Leftover Lunchmeat? Try This!

Missy Tippens

Since I shared college graduation photos last week, and planned to repeat an older post this week, I thought this one would be fun to share from 2015--written right after my daughter graduated from high school!



Missy, here. We had my daughter's graduation last week and a house full of family here to celebrate with us. What fun!! But when everyone left and all the dust cleared, I had a ton of thin sliced ham and turkey left over.

What to do?? My friend Lindi suggested making something like chipped beef and gravy. Voila! Great idea!

Melt 3 TBS of butter in the skillet.

Add 3 TBS flour. You can adjust the amount, just keep them equal. Stir and let bubble for a few minutes to "cook off" the flour taste. Let it brown if you want a brown gravy.

Yes, that's a Christmas spatula in May. LOL

Add the milk. I always eyeball this. Don't get too much, or it won't thicken enough. Season with salt and pepper.

While it simmered, I chopped the ham and turkey.

Add to the gravy until heated through.

Serve over biscuits or toast. YUM! Notice the paper plate? Yes, I'm all about practicality when I have 12 people here for the weekend! :)

Did any of you grow up eating chipped beef and gravy?

Biscuits and Gravy with The Belle...

Missy Tippens

I may have shared this dish before but wanted to share it anyway since this is our Christmas morning tradition. :)

One of our friends, another staff person who works at the church with my husband, makes us homemade cinnamon rolls and delivers them every Christmas Eve. We have those as soon as we finish opening gifts. But I always make biscuits and sausage gravy for a late breakfast or brunch. It's comfort food for me--a dish my dad always made for us when I was growing up (often on Christmas morning).

1 pound of ground sausage (my favorite is Bob Evans Original)

3 TBS butter

3 TBS flour

1-½  to 2 cups milk  [Honestly, I always do this by eye, so you may want to start with a smaller amount to make sure it's not too thin.]

Preheat the oven and pop in the biscuits to bake. (I use frozen biscuits.)

Brown the sausage.

Drain off the grease if there is any. Then add the butter and let it melt. (I forgot the butter and added the flour first!) Sprinkle in the flour.

Let the roux cook for a few minutes to cook off the flour flavor but don't let it brown unless you want brown gravy. :) I add salt and pepper at this point.



Pour in the milk.



Let simmer for a few minutes, stirring frequently, until it's as thick as you'd like. Add more salt and pepper if needed.

Here are my favorite brand of frozen biscuits, Mary B's. I usually buy the Tea Biscuits but tried the Southern Made this time. The family loved them!



Nothing's better than a hot biscuit with butter and jelly. Except of course, a hot biscuit topped with gravy. :)



Here's hubby's plate. He had his cinnamon roll along with the biscuits and gravy. And yes, we ate off paper plates to save time since I knew I'd be cooking a traditional turkey dinner that evening and didn't want to spend time washing beforehand. :)



Let me know if you try this for the first time. I'd love to hear what you think!

www.missytippens.com

Swedish Meatballs--er Gravy

Missy, here. Sharing a recipe that started out to be based on Alton Brown's Swedish Meatballs (click here). But by the time I patted out 3 meatballs, I realized I didn't have enough time to make them! My husband was about to arrive home and needed to eat quickly to get back to the church for a meeting.

So…This is a recipe for Swedish Gravy! :)

The original calls for beef and pork. I only had 1 pound of ground pork to use. While I thawed it in the microwave, I tore the crust off two slices of bread, then tore the bread into pieces and poured ¼ cup milk over it. I added some dried scallions and let the milk soak in.

Once I had the pork thawed, I broke up the ground meat and mixed in the milk-soaked bread. I was going to use the stand mixer but didn't bother. I just mixed it up by hand.

Then I added 2 egg yolks and some salt and pepper and mixed well.

This is where you're supposed to make meat balls. Instead, I dumped the mixture in a hot skilled with 2 TBS melted butter. Stir as the meat browns to break it up.

Once the meat was browned, I added a little more butter--maybe 1-2 TBS.

Then I sprinkled with ¼ cup flour and stirred, letting it cook for a couple of minutes.

Next I added 3 cups beef broth.

Stirred until it thickened and added ¼ cup heavy cream (I used light half-and-half).

Season to your taste! (Alton's original recipe calls for allspice and nutmeg while you're mixing the meat, but I forgot to add it.) I tried sprinkling with a couple of different Penzey's spice mixes trying to add a little color (wished I'd had some fresh parsley). Then I served it over noodles.

And here's where I should probably just tell you I forgot to take a photo. But I didn't. And this looks terrible! LOL But it really did taste good. I promise. :) Imagine how much better it would look with meatballs. Enjoy!

Leftover Lunchmeat?? Try This!

Missy, here. We had my daughter's graduation last week and a house full of family here to celebrate with us. What fun!! But when everyone left and all the dust cleared, I had a ton of thin sliced ham and turkey left over.

What to do?? My friend Lindi suggested making something like chipped beef and gravy. Voila! Great idea!

Melt 3 TBS of butter in the skillet.

Add 3 TBS flour. You can adjust the amount, just keep them equal. Stir and let bubble for a few minutes to "cook off" the flour taste. Let it brown if you want a brown gravy.

Yes, that's a Christmas spatula in May. LOL

Add the milk. I always eyeball this. Don't get too much, or it won't thicken enough. Season with salt and pepper.

While it simmered, I chopped the ham and turkey.

Add to the gravy until heated through.

Serve over biscuits or toast. YUM! Notice the paper plate? Yes, I'm all about practicality when I have 12 people here for the weekend! :)

Did any of you grow up eating chipped beef and gravy?

Cookbooks, Inglenooks, and Basic White Sauce

When you think about it, cooking is full of tradition.

Everyone has a favorite dish their mother or grandmother made, and those flavors speak of HOME.

And how many of us keep a collection of recipe cards - preferably in a loved one's own handwriting - of those favorite dishes?

And then there are the cookbooks. I love old cookbooks.


The church I grew up in also has a long tradition of cooking and cookbooks. Years ago, (from 1900 to 1913) the denomination publishing house put out a weekly magazine called The Inglenook, full of educational articles, recipes, information and jokes. “Its pages are clean, its articles instructive, and it is a fitting companion for the spare moments of the schoolboy and the gray beard.” 

Along with your yearly subscription to the magazine ($1.00 per year!), you also received a copy of the Inglenook Cookbook, a compilation of recipes from the magazine.

I have copies of the 1901 and 1911 editions of the cookbook, reprinted in the 1970's and '80's. The third one in the picture is my grandmother's copy of the Granddaughter's Inglenook Cookbook, the updated and thoroughly revised Inglenook for the generation of the 1940's.

Would you believe the publisher decided it's time for a new edition of the cookbook? This month, the Brethren Press is publishing The New Inglenook Cookbook. What thrills me is that I was invited to contribute to this new edition!

I wrote an essay on casseroles and one-dish meals to be included in the cookbook. It's a two-page spread, and includes a recipe from the original 1911 cookbook, and a new contributor's recipe. I can hardly wait to get my copy of the new edition and see my name in this historic book! You can read all about it here.

All I can think about is how thrilled my grandmothers would be - faithful users of their own Inglenooks in their own homes!

To celebrate, I'm sharing one of my favorite recipes from the Granddaughter's Inglenook. It's from the chapter titled "Basic Cookery", and it's the first recipe I ever made from this cookbook...long, long ago.

Even long before I was a young wife learning how to cook for my husband.

It's basic, very basic.

White Sauce

White sauces are used as the foundation of many foods. They are made from milk. Often the sauce is varied by substituting vegetable juice, meat stock, or a mixture.

For a thin white sauce, use:
1 Tablespoon fat (I use butter)
1 Tablespoon flour
1 cup liquid
1/4 teaspoon salt

For a medium white sauce, use:
2 Tablespoons fat
2 Tablespoons flour
1 cup liquid
1/4 teaspoon salt

For a thick white sauce, use:
2-4 Tablespoons fat
4 Tablespoons flour
1 cup liquid
1/4 teaspoon salt

Use the thin sauce for cream soups, the medium for scalloped dishes and gravies, the thick for souffles and croquettes.

Method: Melt fat: stir in flour until smooth. Add liquid gradually, stirring constantly. Cook over low heat for 5 minutes or until thick. Add salt and pepper. Cover tightly and place over hot water until ready to use.

I use this basic sauce for everything!

To make cheese sauce, add 1 cup shredded or cubed cheese to the medium white sauce.

To make gravy, substitute broth for 1/2 of the liquid in the thin white sauce.

To make a rich sauce (like a hollandaise), add 1 well beaten egg yolk to 1/4 cup of the sauce, stir well, then add to the rest of the sauce, stirring constantly.


Oh, and have you been wondering what an inglenook is?

An inglenook is a corner formed next to an open fireplace. Sometimes they're called "chimney corners". They're like a room within a room: small, sheltered, and very cozy.

They can be simple, or very elaborate, like this one I found for my dream house...

Isn't that beautiful?

Now it's your turn. What is your favorite, go-to cookbook?

And/or  - what classy feature is on the top of your list for your dream home?

And before we go, here's the latest picture of Thatcher. Isn't he a handsome fellow?