The Breakfast Chronicles Part I: Chorizo Sausage Gravy & Cheese Grits

March 7, 2012 7 ish PM

I'm in the kitchen, Boyz II Men is playing in the background.  I am attempting to make Chorizo Sausage Gravy, Buttermilk Biscuits and Cheese Grits.  Lots of people have commented that my blog has too much sweet stuff, so I'm attempting to give the readers what they want.  Full Disclosure: I am not a breakfast person.  My idea of breakfast is eating a bowl of Cheerios with slices of almonds.  If I am really hungry I'll also eat a banana.  A "heavy" breakfast would be a whole wheat waffle with a side of turkey sausage and sugar free syrup.  I would much rather sleep through breakfast and pick it up at lunch.

A little background:

 About 3 weeks ago, for whatever reason, Jamie and I were out and about early enough to have breakfast at the BEST deli in Silver Spring.  I ordered the french toast w/ bacon and Jamie got the special of the day: biscuits and gravy.  When his food came he was beside himself with happiness over how good that gravy was.  I personally thought it looked like vomit on top of two perfectly good biscuits. Anyway, he loved it so much that I promised to try to make it at home for him after the bar as a "thank you" for putting up with all of the highlighters that were scattered all over our house. 

Back to the present:

I'm making biscuits, side note buttermilk smells horrific, FYI.   I'm happy with the dough and start rolling out the biscuits to throw them in the oven.  I am sort of worried that the recipe's direction that they should stay in the oven for 15 minutes at 500 degrees might be wrong, but I have sausage to fry so I move on.   Gotta listen to my instinct:

Burnt Biscuits

I start the Chorizo by removing the casings from the sausage and throw it in my already warm cast iron skillet.  I only use two links because there are only two of us and I am fairly certain that I'm not going to actually eat much of this because of my aversion to the way it looks.   The sausage is done and I realize that Chorizo doesn't have as much fat as regular sausage.  From everything I read, you need a fair amount of grease to make the gravy.  No worries, I just add some butter to the pan and hope for the best.  I add a table spoon of flour and some milk.   About 5 minutes later I think there is enough gravy to add the sausage back in.  My lovely husband waltzes ( Jamie claims that he doesn't waltz, but I know waltzing when I see it)  back in the kitchen and declares that there is too much sausage and not enough gravy. I throw him a mean look and say "I don't know what I am doing! Fine, I'll add more milk but if it tastes bad don't look at me"  I add enough milk to thin out the gravy and he's satisfied.

While all this is going on I have already started the grits: 2 cups of chicken broth 1/4 cups grits  and let it boil for 12-14 minutes.   The timer goes off, while I am still trying to figure out how much more milk to add to the gravy.  In the interest of doing things fast, I just pour in some milk (no clue how much) and a handful of cheese into the grits and stir.  Done!

Back to the sausage gravy.  It looks done.  I have no idea.  Growing up I can't ever remember having biscuits and gravy.   Jamie finally finishes his Playstation game and wanders in the kitchen.  He agrees that it is done.  Then he takes a look at the kitchen and it is destroyed. My husband is the neat one out of our pair.  He's the reason that our house is dusted.  The current status of the kitchen is alarming to him because there are so many dirty measuring cups, spoons and bowls.  There is flour on the counter, the floor and my pants despite the fact that I have on an apron.

So we're at the table I put a spoonful of grits in my mouth and immediately remember that I don't like grits.  What are you supposed to do-- chew them or just swallow them whole?  I have this horrible childhood memory of someone putting ketchup on grits and I can literally smell that god awful smell. It sends shivers down my spine.  I look at Jamie and he is trying his damnest to eat the scant amount of grits he put on his plate.  The look on his face is pure terror because he doesn't like grits either. The last time he had grits was two years ago at the DePalma wedding and those grits were conveniently covered in shrimp.   The grits don't taste bad-- the chicken broth adds a lot of flavor while the colby jack cheese and milk made the grits extra creamy, we just aren't grits people.  We joke that we are the worst southerners ever, not liking grits.  At least we don't prefer Cream of Wheat then we'd officially be carpetbaggers!

 I push the grits aside and focus my attentions on the biscuits and gravy.  I ate about 3 bites and I was done.  It didn't taste bad it just looked so awful that I just couldn't do it.  Jamie swears it was good despite the fact that the biscuits were burnt.  He ate his biscuits and then mine.  He comments that it's hard to get excited about eating food when the person who made it looks like they are going to throw up.  He says it's one thing to be the southern woman who claims her food is not that good, but it is really the best thing in the whole world and another to actually look at the food in disgust.  I couldn't help it I just couldn't eat it.

We clean up the disaster of a kitchen and he looks at me and says "So honey, what do you really want for dinner?"  That's love :)

If you want an awesome recipe for Chorizo Sausage Gravy and Biscuits, check this one out from Deep South Dish

Breakfast 1 Richelle 0.  This is far from over....