Joey Bloggs said:
But...Red Handed Jill, case in point the chap here from New Zealand and couple from Iowa and one from the UK and one from Southern CA all on the same midweek night in October.
Only one is staying "southern" on their trip, so this may be the only chance each of them has to try southern style
biscuits and gravy. Sure they can have it anywhere but chances are they won't. I already broached the subject and the Kiwi said "gravy for breakfast? I will bring my marmite!" and then "Okay I am willing to try it."
PS Yes hot sauce goes on the gravy and the scrambled eggs which accompany it. I will use mild sausage in the gravy however, not spicy.
Point taken. We had just had a couple from overseas who probably fit that description - their chance for a genuine, home cooked regional breakfast. They were happy with what I gave them (I *do* like it when guests eat heartily </confession>). I let them know how most all the ingredients were local, thought they might find that interesting, but didn't give them a particularly Texan-styled breakfast..
Prior to innkeeping, I was a non-cook. For the first 6 months after opening I was glued to my 30 year old copy of the Joy of Cooking. Actually, my background of home cooking was not that great either. Dad was a general surgeon who wanted supper on the table when he got home, which could be any time between 5:30 and 7:30, so Mom had to have food that could be prepared quickly (canned green beans, anyone) or could be left in the oven for however long. So we had lots of mac and cheese, meatloaf, and the butcher special cut porkchops as thin as possible so they could be incinerated in the broiler (fear of trichinosis). The salt shaker was always at his place at the table, and he was the only one who used it.
So, when I went away to college in Tennessee I discovered the joy of vegetables, the joy of porkchops that actually were juicy, etc. I also was introduced to sausage gravy and cheese grits. Neither of those items were to be found in my Joy of Cooking.
Since I'm now living back in the midwest, I can't say that many of my guests would expect sausage gravy and biscuits, but I was reading up on gravy in my cookbook, and one liquid that can be used in gravy making is beer, so I had to try that out. Actually beer gravy tastes great! So, I have made a yankee version of sausage gravy... I use about 2/3 beer and 1/3 half and half, and in addition to sausage, I throw in some mushrooms that have been sauted in wine, and serve it over a toasted english muffin. Works well in the rotation if they're staying more than a couple of nights.
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