Sausage Gravy

Ingredients:
½ pound ground breakfast sausage.
2 Tbs butter
4 Tbs all purpose flour
3 C. cold milk
Salt and pepper to taste
I like to use a little paprika

Directions:
Brown sausage in skillet. As soon as sausage is completely brown, turn to medium heat. Add flour by the tablespoon, stirring constantly. Let the flour turn BROWN before adding another tablespoon (if you don't, your gravy will taste like flour). After you have added enough flour to make the gravy as thick as you like, add milk and stir with whisk.

Biscuits

Ingredients
2 C. flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs shortening
1 C. buttermilk, chilled

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using your fingertips, rub butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs. (The faster the better, you don't want the fats to melt.) Make a well in the center and pour in the chilled buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. The dough will be very sticky.

Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top with flour and gently fold dough over on itself 5 or 6 times. Press into a 1-inch thick round. Cut out biscuits with a 2-inch cutter, being sure to push straight down through the dough. Place biscuits on baking sheet so that they just touch. Reform scrap dough, working it as little as possible and continue cutting. (Biscuits from the second pass will not be quite as light as those from the first, but hey, that's life.) Bake until biscuits are tall and light gold on top, 15 to 20 minutes.

Ham

I wanted to share my glazed ham with you.

German Pumpernickel Bread

INGREDIENTS

1/4 C. unsweetened cocoa	2 pkg. active dry yeast (4 1/2 tsp.)
2 Tbs. sugar	1 Tbs. caraway seed (omitted)
1 1/2 tsp. salt	3 C. rye flour
2 C. water	1/4 C. molasses
1/4 C. butter	3 C. all-purpose flour, sifted

INSTRUCTIONS

In large bowl, stir together yeast, cocoa, sugar, caraway seed, salt, and 2 cups rye flour; set aside. In 2-quart saucepan over low heat, heat water, molasses and butter until very warm (120-130°F). Gradually beat molasses mixture into flour mixture until well blended. Your end result is a very smooth dough that looks like whipped chocolate frosting. Add remaining 1 cup rye flour and beat 2 more minutes. Stir in enough all-purpose flour to make a soft dough. Turn out dough onto lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic.
Place into large bowl with a few teaspoons of canola oil, turning over dough so that top is greased. Cover with towel and let rise in warm place until almost doubled, about 45 minutes to an hour. Punch down dough. Divide in half. Cover and let rest 5 minutes. Shape each half into a round loaf.
Place, 4-inches apart, on greased large baking sheet. Cover and let rise until almost doubled, 45 minutes to an hour. Diagonally slash each loaf, crosswise, 3 times. Bake in 375°F oven for 20 minutes. Cover loosely with foil; bake 15 minutes more or until loaves sound hollow when tapped. Immediately remove from baking sheet. Brush tops of hot loaves with shortening and let cool. (omitted)

Linzer Cookie

Ingredients:
2/3 cup hazelnuts (3 oz)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 12-oz jar seedless raspberry jam

Directions:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.

Toast hazelnuts in a shallow baking pan until fragrant and skins begin to loosen, about 6 minutes. Rub nuts in a kitchen towel to remove any loose skins (some skins may not come off), then cool to room temperature. Pulse nuts and 1/4 cup brown sugar in a food processor until nuts are finely ground. Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl.
Beat together butter and remaining 1/4 cup brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes in a stand mixer (preferably fitted with paddle) or 6 minutes with a handheld. Add nut mixture and beat until combined well, about 1 minute. Beat in egg and vanilla. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, mixing until just combined.
With floured hands, form dough into 2 balls and flatten each into a 5-inch disk. Chill disks, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 2 hours. Put oven racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat oven to 350°F.
Roll out 1 disk of dough into an 11-inch round (1/8 inch thick) between 2 sheets of wax paper (keep remaining dough chilled). If dough becomes too soft to roll out, rewrap in plastic and chill until firm. Cut out as many cookies as possible from dough with larger cookie cutter and transfer to 2 ungreased large baking sheets, arranging about 1 inch apart. Using smaller cutters, cut out centers from half of the cookies, reserving centers and rerolling along with scraps (reroll only once). Bake cookies, switching position of sheets halfway through baking, until edges are golden, 10 to 15 minutes total, then transfer with a metal spatula to racks to cool completely. Make more cookies from second disk.
Spread about 1 teaspoon jam on flat side of 1 solid cookie and sandwich jam with flat side of 1 windowed cookie. Sandwich remaining cookies in same manner.

Snickerdoodles

Ingredients:
1 1/2 C. sugar
1 stick butter
1/2 C. shortening
2 eggs
2 3/4 C. flour
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
additional sugar and cinnamon for dusting cookies

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400*. Cream butter and sugar with shortening and eggs in a large bowl. Stir in dry ingredients. Shape dough into balls. Mix your cinnamon and sugar in a pie tin or on a paper plate. Roll balls in mixture and place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet (a silpat is wonderful). Bake 8-10 minutes or until set. They still appear the color of a sugar cookie, do not burn them.
Yield 6 dozen cookies

Peanut Brittle

Ingredients:
2 C. granulated sugar
1 C. light corn syrup
1/2 C. water
10 ounces raw Spanish peanuts
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
1 Tbs. unsalted butter

Directions:
1. Combine sugar, syrup and water in heavy pan. Stir over medium heat, cooking until the sugar dissolves. Cook to soft ball stage (234° F).

2. Add the peanuts and stir. Cook until brittle reaches hard crack stage (300° F), stirring frequently but not constantly. The sugar mixture should develop a golden brown color from the sugars caramelizing, and it needs the right balance of sitting and stirring to accomplish that. Do not allow the temperature to go over 300 as this can break down the sugar structure and leave it weak and spongy.

3. Remove from heat and add the salt, baking soda, vanilla, and butter. Stir until well blended. Your peanut brittle will change to a lighter butterscotch color. Spread onto a well buttered cookie sheet, working fast. Parchment paper sprayed with Pam works, but waxed paper does not work. Break into pieces and store in an airtight container.