Crazy Adventures in the Kitchen!

I hinted about it on facebook, but now I'll let you in on the full scoop--my entire adventure making biscuits and gravy! Why biscuits and gravy? Well, to please my host sister, Selina, I decided on a recipe with no veggies and no fruit. Also, it seemed like such a simple and straightforward recipe--what could go wrong?

Task #1: Shopping. Well, ingredients such as flour, sugar, and milk couldn't have been easier...but then we got to shortening. After explaining it as best I could, my host mom was convinced she knew what it was and took me to the refrigerated section....hmmm, refrigerated shorting? I wasn't convinced until I'd scoured the entire baking section and gone into great detail describing shortening to my host mom. Finally I gave in and purchased this refrigerated item, crossing my fingers that is was shortening...and--SUCCESS! It wasn't Crisco but it worked :-)



My biscuit mess with my e-mail from mom as a guide :-)



Then we can to sausage--because gravy is nothing without sausage! Well, arriving at the meat section I saw no Jimmy Dean or the like. So, what did I do? Yep, great detail explaining sausage--"No, its only pig"....."you know, for breakfast?" "No, its not mixed with all those spices..." After a few minutes we had some sort of ground meat in a bag and made our way home. Only a few minutes after the meat began to cook I knew it wasn't right. Well, lets just say that I now know what ground hamburger is in German. I was ready to laugh it off but Mama insisted that we get it right and took the meat off the stove. I again explained, this time focusing on the breakfast aspect of sausage. "Ohh, now I know" she said, and off she went to the store. Minutes later she returned with three different kinds of meat--none of which in the least resembled ground sausage. Becoming desperate we called an American friend who has lived in Germany for years. I explained to her my dilemma and as it turns out, there is no such thing as ground sausage in Germany. :-D She told me that there was a wurst that had the taste I was looking for so we bought that.

So, five meats later I'm actually beginning what will become lunch. We took the little wursts (similar to sausage links) and rather than chop them until they resembled ground meat.....we minced them. But The milk was 3.8% fat and thickened beautifully and soon the gravy was smelling wonderful and ready to be piled onto a plate of biscuits....

Well, the biscuits were another adventure. Everything looked right going into the oven...but 10 minutes later as the tops turned golden brown....they were as flat as pancakes and my host mom asked if I'd put in anything to make them "grow taller". I told her that's what the baking powder was for....if only it had been baking powder. Turns out my biscuits had cornflower and although they tasted okay...they were midget biscuits. Baking powder was added to the second batch but that caused the dough to be overworked and while everything tasted great....they weren't the light and fluffy biscuits I'm used to.

 However, nearly two hours after I first began to brown the hamburger meat, a wonderful lunch of biscuits and gravy was served and received a stamp of approval from all and a request from little Sammi to make it again sometime. :-)

Aside from my great adventure, I've been helping Mama in the kitchen fairly often and she's created some incredibly delicious meals--and desserts!

Afternoon coffee and cake with the extended family

 Sunday, we had a friend over and Mama made the most delicious chicken dinner...mmmm :-) Basil wrapped in thin slices of pork (similar to bacon) then placed in a chicken breast and cooked. Once finished, a delicious tomato sauce poured over the top made it not only beautiful, but oh so yummy!