This is our go to for day after holiday parties or new year’s celebrations – it’s comforting, creamy, meaty and delicious!
B&G Casserole
Ingredients:
1 can flaky biscuits (8)
1/2 lb mild pork sausage
3 tbs flour
2.5 cups whole milk
Salt & Pepper
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 450f and grease a 9 x 13 baking dish
Cut each biscuit into quarters, and place half of the quarters in the baking dish
Bake the layer of biscuits for 10 – 12 minutes, until they’ve puffed up and just started to brown. Remove from oven and set aside
Meanwhile let’s make gravy! Brown your sausage in a medium skillet, cooking through. Sprinkle flour over the sausage and stir, allowing the flour to cook until it’s no longer raw, around a minute
Pour in milk and stir to combine, making sure to scrape up those yummy browned bits on the bottom
Season to taste with salt and freshly cracked black pepper – I’d recommend starting with a tsp of each and add more if needed
Bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring continually. Let the gravy reduce and thicken until it coats the back of a spoon. (It can be a little more liquidy than usual, it’ll continue to thicken in the oven!)
Pour the gravy over the pre-cooked biscuit quarters. Layer the remaining raw biscuit quarters in top
Bake the casserole for another 15 – 20 minutes, until the gravy is bubbling and the top biscuits are golden brown
Viola! Let it sit as long as you can stand it, it’s ready to eat as soon as it cools to an edible temperature 😉
Sundays are a day for relaxing, filling idle time, and fighting the Sunday Scaries. In our house, we like to use Sunday mornings to test new recipes and use up fun odds and ends ingredients from the past week. Today we had some excellent ingredients leftover from our Christmas Eve cheese and charcuterie board, and man did this sandwich experiment turn out great!
Local Ingredients
We live in Columbia, MO, a medium-sized college town in the Midwest US. I am constantly delighted by the food community in this area, and this sandwich showcases some amazing ingredients from a local charcuterie and a local cheesemaker.
The cheese in this sandwich is a blended sheep and Jersey cow milk bloomy rind, known as Woolly Rind, and comes from Green Dirt Farm, a farm located just a couple hours west of here that is running a sustainable operation and producing delicious cheeses!
Second, the sourdough bread and absolutely addicting maple-cured city ham come from Barred Owl Butcher & Table, right here in Columbia! If you’re a local and haven’t tried some of this restaurant’s phenomenal selection of meats, cheeses, wines and cocktails, you are missing out!
Improvisation
This recipe is an experiment, and I think I’d make a few adjustments next time, although this sandwich as is was decadent, filling, and addictively tasty! We used our favorite mayo, and the apple gave the sandwich a crisp, sweet flavor. I think next time I make this sandwich I will change it up and use a honey mustard, and maybe even a little drizzle of honey to finish the apples to kick up that sweet flavor a little bit.
Second, don’t have (or like) brie? No worries! This sandwich would be amazing with different cheeses. Try a sharp cheddar, a creamy provolone, or even a smoked gouda!
The bread is another great ingredient that doesn’t necessarily need to be what listed in this recipe. I would recommend a bread with flavor and quite a bit of texture to stand up to all the fat and flavor from the cheese and ham.
Sandwiches are a great way to try out new flavor combinations, let me know what improvisations you’d make in this recipe!
Decadent Brie, Ham & Apple Sandwich
Ingredients
2 large slices crusty sourdough bread
1 tbs butter
1 – 2 tbs mayo or honey mustard
2 – 6 slices maple-cured ham
2 – 3 oz. brie cheese (sheep, cow, or blended! Any soft, buttery cheese will do)
2 – 6 apple slices
Sprinkle of black pepper
Directions
On one side of your bread slices, spread just a very thin layer of butter
On the other side of one of the slices of bread, spread half of the mayo or mustard (as much or as little as you like!)
On top of that, layer the ham and brie slices
Broil the sandwich, leaving the second piece of bread butter side up so it can toast, until the brie is starting to brown and bubble, and the toast is getting toasty, 4 – 5 minutes – but keep an eye on it!
Remove the sandwich from the broiler and spread the rest of your mayo or mustard on the top slice of bread. Grind just a sprinkle of black pepper over each side.
Layer apple slices on top of the melty cheese and place the top on your sandwich
Enjoy!
Do you have weekend routines that help stave off those Sunday feelings of dread? I’d love to hear about them!
This mac and cheese recipe is a little over the top! It combines rich ingredients and some smoky flair to make it unforgettable. We make this at least a few times during the holiday season, and I never leave an event we’ve brought it to without a few requests for the recipe!
The big stars that make this dish stand out are the smoked gouda in the sauce, and the chipotle chili powder in the bread crumb topping. The smoked gouda gives a little more depth and complexity to the noodles, and the spice in the topping gives it a surprising kick!
Tips for Better Macaroni & Cheese
1. Cold boil your noodles
We’ve been trying out this method from Alton Brown, and we love it! Especially in pasta recipes that will use some of the pasta water it has been a pretty good change to our process.
2. Get better pasta
We try to keep our pasta intake limited to special occasions, so quality is a focus for these special splurges. Spending just a little more on your pasta actually makes a really big difference in the final product, both in flavor and texture. Getting a pasta that has a little rougher surface like bronze-cut pastas will allow your sauce to cling to the noodle a little easier, making your recipe feel more cohesive and fancy.
3. Shred your own cheese
Shredding your own cheese can seem tedious and the pre-shredded bags are easy to pick up. I can’t stress enough how much of a difference shredding your own cheese will make for this recipe. Pre-shredded cheese has additives that will cause it to melt differently, and will generally just produce a lower quality flavor and texture for the sauce. For the holidays when we know cheese will be on the menu, we usually head to Sam’s Club and pick up the large bricks of cheese that are a) a great deal and b) really great quality! We then use a food processor with a shred attachment to make quick work of shredding even several cups of cheese. Don’t skip this – it’s worth it!
Forgot the bread crumbs? Crackers will work in a pinch!
I got started assembling all the ingredients to create this beautiful recipe, and I realized I had completely forgotten to get bread crumbs – probably my favorite part! We had some bread that we could have used, but searching the pantry we spotted something else – a sleeve of Carr’s crackers. We decided to try crunched up crackers instead of bread crumbs, as you can see in the photo – and it worked out just great!
This is one of the basic values we want to promote on this blog – cooking is for all of us, and we’re all humans. Just because you don’t have an ingredient doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t create something delicious. Don’t be afraid to improvise!
Show Stopping Smoky Macaroni & Cheese
Ingredients
1 lb pasta (cavatappi or other spiral noodle, we used fusili this time!)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large pot, cook your pasta to a little less than al dente (a minute or two less than indicated on the package), the pasta will continue cooking a little in the oven.
Drain pasta and cool under cold running water. Pasta should be slightly firm. Toss drained pasta in oil and reserve.
Melt one stick butter in a large sauce pot over medium heat. Add your chopped onion and saute for 4 – 5 minutes, until the onions are translucent and start to smell really good.
Add flour and whisk or stir to combine. Cook for 1 or 2 minutes to get rid of the raw flavor, but do not let it brown.
Add cream, milk, salt and white pepper. Don’t over salt at this point, we’ll taste for salt and adjust when we add the cheese!
Bring pot to a simmer. Cook until sauce is thick, about 5 – 6 minutes.
Turn off the heat and gradually add the shredded cheese to the pot, stirring and allowing to melt before adding more.
At this point, taste for salt – if more is needed add a 1/4 – 1/2 tsp at a time until it suits your fancy.
Pour pasta and sauce into a 9 x 12″ baking dish and make sure all noodles are coated with sauce.
In a small microwave-safe bowl, add the final two tablespoons butter and melt in the microwave. Pour over breadcrumbs and add the chipotle chili powder, mixing until combined.
Spread breadcrumbs over the pasta and bake for 15 – 20 minute until it begins to brown the breadcrumbs and the mac is bubbly.
