Home Smells Like Cooking: Week 7 Wednesday: Biscuits with Gravy and Sausage; Soulfully Good Pork Spareribs with Pineapple and Ginger / Italian Pasta Salad / Squash / Apple Pie

It's Wednesday of Week 7

It's Wednesday morning and up for breakfast is one of our all-time favorites - Biscuits with sausage gravy. These are so good they're almost sinful. Rich buttery biscuits with a perfect crumb topped with a thick, creamy peppery sausage gravy. Mmm!!

For dinner it's Soulfully Good Pork Spareribs with Pineapple and Ginger. I've made these a time or two. They are very good - the meat becomes so tender in the crockpot it practically melts in your mouth and the sauce is tangy and sweet with chunks of pineapple.

I am going to make Italian pasta salad on the side.

For dessert? Apple pie. An American classic. Rich, flaky butter pie crust stuffed with juicy cinnamon & sugar coated apple slices. Heaven. Absolute heaven.

Biscuits with Sausage Gravy

Soulfully Good Pork Spareribs with Pineapple and Ginger / Italian Pasta Salad / Squash / Apple Pie

BREAKFAST:

BISCUITS

1. I always bring my eggs to room temperature, so the first thing I do is put the 2 eggs in a bowl of warm water. The recipe also calls for buttermilk and since I use soured milk instead, I warm a cup of milk in the microwave and then pour a Tablespoon of vinegar in it. I preheat the oven to 425 degrees and let both the eggs and milk sit.

2. I put one cube (1/2 cup) of margarine, 2 cups four, 1 Tbsp Baking Powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda and a teaspoon of salt in the bowl of my stand mixer.

3. Mix it on low, scraping the sides with a rubber spatula until it is a crumbly, uniform mixture.

4. With the mixer still set on low, add the soured milk and eggs.

5. If the dough is too sticky, add a little more flour until the dough pulls away from the sides but not so much that it isn't very soft (it should never feel stiff or firm, just not sticky).

6. Grease a cookie sheet. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and if it's sticky, sprinkle it with flour. Then pat it into a rectangular shape about 1 - 2 inches thick.

7. I don't have a biscuit cutter so I just use the mouth of a cup, that is the size I like, to cut out circles and place them on a greased baking sheet.

8. When you can't cut out any more circles, gently gather the dough into a ball and re-pat it into a 1-2 inch thickness again and continue making more until you've used all the dough.

9. Bake at 425 degrees for about 12 minutes or until golden brown.

SAUSAGE GRAVY

I used to use a mix to make sausage flavored country gravy for biscuits, but after I taught myself how to make my own I would never go back to a mix. It's easy and it's far better.

1. In a medium sized greased skillet, cook a package of breakfast sausage over low heat. Use the edge of a fork to break it into pieces and move them around the pan.

2. Let the sausage cook slowly, moving the pieces around to allow pink surfaces of the sausage to directly touch the pan's surface until there is no pink left on any of the pieces.

3. Sprinkle a generous amount of flour over the meat (about 1/2 - 3/4 cup or so). Let it soak up the fat, using a fork to let the pieces of sausage be coated in flour.

4. Pour enough milk into the pan that the sausage is almost covered - with only the very tops of them sticking out. Use a fork or whisk to incorporate the fat-soaked flour into the milk.

5. Salt and generously pepper. Let it come to a light boil, stirring often scraping the bottom of the pan to prevent any burning or sticking. It will thicken and reduce as it cooks. So cook until it is the thickness of country gravy.

6. Serve over biscuits. ENJOY!

DINNER:

Soulfully Good Pork Spareribs with Pineapple and Ginger

1. Add apple juice (or sherry) and soy sauce to crockpot. Turn on LOW.

2. Add apple cider and ketchup to crockpot.

3. Add garlic and ginger.

4. Add brown sugar and stir slightly.

5. Place ribs in sauce.

6. Top with pineapple. Cook on LOW 8 hours or more, until ribs are fall apart tender.

7. ENJOY!

Italian Pasta Salad

1. Cook pasta according to directions on package.

2. Chop up some marinated bell peppers.

3. Cut pepper jack cheese into cubes.

4. Toss all together and add some sliced black olives.

5. Add some Italian salad dressing, toss well.

6. ENJOY!

DESSERT:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Peel apples.

2. Core and slice apples, I like to cut them into half again after using my apple core/slicer.

3. Place the apples in the pie shell.

4. In a large bowl (or mixer, I used my Ninja), pour in the granulated sugar and cornstarch.

5. Separate the eggs. Also cut a stick of butter in half and melt one half of it.

6. Also cut a stick of butter in half and melt one half of it.

7. Add the egg yolks and the melted butter to bowl (or mixer).

8. Add a dash of cinnamon. Mix until creamy and the sugar is dissolved.

9. Add the cream, milk and lemon juice. Blend until smooth.

10. Pour the filling over the apples and set aside.

11. Put the unmelted half stick of the butter (from previous step)and the brown sugar for the crumb topping into a bowl (or mixer, I cleaned, dried & used my Ninja again).

12. Add flour and cinnamon and mix until crumbly – there should be medium sized crumbs.

12. Sprinkle evenly over the top of the pie.

13. Place the pie on a baking sheet and put in the oven.

14. Bake for an hour and ten minutes or until crumbs are lightly browned. (Some of the filling may boil out onto the pan - but that's what it's there for!)