Holy Moses, SOO busy.

We have been jam packed, full to the brim--with business. With school, work, weddings, dogs, and everything else in this life, summer clothes are now on clearance...which means summer is coming to an end.

I've been learning sooo much in school, and while I could impress you with my new fancy french terms, I'm just gonna show you how to make good ol' southern style biscuits and gravy. Paul and I aren't huge breakfast fans. Neither of us ever eat breakfast in the morning and neither of us are huge breakfast-for-dinner people. We have both recently discovered, however, that we share a love for biscuits and gravy--any day, any time. In college (the first time around) you could never, ever catch me up in time for breakfast (or class) during the week--but come Saturday brunch I could almost definitely be found in the dining room chowing on a HUGE plate of biscuits and gravy.

I've never really had any idea how to make gravy (this biscuits part doesn't seem so hard, especially when you're a fan of frozen bread/dough products) until last week at school when we started making sauces. I will now share with you, from my masterful, sauce-trained, culinary mind, step-by-step, picture-by-picture instructions on how to make some of the tastiest, most yummiest sausage gravy everrrr.

Start with the biscuits, get them baking.

Gather your sausage.

Throw it in a hot skillet, over med-high heat.

Mash it all up.

Keep on mashin'.

Until it gets nice and brown and yummy and golden and crispy. Drool.

Pull the sausage from the pan and set it aside, leaving the grease in the skillet.

I added butter to get a little more fat in the pan, my sausage didn't produce much grease. If you have greasy sausage, you may not need the butter. You'll need about 3 tablespoons of grease/fat.

Add 3 tablespoons on flour. We are now making a roux. (Oooh, fancy culinary term. A roux is fat and flour...a thickener..)

Whisk your flour into your grease until not clumpy (I don't have a non-wire-whisk...so I used a spatula...whatever works.)

I forgot to take pictures of a few steps...It gets a little hectic at this point. Slowly whisk in 3 cups of milk, then toss in the sausage. It will look a little thin, so let it sit for a bit to thicken...if it doesn't thicken up, mix more flour and melted butter then pour it in. (1 tablespoon of flour to 1 tablespoon of butter.)

Flavor with lots of salt and pepper (to taste.) (By the way, TT means "to taste"...not 2 tablespoons. People in my culinary lab did not know this.)

Tear open your biscuits and glop the gravy on top. Yum.

Drool.

If you like a recipe:

(This will make enough for about 6 biscuits)

6 biscuits

1 lb. ground sausage

3 cups of milk

3 tablespoons of flour

1 tablespoon of butter (you may need more or less depending on the fattiness of your sausage)

coarse salt

pepper

Brown sausage in medium skillet on med-high heat.

Remove sausage from skillet, leaving drippings in the pan.

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter into skillet.

Whisk 3 tablespoons of flour into melted fat until not lumpy.

Slowly add 3 cups of milk into skillet.

Add sausage into gravy.

Let thicken for 5-7 minutes, serve over biscuits.

(Again, if it doesn't get thick after this time--mix 1 tablespoon of melted butter and 1 tablespoon of flour, then pour into gravy and whisk until not clumpy. Let thicken again. Continue to do this until desired thickness is reached.)

The end.

Heaven on a plate.

martha would be proud. (part 2 of 2)

My final new thing, and my most favorite is my herb garden! Browsing through Target a couple of months ago, my thumb was feeling very green. I passed through the $1 Spot, where they had everything I needed to plant my very own herb garden (something I've been wanting to do for a very very long time) all for only $4! I can't wait until my herbs are mature enough to start using in my cooking, but with this lack of sunshine and way-over-rainyness, they are now struggling to survive and not drown--although I think they will pull through.

Oregano

Chives

Basil

My lone Parsley...

it's just taking a little longer than the others.

I realize my herb garden is tiny, and really isn't much to brag about...but it's definitely huge for me! It will be time to transplant them into bigger pots soon...I'm hoping to go to Lowe's today, if Paul will let me.

While I was photographing my herbs, I discovered that my tiny little garden is very pathetic compared to the little old lady downstairs' garden:

martha would be proud. (part 1 of 2)

Two posts in one week? Oh my!

This post is all about newness...and since it's about newness, I have loads of new pictures of new things.

Gracie has always loved looking out the window. In Florida it was easy for her--she would sit for hours just looking out the slider door window. Unfortunately, in our Kentucky apartment when you look out the slider window, all you see is a blocked in porch. Then, she started standing on her hind feet with her little front paws on the windowsill looking out the window. She has now started this:

Thing two. My kitchen has been a mess since we moved in. It is a really awkward space. Not much counter space with a very empty corner for a breakfast nook. Now let me just say that we have a dining room that doesn't even have a dining table in it, so there is no way we would have (or have a need for) a breakfast nook table. So here I am, with this too small kitchen with no storage, and a HUGE empty dead space. Then comes newness number 2:

A lovely shelf system.

I have one more new thing, which also happens to be my FAVORITE new thing..but that will have to wait until a later date--I have to check on my roast. Yes. A roast. Martha would be so proud.

Stay tuned for Part 2.

celebrities and hot dip.

I am a horrible blogger, this I know.

After a long long lonely day (Paul took an impromptu trip to Nashville for work today) of cleaning, laundry, and many episodes of Gilmore Girls (I've decided to watch all the seasons from the very beginning, a co-worker is letting me borrow them :]), I decided it was time to post something on here.

(This is the long version of the story. If you want the short version, scroll down and read the part in bold.)

This past weekend I had my very first Kentucky Derby experience. The last time we lived in Louisville, we arrived a month after the Derby had passed and left a month before the Derby began again. Bummer. This time we were here for the entire Derby experience. Although we didn't go to Thunder over Louisville (the BIGGEST fireworks show in the country), we watched it on TV and it was pretty amazing...we'll definitely be going next year. The day before the Derby there was a big festival on the waterfront, where Gavin DeGraw was playing...and it was FREE! We decided to go to that, to get into the Derby spirit, of course, and because it's GAVIN DEGRAW! Hellooo. Anyways...after arriving downtown it started POURING and pouring, and freezing, and winding, and pouring. Needless to say, as much as we loveee Gavin, we decided he wasn't quite worth hypothermia and pneumonia (sorry, Gavin)...and he's gonna be here again in June for free. After leaving the freezingness we decided to go down to 4th Street Live and do some bowling. Upon arriving at 4th Street, a member of our party had to go to the bathroom, and since Subway wouldn't let non-customers use their bathroom, we decided to go in the Hyatt. After using the bathrooms, we met back up in the Lobby where we spotted a nicely dressed guy and wife with security guard. We then came to the conclusion that it MUST be a celebrity in town, of course, because of Derby Weekend. A friend, Leslie, was SURE he was a member of the very very famous country band Rascal Flatts, but she couldn't be positive and definitely didn't know his name. After many minutes of trying to secretly stalk said guy and wife around the lobby while Google-ing Rascal Flatts band members on our phones...Paul just decided to go up to him and ask if he was in the band. Low and behold, HE WAS! He introduced himself as Jay DeMarcus from Rascal Flatts as he shook all of our hands. His lovely wife Allison introduced herself and offered to take our picture on my phone! Ahh! It was exciting (although I'm not a country fan, it was my first random celebrity encounter.)

This is the short version of the story for all those who didn't want to read the long version:

We ran into Jay DeMarcus from Rascal Flatts at the Hyatt downtown Louisville!

Paul, Me, Jay, Leslie & Phil.

I've been taking lots of pictures of new meals I've been cooking lately. I have many meal pictures stored on my camera and I've just been waiting for the perfect time to post them. Since it's spring and the weather has been so lovely as of late, I d

ecided to make a summery, refreshing chilled avocado and crab soup that I found from a recipe book one slow boring day at work. Sounds delicious, huh? Not so much. Paul can vouch for that one...eek. So instead of a delicious summery, refreshing soup...I will share a delicious, summery (and wintery, falley, and springy...all seasons!) dip.

This is my mother-in-law's recipe...with a few added tweaks to make it my own. So good...it's called Buffalo Chicken Dip. Mmmm.

Ingredients:

2-3 boneless chicken breasts, boiled, shredded.

2 packages of cream cheese, softened. (You can use full fat, or less..your choice!)

3/4 cup buffalo hot sauce (although the original recipe says you must use Frank's brand..I used Kroger and it was just fine.) You can adjust the amount depending on the spice factor you enjoy.

1/2 cup ranch dressing

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar.

Mix shredded chicken with hot sauce and spread evenly on the bottom of a 9x9 baking dish.

Mix together cream cheese and ranch dressing, layer on top of chicken. (In the pictures I mixed the chicken mixture with the cream cheese, but it turns out better as the recipe directs.)

Top with even layer of cheese and bake for 20 minutes on 350. (I forgot to take a pic of the finished product...it was just SOO good!)

Serve with tortilla chips or celery sticks.

Exciting news...

Just a quick little update before Paul and I start watching American Idol...

I got a phone call last night with some very good and exciting news! I am one of three people being awarded a full scholarship to Sullivan University for Culinary Arts! I'm so very excited to go back to school and study something I absolutely love and sooo grateful for the financial help--without it it wouldn't be possible.

I'd like to thank Paul for eating all my failed attempts at creative meals.

I'd like to thank Southeast Christian Church for the scholarship.

I'd like to thank my family for continually making fun of me when I was younger for my lack of cooking skills and burning water.

I'd like to thank Gracie, my loyal beagle, for constantly standing at my feet while cooking and eating up all the dropped scraps. Even onions. And jalepenos.

I'd like to thank everyone in the future that I will eventually cook for.

That's all. American Idol now. :)

Several Points..

I've been trying to think of something to blog about for the past few days--then suddenly today I have SO MUCH, I don't know what to choose. Such dilemmas in my life.

Disclaimer: This entry may seem very random and out of order, but will hopefully all come together in the end.

Point #1:

I've been in a baking kick lately. This is very weird for me because I am not a baker. At all. I'm more of a cook, I just throw stuff in and skip the measuring...so baking requires way to much patience and science for me. Now that I've started my job as a baker, I've been on quite a kick to learn as much about baking as possible. I'm working on it...and hope to get there soon, but as of right now I'm failing (failing at home...I do okay at work with all the fancy equipment and real, true bakers to tell me how things go.)

Point#2:

I've been trying lately to become a more organized wife, grocery shopper, and recipe keeper. Ideally, I'd like to have planned dinner menu's for each week, which would result in actual grocery lists which equals greater money savings which equals better, more organized wifey. I also want to make a new fun meal every Thursday (since Thursday is my day off and I have all day to perfect it.) I found this amazingly wonderful application called MacGourmet which is helping me with all of my aforementioned list. This program is AWESOME. It allows me to enter all of my recipes; including pictures, and ingredient lists--which is just nice and handy to have...like a recipe box, but electronic and with the times. Along with my recipes, it has a weekly meal planner which compiles a shopping list of all the ingredients needed for the nightly meals--so no forgetting small things and running to the store during the middle of the dinner making process or 53829582 times a week. I love it. Love it love it love it. Yay. (I hope I keep up with it...)

Point #3:

With my new application, I'm working on making all of my usual recipes so I can take pictures of them to store with my recipe. With this comes the opportunity to share my favorite recipes with all of my fellow blogging friends (and include pictures! Everyone loves pictures.) I've also been reading a lot of cooking blogs which makes me want to do this even more. So with no further introductions, I present to you my Italian Focaccia Pizza-ey Thing. :)

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 teaspoon of italian seasoning

2 cloves of garlic

1 cup of shredded mozzarella

3/4 cup of shredded parmesan

1 small can of sliced black olives

2 plum tomatoes, sliced

1 small red onion, chopped (optional)

pizza dough

(this was one of my baking endeavors that failed miserably.)

You can use store bought dough, such as Pillsbury (you'll need 2 packages) or you can make your own.

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2) Roll dough evenly onto round baking sheet.

3) In a small bowl, combine oil, italian seasoning, and minced garlic. Mix well and brush over pizza dough. Layer with 1/4 cup of mozzarella cheese.

4) Top with sliced tomatoes, onions, and olives. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and parmesan. Sprinkle with additional italian seasoning.

5) Bake 18-20 minutes, or until cheese is melted and crust is golden brown. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

And there it is! The pizza is absolutely delicious, even for the non-tomato-likers...it tastes really great and is very simple.

Need I say more?