Croci are blooming, new biscuit & gravy recipe & more....

It's spring! Yay! We've got dozens of purple and yellow croci blooming around the property as well as tons of tulips and irises poking their heads out. Oh yeah, not to mention The Rhubarb is back. I'm thinking we should have a rhubarb naming contest this year to finally stick a moniker on the beast....

A couple of new recipes this week-- a gravy for biscuits and gravy and a home-made mac and cheese (both with a southern twist, of course).

As much as I love biscuits and gravy (they are my favorite breakfast dish) I have never made them at the Cottonwood Inn before. I fished around online and found a good gravy recipe-- but it still had a few things missing. The biscuit recipe I use is out of the High Altitude cookbook, a great book for any cook to have. The gravy recipe I concocted reads as follows:

Serves 4

1 lb. pasture-raised pork sausage (please use only humanely raised meats, your food will taste so much better and your immunities will eventually thank you!) We use Beelers.

3 tablespoons of butter (you can use less if your meat is fatty-- Beelers tends to be a bit leaner)

6 tablespoons of flour

4 cups of milk

1 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper

salt to taste (we found very little was necessary)

1 small can Hatch green chilies (chopped up)Or fresh if you can get 'em!

Brown the sausage in a deep saucepan over med-high heat.
When there is no pink color left add the butter.
Sprinkle the flour over the melted butter/sausage mixture and then gradually add the milk-- stir briskly to keep the flour from clumping.
You can actually dump the green chilies into the milk and they will get added gradually.

Add your pepper and salt after you've added all the milk and the mixture is nicely mixed. Bring the heat up a bit and get your mixture to a boil. Let the mix boil for a few minutes until it has thickened to the consistency you like.

Pour it over your favorite biscuit recipe and fight over the left overs....

I thought this was just fantastic. Brantly isn't a huge gravy fan but even he had a biscuit slathered in the stuff.

The other comfort food we experimented with lately was some homemade mac & cheese. The recipe I found came off the Food Network website but I thought it lacked zip and catered more toward children's tastes. Here is my end result after slight tampering:

served about 6 healthy eaters

1/2 lb bag pasta (your choice of mac & cheese shapes-- I used Texas-shaped because I couldn't help myself)
3 tbs butter
3 tbs flour
1 tbs mustard powder
3 cups milk
1 finely chopped onion, medium
1 bay leaf
1 tsp chili powder (we used chipotle, but it was HOT)
1 egg
10-12 oz shredded cheese (I liked a blend of Monty-Jack and sharp cheddar, but anything you have in the fridge would work)
1 small can green chilies (or fresh!) of course
salt & pepper to taste

I've had this baked (which is nice with the crispy top) or just served it right out of the pot-- you decide how hungry you are and how long you are willing to wait.

If you decide to bake it, you can do it at 350 for 30 minutes or until desired crispyness.

Put your pasta to cook.

In a largish pot melt the butter and then whisk in the flower and mustard powder. You will be making a kind of rue. The recipe I used said do this for 5 minutes, but I think I did it more like 3. Keep it free of lumps and then stir in the milk, onion, bay leaf, chili powder, & green chilies. Simmer for about 10 minutes. Take out the bay leaf when done simmering.

"Temper" in your egg-- this means adding a bit of the sauce to the egg first and stirring and then adding the mixture into the pot.

If you are going to eat the mac out of the pot then toss in all the cheese, if not, reserve some cheese for a topping. Add this to your cooked (al dente)pasta and add your salt and pepper.

Yes, green chili and chili powder make EVERYTHING better!

So, other than cooking the news at the Cottonwood B&B is that Eva (our female dog) has turned into a genuine "egg-sucking dog". Yes, it's true. At first I blamed Winston, but I was shortly put to rights when I actually SAW Eva taking an egg from the hen house and burying it in the yard. We kept wondering why she came in every night with dirt on her nose....