Southern Cookin’ makes ya’ Good Lookin’

For years I have tried to make some of my Grandmothers “famous” recipes. Some I have mastered, some are adequate, and some I had come to accept total and complete failure. One of those is THE southern meal of Gravy & Biscuits. (By the way, Cracker Barrel, Bob Evans, McDonalds….ha! These are NOT real, but mere imitation!) I have had friends who flippantly tell me that they can make that…ya, those friends (who shall remain unnamed) who hail from Illinois, who’s family roots are in Minnesota…I don’t think so!!

The problem is that my Grandma tells me to add a pinch of this and a dash of that and then “eyeball” it to make sure the consistency is right…not too liquidy or too dry? What??? I need a recipe, a definitive amount to add to the concoction brewing before me. Call me anal, call me what you will. This approach just hasn’t worked for me.

So I was recently reading a novel called Home to Big Stone Gap, it’s a series that takes place in Wise County, VA, coincidently where both sides of my family are from. And the author, Adrianna Trigianni, always puts recipes in her books. And lo and behold this last book had a biscuits & gravy recipe.


So, Sunday night I tried my hand at it. It tasted just like grandmas. Not quite as good, but reasonably similar. The last time I attempted biscuits they were like little saucers and not even the dog would eat them, but these were light and fluffy, still not quite as yummy as Gran’s. Isabelle even sampled the gravy, biscuit, and eggs.

Conrad wasn’t as thrilled with it as he usually is with my Grandma’s cooking, but he ate it and said he liked it (I just think he was glad I was cooking, tho) I might add that the downside to country cooking, is like Indian cooking…all the mess!