Comfort Foods and Indulgences

Biscuits and gravy is a popular breakfast dish in the South. It consists of buttermilk biscuits covered in thick "country" or "white" gravy made from the drippings of cooked pork sausage, white flour, milk, and often bits of real sausage, bacon, ground beef, or other meat.

It’s usually served with a couple of eggs on the side. The gravy is usually flavored with black pepper, fennel and sage. In some parts of the southern United States this is also called sawmill gravy.

You can try any kind of ground sausage; Whole Foods offers a great variety. Turkey sausage works very well with this recipe.

Day 29 of 31 Days Of Pie is Lemon Meringue Pie from Kate McDermott, Art Of The Pie

Our 31 Days Of Pie is drawing to a close, and yes, I am sad to see it go! Will we stop making pies? Never. Will we take a quick break from them? Most likely, but I’m sure it won’t be long. Today’s pie comes from America’s Test Kitchen, and happened rather last minute as we looked at the calendar and realized we made 30 pies, not 31, over the course of the month. We were at home enjoying down time and not at the studio, so this pie was whipped up quickly at home and photographed in the backyard. A quick sidenote: I’m always trying to keep myself busy creatively and realized “hey! I have the afternoon off! hey! it’s sunny! hey! I want to photograph a little backyard vignette!” I’ve included that photo and it also explains why this luscious key lime pie doesn’t match the series all that much. But no biggie, right? As with all things America’s Test Kitchen, it works and is delicious. Whenever you crave that zippy zing of citrus I hope you’ll think of this.

Being Mexican-American and growing up in Texas you could count on rice and beans with almost every meal. I make light of my upbringing but it’s far from satirical – there were literally rice and beans with every meal. This worked great if enchiladas were on the menu, maybe not so swell when we ventured into other cuisines. Hamburgers and Rice and Beans didn’t make me very happy, neither did Salmon Patties and Rice and Beans, Spaghetti with Rice and Beans or Pot Roast with Rice And Beans.

It took me many years to understand that rice and beans were an inexpensive way to extend a meal and that it was an extremely nutritious way to feed a group of people. It also took me many years to get past my disdain of mixing Mexican-with-something-not-quite-matching.

Perhaps if you had served me a Korean Taco in Elementary School I might have gotten this over much earlier. Such is life.

One of my favorite memories growing up was going to the Dodger games. For most people, they looked forward to a Dodger dog, a bag of peanuts (from the peanut guy who still, to this day, throws peanuts to everyone), and a frozen malt. Dodger games were a high priority, but eating at the stadium was not on our family’s agenda. Our tradition was either dinner at Little Joe’s or a French Dip sandwich from Philippe's, with a side of pickles, and a bag of chips. Yup…so good.

Sadly, Little Joe’s is no longer around. When I was pregnant with Eli(17 years ago), I CRAVED their salad and their raviolis w/bolognese. As I write this, I can still taste their signature recipe on my tongue. Oh, how I miss that place; the tacky red booths, sawdust on the floor, the bread, and the “take out” deli where my dad and I would buy boxes and boxes of raviolis to freeze for future meals.

Little Joe’s may be a part of my past, but Philippes is still a huge part of our present. We have broken tradition a bit. Philippes is not simply a pre-game meal. It’s where we go when they have a day off from school(sometimes taking the metro directly to Union Station) or a late night snack. NO ONE makes a French Dip sandwich quite like Philippes. It’s that good. So when I bought my slow cooker a few months back, French Dips were high on the list.