challah recipe in James Beard’s ‘Beard on Bread’ book.  ($1.25)
  • 1/2 stick of butter, melted ($.37)
  • 1 cup brown sugar ($.25)
  • Cinnamon – to taste
  • Nutmeg – to taste
  • 1 dry bean or ceramic baby
  • Rasins or toasted chopped nuts – optional filling
  • 2 cups powdered sugar  ($.50)
  • 1 Tbs lemon juice
  • food coloring or sprinkles in yellow, green and purple

Start by rolling your dough into a 1 foot square.  Paint the inside with butter, leaving a few inches plain along one edge.  Put the brown sugar in an even layer over the butter, sprinkle on the cinnamon and nutmeg and any nuts or raisins you may like.  Add in the bean or baby figurine.

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Roll up dough, finishing at the plain edge and seal the roll.  Roll the log smoothly to lengthen it to 1/2 – 2 feet long.  Form into a circle and let sit and proof for 20 minutes (or the length of time it takes for your oven to preheat).

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Turn the oven to 375 F and bake 30-45 minutes or until golden brown and delicious.  Let it cool.

To make the frosting, add the frosting, combine the sugar and the lemon juice with a whisk, slowly drip water into the sugar and whisk until a thick frosting forms.  Remember, it’s easier to add more water than take it out!  Either, separate out three bowls and color them with food coloring then drizzle the cooled cake or drizzle the white frosting on the cake and put the sprinkles on the wet frosting.

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Greek Quiche – potluck fun!

12 Wednesday Dec 2012

Posted by fullbellyfullwallet in Baking, Breakfast, Casseroles, Vegetarian

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cheese, eggs, feta, greek, quiche, vegetarian

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I’ve been struggling with my quiche recipes for a while now.  It really seems that there is no real way to ‘cheap out’ with quiche.  I tried to replace the cream with milk and I’ve tried to add less cheese, or less eggs, to cook it more or cook it less, but it’s never the perfect consistency.  But, dammit, sometimes I just crave quiche!

I guess that I’ll just have to do it decadently right.  Thank goodness I had an accomplice!  My awesome neighbor came over for a mini potluck dinner complete with copious picture snapping and vino.

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Greek Quiche

Serves 4 alone or serves 6 with sides, like the delish apple salad my neighbor brought!

This salad had feta cheese, apples, cranberries, avocado and poppy seed dressing, yum!

This salad had feta cheese, apples, cranberries, avocado and poppy seed dressing, yum!

Cost approx $.76 per serving

Ingredients

  • 1 pie crust – I use the Williams and Sonoma recipe, omitting any sugar for a savory application.  Any recipe you like will do, or store bought if you’re in a hurry. ($1)
  • 2 onions, thinly sliced ($.33)
  • 1 1/2 lb baked potatoes, peeled, 1/4 inch sliced ($.30)
  • 2 Tbs mint pesto – from when I got all those herbs!  But any herb pesto would be delicious in this recipe
  • 1 1/2 cups feta cheese ($.99)
  • salt and black pepper, to taste
  • 4 eggs ($.48)
  • 1 cup Half and Half ($.47)

Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Roll out the pie crust and lay it in a 2 inch deep 8 or 9 inch cake pan, crimp the edges around the top rim of the pan.  Prick holes in the bottom of the pie crust for ventilation.

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Lay a piece of parchment pan over the pie crust and put down pie weights.  [You can use anything to weight your pie crust, uncooked beans, metal nuts or a large can full of industrial staples like I do…]  Cooking a weighted pie crust is called blind baking, the weights keep the crust from shrinking or moving around.  Bake for 25 minutes, or until it is just starting to brown.

Saute the onions until they are a dark caramel color, remove from heat and stir in the pesto.

Whisk the eggs, half and half, salt and pepper together, just like making scrambled eggs.

To assemble the quiche, start by putting down a layer of potato slices, then sprinkle with the pesto onions and a handful of feta cheese.

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Repeat layering until all the ingredients are used up, ending with a layer of potatoes and a sprinkle of the feta (this is purely aesthetic, if yours doesn’t work out that way, I promise it will be just as delicious.)  Slowly pour the egg mixture over layered goodies and let the eggs seep all the way in.

Bake for 30-45 minutes or until the eggs are set.  In the immortal words of Chef Scott, my Baking and Pastry instructor, the way you tell that a quiche is done is that “It should jiggle, but it shouldn’t ripple.”  Remove from the oven and let set and cool for 5-10 minutes before you dig in.  Now you’re ready to open a bottle of wine with friends and enjoy!

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Three Sisters Hash – everything is better with a fried egg on it…

21 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by fullbellyfullwallet in Breakfast, Casseroles, Tex Mex, Vegetarian

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beans, corn, hash, Mexican, squash, vegetarian

As we all know, the Native Americans were much more clever about working with their environment than their Imperialist conquers, especially when it comes to agriculture.  Indigenous groups from what is now the United States to what is now Central America planted the Three Sisters: corn, beans and squash.

These ingredients are the perfect partners.  The corn stalks provide a structure for the climbing beans to grow on and the prickly squash leaves served as a deterrent to pests and predators.  Companion planting something, like corn, which depletes the soil with a nitrogen fixing plant, like beans, to replenish the soil’s nutrients preserves the fertility of the land.  Nutritionally speaking, the Three Sisters are also a great team.  The corn provides a filling source of starch, the beans provide hearty protein and the squash is packed with great vegetable vitamins and minerals.  The Three Sisters are great for us humans and great for the earth we all depend on.

I used the Three Sisters in a yummy and savory hash that would be great for any meal of the day.  I stretched out my ingredients with some potatoes and onions to make a big ol’ pan of hash then topped it off with a fried egg.  Eggs are one of the few protein sources that contain all of the amino acids we need, all packaged up in a tidy little shell!  What a lovely, healthy, vegetarian meal this turned out to be, well, except for my undying affection for bacon grease.

Three Sisters Hash

Serves 4 – cost approx $.82 per serving

Ingredients

  • 2 Tbs bacon grease or vegetable oil
  • 1 onion, medium dice ($.06)
  • 2-3 cups butternut squash, medium dice ($.63)
  • 3 cloves garlic, sliced
  • 4 russet potatoes, baked, medium dice ($.30)
  • 1 cup frozen corn ($.25)
  • 2-3 cups pinto beans, cooked – from 1 cup dried beans ($.50)
  • 2 scallions, minced ($.20)
  • 1/4 cup parsley, minced
  • 1 Tbs chili powder
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • salt and pepper – to taste
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp garlic salt
  • 3 oz cheddar cheese, shredded or sliced ($.69)
  • 4 eggs ($.40)

Preheat the oven to 375 F and grease a 9″x13″ pan.  Heat the bacon grease or vegetable oil in a large saute pan and cook the onion and butternut squash for 10 minutes.  Next, add the garlic and saute another 5 minutes.  Mix the sauteed veggies with the potatoes, corn, beans, scallions, parsley and spices.  Pour these goodies into the prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes.  Top with the cheese and bake another 10 minutes.  While the cheese is getting all melty and delicious, fry the eggs in a non stick pan and viola!

I ❤ over easy eggs!

Simple as Sin Apple Sauce and Apple Butter – Apple Bonanza!

15 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by fullbellyfullwallet in Basics, Breakfast, One Pot Wonders, Vegetarian

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Tags

apple butter, apple hill, apple sauce, caramel apples, day trip, sugar free apple sauce, vegetarian

Last weekend my fireman took me down the hill for a day trip to Apple Hill.  It was great, there were acres of apples to pick, tasty (hard) cider, the most sinful caramel apples I’ve ever seen, tarts and pies for miles, apple beer, pumpkin patches and apple fritters.  Tourist trap?  Yes.  Gleeful apple-picking fun?  Indeed.

Caramel apple covered in Heath Bar bits, it was the breakfast of champions…

This trip reminded me of all the wonderful things that you can make from apples.  As we took twenty pounds of them home, I thought I would try my hand at apple sauce and apple butter.  My obsession with all things canning is certainly linked to owning a copy of ‘Canning For A New Generation” by Krissoff, it’s full of great information for getting started canning and preserving safely (nobody likes botulism!) and incredible recipes.  It’s quickly becoming that cookbook with a worn spine and penciled in notes on every page.  That being said, I used Ms. Krissoff’s process for simple sugar-free applesauce and apple butter.

Canning anything is messy and time consuming when you’re a beginner, like I am.  But the tasty, tasty things you can make are worth every second you have to spend scrubbing blackberry pulp off your cabinets.  Before embarking on a canning adventure, it’s best to do a little research about how to prepare and process your food to make it shelf stable; as I learned, it’s much longer if you live at altitude.  Also, while canning is pretty easy to do, it takes a lot of ‘inactive’ time while things are bubbling and reducing and while cans are sterilizing, so set aside a healthy chunk of your day.

If you’re a canning virgin, I highly recommend the book I mentioned above,

(http://www.amazon.com/Canning-New-Generation-Flavors-Modern/dp/1584798645/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270921632&sr=1-1)

or checking out this basic guide by the nice people who make Ball brand canning jars.

(http://www.freshpreserving.com/guides/IntroToCanning.pdf)

If you notice that your finished cans are bulging or oozing throw them away, it could be infected with botulism which could make you very, very sick or very, very dead.

My pantry is filled with apple-love!

Simple as Sin Apple Sauce –This recipe will work for as few or as many apples as can fit in your pot!

Cost is entirely dependent on the price of apples!  I try to get them for $1 per lb or less.

Ingredients

  • Apples – I used mainly Newton Pippin apples, with some random ones we picked thrown in for good measure.

Special Equipment

  • Mason jars
  • Pasta pot
  • Food Mill or Ricer- optional, you just have to peel your apples before cooking them if you don’t have a food mill.

Core the apples and cut into 1 inch chunks, no need to be precise.  Put the apples into a pot and fill with water up to about half as high as your apples come up.  Heat the pot over medium heat and cook for 30-45 minutes or until the apples are mush, stirring occasionally.  Pass the apple mush through a food mill to remove the peels.  Now you have apple sauce!  It should last in the fridge for about a week.

If you want your apple sauce to be shelf stable you can process the apple sauce.   Return your apple sauce to the pan and simmer for another 5 minutes.  Fill your cleaned and sterilized canning jars with the apple sauce and submerge in boiling water for 15 minutes plus any additional time that may be appropriate to your altitude.  I process all my canned goodies in a pasta pot full of boiling water, it fits half pint (one cup) jars perfectly and I can simply lift out the perforated insert to drain the water and remove my cans instead of dealing with tongs or buying a special jar lifter.

As far as I can tell, apple butter is just a silkier, sweetened, spiced apple sauce.  It’s good for all sorts of things, like jazzing up any breakfast, (yogurt, oatmeal, spreading on pancakes or french toast…) adding into baked goods and incorporating into your savory dishes.

Home made yogurt with apple butter!

As I learned from the google box, apple butter is also a traditional American product, with roots in our colonial history.  I’ve never had or made apple butter before, so it was a very interesting watching the apple sauce slowly turn into something completely different.

Apple Butter

Makes about 8 half pint jars – costs approx $.83 per jar

Ingredients

  • 6 lb home made apple sauce ($6)
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar ($.41)
  • 1 Tbs cinnamon
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract – if you have a spent vanilla bean (i.e. you used the seeds in something else) you could totally put it in your apple butter, yum.

Mix everything in your slow cooker and heat on the low setting for 8 – 24 hours. (Mine took a full 24 hours!)  Leave the lid ajar or stick so that the apple butter can reduce, stir occasionally.  The apple butter should become smoother and change to a deep caramel color.  If you want a smoother texture, blend the apple butter with any sort of blender you have on hand.

Apple butter vs apple sauce. See the difference in color?

When it’s done, follow the canning and processing instructions above in the apple sauce recipe.

Chocolate Coffee Marble Coffee Cake – indulgent, mayhaps.

28 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by fullbellyfullwallet in Baking, Breakfast

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

baking, breakfast, cake, chocolate, coffee, coffee cake, marble, vegetarian

So, this recipe is just pretty much a combination of every addiction it’s socially acceptable for me to indulge in before noon: caffeine, chocolate and cake.  It always makes me think of this Jim Gaffigan stand up bit about our very American love of cake.

I always save my leftover coffee, you know that half a mug’s worth that nobody seems to drink.  When it adds up I try to make something out of it, and quite serendipitously, I saw a recipe in the most recent issue of Southern Living that used coffee in their icing.  It looked so good that I wanted to make a coffee flavored coffee cake, with a little chocolate thrown in for good measure.

This recipe uses the same basic recipe as the Cinnamon Streusel Coffee Cake I made a few weeks ago.  It’s just dressed up a little differently, but I still went for that ‘streaky’ look in my coffee cake.  This breakfast cake (let’s not lie to ourselves, love it, embrace it!) has a delightful coffee flavor, sweet and crunchy crust and happy little chocolate chip chunks; if it doesn’t start your day off right, I don’t know what will.

Chocolate Coffee Marble Coffee Cake

Makes one cake or loaf – cost approx $1.78 per cake or loaf

Makes 8-12 servings

Ingredients

  • 3 fl oz. milk ($.07)
  • 4 fl oz. coffee ($0 if you save your leftovers!)
  • 4 oz. (one stick) butter, melted ($.25)
  • 2 eggs ($.20)
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 10 oz., approx 2 cups, All Purpose flour ($.31)
  • 5 oz., approx 2/3 cup, granulated sugar, plus more for coating the pan ($.20)
  • 3/4 oz., approx 1-2 Tbs, baking powder
  • pinch salt
  • 1/4 oz, approx 1 Tbs, cocoa powder
  • 1/4 cup chocolate chips ($.25)

Icing

  • 1/4 cup coffee
  • 1-2 cups powdered sugar ($.25)

Preheat your oven to 375 F.  Prepare your bundt pan (or loaf pan or muffin tins!) with spray oil, making sure you get in all the nooks and crannies, then coat with sugar.  This gives a nice sweet crunchy exterior to your baked goodies.

Mix all the dry ingredients for the cake, except for the cocoa and the chocolate chips.  Then separately mix all the wet ingredients.  Next combine the wet and dry ingredients until just incorporated.  Here’s where the ‘marbling’ action comes in.  Separate your batter in half into separate bowls and mix the cocoa powder into one of the halves.  Now you have one half that looks coffee flavored and one half that looks chocolate flavored.  Now drop batters in large spoonfuls into your prepared pans, alternating colors and sprinkling the chocolate chips in at your whimsy.

The last step for the batter is to get a chopstick (or a barbecue skewer, or the handle of a fork, just something long and skinny) and swirl gently, slightly mixing the two colors of batter.  When I’m done, I like to give it a good tap or two onto the counter so that gravity helps smooth things out a bit.

Ready to bake!  Making a bundt pan took about 25 minutes, muffins will take less time, a loaf pan may take more time.  It’s ready when the top is lightly golden and a toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool on the counter, which is a great time to make the super simple icing.  You just whisk the coffee and powdered sugar together until it’s the consistency that you like.  I always make mine thick enough I could write a letter in it before it fades away.

See? The letter ‘O’, because other letters are too hard to do while taking pictures too…

Invert your cake onto a plate or cake stand and drizzle with the coffee icing.  Now it’s ready to slice into and devour.  See all the beautiful swirly marbled cake, so delicious.

Biscuits and Gravy – The Usual

12 Wednesday Sep 2012

Posted by fullbellyfullwallet in Baking, Breakfast

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

biscuits, breakfast, country, gravy, greasy spoon, Red Hut, sausage

As far as late-night texts go, I think my favorite one that I have ever received was one that I got last week saying simply ‘I want you to make biscuits and gravy.’ That put a big ol’ smile on my face.  The text was from my college buddy, Sasha, who I met during incidents which probably involved running from the campus police in the wee hours of the morning.  Since then we have both matured a little bit and now are successfully impersonating real adults; adults who happen to indulge themselves with somewhat gratuitous foodie talk when the mood strikes.

As a Texan, I’m quite partial to biscuits with a delicious, peppery, white gravy and was all to happy to indulge my friend’s request; this post will have to suffice until he comes to visit me this winter and I can make it for him for real!

This meal is also an homage to my favorite spot to get diner breakfast at the Red Hut here in Tahoe.  They serve ‘The Usual,’ which is biscuits with sausage gravy, hash browns and two eggs, all for dirt cheap.  I love this breakfast so much that I crave it for dinner too! If you ever find yourself in South Lake or Stateline, I would highly recommend stopping into the Red Hut on Kingsbury Grade, it’s usually got a few less tourists than their other locations.  All the firemen on my sweetie’s crew like to go here on winter mornings if they need a good stick-to-your-ribs breakfast before work, so I doubt you’ll ever leave there hungry.

Money-shot!

Flaky Country Biscuits -this recipe is adapted from Chef Scott’s recipe, my instructor for baking and pastry at Le Cordon Bleu, it is excellent with cheddar cheese in it too!

Makes 6 large biscuits – cost approx $.96 per batch or $.16 per biscuit

Ingredients

  • 9 1/2 oz All Purpose flour ($.30)
  • 1/2 oz salt
  • 1/2 oz baking powder
  • 3/4 oz sugar
  • 3 1/4 oz cold butter, cut into small cubes ($.20)
  • 6 1/2 oz milk or buttermilk ($.13)
  • 1 large egg ($.10)

Preheat oven to 375 F.  Mix all dry ingredients, then smoosh the butter in with your fingers or a pastry cutter until all pieces are smaller than a pea and the mixture is a little mealy looking.  Beat the egg and milk (or buttermilk) together then mix into the dry ingredients, knead gently until a loose dough forms.  If the dough is still sticky, add a little more flour.  Gently roll out the dough and fold it in thirds, wrap in plastic wrap and let sit in the refrigerator for 15-30 min.  After the dough is cooled, roll it out and fold it into thirds again, then put it back in the fridge.  Repeating the rolling and folding procedure helps make the biscuits flaky.  When you’re ready to bake, roll the dough out to about a 1/2 inch thick and cut into six even squares.  (I like squares because that way there’s no wasted dough.)  Bake for 15-25 minutes, or until golden brown and delicious.  ***I live at altitude, so my baking time may be different from yours, so check often because there’s nothing worse than a burned biscuit!***  Also, If you’re making the whole breakfast, you can bake your potatoes with the biscuits ahead of time like a clever cook 😉

Kitty likes to help, i.e. jump on counters when I’m not looking

The Usual – Biscuits with sausage gravy, hashbrowns and two eggs

Serves 2 – cost approx $.77 per serving

Ingredients

  • 8 oz breakfast sausage ($0 I got it for free with coupons!)
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 2 cups milk ($.32)
  • salt and black pepper
  • pinch nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp ground sage
  • 1 lb potatoes, baked ($.25)
  • 4 eggs – cook these however you like them best, whether that’s scrambled till they bounce, runny yolk fried goodness or anywhere in between! ($.40)
  • 2 Flaky Country Biscuits ($.32)

Cook the sausage over medium heat in a cast iron or sturdy sauce pan and crumble them into bite size pieces.  Cook until browned and the fat has rendered then remove the sausages.  Add the flour to the fat and whisk for a few minutes to cook the rouix.  Next, whisk in the milk, making sure there are no lumps.  Season with the salt and black pepper, nutmeg and sage, when it comes to a gentle simmer, add back the sausage.  This is quite happy to simmer on the back burner while you’re making the hashbrowns and eggs, if it gets too thick you can always whisk in a little water to thin it out.

As for the hashbrowns, I’ve yet to perfect the recipe but this has worked best for me so far.  (If you’re a fan of frozen hashbrowns, by all means use them instead.)  Heat a non-stick pan on medium high, coat with some sort of spray oil, such as PAM. Grate the potatoes on the larger holes on your box grater and put into the hot pan.  Now, and this is the hard part, just leave them be for 5 whole minutes!  It’s physically impossible to not touch them, so I try to just limit myself to poking at the edges and shaking the pan to make sure they’re not sticking.  Perhaps it’s my impatience keeping me from the perfect hashbrowns…  Really, go fold some laundry, or unload the dishes or something.  When it’s all browned and cohesive, flip the potatoes gently with a spatula and let them be undisturbed for another 5 minutes.  Season with salt.  Something good to keep your mind off touching the potatoes would be cooking the eggs now.

See? I can’t help but mess with them…

Yay, now it’s time to assemble, get out your favorite hot sauce, and dig in!

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