Kiss the Cook: Hearty breakfast for a hearty day in the outdoors

By now, regular readers of this column have probably noticed that I enjoy making comfort foods.
When I think of a good country breakfast, many meals come to mind with many involving eggs, bacon, scrapple and pancakes.
There is one meal though that involves sausage. Sausage gravy and biscuits is a good, hearty combination for breakfast or any other meal. This is not designed to be a healthy meal, but it’s a great meal to have before a day of hunting.
With hunting season in progress, I thought it was appropriate to share a quick, easy and filling breakfast that my hunting friends can enjoy.
You can use breakfast sausage or other flavored sausage such as maple. The cayenne pepper added to this recipe gives it a little extra kick.
You can easily adjust that to whatever level of heat and spice you like. ¼ teaspoon for me is good, but it does give a little bite. Enjoy!

Sausage Gravy served on biscuits
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 25 min
Yields: 8 servings
Ingredients:
1 lb. ground breakfast sausage (maple flavored is optional)
3 tbs. butter
¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 can evaporated milk
1 can water
Pinch to ¼ tsp. cayenne pepper (¼ tsp. gives a good bite)
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1. Place sausage in a deep skillet and cook over medium-high heat until evenly brown. Remove sausage from the skillet with a slotted spoon and keep sausage drippings in the skillet. Add butter and stir until melted, add flour and stir until smooth. Reduce heat to medium, cooking until lightly brown. Slowly add evaporated milk, stirring with a whisk. Fill the evaporated milk can with water and slowly add that to the skillet, stirring with a whisk. Add cooked sausage. Add in cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper, reduce heat and simmer for 12-15 minutes until the gravy thickens.
2. If you want, you can bake biscuits in the oven while cooking the sausage gravy. I used store bought buttermilk biscuits.
3. Serve sausage gravy over buttermilk biscuits and enjoy.
n Do you have a great recipe you would like to share? Please send it to Troy Bowersox, of Mifflinburg, for testing and possible publishing. Feedback and comments can be sent to bear@ptd.net.