LetsLunch Guilty Pleasures: Homemade Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

And we're back! After two months away from LetsLunch, I finally decided to get back in the game this month for guilty pleasures.

It was tough choosing my favorite guilty pleasure. I pretty much love all food that can be considered a guilty pleasure. Cake? I love it. Potato chips? I can't even keep them in my house anymore. Pizza? My favorite food since age 4. Large quantities of ice cream? Keep me away.

In the end, I chose the ultimate breakfast food: biscuits and gravy. Biscuits are one of those amazing foods that are so perfect and versatile, yet hold zero nutritional value.

Every so often, I make a big double batch of biscuits (I'm partial to this very simple Amateur Gourmet recipe) and freeze them. I'll pretty much eat anything on a biscuit: jam, honey, cheese, chicken, and of course, sausage gravy.

These aren't exactly your perfect, round biscuits (you don't have to roll them out), but they are tender and fluffy. I think they also hold up really nicely through freezing and defrosting.

For the gravy, you can use any gravy recipe you like. I usually more or less follow this one from Pioneer Woman. One of my favorites is to substitute breakfast sausage for a nice andouille or even a chicken sausage (you need to add a little more butter for that, since it doesn't produce as much rendered fat).

Keep it hot until you're ready to serve, then break open the biscuits and pile on the gravy.
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LetsLunch is a monthly meet-up of bloggers from around the world. Check out everyone else's guilty pleasures below, or by searching the Twitter hashtag #letslunch. Want to join us? Send a tweet introducing yourself and use the hashtag.
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Cheryl's Japanese Crisp Choco Bites at A Tiger In The Kitchen
Lisa's Mars Bar Slice at Monday Morning Cooking Club
Lucy's Cheesy Apple Casserole at A Cook and Her Books
Tammi's Pulled Pork Shoulder with Crackling Chips, Sauce and Slaw at Insatiable Munchies
Grace's School Cafeteria Peanut Butter Chocolate Bars at HapaMama
Ann Marie's Breakfast Club Sammy at Sandwich Surprise!
Lisa's Nutella Cookies at The Little Good Ride
Elizabeth's Purple Yam Jam at Asian In America Mag
Linda's Dark Chocolate Whoopie Pies with Raspberries at Spicebox Travels
Annabelle's Fresh Figs and Ricotta at Glass of Fancy

Eggs In A Hole for April LetsLunch

Just in time for Easter, our Let's Lunch group chose to make egg dishes for our monthly "lunch date" today.

I just got back from a great week in Orlando covering the 45th Pillsbury Bake-Off and visiting some friends (including my first trip into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!). So, I knew I wouldn't have much time this week for prepping a fancy egg dish.

Since joining Pinterest a few months back, I've been amazed by the number of eggs-in-a-hole style dishes I've come across. Eggs baked into toast. Eggs in a potato. Eggs in half of an avocado. It became kind of a joke for me, and I dedicated an entire Pin board to Eggs-In-A-Hole.

So, I thought it would only be fitting for me to finally try my hand at a fried egg in a toast hole today.

The bread I have at home right now is on the smaller side so I first made the hole using a small biscuit cutter.

The method for this delicious breakfast treat is super easy: you cut a hole into each slice of bread, then butter each piece. Heat a non-stick skillet, place the bread butter-side down, then crack an egg into the hole.

The first attempt: you can see the egg white sort of overflowed here. So I went back and used the next size up on my second toast.

When the egg sets on the bottom (three to five minutes), flip the whole slice of toast gently. I only left it on the other side for about a minute to let the other side of the egg set. But I'm a fan of runny egg yolks.

The best part about Eggs-In-A-Hole? Saving the cutouts to make an itty-bitty grilled cheese sandwich. I also sprinkled the leftover shredded cheese over my egg toasts.

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LetsLunch is a monthly "meetup" of food bloggers from all over! Each month we choose a theme, set a date and post on the day (it's usually the first Friday of the month).

Check out the posts from the rest of our group today:

– Cheryl's Chai Poh Scramble at A Tiger In The Kitchen

– Denise‘s Beet Dye & Pink Deviled Eggs at Chez Us

– Felicia‘s Perfect Sandwich at Burnt-Out Baker

– Grace‘s Scrambled Eggs & Tomatoes at HapaMama

– Joe‘s Kim-Chi Deviled Eggs at Joe Yonan

– Linda‘s Home-made Cadbury Eggs (Maple Chocolate Eggs) at Free Range Cookies

– Linda‘s Taiwanese Tomato Eggs at Spicebox Travels

– Lisa‘s Legendary Egg & Onion at Monday Morning Cooking Club

– Lucy‘s Old-Fashioned Boiled Dressing (& Chicken Salad) at A Cook And Her Books

– Rashda‘s Bombay Toasts (Spicy French Toasts) at Hot Curries And Cold Beer

Want to join us? Send us a tweet and introduce yourself using the hashtag #letslunch

What's your favorite egg dish?

Breakfast!

 

Now, normally, I'm not a big breakfast person. But lately, I've taken a liking to toast and eggs. 

I jazzed these up this morning and was so incredibly pleased with a) how easy it was and b) (and more importantly) how delicious it was. 

Super simple, can hardly even call it a recipe:

2 slices of bread or halves of english muffin. It would also be tasty on a biscuit or bagel. 

2 eggs

about 1/3 c shredded cheese (I had smoked gouda and it rocked)

about 1/3 c baby spinach leaves

Put two slices of bread or halves of English muffin in the toaster (or an oven set to 250)

Fry two eggs over easy. I like to leave the yolks a little runny, but cook to your liking. Season with salt, pepper and smoked paprika. Season *both* sides of the eggs! 

Split the spinach and the cheese and arrange on top of the toast. 

Plop an egg on each toast (quickly! you need the residual heat from the egg to melt the cheese in a hurry)

Enjoy your breakfasty goodness. 

And, paired with a big pot of coffee and some nice fruit, this would probably make a great brunch for 2.

Late night hunger, conquered by quinoa

I've had a small bag of quinoa sitting in my pantry for a few months now, and being hungry and not having grocery shopped since coming back from Disney, I decided late last night was the time to use some of it up. 

People have really differing opinions on how to cook quinoa. Mine's from the raw food bins at Whole Foods, so I rinse mine really well before using it. And since I'm usually not making much more than 1 cup at a time, I usually cook it stove-top with about 1.5 to 1 water to grain ratio. 

I seasoned this with some red chili flakes, season salt and paprika, brought it all to a boil and let it cook on med-high with a lid for 10-15 minutes until all the water is absorbed. I stir mine frequently throughout, to make sure the seasoning is evenly distributed and to check on the kernels to see if they've popped yet. 

I also sliced some string cheese into the quinoa and threw in a handful of cashews. YUM. The salty mozzarella brought out the seasonings, and the cashews complimented the nuttiness of the grains. I plan to make a larger batch of this tomorrow with some spinach and bake it so I can take it for breakfast next week!  

Red Quinoa dish:

1 c quinoa

1.5 c water or broth (or half/half - I used about 1/2 c homemade stock)

season to taste with paprika, season salt, chili flakes or other herbs of your choosing

1-2 string cheeses sliced, or about 1/3 c shredded cheese of your choosing

1/4 c toasted cashews (you could probably use any nut you had on hand for this)

Bring grains, water and spices to a boil. Cover and continue gently boiling 10-15 mins until all water has been soaked up, stirring occasionally. Layer cheese, quinoa, cheese, quinoa to help the cheese melt, then stir in nuts. 

Optional: mix in 3/4 c chopped dry spinach, and bake at 325 up to 10 mins.