"BRINNER"Breakfast is supposed to be the most important meal of the day. We are not supposed to skip it and yet many of us do. We are so obsessed with not skipping breakfast that if we eat it at lunch time it is called Brunch. And since some of us like to eat breakfast at dinner time, I call that "Brinner".
Many people eat a bowl of cereal at night for their "Brinner", but what most of us eat for "Brinner" usually involves some type of eggs along with the fixin's. The fixin's sometimes include some type of potato, a meat, and a bread.
The potatoes can be hash browns that come in many varieties, or even just fried sliced potatoes, any of them are great.
The meat usually comes from a pig or a cow, but can also come from a turkey or other sources.
The bread could be just biscuits, regular toast, french toast, pancakes in many varieties and yummy waffles.
But the best part of "Brinner" in my house is the gravy served over the biscuits. Yummy!!!
Picture from Wikipedia
But the funny thing or sad thing, depending upon your outlook, is that a really good gravy is hard to make.
How many people know how to make gravy from drippings is not known, but if one was to go by how many people I know then guess what, almost no one knows how to make it. I am the only person I know who knows how to make it amongst all of my friends and family. I have also heard that a lot of restaurants get it in large package mixes. Some restaurants make it from scratch and those places are so packed with people that one can hardly get in there on the days they serve it.
I was taught years ago from the female relatives of my stepfathers family out on the farms in Indiana. They told my sisters and I that making good gravy is not something that one can learn from a book, but that it has to be passed on from generation to generation. Out of 5 girls, I seemed to be the only one who learned, although sometimes I think they did not want to learn because then they would be stuck making it every Sunday like I did. But in many ways I am so thankful to all those women who took the time to teach me. I know how much work it is to try to teach someone how to do it, mostly because I have tried without much success. Yup, no one wants to learn how to make it, or they just give up.
So here goes: First lesson is to use a heavy duty cast iron or stainless steel frying pan. Non-stick pans mean that the all important drippings do not stick to the bottom of the pan, so all the flavor is then lost. And you need to cook the bacon or sausage until they are crisp, not burnt, but crisp. This gives you better drippings, less cooking time means less drippings.
Then you pour all the excess fat into a coffee mug or some people use a coffee can. I use the mug because the coffee can can get rusted, and then that fat goes to waste. You must leave the drippings inside the pan. Drippings are where all the flavor is. What are drippings you ask, well the drippings are those little bits and pieces of the meat that stick to the pan. Oh yeah, lots and lots of flavor there.
Then you heat up the pan on a medium heat, stirring the drippings. Now here comes the hard part to explain. You then add the flour, there is no measured amount to add because it all depends upon how much drippings and grease is in the pan. I start out with a couple of tablespoons of flour added while I am stirring with a fork. I then add more flour and more of the grease from the mug until I get the right consistency and enough of the gravy mixture in the pan for how much gravy I need to make. My advice is to always make it in the same pan so as to learn how much is needed to make a pan full of gravy. The consistency of the gravy mixture is that it needs to be smooth, not dry, and not too greasy, it needs to be just right. Okay, this is the part that everyone claims is the hard part. Somehow I just seem to know when it is just right. All I can say is that one can only learn this part by doing it. Too much flour means lumpy gravy, too much grease means a greasy, runny, gravy. This reminds me of the Three Bears story and how it has to be just right.
So when you get the right consistency, you also add salt and pepper, yup that is it for the seasonings, remember the flavor comes from the drippings, but salt and pepper help a whole lot. I always have a very large glass that is mixed with half water and half milk. I recommend you now switch to using a wire whisk at this point. It is easier to get the lumps out. Turn the temperature down to a medium low, and slowly start pouring in the mixture from the glass, continue mixing as fast as you possibly can so as to keep the lumps out. Keep mixing and adding what is in the glass. It should be fairly watery at this point, make sure all the lumps are out and then turn the temp up a little higher, keep stirring and then adding regular milk to it, a little at a time. Keep stirring and as the mixture warms up it should be getting thicker, turn the temp up if needed. It should then get really thick and you just keep adding a little more milk, stirring and continually heating the mixture until it reaches the consistency of gravy that you want.
Sometimes I crumble the bacon or sausage, and add it to the gravy.
By now I have also cooked the hash browns, biscuits, and eggs, to go with the gravy and next thing I know, it is a mad rush to get to their plates filled. And I am usually too tired by then to eat and so I just walk away and watch everyone else enjoy. Although usually someone will make my plate and bring it to me.
I have tried to teach my daughters how to make it, the older one mostly gets it, and oldest granddaughter is still trying to learn. If any of you want to learn how to make it, now that I have completely confused you, let me know, and somehow I will come over and teach you. Hmmm, maybe a gravy making video is in order.
For more Theme Thursdays, visit here.
Sorry this is late, but hubby brought me breakfast in bed and I was hoping for dinner in bed too.
+(1024x683).jpg)
.JPG)
