For Lennie

[Bama]

Homemade Biscuits

2 cups self-rising flour (I use White Lily)
1/4 cup shortening
7/8 cup buttermilk (1 cup minus 2 T)

Heat oven to 450 F. Lightly grease baking sheet (we use an iron skillet). Cut shortening into flour with pastry blender or fork until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add buttermilk and stir with fork only til dough leaves sides of bowl. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead just until smooth (biscuits will be tough if you handle the dough too much). Roll out to 1/2" thickness and cut with floured round cutter (you can also use a small glass). Place on baking sheet and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.
I usually brush tops of biscuits with butter or a little milk before I bake them.

For cheese biscuits, add 1 cup grated cheddar cheese, 1/2 tsp dry mustard, and 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper to flour before adding buttermilk.

[Bama]

I don't really measure when I make gravy, but this one is close to how I do it.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food ... index.html

IMHO, sausage make a better gravy than bacon, but we use bacon grease when we're having bacon.

At work, we use a black pepper gravy mix and crumble cooked breakfast sausage into it. Pretty good for when you're in a hurry at home too.

[Bama]

Meant to say, buttermilk makes the difference in biscuits, IMO. My MIL used cooking oil in her biscuits instead of shortening, but mine never turn out right with it. DH can make them like hers. She was famous for her biscuits.

[lendube]

Lori, thanks so much! Dh will be impressed when I tell him how authentic they are. I imagine the recipes have been in your and dh's families forever. I'm shopping for food this week, both Costco and regular, and I'll pick up what I need. Don't usually keep buttermilk and pork sausage around. And I'm actually completely out of flour too since I've been playing with my bread machine (not too successfully, I might add. I have our elevation to thank for that!) I don't believe I've ever seen White Lily flour around here. I'll just use good ol' Gold Medal Self Rising, I guess. I'll make them next weekend hopefully. During the week dh is on his own for breakfast!

And the cheese biscuits sound terrific! Mmmmm, with chili.........with soups........with lots of stuff!

[Mom of Six]

Lennie I keep a box of powdewred buttermilk in my fridge. when you add water I can't tell the difference in recipies. I buy it in the baking section by the baking powder & soda.

[Bama]

Cheese biscuits are even better to me. Sometimes I brush them with garlic butter before baking. They are good with chili or soup. My nephew begs me to make them when he spends the night here. He can eat a dozen by himself.
I'm not a huge breakfast food fan, but it's DH's favorite meal. His mother always cooked a big breakfast. I would rather have cereal or oatmeal.

I hope your DH likes it. I should add that you don't have to use all of the fat left after you cook the sausage, to brown the flour for the gravy. I just leave 2 or 3 spoonfuls. It's fattening enough as it is.

[lendube]

I'm glad you mentioned about the fat, Lori. The less the better for all of us.

And Barb, never heard of powdered buttermilk. I use the powdered regular milk for my bread machine but never looked for buttermilk. I will tomorrow when I go to the regular grocery store. Thanks. It could come in handy.

[lendube]

Found it, Barb! It was expensive, over $5.00 but should last a long time. Same brand you have? Saco Cultured Buttermilk Blend? Oooo, buttermilk pancakes! Good for bread machines! Looks like an old time brand. I'll check out their website. Thanks, Barb!

I'll let you guys know how successful my attempt at Lori's recipe is......

[Mom of Six]

That's the one! I use it in a pudding I make that has Madarin oranges, cookies & cool whip mixed into a very thick vanilla pudding.

[lendube]

Well, I feel really fat right now! Dh called it a winner, Lori! He was very pleased and had seconds. The biscuits were wonderful. I didn't realize that I had butter flavored shortening but I've found it to be really good (i.e. not fake butter flavor tasting) and it seemed to work just great. I baked the biscuits (I had 13) for 14 minutes at 450 degrees in cast iron but I think they could have used one more minute but no more. At our altitude everything takes longer to bake, boil, etc. I also added a bit more flour to the gravy since it was pretty thin. I couldn't believe it but there was barely a teaspoon of fat from cooking the sausage. It was regular ol' Jimmy Dean, not low fat or anything. Surprised me! The buttermilk powder seemed to work just fine.

I had two biscuits with a very small amount of the gravy. I've never had more than a bite before. I then had a biscuit with butter and strawberry jam. Yum! Dh ate 5 biscuits with gravy and made a point of telling me how much he liked it. He was not just being nice! I haven't cleaned up yet so I'll have to see if more biscuits are missing (for jam this time) when I get down there.

Thanks again, Lori. I'll keep these recipes around for sure. I'll make the cheese biscuits sometime soon too. I've got a bit of a mess but it's not too bad. It all went together pretty quickly.