Sausage Gravy

Recently, New York had a big snow storm. You probably heard about it or experienced it. In my neighborhood, 20+ inches of snow were dumped on our yards, houses and sidewalks in quick fashion. We were out of town and worried about what we were going to come back to. (With that amount of snow, it is usually important to try to keep up!) Luckily for us, we have the best neighbors ever.

Our next door neighbors were looking in on Ginger, our dog, and Sassy, our cat while we were away. We knew that they would feed both of them and walk the dog occasionally, but there were some unexpected items thrown in.

1. Stephen, next door neighbor, plowed our sidewalks and driveways. He not only did this for us, but for many other people on the block.

2. He brought his new book over to sit and read with Ginger and Sassy to keep them company for a while at night. We were surprised and definitely thankful! What a blessing to have these wonderful people right next door.

When we got home, we offered to pay Daniel, son of next door neighbor, for dog-sitting. He wouldn't take the money. What do you do in this situation? Offer to shovel for them the next time? Put money in an envelope and pretend it wasn't us that put it in the mailbox? Take them out to dinner? We were stumped, so we asked what we could do to thank them. Stephen's answer was truly simple: I hear you make good biscuits and sausage gravy. I would like some of that.

With that, I got right to work. The following Saturday, we delivered a dozen homemade biscuits and about 3 cups of sausage gravy. Still doesn't seem like we are even...

Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

Serves 4

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt

6 tablespoons butter, chilled and cut into pieces

1 cup buttermilk (if you use sweet milk, use 3/4 cup + 1 teaspoon white vinegar)

1/2 pound bulk sausage, such as Jimmy Dean

2 tablespoon vegetable oil

4 tablespoons flour

2 cups milk

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Heat oven to 400˚ F. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, add the butter and combine until it is the consistency of coarse crumbs. Gently fold in the buttermilk. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead 4-5 times. Less is better here. Roll or pat out to a 1/2-inch thickness and cut using desired cutter. A 2 1/2- inch cutter will yield about 12 biscuits. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until golden brown.

Meanwhile, brown the sausage in a heavy skillet until fully cooked. Remove from pan. Leave the sausage drippings in the pan and add 2 tablespoon of oil. Sprinkle with the flour. Stir and cook over medium heat until the flour smells fragrant. Whisk in the milk slowly to avoid lumps. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil to allow to thicken. Add sausage to the gravy and heat through.

Serve immediately.