Sausage with Cream Gravy and Biscuits

This is a real Southern recipe, popular in the 1950s and 60s. Actually, I either ate, or was given the opportunity to eat, biscuits with cream gravy in 2004 when I was hiking on the Appalachian trail in Virginia. So it is still around. However, unless you have been diagnosed as actually lacking in cholesterol, I wouldn't advise eating this more than, say, once every ten years, although it is tasty in a heavy way.
Pick a biscuit recipe, or get those refrigerator dough biscuits available in the grocery store. I made my own, using a recipe from the cookbook. The recipe said to knead the dough and then roll it into a long tube. Cut rounds off the tube and place them on a baking dish. Well, my tube was flat, and the edges didn't meet, so my daughter's friend Laura pointed out that my biscuits looked like snails. They were still edible.
I fried the Bob Evans sausage and made the gravy. I did not use a cup of water and I also used less flour, probably around 1/4 of a cup. The reason for using less flour is, sausage has much less fat nowadays. The instructions say to remove all but one third cup of fat. Well, I don't think my pound of Bob Evans sausage generated even one quarter cup of fat.
 Two cups of heavy cream make a thick sauce. Salt and pepper punch things up a bit so use a lot of both. If we went away from the dinner table groaning a bit, it was to be expected. I would serve this to a group of Appalachian Trail maintainers, or other people who had spent the day engaged in heavy manual labor. They could burn it off.

Sausage with Cream Gravy and Biscuits

1 1/2 pounds sausage meat
1/3 cup flour
1 cup water
2 cups evaporated milk or heavy cream
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
6 hot biscuits, split

1. Shape the sausage into twelve patties and fry in a heavy skillet until brown and thoroughly cooked. Remove patties and keep warm.
2. Remove all but one-third cup of fat. (See introduction.) from skillet. Sprinkle the flour over fat in skillet and mix. Gradually add the water, stirring constantly.
3 Stir in the milk or cream. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, stirring. Return patties to skillet and reheat.
4. Serve on top of the biscuits. Makes six servings.

Halibut with Orange (Gluten Free)

It is impossible to go wrong with this dish, unless you don't like cream and cognac. In which case, I sympathize. This recipe actually marked my reintroduction to blogging. I had a double hip replacement on January 6, and since then, have been in and out of the hospital because one side was not healing properly.  But now, my stitches are out, I have traded in my walker for a cane, and weather permitting, can walk up to a half a mile or more a day. I have started to cook again.
Unfortunately, the weather hasn't been permitting a lot of the time. This results in an elevation of the crab level that makes being in my general vicinity a hazardous occupation. Today I informed my poor, long suffering husband that if I didn't do something NOW, I would shoot him out of mere boredom. Let me say right now that I possess nothing more lethal than a rubber band to shoot him with, nor would I shoot him in any case. But I felt like shooting something.
Since he is a sensible man, he suggested a walk down to the coffee shop. Half an hour out in the cold, damp air and a cup of hot chocolate had me right as rain, with all violent urges blown out of my head by the wind.
So that's why there have not been any posts to the blog since Christmas.
Now, the halibut. Our son the lawyer had a birthday. He's a touchy man to shop for unless you buy him a book, so I conferred with his wife and got him a gift card to Black Salt, a seafood restaurant on MacArthur Boulevard with an adjoining fish market. Aha, said I, time to move the blog along, so I chose this recipe as being relatively simple.
Regular readers may remember how I am always bitching about the prices at the Fishery on Connecticut Avenue. Well, I take it all back. Black Salt is even more expensive than the Fishery, although in their defense they do have a stunning display of our underwater buddies decorating their fish counter. I haven't seen anything like it since Bob and I went to Berlin. It reminded me of Harrod's food halls. We went home with a $36 pound of halibut.
Bob did the cooking. He had a few choice words for the recipe, and how it left out essential instructions. After one bakes the fish, one needs to drain off any cooking liquid to add to the sauce. Hewlett didn't see fit to mention that, per usual. If you are concerned about calories, half and half may easily be substituted for cream with no loss of flavor. I actually forgot to tell Bob to buy cream, but we did have half and half. It was still delicious.

Halibut with Orange

2 pounds halibut fillets, cut into four serving pieces
1/3 cup butter
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 
2 tablespoons cognac
1 teaspoon very fine, julienne strips of orange rind
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 orange, cut into very thin slices

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place the fish in a buttered shallow baking dish. Brush with half the butter and season with salt and pepper.
3. Bake twenty minutes, or until fish flakes easily. Drain any cooking liquid and reserve to add to the sauce.
4. Heat the remaining butter until it is lightly browned. Stir in the cognac and orange rind. Stir well. Stir in the cream and any liquid from the cooked fish. Bring to a boil and reduce by boiling if too thin. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Add the parsley and pour over the fish. Place the orange slices along length of fillets for garnish. Makes four servings.