Grandma Puddin's Sausage Gravy

I love the days that I'm home and not at work.  I get to relax and spend time with my family.  I also finally have the extra time I like to take to make a home cooked meal.  Last night on the menu for dinner was my homemade sausage gravy over some whop 'em biscuits.  Unfortunately, I'm not much of a homemade biscuit maker, so I'm skipping that and making whop 'em biscuits instead.  Our minister calls them whop 'em biscuits because you buy the can of biscuits at the store, take them home, whop them on the counter to open the can, then bake them.  Thus the name, whop 'em biscuits!  Pretty funny I think.

I learned the basics of how to make sausage gravy from watching my Grandma Puddin.  She was an awesome cook and an awesome lady.  My only regret is that I wish I would've watched her cook more when I had the chance, I know she would've taught me a lot more.

Anyways, I decided today to share this simple recipe of how I learned to make sausage gravy several years ago.


Grandma Puddin's Sausage Gravy

1 (16 oz) package of Jimmy Dean's Regular premium pork sausage
1/3 C bacon grease (substitute vegetable or canola oil in you don't have any bacon grease)
1/2 C flour
1/2 gallon milk
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the sausage in a skillet on the stove top.  Break the sausage up and cook it just like you would cook ground beef.  Add some salt and pepper to the sausage and stir.  Once it's cooked, add the bacon grease or oil and stir.  Next add the flour to the cooked sausage and stir, once that is thick looking, pour in the milk.  You can now add more salt and pepper if you want.  Turn the stove top temperature setting to 6, because you need it high enough to make the milk mixture boil.  Slowly stir at all times so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the skillet.  Once it has a good boil, turn it down to a 4, but keep stirring until it thickens.  I generally have to cook it for approx 5-10 minutes after it first started to boil.  Once it is pretty thick, take it off the stove.  Let it stand for about 10 minutes, it will get even thicker.  Enjoy this sausage gravy over either whop 'em biscuits or homemade biscuits, it's your choice.

Grandma Puddin's Beans and Cornbread

My grandma was a wonderful woman and now truly missed by all who loved her!  My name for her was Grandma Puddin.  I always called her that, she was Puddin to me as long as she lived.  She just passed away last year and is truly missed !  I don't even hardly know where to begin to tell you what she was like, but I'll try.  She was a one of a kind lady.  She knew how to pray.  She was a true prayer warrior; when she prayed you knew she was getting a hold of the Lord.  Cooking was one of her many niches.  She was one of the best down home cookin' cooks there was.  I loved her cherry pies, they were delicious.  My brother loved her lemon pies, that was his favorite.  She was also a wonderful seamstress.  She taught me how to crochet, I wasn't good at it, but it was just nice for her to teach me something.  She knew so much.

When she was alive and still lived on her own, my extended family used to get together and eat dinner at her house every Wednesday night.  The menu was the same every time.  She made us beans and cornbread, macaroni and tomatoes..........and there was always a pie, that however, was usually a surprise.  You didn't know if you were gonna have lemon pie, chocolate pie or cherry pie.  All of those were delicious though!  I have wonderful memories of her fixing that meal for us each week, she loved every minute of it.  Since my family so enjoyed those moments, I thought why not share her recipes with everyone?  So today, I'm going to share her beans and cornbread recipe with you and hopefully you can start making your own memories with your extended family.  This is a meal that bring family together.


PUDDIN'S PINTO BEANS

2 C dried pinto beans
1 ham hock (as big as your fist) or 1 hog's jowl
1/2 bay leaf
1-2 Tbsp salt (depends how salty you like your beans)

Place all of the ingredients into a crock pot.  Cover all the ingredients with water.  Turn the crock pot on low and cook for 10-12 hours.  You can stir about half way through the cooking process.  You can even cook it longer if you want, because the more you let it cook, the better it tastes!


PUDDIN'S CORNBREAD

1 C white self rising cornmeal mix
1 egg
3/4 C milk
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp canola oil
2 Tbsp bacon grease for your cast iron skillet

Mix all the above ingredients in a bowl except for the 2 Tbsp of bacon grease that is for the cast iron skillet.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  While you are preheating the oven, spread 2 Tbsp of canola oil or vegetable oil in your cast iron skillet.  Place the cast iron skillet in the oven while it's preheating for about 4-5 minutes.  Once it is hot, take out the cast iron skillet.  Pour the cornbread mixture in the pan evenly.  Place it back in the oven and bake for 25 minutes.  Take out of the oven and devour!!


I hope everyone enjoys these recipes as much as my family does.  Since my grandma has passed away, my mom now makes my extended family beans and cornbread sometimes.  This way, my grandma's beans and cornbread recipe lives on and always will.  She had a quote that she always said about life that I want to share with you now.  She used to say, "Honey, I love life with all of it's heartaches and sorrows."  Her outlook on life was wonderful.  She did love living, she loved every moment of life.  She was truly ONE OF A KIND! !  Nobody can compare.  I will continue to miss her until I see her again one day.  I hope you enjoy this recipe.  If you do, then you now have a piece of her legacy too.......her famous beans and cornbread!  Nobody could make them like my Puddin!!!!!