Scrambled Eggs with Sausage Biscuits & Gravy

An easy one, and a two-parter. What did you do to deserve this? You can thank Mere. Normally I probably wouldn't have put this recipe online, but one of her friends demanded that I put the breakfast up and that Mere's picture appear on the blog. So, feast your eyes on Mere.

Anywho, scrambled eggs. Not hard to make, but I do have my own way of doing it. It might be the same as everyone else's way but who knows.

Ingredients

2 eggs

1/4 cup milk

shredded/sliced cheddar

salt & pepper to taste

5-6 drops of Tabasco (optional)

This is all guesswork (for 1 serving) except for the eggs, because I usually just eyeball the amounts. If you have the patience to shred your cheddar cheese, good for you. If you are like me, I cut a few slices and break them into small pieces then toss them in. I mix up the eggs with a fork, using it like a whisk. Toss a pad or 2 of butter into a pan, use the fork to coat the pan with the butter, then pour the mixture into the pan.

Try to resist the urge to mess with the eggs too much. Just let them be for a few minutes, then try to flip the entire mixture over if you can. The key is minimal contact! If you make these eggs well, you won't need any condiments. I love em.

Now for the Sausage Biscuits & Gravy, a favorite for Dennis. He introduced me to them and they are so simple yet utterly delicious. All you really need is a pound of breakfast sausage, some flour & milk, and a package of biscuits (unless of course you want to make your own from scratch).

First, put the biscuits in the oven and while you're waiting for them to bake, you can prepare the sausage & gravy. Just cook the sausage however you normally would - break it up in the pan and stir it occasionally. Once the sausage is done and you have a decent amount of grease in the pan, add 2-3 tbsp of flour and pour milk in until it covers the bottom of the pan (try 1 cup and work your way up from there if you are uncertain). Stir the mixture around until a gravy starts to form.. it shouldn't take more than a few minutes.

And that's it! Dennis likes to spread his biscuits around the plate and smother them with the sausage gravy, whereas I like separating my food into quadrants (as evidenced from the picture above). Happy breakfasting!

Chicken Ravioli with Sage Butter Sauce

For a special occasion this week, D & I decided to use the pasta machinery that D1 got for us... I posted pictures on my old blog but it is some tricky machinery so I will gladly repost!

So! Here's a little romance for ya - back in the ole 2009, D & I were in Rome, Italy for our 1 year anniversary. We went to a FANTASTIC restaurant and had amazing food... Dennis ordered the pumpkin ravioli and he was never the same again. He talks about it all the time. So we decided to try pumpkin ravioli.

At this point you might notice that the title of this post is chicken ravioli. Yea. The grocery store was OUT OF PUMPKIN! Not even real pumpkin, just canned pumpkin - that's all I wanted, and I was denied. So I had to improvise. I knew we had chicken at home, so I grabbed parmesan and sage for the sauce and then I peaced out.

I looked up some chicken filling recipes when I got home and found one that looked pretty easy with the ingredients I already had at home.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter

1 stalk celery, finely chopped

1 carrot, finely chopped

1 small onion, finely chopped

8 ounces boneless chicken breast, cubed

2 tablespoons Chianti

1 egg yolk

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Salt and pepper

Sauté the celery, carrot, and onion in butter for about 3 minutes, the add the chicken and sauté for 3-4 more minutes, until the chicken starts to brown. Add the Chianti, cook for 2 more minutes, then remove from heat.

Put the whole chicken mixture into the food processor and pulse to chop. It should look kinda like chicken salad when it is done. Pour it into a bowl and add the egg yolk, cheese, salt and pepper. Then use the mixture to fill the ravioli.

We lay out the pasta in sheets and use cookie cutters to make a circle, then put a little lump of the mixture in the circle and fold it in half. Press the edges down to seal them, then cut the edges with a ravioli cutter.

The finished ravioli... one of MANY.

Once you have all of your raviolis, drop them in boiling water for 6-7 minutes. It takes a long time to make each individual ravioli but it's satisfying to eat them knowing how hard you worked, and it's also really rewarding to hear your guests tell you how awesome your meal is. 

Plate sans salad. Note the Boh.

Now for the Sage Butter Sauce.

Ingredients

4 tablespoons butter

8 sage leaves

1/2 lemon, juiced

1/4 cup grated parmesan

I'm going to post the directions exactly as posted because I kind of just tossed them all together and hoped for the best since I was in a huge rush. It was still really tasty!

Melt butter in a 12 to 14-inch saute pan and continue cooking until golden brown color ("noisette") appears in the thinnest liquid of the butter. Add sage leaves and remove from heat. Add lemon juice and set aside. Drain the pasta, but leaving some cooking water, and gently pour into saute pan and return to heat. Add the cheese, toss to coat and serve immediately.

The spread. Note the sage butter.

ENJOY!

Here are the links for the chicken filling recipe & the sage butter recipe.

Easy Lasagna (No-Cook Noodles!)

We made lasagna for dinner tonight, which was off the hook in case you were wondering. I have used this recipe before and it makes the seemingly daunting task of lasagna-making much easier because you don't have to cook the noodles. We made it a little differently since we made our own noodles... that's right you heard me. Made the dough by hand and cranked it through the pasta machine. Boo ya.

Ingredients

1 pound lean ground beef OR 1 roll of sausage

1 (32 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce

32 ounces cottage cheese

3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

2 eggs

2 teaspoons dried parsley

salt to taste

ground black pepper to taste

9 lasagna noodles

1/2 cup water

Brown the ground beef in a large pan, drain the grease, and then add the spaghetti sauce. Let it simmer for 5 minutes. Dennis decided to switch things up and use hot sausage instead. It was a good substitute!

Mix the cottage cheese, 2 cups of the mozzarella, 1/4 cup of the parmesan, eggs, parsley, salt and pepper in a large bowl.

Now use a 9x13 inch baking dish and spread 3/4 cup of the sauce mixture in the bottom. Cover with 3 uncooked lasagna noodles, 1 & 3/4 cup of the cheese mixture, and 1/4 cup sauce mixture. Repeat the same layers twice. Top with 3 more noodles, the rest of the sauce mixture, and the rest of the mozzarella & parmesan. Add 1/2 cup water to the edges of the pan then cover the top with aluminum foil.

Put the pan in the oven for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove the foil and bake for 10 more minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving so you don't burn yourself.

This lasagna is great and has a lot of servings. It's even better if you have some garlic bread to scoop up the extra gooeyness that will inevitably ooze out. :) Will feed at least 4 strapping young lads.

Side picture so you can see the layers! Here's the recipe from AllRecipes.com.