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What's For Breakfast...

Messages
17,215
Location
New York City
Sourdough biscuits with onion, sausage, and green chili gravy. There was coffee and whiskey:





I'm a city kid (lived in them most of my life) and have only my intuitive understanding of those pictures, but it sounds and looks like breakfast heaven - kicked up even one notch further by the whiskey. I don't know how, but one day I'd like to have a breakfast just like yours in your pictures.

N.B. handsome looking dog.
 
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greatestescaper

One of the Regulars
Messages
293
Location
Fort Davis, Tx
Firstly, thanks all for the fine compliments. It is very much a privilege to live out in West Texas, and to enjoy such a fine breakfast.

I'm a city kid (lived in them most of my life) and have only my intuitive understanding of those pictures, but it sounds and looks like breakfast heaven - kicked up even one notch further by the whiskey. I don't know how, but one day I'd like to have a breakfast just like yours in your pictures.

N.B. handsome looking dog.

Secondly, I was a city mouse, reared by country mice. Opportunity brought my great grandparents from all over the country to New York City, and I grew up with the tales of farm and ranch life. On the rare occasion as a boy I'd get to go on trips to the towns my family used to live in Maine, and once I visited my Great Uncle who rescued horses in southern California. Needless to say I was born in New York, but I was born a man of the West. When I was old enough I packed my bags and moved to Texas where I met my wife, and am settled in to country living.

This breakfast is now a weekly experience. I set up for the Farmer's and Artisan's Market of Alpine, Texas. As for the gravy it's real easy. The ingredients are as follows:
-onion (minced)
-butter (2 tablespoons)
-Jimmy Dean Sausage (at least 1 lbs)
-flour (1/4 to 1/2 cup)
-milk (1/2 gallon)
-green chilis, preferably Hatch (amount depends on how hot you like it)
-salt and pepper to taste
-habanero (or other hot pepper, such as cayanne or jalapeno) powder to taste (it may be scary to some, but just a pinch is essential)

-Heat your dutch oven over the fire, melt butter
-Throw in your onion, salt, pepper, and habanero powder, cover and sautee 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
*If fire too hot remove from heat to stir, then place back on as needed to regulate heat.
**Allow steam to dissipate after lifting lid...IT WILL BURN
-When onions are nearly translucent, add sausage, and brown, breaking up with a spatula.
*again, while not stirring mixture keep lid on
-When sausage is cooked through, add enough flour to coat completely, but not so much that the flour remains white in color. It should absorb the juices and become brown.
-Add milk, stir, add green chilies, and stir occasionally.
-Allow to thicken and serve over sourdough biscuits.

*side note, to maintain heat while cooking onions and sausage, the dutch ovens can be stacked. Put the gravy dutch oven on top of the one cooking the biscuits. The coals should be a fine temperature for browning this mixture. However, once the milk is in, return it over the fire.

All typed out this may seem involved, however, remember that most cowboys were not rocket scientists, and yet they cooked biscuits, gravy, and cobbler. And while the gravy may do alright on a stove-top, the biscuits in an oven are not nearly as good.

And lastly, as for the dog, he's part of the family. His name is Louie, and he's a rescue from the local shelter. My dearest friends adopted him, and he's been a brilliant addition to the family. My four month old is surprisingly excited by the licks...his tongue is bigger than Virgil's face I think.
 
Messages
17,215
Location
New York City
^^^ I was a city mouse raised by city mice (and a mother who didn't like to cook), so, growing up, in my mind, food came from a store and I had only a vague understanding that somewhere at the end of a chain was a farm or grove or ranch or something. As I got older and my horizons expanded, I gained a reasonable understanding of where our food comes from, etc. - and my girlfriend is an incredible cook and baker who loves to work from scratch so I've now have a reasonable understand of how those farm and ranch basics become the food we eat. All that said, I have no experience that compares to your wonderful breakfast (and thank you for the recipe and guidance). You were lucky to have exposure to both worlds growing up and to have figured out where you passion is and to follow it.
 
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greatestescaper

One of the Regulars
Messages
293
Location
Fort Davis, Tx
^^^ I was a city mouse raised by city mice (and a mother who didn't like to cook), so, growing up, in my mind, food came from a store and I had only a vague understanding that somewhere at the end of a chain was a farm or grove or ranch or something. As I got older and my horizons expanded, I gained a reasonable understanding of where our food comes from, etc. - and my girlfriend is an incredible cook and baker who loves to work from scratch so I've now have a reasonable understand of how those farm and ranch basics become the food we eat. All that said, I have no experience that compares to your wonderful breakfast (and thank you for the recipe and guidance). You were lucky to have exposure to both worlds growing up and to have figured out where you passion is and to follow it.


If it is not overly presumptuous of me, I'd like to recommend the "Fannie Farmer Cookbook". It was one of the first modern cookbooks, and, as it was created for a cooking school it is not solely a book of recipes, but also a book of explanations of tools, food, and technique! Each generation of my family keeps a copy, it is sort of a right of passage to get your own copy.

Also, as for cowboy cooking, I can not hesitate to recommend "The Texas Cowboy Cookbook" by Robb Walsh. Or any other cook books by Robb Walsh. If you do want to learn some of this country or range cooking that is surely a wonderful source.

I learned a lot of cooking by my shadowing my family in the kitchen, some by reading cookbooks, researching online, and finding locals who could teach me some of the foods that were foreign to me. It is much easier than one might think. And, to me, there are few things greater than getting folks to gather around a table and share a meal. That is why I focus so much of my time on cooking.

To stray back on topic, this morning's breakfast was cheese grits, with bacon, and green chilies, and cofffee.
 
Messages
17,215
Location
New York City
Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte and Tanzanian (instant)coffee. :oops:;)

I've mentioned this in other posts, but I grew up next to a German couple that had come to the US after WWII. They were fantastic neighbors and we developed a really nice friendship with them. They would ask us each year to bring them a Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte from Germantown in NYC around the holidays as my mom and dad and, as an older teenager, I would always go into the city for something at that time of year. She'd always give me a piece of the cake which turned me into a fan of it - I still buy it when I see it today, +/- forty years later.
 
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Messages
13,672
Location
down south
Two cups of coffee, a green smoothie, and a couple of tamales that I bought extra from the taco truck last night.

Sent from my XT1030 using Tapatalk
 

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