Biscuits and Gravy

One of the few Southern foods I love is biscuits and gravy. While I spent a few years in the South I'm a California girl through and through so it was a totally novel food the first time I tried it. 

I love Alton Browns biscuit recipe. They always come up fluffy and are absolutely delicious. 

Because I hardly ever have buttermilk on hand I cheat and add about a tablespoon of lemon juice to the cup of milk. 

You just stir it in and let it sit while you prep the rest of the ingredients.  Because biscuits work best when the milk is super cold let it sit in the fridge. 

The other thing I don't have is a biscuit cutter.  I just use a drinking glass.   Even with these accommodations the recipe works great and is delicious! 
I usually don't end up with a full dozen probably because my glass isn't exactly the right size to play a biscuit cutter.  But 11 biscuits are more than enough for the two of us.

While these are delicious with butter, honey or just by themselves let's be real in this post the biscuits are a gravy delivery device.  So because there are just two of us on the house and I do not need to eat biscuits and gravy for a week here's where the recipe goes a little off the rails with tradition.

  I started with 3 Farmer John sausage links in a medium skillet.  I broke them up into small pieces like you would when browning ground beef.  Since there was not much grease in the pan I did not drain. 

I added about a half tablespoon of butter and let it melt.  Then I added 2 tablespoons of flour and stirred it in well.  I then added a cup of milk. 

Because we use low-fat milk I pour about 3/4 cup of milk and then add 1/4 cup of half and half when making white sauces to bring up the fat content a little bit for better thickening and flavor but keep it reasonable so that I don't feel sick later.

  I stirred the mixture constantly over medium heat until it began to thicken and then added a dash of onion powder (apx 1/8 tsp), a pinch of salt (apx 1/16 tsp) and about a tablespoon of ground pepper. 

Then I sliced a biscuit in half warmed it up in the toaster oven for a few min and spooned that marvelous gravy over the top.  So good.