The Food Critic

I haven't been inspired to do any blogging lately...but today when Craig the Culinary student was making disparaging remarks about food bloggers, I decided to become one.

Craig is learning the French method of culinary arts. I grew up learning the Mennonite way of cooking, and the older  get, the more I shortcut and simplify in order to end up with the fewest pots and pans possible. The French must have lots of servants to wash up after them, because they use lots of dishes and pans every step along the way.

Anyway, Craig volunteered to make sausage gravy for lunch today. He would have preferred some old fashioned buttermilk biscuits to accompany it, but I said too bad, don't want to take the time, let's bake some of these handy dandy Pillsbury refrigerated biscuits. 

I am constantly learning about the problems and deficiencies that exist in my kitchen, now that there is another cook in the house. Before he could cook the sausage, he proclaimed that my teflon skillet smelled like garlic and dish detergent and he had to rinse it thoroughly and chastise me for using detergent on it. I say that's the only way to get rid of the grease. He says it's okay to leave some grease in it. I say you must be thinking of cast iron. Will agreed with Craig. I think he needs to stay out of it unless he's on my side.

I also encouraged Craig to change his shirt because he'll get grease stains on it. He assured me he wouldn't. I reminded him I already worked pretty hard to remove a couple of grease stains from that shirt. He ignored me. 

Many years ago, I learned to make sausage gravy by mixing flour in with the sausage after it's cooked, then adding milk. Unacceptable. The sausage must be cooked, drained, (another dirty dish), then a roux must be made by adding flour to a little sausage grease and a lot of butter.  Once you add enough milk to make it the perfect consistency, you can add the sausage back in. I finally bought some white pepper, so at least I was able to please him by having something right in my kitchen. I didn't even know there was white pepper until a few months ago.

The sausage gravy was absolutely delicious as well as having the perfect smooth consistency. Some eyebrows were raised about the man of the house placing a dab of strawberry jelly on top of each gravy-covered biscuit on his plate, but we agreed if he likes it that way, then it's fine with us.

He may not have gotten any grease on his shirt after all, but he certainly got a nice flour hand print on his rear end. And that's his own hand print of course.  I am pretty good at controlling my impulses to slap his sassy butt during our kitchen "discussions".