Leather Work - Spending Time with Ethan + Buttermilk Biscuits and Sausage Gravy Recipes

Ethan and I have been working on some projects together. He made sheath (a rig) for his rigger's knife and marlin spike. I made a pouch for one of his compasses. We had a great time together. We started out with a breakfast of freshly made biscuits and sausage gravy. We also took Remmie to the dog park and we went to the Tandy Leather store.

He was very clever and managed to create an anchor using the various leather stamps that we had on hand. Our good friend, Aaron, loaned us a large box of leather working tools.

The sea is already calling him back. It has been calling since the day after he returned home. When he was working construction, living elsewhere, here always felt like home and he was simply away. Now, the boat feels like home and when he is here, it more of a visit. I think that it will be a much longer time before he returns home again. We may even loose him to San Francisco.

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Buttermilk Biscuits
via: Bon Appetit, February 2014
(I made a half recipe and that was more than enough for Ethan and I. A half recipe made 9 biscuits.)

3 teaspoons baking powder
2½ teaspoons kosher salt (omit this if you are using salted butter)
1 teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon baking soda
5½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more
1½ cups (3 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces (I pulse this in the food processor before I actually begin putting the recipe together.)
1½ cups chilled buttermilk
1 large egg, beaten to blend (I do not use this. I top the uncooked biscuits with melted butter instead.)

Preheat oven to 375°. Pulse baking powder, salt, sugar, baking soda, and 5½ cups flour in a food processor. Add butter and pulse until the texture of coarse meal with a few pea-size pieces of butter remaining.

Transfer mixture to a large bowl. Mix in buttermilk with a fork, then gently knead just until a shaggy dough comes together.

Pat out dough on a lightly floured surface until 1¼” thick. Cut out biscuits with a 3” biscuit cutter, rerolling scraps once.

Place biscuits on a parchment-lined baking sheet and brush tops with egg. Bake until golden brown, 30–35 minutes.

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Sausage Gravy
This is a family recipe. It is really wonderful, but not at all healthy. I still think that it is worth making.


1 pound Breakfast Sausage (links or roll)
2-3 TBL. Bacon Fat (or butter)
2 1/2 cups Milk (2%, some people use whole milk. Other even use some milk and some heavy cream - this is too rich for me.)
1/4 cup Flour
Salt
Pepper

Cook the sausage in a skillet, breaking it up into bite size pieces. Once it is nearly cooked, add in the bacon grease/butter. Put the milk and flour in a canning jar (spaghetti sauce jar), shaking it to blend the flour into the cold milk. Pour this into the skillet once the bacon grease/butter has melted. Stir with a wooden spoon. Continue to stir it as it thickens over medium heat.
Season to taste.

Serve over the biscuits.