Cooking with Kids: Biscuits and Gravy
Honestly I can't remember a single time growing up cooking with my Parents or Grandparents. Maybe helping mix cookies a couple times, but never actually cooking something from start to finish. To be fair my parents worked a LOT of hours and we eat a lot of easy microwave meals or the meal was prepared quickly and taking time to teach us kids probably wasn't in the cards.
But I enjoy cooking and making good meals for the family. My youngest Daughter enjoys cooking with me and over the last 18 months of so has really gotten the hang of Biscuits and Gravy. She decided that she was going to be the "Master Chef" and I was to be her "Sous-Chef".
We start with Tennessee Pride Mild Sausage (best flavor I've found). I did the cutting of the Sausage, but then my Daughter takes over. Brown the meat on both sides. Medium heat on the cooktop.
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We cheat on the Biscuits and go with packaged ones. Next step is to master homemade biscuits as I'm sure it will make these even better. About 12 minutes in the stove for these. For almost perfect timing these go in right when it's time to break up the sausage.
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About 2 cups of milk are needed, but to avoid a drastic temperature change we warm the milk in the microwave first. 50% power for 2 minutes is plenty to make the milk warm.
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Sausage gets broken up into small pieces. We just use a spatula. This is something I still need to do as it needs to happen relatively quickly to avoid overcooking. Right before this is when we put the biscuits in the oven with an 11 minute timer.
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We find 1 whole 16oz package is to much Sausage so 2 get set to the side to use for breakfast sandwiches the next day.
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Around a 1/3 of cup of Flour. This really depends on how much grease you get from the sausage. Used a cheaper sausage once and even with soaking up a bunch with a paper towel we needed 2/3 cup. More flour needed the more milk you will need or it ends up pasty.
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Browning the Flour. Add about 1/2 of the flour and stir it around for 30 seconds, then add the second half. Spread it around as you add, don't dump it all in one place. Goal is to soak up the grease that is on the sausage and in the pan. If more then 1/3 cup is needed add in small amounts at a time.
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Just about there. You can see a few spots of white from the flour. Took one more stir and let it cook for 30 more seconds.
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Now time to add the milk. Start with 1 cup and let it cook down for about 30 seconds.
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Then add another 1/2 cup and let that cook down for 30 seconds then add the rest. Make sure to keep stirring! You are looking for a smooth consistency in the end. Remember that it will continue to thicken as it cooks down. A little to much milk won't hurt if you can let it cook down for a little longer. Would say almost always we use 2 1/2 cups of Milk but only warm up the 2 cups...just habit, no reason why.
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She is so proud of herself! Love it!!
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Almost time to eat!
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Perfection! Perfect winter breakfast.
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Didn't she do an amazing job! All I did was cut the Sausage and then break up the Sausage in the pan after it was browned. The rest was all my Daughter (She is 8).
A few things, we make this for 4 people and it works perfect for 4 biscuits. The rest are saved for the next morning and we have Egg & Sausage on a Biscuit. We cut the biscuits in half and toast them lightly the next day to warm them and slice the sausage in half so the 2 we set to the side make 4 sandwiches.
All Photos were taken by me and all rights are reserved.
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What a great life skill to share with your children! I'm so grateful my mother taught us to cook at a very young age - and now I love it. I've never seen such a dish before, it looks comforting and hearty.
It's a Southern thing in the US. Wife's Grandma who taught me when she was about 90 lives down south. Never can find good biscuits and gravy up north.
90! What an achievement. I'm glad the recipe will continue to live through your daughter's generation and more. Grandma's recipes are the best.
That was a couple years ago and she is still living in her own home. It's pretty impressive!
Some of the old recipes are so good....but not always the most healthy options. Then again this woman has been eating this way for 92 or 93 years now so guess it can't be that bad.
I agree. Our most simple and comforting cuisines that I've learned from my mother/grandmother can be loaded with fat, sugar and salt. It's those dishes I love the most. My great gran is 104 and still rides a motorbike! LOL. I think we'll be OK :D
104...you have longevity to look forward to! That is great she still gets out and does anything, completely amazing that she rides a motorbike.
What a Wonderful way to spend a day with your kids!!! reminds me of my mother when I helped her make a traditional dish of Venezuela called Hallaca. It looks delicious!!!
Really is a great way to spend time with the kids. This dish is maybe 20 minutes start to finish so not to long, but perfect for a little one to stay interested.
Do a post about Hallaca, I love learning about traditional dishes from other Countries.
ok I'll gonna do it.. thanks @thedarkhorse The hallaca is a traditional dish done in December and it's something like a tamale. It's maded of a mass of corn flour seasoned with chicken broth or chicken and pigmented with onoto stuffed with stew of beef, pork, chicken, olives, raisins, capers, paprika and onion, wrapped in a rectangular shape banana leaves. This type of dish it's usually done in a reuníon with all the relatives making it like a familiar event.
Look forward to it, sounds great! Tag me in the post and I'll give it an upvote for sure.
Looks good even if I am vegan
I bet with a little creativity you could still make this. We buy some vegan sausages which have good flavor, sure there is a milk alternative...just don't know what it is. You would just need to offset the lack of grease from the sausage with cooking oil.
Cooking with kids is so much fun. They are willing to do any job and they love to help. I find that when they help that they understand the food better and are less likely to be fussy at the dinner table. Great post!
For sure when she started cooking she became a much less picky eater. She will always try things now vs just looking at it and saying no way.
It's so much fun watching her gain skills in the kitchen. She is really starting to like drawing too and been working with her on that with my oldest who really loves art.
whoa!! your Daughter is 8!! you must be so proud... She decided that she was going to be the "Master Chef" at that age its amazing...I gonna try this recipe this weekend with my son who likes to cook too!!!
She is a very strong minded kid and when she decides she is going to do something she does it. Messed up and didn't take photos last night. She made homemade chicken nuggets with me while I made fried potatoes. The knife work is still all me, but don't think it will be long before she is comfortable enough to take that over too.
That’s awesome!. My son is 3 , one day in kindergarten the teacher did a little practice with cookie dough, since that day he is always asking us if he could help us cook...he is always saying Mommy please let me help you cook, when we let him help us, he makes the must epic mess ... hahaha
Yeah you need to allow a little extra time with your little "helper" during cooking and a lot of extra time on cleanup. Enjoy these times. It really does go faster then you would ever think. I blinked and my baby is 8 and the oldest is 12.
How delicious it looks, the truth is my parents were not there to teach me much of the kitchen, I used to watch cooking programs and nowadays I am a lover of cooking and study for a chef.
Very good work
Cooking shows taught me a lot and then being willing to make mistakes. The first time I tried to make biscuits and gravy we had to toss the whole thing in the trash. It's part of learning and I think it was good for my kids to see that too. I laughed and apologized for ruining breakfast and said I'd do better next time. Now it's just something we can look back on and I use as a reminder that you can't expect perfect results on your first attempt at something.
awesome post @thedarkhorse!!! This post and the time you spent with it and with your daughter is clearly a labor of love - well done!
and the food looks great too!
Thank you sir! It's great hearing that others liked the effort put it. The Cooking with Kids theme is one I want to continue. Some are going to be completely simple dishes and others a little more complicated. But in all I think they will all be ones that can be done with kids as prep time will be under 20-25 minutes or so which is about the attention span I find works.
one of the joys of my childhood, my Mom got me a 'cookbook for kids'. my very first attempt, as I recall was cooking oatmeal for breakfast. It also helped me earn my 'cooking' badge in Cub Scouts.
And more important than what your daughter cooks is that both of you will remember the memories and good times shared in the kitchen.
One thing I can be proud of is my kids will never hear the song Cats in the Cradle and understand the emotion that some of us feel when hearing that song. My girls have had at least one of us home their entire lives and for the most part both of us working from home. Our schedules are so flexible they get attention when they want it.
Tomorrow afternoon is horse riding lessons for the first time. 3:30pm and 75 minutes away...not to many parents have the opportunity that both can commit to something like that on a Monday. They are so excited and I can't wait to watch!
I remember the song well. I believe that kids spell "Love" like this - "TIME" - seems like not enough kids get Time, their parents are too busy trying to get ahead by worldly measures and miss the treasures that are right there at home.
And I am, sadly, guilty, of spending too much time trying to provide for my family and not enough Time with my family.
It looks extremely delicious, now you opened my appetite
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You've gone and made me hungry and it's almost time for bed. I'll be eating biscuits and gravy tomorrow for breakfast!
Good fluffy biscuits are pretty easy if you you follow the 'less is better' rule when mixing. It's just like pie crust. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl then pour all of the wet ingredients in at the same time and mix only until the dry ingredients are mixed together then stop mixing! For some reason they never tell you that in cook books but it's pretty important if you don't want hard biscuits.
Neither my best friend and my mother never learned to cook at home and had to learn all the tricks after they left home. Because my mother never became fond of it we learned young and then each had turns every week so my mom could not have to do it so often. It may have saved her the effort but it was a huge benefit to us in the long run. We learned to read recipes and to follow directions. My mom still hates spaghetti though because (as it was the easiest thing to cook) it was cooked a lot.
Going to have to try your suggestions on biscuits. Only tried to make them once a long time ago when I first started cooking and they were like a rock. Way to dense for my liking. Decided it must be hard to make and have avoided it ever since. Been told over and over to just go for it as they are easy once you get used to making them...but my mental block has stopped me. Thanks for the tip!
Once you start you'll be putting currents and a little sugar in for a snack, rolling it out then smearing the top with meatloaf mix then rolling it like a jelly roll or cutting the roll like for cinnamon buns for a super supper main dish (we drown the finished product with a sauce made from a can of tomato soup and only 1/2 a can of water instead of the full can that the soup calls for), and putting a little powdered mustard and celery seeds in the mix for a savory side dish... You'll want biscuits for every meal. They're just too easy to throw together.
OK that is it, I'll try it. Going to tag you when I do for pushing me along.