Making the Lego Cake

The subject of my last post was my daughter's homemade Lego birthday cake. It was nothing fancy, but it helped our family cut our a lot of expense that our family deemed unnecessary (that may or may not ring true for your family about cake.) Last year's cake cost more than $50, and I had to drive more than 60 miles round trip to get it. This year's cake cost less than $12. Yes, there was a major difference in the professional appearance of the tasty treat, but with a savings of more than $38, I decided that was a sacrifice I was willing to make.

Here's how I made a delicious three layered birthday cake:

I bought cake mixes on sale for $1 per box. I prefer golden yellow cake and a lovely chocolate layered together. I also bought four containers of pre-made icing, one chocolate and two cream cheese flavored white icing.

I baked the cakes per the directions on the back of the boxes with the following exceptions:
I used jumbo  farm fresh eggs instead of large eggs.
I used melted butter in place of oil.
I topped the yellow cakes with sprinkles before they went into the oven.

The batter from each cake went into 8 1/2" round cake pans that I got from the Dollar Tree, two for $1. At one time, I had four round cakes baking nicely. After they tested "done", I let them cool completely. Not almost. Completely.

Once cooled, I turned the first yellow cake out on to the round cake board and topped it with about half of the container of chocolate frosting. I smoothed it with an offset spatula and created a level spot for the chocolate cake. I turned the chocolate cake out into my hands and placed it carefully on top of the chocolate frosting pillow I had just created. Chocolate frosting went on top of this layer too. Next, I turned the last yellow cake out into my hands and centered it on top of the other two carefully.

Once the layers were together, I took some bamboo skewers, cut them to the appropriate height, and I pushed them down through the center of the cake to act as reinforcements. You could use drinking straws too. Be sure to get them back out before serving your cake!

Next, I cleaned of the excess chocolate icing that was trying to push its' way out the sides of the cake. You can do what you want with this icing. I may or may not have licked mine and had to wash the spatula before I could continue.

The pre-made icing wanted to be a bit cantankerous with me, so I stirred it really good before I tried to spread it on this delicate cake. I started with about half of one jar across the top. The crumbs really wanted to come off and make the cake look all crumbly, even though it isn't. So I gently spread the icing across the top and sides of the cake until it was all covered in white, leaving about a half of  a container to pipe on with a piping bag. I wish I had a bit more icing to do another layer to completely cover the cake again, so I learned something for next time.

Next, I filled a piping bag fitted with a star tip with white icing, and I began adding a bead of icing at the base where the cake met the board it was sitting on. I iced it all the way around. Then I did the same thing around the top edge. I am not good at this part.

Next I made some Lego Movie accessories out of stickers from this book to put on top of the cake.

I sandwiched toothpicks between Lego Movie stickers and construction paper to create little accessories. 

Next, I used scissors to cut them out. Then I went into my kids' playroom, grabbed some of the Lego people we already owned, washed my kids' germs off of them, and placed them on top of the cake. I went back and built a number 6 out of blocks too and placed the pieces on top of the cake.

I piped her name on the front of the cake using some leftover black sparkly gel from my post titled Lego Birthday on a Budget. Not too shabby results for saving more than $38 on party cake.

The best part is that my daughter loved it. The second best part was that our guests loved the flavor of the cake.

As a side note: I baked four round cakes but only used three for this layered recipe. I had planned to ice the other one and have it on hand if we ran short on cake, but life happens. My daughters found it on the counter, reached up and grabbed hands full of cake, and ate it as quickly as possible while running away from the scene of the crime leaving a trail of chocolate evidence on their path.

Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God...

Psalm 143:10

"Oh Look! Her Mama made her cake!"

Proverbs 22:7 The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is a slave to the lender.

The Lego Movie party is inching its' way closer, and the budget hasn't grown a bit. I just finished our daughter's birthday cake and asked my husband how it looked. 

Silence. 

That's never a good sign. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "It looks like a birthday cake." Great. It looks homemade, I thought.

My goal was to save us a nice chunk of money on this party expense, but I hate sacrificing the adorable quotient. For her last birthday, I bought a super cute cake with Ariel and Flounder and Sebastian all decked out on a beach scene. That edible artwork cost more than $50! So this year I decided that was not happening! 

Here's what I spent on birthday cake:

$1.00 Yellow Cake Mix -on sale!

$1.00 Chocolate Cake Mix-on sale!

$3.00 Cream Cheese Icing- 2 containers on sale!

$1.50 Chocolate Icing-on sale!

$1.99 Round Cake Board

$2.00 Disposable Cake Pans

$1.00 Lego Stickers (I actually took them out of a book that cost $13.89 that I bought for her for a gift, but I was planning to give that to her anyway. I could find stickers online for about $1.00)

That's a grand total of $11.49! 

Compared to last year, I saved over $35 just on cake!

I borrowed a piping bag from a friend, hoping to achieve a more professional look, but professional equipment must be in the hands of a professional.  I am not a professional cake decorator. I am a cake decorating dummy.

Part of my mind is hearing the voices of other moms saying things like, "She's only going to turn six once, so you might as well make it special." That makes her Lego cake that I made seem inadequate. 

Though the ugliness of mom comparison is trying to steal my joy and convince me I am a sub-par parent because I am not purchasing a cake that is worthy of multiple-angle photos, a still small voice is encouraging me. "This is CAKE. We are going to EAT it. Cake is not something that has long-term value."

So with more resolve, I decide to feel confident about this feebly decorated cake. Yes, it looks homemade.  It saved us quite a bit of money, and my daughter thinks it looks amazing. It tastes delish too! ( sampled a bit of it!)

As I think about this cake, it is more a gift to my family than some kind of show piece for her guests. This is a gift to my kids, a gift of modeling responsible financial behavior. If we have the choice of spending $12 or $50+ on cake, will my kids want to take on the additional time commitment or the additional cost? This is a gift to my husband that allows him to have financial peace because he can trust me as a steward of the finances in our home. If we are worried about our budget, he feels additional stress. I want to create a home that allows him to sigh with relief when he comes home; I don't want to add any frustration to his already hectic day.

So, we will press six candles into this creation, light them on fire, and allow this child the opportunity to wish for something and then blowout the little flames. And then we will demolish the cake and consume all if its' carb-filled yumminess.

Financial Responsibility is my goal in this journey, and unfortunately, there are no exclusions for birthdays. If I want to teach my kids how to be financially responsible,  I have to show them how to do it everyday of the year. Though my husband and I are currently slaves to our lenders, my kids don't have to be! No cake is worthy of any debt!

Happy Birthday, baby girl!

For instructions on making the cake, click here.

Rough Days and Kindness (on a Budget)

Rough Days and Kindness on a Budget

Yesterday was one of those days. You know the ones; your mom was supposed to tell you about those kind of days. Fortunately for me, mine told me they might come, and she also told me they might come three or four in a row. 

Yesterday's issues started a few days ago. Over the weekend, we were involved in an accident in our van with our whole family inside. It wasn't my husband's fault; a little old lady pulled right out in front of us, and my husband avoided smashing into the driver's side door of her old lady car but took out the front end of our van with a couple of mailboxes. Essentially, he saved her life and trashed our car. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but the insurance tango has begun. So, the last several days have been filled with the fun of contacting insurance companies and getting police reports and getting a rental car. My mind has been tempted to become overwhelmed this week because of life on a budget.

So I called my mom who lives a billion miles away and shared my frustrations with her. They went a little something like this.

Though I usually stay at home to care for our kids, my one-day-per-week job got bumped up a bit because of all the nasty winter weather we have had, so this week, I have to work extra. Wow, these sheets on my bed need replaced. And tomorrow is my daughter's birthday. (She asked me a month ago if I would bring cupcakes to her class at school, and having no clue what kind of week this would turn into, I agreed.) How am I going to get those done, and get the kids back and forth to school and go to work?  And our kids need new car seats since theirs were involved in an accident over the weekend. When am I going to go buy those? I wonder how much money that is going to cost! I sure hope insurance covers those!  And our son needs ANOTHER haircut. And I have a mountain of dirty laundry to wash. And a mountain of clean laundry to put away. And our dishes need washing. And what should I make for dinner? Oh great, the cat just knocked over another glass of water all over the important insurance paperwork from the accident. I hate that cat! And don't forget that I need to get a snack ready for 21 children at preschool. Which reminds me, I need to go get groceries, but not until I can refill the "Grocery" envelope that has become completely emptied. I think payday is Friday. And I need to get the bills ready to send out. And the kids have homework that needs my attention. And my husband has meetings after work. And there's another dirty diaper that needs attention. And I think I forgot to write that one doctor appointment on the calendar. I sure hope they give me one of those reminder calls. And I am exhausted.

The more I talked about my problems, the more they (and our budget) seemed to overwhelm me and get on my nerves. But as ever, mom wanted to help take away some of the burden, and I assured her that I can handle it on my own; that life can just be like this sometimes. I can do it because I am strong, I reminded her. She agreed, but asked me if I would accept her help. How on earth could she help me from more than a thousand miles away? She couldn't come put away laundry! Not knowing how on earth she planned to help from such a distance, I agreed. 

We hung up; I put on my big-girl panties, and I loaded the dishwasher to get rid of my mound of dishes while I thought about how much it might cost to just go and buy the cupcakes for my daughter's 27 fellow kindergartners. At least $15, I figured. "Shame on you," I thought, "You can't go and blow the budget like that when you already bought a cake mix and icing for less than $3 for this very purpose!"

I whipped up the cupcakes and remembered that I just saved our family $12. Talk about a quick confidence boost! I knew I had to head to work soon, but I checked the clock and figured I might just have enough time to whip up dinner and save us the difference of about $20 for take out. I boiled up some pasta shells, whipped up a quick filling and put it all together into pans just as my fabulous sitter was walking in to take over for me to head to work. I tallied in my mind $32 saved.  I rushed getting ready, ran out the door, put in my time at work, and headed back home. 

When I walked through the door from work, my sitter was finishing up washing the last of my dishes (bless her heart), and I popped the pan of stuffed shells into the oven, feeling like I was starting to get everything under control. A few minutes later, our home was full and bustling with all of children home from school and my husband searching the kitchen for a snack (does anyone else's husband search for snacks WHEN DINNER IS ALMOST READY? Good grief!) when my doorbell rang. 

Standing on my doorstep were three young ladies that I recognized immediately to be the teen daughters of a mutual friend of my mom and me. She had sent them to help attack my lists of things to do and to play with our children while I took care of household issues. I don't know exactly how she arranged it or paid them, but it was awesome! She sent me three extra sets of hands to help accomplish tasks.

While they got busy dusting, vacuuming, and doing various laundry tasks, I was a little uncomfortable. We moms are conditioned to believe that we can and SHOULD be able to handle all that life throws at us independently. I started feeling a little ashamed that I can't do it all. My house is often cluttered, and I regularly overspend on our "Dining Out" portion of the budget because I can't always make time to get a meal ready. As a result of me being uncomfortable, I started trying to work faster than these three young women to kind of prove myself. But then I remembered that my mom sent them to help me, not for me to try to race them in a housework Olympic event! I got a gentle reminder that we are called to bear one another's burdens as Galatians 6:2 tells us, and this was how my mom wanted to help me in my burden of motherhood. I think if she could have stopped over to help me herself, she would have, but since she wasn't able to, she did the next best thing and sent other hands to help.

Accepting others' help is hard. But last night, I went to bed with so many tasks completed because someone cared for me. I didn't have to bear the burden of being strong and independent yesterday.  

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28

Powdered Laundry Detergent

Laundry Soap- Part 2

A few weeks ago, I posted about Why I Make Laundry Soap, and I talked about two different varieties of soap.  In that post, I mentioned about my powdered variety, but when I went to make the link to the original site where I got the recipe, it was gone! The link was replaced with no helpful information regarding the making of a powdered laundry soap. I have no way to give credit to the original author, as the site is no longer in existence.

Luckily, I loved the recipe so much that I had written it out, taped it to my laundry area, and referred to it on a biannual basis before the site was altered. Here is my handwritten version.

Laundry Soap Recipe

1 (4lb, 12 oz) Box of Borax

1 (3lb, 7oz) Box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda

 2 (14.1 oz) Bars of Zote or Fels Naptha Soap

 4 lbs Baking soda

2 Bottles of Purex Crystals (optional)

1 Large Box of Oxiclean

Using a cheese grater or similar tool, grate the bar soap into a powder or crumbles. Add to a large container. Add other ingredients and mix well. Store in a resealable container in a dry place. Use 1-2 tablespoons per load. 

Part of the reason why I love this recipe is that it is possible to alter it without too much trouble. Tonight, I didn't have quite everything I needed to make a half batch, but we needed soap! So I made it with the following changes: I only had about 2/3 of a bar of Fels Naptha, so I added the rest in grated Ivory soap crumbles. I like the smell even better I think. I also didn't have any Purex Crystals and since I don't care too much about the scent,  that was no major problem. The Purex Crystals are just for scent. I also was short of Oxiclean, but I had a box of BIZ instead, so that allowed me to have a quick substitution. 

We are back in stock with laundry soap, and this half batch will probably last me into the summer!

Lego Birthday on a Budget

Making Lego Pops and Budgeting a Celebration

Our oldest child is turning six, and she wants to have a Lego Movie birthday party. Birthday parties can get expensive very quickly, but we cannot justify an elaborate, expensive party for each of our three kids every year. In previous years, I have been sucked into the idea of buying all the designer plates with matching cups, napkins, cupcake holders, banners, shirts, and trash can liners. Ok, so maybe they don't actually sell trash can liners, but I do think people might buy them. But we don't do that anymore! So I ask my kids what kind of party they want, spend some time cruising around Pinterest with them, select a few cool things to try to make together, and plan out a party on a conservative budget. These Lego head pops were an item that she liked the looks of, and I thought I could possible make them without breaking the bank for this year's party.

Lego Pops

I gathered the following items: 

a piece of foam

marshmallows

yellow melting wafers

lollipop sticks

black icing

clear lollipop wrappers 

small round candies

Begin by melting the yellow wafers in a double boiler. I bought my wafers in bulk from a bulk foods store. I did see a similar kind from a party supply store, but the cost was considerably higher by the pound. Since I am going for cost-savings, you can guess which ones I picked.

While the wafers are melting in your very slowly simmering double boiler, take the marshmallows and press the end of a lollipop stick into each one until it is stable.

These are just lollipop sticks that I got from the same bulk foods store. They have a lovely section with specialty items for cake decorating and baking. I could totally ruin our monthly budget in that store if I was left there too long. You'll be glad to know I got what I was looking for, and I got out! These 40 sticks cost about $2 for the pack.

Keep stirring your wafers until they are melted. In the mean time, gather your small round candies. I used candy-coated chocolates. If you choose to do the same thing, I suggest getting all yellow ones. I didn't have quite enough yellow and white candies to complete this task, so a few of mine have green or orange candies on top, and the colored wafer coating didn't cover them as nicely as I had hoped. These pieces become the little knob on top of the Lego character's head.

Here is what my wafers turned into after about seven or eight minutes of very gentle stirring in the upper portion of my double boiler with a gentle simmer below in the pan. It should be very smooth and easy to dip items.

Take your marshmallows one by one and dip them into the yellow candy coating. Tap it on the side of the dish to allow excess to drip back in to the pan.

From this point, you will need to take one of your candies and place it on the top. Add a small dollop of melted candy coating and swirl it around with a spoon until the coating and color looks uniform. The candy is going to want to slide around a bit, so you will need to be able to place this quickly into the styrofoam to allow it to dry upright and level.

Here is one that has just had the stick pressed into the foam.

I used a styrofoam ball because that's all I had on hand, and I didn't want to spend any more money, but a rectangular shaped piece would work much better! I had to shove a metal cookie cutter into the bottom of my round piece of foam to keep it from sliding all around. Even so, it tried to fall over a number of times during this process if I didn't keep the sides balanced. I think I had a couple of mini heart attacks  with each wobble! 

Once all of the pops are dipped in coating and their candy pieces are on top, put them in a cool place to set. If you can fit them in your refrigerator, this process will go faster. Once the coating is set, you can begin adding faces and a bit of personality to them. You will need a very small piping tip and black colored icing. This is a black gel that I got for around $2 already in a tube. You could save even more if you make your own icing, have your own piping bags and tips, and don't get frustrated with the process. I don't have quite enough coordination to use a piping bag yet, so I splurged for the $2 icing tube. I just sliced the end off and started adding facial features.

With each one, find a nice area on the marshmallow pop, and add two eyes. Next up is a mouth. Since this is a celebration, I only did smiles, but you can add any kind of expression you want.

Once their faces are on, place them back on the styrofoam holder and allow them to dry over night.

When morning comes, the faces should be set enough to package.

Here they all are. Don't they look happy? My kids were thoroughly impressed with these guys.

I added a clear cellophane wrapper and cinched it with a silver colored twist tie. These guys are ready to PARTY!

These little guys will be the favor for each child, and the whole process budget is below.

Lego Pops Cost Analysis:

$4.37 yellow wafers -(I have A LOT left over... I might use the left over for something at Easter)

$1.99 lollipop sticks- 40 count

$1.00 cellophane wraps and twist ties- 40 count

$1.19 marshmallows 

$0.59 round candies 

$1.99 black gel icing

__________________

$11.13 for 26 Lego Pops = $0.43 EACH!

So each child will get one of these as a parting gift for the party, and there's probably enough for many of the adults to snack on one too! I didn't get any of these items discounted or on sale or the cost would be even lower. I cannot justify spending several dollars per child or guest for a favor or parting gift; it's not in the budget. But these guys are fun and budget friendly, not to mention totally customized to work with our Lego Movie theme. I couldn't even purchase pre-made items like this from the store if I wanted to! 

Other Cost-Saving Measures

Invitations

I usually make some kind of cute (and borderline cheesy) invitation in the shape and size of a postcard to save on postage, and usually spend less than $10 total on invites and their postage. I keep an eye out year round for different types of paper and card stock that is on sale in stores or available at garage, yard, or estate sales. I always have a variety of types and colors of paper on hand that I got for a great price!

Cake

I push myself each year to find something cool and make it happen in the cake department; I plan to make a round, layered cake with Lego characters of the top, and in the interest of time and sanity, I will make a boxed cake mix extra jazzed up like this one.  If I purchased a bakery cake for about 35 people that would cost me more than $50! If I went with a professional chef that did super fancy creations, the sky is the limit for cost. I can usually make a nice layered and decorated cake for less than $10!

Decorations

Because my daughter has chosen such an unpopular theme and stores don't even carry items emblazoned with its' logo, I must be creative and make my own decorations. So far, I have built several items out of blocks.

First is the number 6 to decorate her food table. The castle creation will hold forks in the center as it has an opening designed to keep forks or other silverware held upright.

                           

I plan to make some other creations using Legos that we already own. I will probably even print some Happy Birthday banners as well. 

Celebration!

We want our children to feel special and to know that we celebrate their life each year at their birthday, but they know we have limited resources. Our kids love to be a part of the process of making things for their party. Instead of being completely surprised and overwhelmed on the day of their party, our kids look at their decorations and favors and know that their mom worked extra creatively to make things special instead of spending money that could be used instead to get our family out of debt.

Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you...

Becoming Frugal and Artsy- "You should write a book!"- Two First Dates

"You Should Write a Book!"

My husband Matt and I have had some really crazy experiences since we joined forces about a decade ago. Some of our experiences have been so unusual that people have a hard time believing they actually transpired! I will share a few stories about our early years that were absolutely crazy! Brace yourselves! God took us on a wild ride, and I feel like we are still on it!

Two First Dates

When I was a teen I had this mental checklist of characteristics I was looking for in a spouse and with each guy I dated, I went through the checklist periodically, and if a guy didn't check the boxes, the relationship was over. It looked something like this:

- Christian

-Attractive

-Good work ethic

-Good manners

-Taller than me

-Musically inclined

-Fun-loving

-Non-smoker

 Matt and I attended the same church, but he didn't check all the boxes I had on my mental list. He was missing one... height. I am about a full inch taller than him. My mom wanted me to go out with him because "he was a nice guy" but I assured her that things couldn't possibly work out with Matt because of the height issue. Nope. Nope. Nope.

One fateful day, Matt asked me to go on a date with him, and I knew I would face my mother's wrath if I didn't at least give him a chance, so I said,"yes." Much to my mother's excitement, he came driving his pick up truck up our dirt road to pick me up at my parents' house. She was smiling ear to ear as I left and got in his truck with him to head to dinner and a movie.

Conversation on the way to the restaurant was sparse at best, and the food at the restaurant was mediocre. By the time our meal was over, I was... uncomfortable. The evening felt forced, and there wasn't any kind of spark. "I knew the height issue would run deep," I thought to myself, "I can't wait to get this night over and be done with this guy once and for all, and my mom will shut up about him!" As we left the restaurant, he was a gentleman. He held the door for me leaving the restaurant, and when we got to his truck, he opened the door. He must have been distracted because as he went to close the passenger side door, my leg was in the way! I quickly jerked my leg out of harm's way, but he didn't even notice! "Some gentleman!," I thought.

The night went on with a crummy movie and a quiet drive straight home. He walked me up to the porch and quickly drove his truck home. It was the worst first date ever. 

Two years went by and every guy I agreed to date from that point forward was taller than me. Numerous other candidates went through my checklist only to come up short (ha!) in one way or another. One evening while I was working at Pizza Hut, Matt's parents came to have dinner, and Matt met them there to eat too. We struck up a conversation about how things were going in college, and we talked for a while about the process of becoming educators. I talked about a book that I was reading called Educating Esme, and he said he wanted to read it. 

I brought the book to church the next Sunday, and he said he would read it. A week or two later, he called me and told me that if I ever wanted to see my book again, I could get it back after dinner and a movie. "Hmmm," I thought, "Things didn't go so well last time, but I will try this again just because he seems different now." 

We went to dinner, and we had planned to go to an early movie, but we talked for such a long time at the restaurant that we ended up missing the early showtime. So we drove to another city and saw the movie Hitch. We enjoyed such a great movie, and Matt even wanted to hold my hand during the show! I couldn't wrap my mind around the difference that had taken place in only two years! I was enjoying him! We were enjoying each other! I didn't want the night to end! 

When the night ended, I asked for my book back, and he FORGOT the book. Yeah. Likely story. So he asked me to go on another date, which I was glad to do. We call this night our "Second First Date" because the first one was so horrible, it didn't really count. Since it took us two years to go on a second date, we just decided to start over.

That was the best decision I ever made. He's still an inch shorter than me. That was ten years ago. That was three kids ago. That was three college degrees ago. That was three homes ago.

Praise the Lord I realized the error of my vain ways as a young woman, or I could have let a silly issue like height keep me from marrying such a genuinely good man!

Song of Solomon 3:4 ...I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him and would not let him go...

Comfort Food Sausage Gravy and Biscuits!

Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

My husband LOVES breakfast foods. I think he would eat breakfast for every meal if that was an option. One night last week, I asked him what he wanted for dinner, and he wanted to go to the restaurant downtown to get breakfast for dinner, but I knew we didn't have it in the budget to eat out anywhere other than fast food, so we ended up getting burgers instead. To make it up to him, I decided that we would have his favorite breakfast over the weekend: biscuits and gravy with an egg on top. My gravy skills have evolved over the course of the last decade since my husband and I started our marriage. Back when we got married, I couldn't make any kind of gravy that anyone would want to eat. There were several occasions in my self-taught gravy course when the concoction in the skillet got scraped out because it was not fit for human consumption. Our dog wouldn't even eat it! Over the years though, I have figured out some tricks from watching seasoned gravy makers (did you see what I did there? seasoned? Ha!) and have put some ideas into practice to get good gravy every time!

First things first. Biscuits. For this application, I just made biscuits according to the instructions on my mega size Bisquick box. I encourage you to use your favorite biscuit for this application. I really like this recipe for 7-Up Biscuits too.

Drop the dough on the baking sheet in spoonfuls. You could roll all of this out with your rolling pin and cut it into pretty round biscuits if you want, but I had places to go and people to see, so I did drop biscuits on this occasion. It only changes the texture of the finished product; the taste remains the same.

 Bake until golden and set aside until the gravy is ready to slather across the top of these pillow-y delights.

Now, gather up your ingredients for gravy.

I am very picky about sausage for sausage gravy. I have tried many different varieties of sausage, and the flavors of Bob Evans sausage or Jimmy Dean are the only ones that I like for this application. When I make this for our family of five, I try to use only half of the sausage in the package so I can make this recipe twice in the course of one trip to the store.

Ingredients: 1/2 lb Bob Evans or Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage

3 T of all purpose flour

12 oz can of evaporated milk

1 cup whole milk

salt and pepper to taste

Brown the sausage in a large skillet over medium heat. If you start getting too much color, turn your heat down. All of those bits of yummy goodness in the skillet become part of your gravy and can change the color of the gravy. The gravy should be a white color when you're finished.

Once the meat is cooked through, there should be some oily, greasy, fat shining in the skillet. This is important: do not drain it. You want the fat to get well acquainted with the flour you are about to sprinkle all over the skillet.

Stir the flour all around, and let it gently cook in the skillet for about two minutes. It should turn into a sort of paste as it combines with the fat from the sausage. I like to start the seasoning process now. I add quite a bit of black pepper at this point, probably close to a teaspoon. Once the black pepper hits the skillet, the aroma of sausage gravy really starts to waft through your house and wake people who are sleeping. I add about 1/2 teaspoon of salt now too. If you're feeling extra bold, add a couple of sprinkles of rubbed sage at this point too.

To the hot skillet, you will add both kinds of milk while stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon or a whisk while keeping the heat at a medium low. Stir constantly to avoid lumps.  The mixture will be pretty thin at this point, but you need to keep your heat at low to medium and patiently keep stirring. Turning your heat up to make this process go faster will risk scorching the whole batch.

As it starts to thicken, the mixture will stick to your spoon.

When it is ready the gravy will have a shiny look in the skillet, and it will be thick on your spoon.

 When it reaches this stage, it is ready to be spooned over the luscious biscuits. This makes enough gravy for each member of our family with none to spare. I don't like how this gravy reheats, so I try to only make what we will use in one meal. My husband likes to eat his with an over-medium egg on the top, so that's what I made. He's my favorite in the whole wide world.

Psalm 34:8 Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.