It was a bad day. I awoke that morning with a fever and pounding headache, a cough that rattled my ribs, and feeling as though my husband had secretly dragged me out into the street and run me over with a Mac truck. In short, I felt awful. A stop by the doctor's office and a handful of drugs later (steroids, antibiotics, pain meds, decongestants) and I was feeling much better. In fact, I was feeling good enough to make dinner. Breakfast for dinner. Or, as one of my favorite TV shows, Scrubs, calls it: Brinner.
Brinner is a feel-good meal, and sick days call for feel-good meals. So it only made sense that I would make my favorite brinner food - biscuits with chocolate gravy.
Growing up, summers consisted of trips to Arkansas to visit my grandparents. Many memories of my childhood include my granny's famous biscuits and chocolate gravy. A trip to visit granny was not complete without my favorite meal, and it has become one of my ultimate comfort foods. For those not familiar, chocolate gravy consists of cocoa powder, sugar, and milk cooked together until thick, rich, and delicious (see below for recipe). Then, you pour the gravy over the top of steaming hot homemade biscuits for an incredible meal. Yes, on this sick day, biscuits with chocolate gravy it was.
I pride myself on my biscuits, and have even been called "the biscuit queen" by friends. My biscuits are perfect - they come out warm, flaky, buttery, and wonderful. They are always made from scratch. They are never over-kneaded or tough. And when they emerge from the oven, they are the perfect golden-brown on top. I started making biscuits in college, and discovered that they were easy to make. Then I discovered that I was actually pretty good at making them. I knew I reached perfection when my dad confided in me that my biscuits were better than my mom's biscuits. Yup, biscuit perfection.
Everything started out well. Biscuits were made and put in the oven. I was feeling slightly foggy-headed from all of the drugs I had gotten from the doctor's office, so I made sure to set the oven timer to remind myself to take the biscuits out. I mixed the chocolate gravy and opted to microwave it so I could make omelets and bacon on the stove. While the gravy was cooking away, I sizzled the bacon and mixed the omelets, grated cheese and chopped fresh spinach. Things were going well. If only I wasn't feeling a bit loopy.
I checked on the chocolate gravy, and it was going perfectly - nearly done. A few more seconds in the microwave and it would be perfect. At this point, the baby began to cry. Well, less of a cry and more of a high-pitched, extended whine. The decibel level and intensity of the whine makes you feel as though your eardrums may shatter like crystal in an opera house. My already weak concentration was broken, and I begged Nathan to entertain the baby so I could finish brinner. Just a few more minutes and it would be done. If only I could focus. Damn these drugs and their ill-effects on my concentration.
The bacon came off and was perfect, it was my favorite kind of bacon, sugar-cured pepper bacon, thick cut slabs of peppery, sweet, crispy bacon. The omelets were done and were nearly perfect, a few dark spots where they were over-cooked (I blame the continuous stream of baby whine in my ear), but Nathan likes them cooked longer than I do, so not a total fail. Besides, how bad can spinach and cheddar omelets be? Another ear-shattering whine from the baby. My headache was starting to return, and things were going downhill. Time to pull things together for the finish so we could eat.
Suddenly, I realized that the microwave had completed its cooking cycle and I hadn't checked the chocolate gravy. I pulled open the door and groaned - chocolate gravy explosion. Chocolate gravy poured over the edge of the bowl and coated the bottom of the microwave. It had exploded and coated the ceiling, the door, and all three walls of the microwave. In fact, very little gravy actually remained in the bowl. And then it hit me. When had the biscuit timer gone off? Oh crap!!! I whipped open the oven door, and saw my prize-winning biscuits in their worst. Tops overly brown, hard, edges nearly black. Not flaky. Not tender. Not golden delicious. Not my perfect biscuits. I poured the little remaining gravy into a new bowl, scraped the darkest parts of the biscuits off, and served brinner. After all, how bad can it really be when you smother the biscuits in chocolate gravy? Better pop another decongestant....
Chocolate Gravy
3tbsp cocoa powder
2-3tbsp flour
1c sugar
1tsp salt
2c milk
- Mix together dry ingredients with a whisk until lumps are gone
- Add a small amount of milk and mix to make a paste (makes it smoother and mix easier), then add the rest of the milk
- cook on stovetop or in the microwave. If microwaving, start with 2 minutes, then 1 minute increments stirring each time. Check frequently, as when the gravy starts to thicken it WILL explode if not removed at the perfect time (see above)
- serve with biscuits. I like to crumble my biscuits and mix them up with gravy. Others like to slice their biscuits and pour the gravy on top. Either way, it's delicious!
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