tattoo, part two

It is a beautiful, sunny, lovely weekend so far! Busy, but nice.

Before anything else, I have to send out two wishes today...
The first is a Happy 1.5 (7.5) years to my sweet husband. :-) April 13th, means only 6 more months until our anniversary.
Also, a HUGE Happy Birthday to Barb, my amazing, sweet Mother-in-Law. Her birthday was yesterday.

Also yesterday, I had the second sitting on my phoenix tattoo... just over 3 hours. We got pretty far, but I'll need one more sitting (about an 1.5 - 2 hours, so 6.5 - 7 hours total!). I'm really excited about how its turning out.


What do you think? Pretty snazzy? I can't wait to see it completely finished!

After that Trav and I came home, hopped a train, and headed into the city to meet up with with Jon and Apoc at Apoc's place.

Pizza, movies, relaxing. It was fun stuff.

This morning Trav had a hankering for biscuits and sausage gravy... so I whipped some up (you know what that means right?).

Megan's Biscuits and Sausage Gravy

(We'll lay this out the simple way... )

First you get either make a biscuit mix or grab your tube of Pillsbury Buttermilk Biscuits (I go the latter route!), and lay them out on a baking sheet. Preheat your over and cook biscuits as stated on package.

While that's happening... pull out a big skillet and a tube-o-sausage. Put the heat on your skillet about medium-high, and add the sausage. Break up and cook until browned.
Mmm... so yummy looking, right? And look at those brown bits in the bottom. You know what that is? Flavor!

Use a slotted spoon to remove the sausage, put aside to keep warm. Now, drop your heat down to about low/medium-low and add a few teaspoons of butter to all that yummy sausage drippings. How many tsp depends on how much fat the sausage released... not a lot? More butter! A ton? Just a pad or so. Stir to melt butter and mix with the drippings.

Next add flour a few tablespoons at a time, mixing, until you form a nice pasty roux. If you've ever made gravy, you've done this. When you reach the desired consistency, cook roux for an extra minute or so (this eliminates that flour flavor).

Next start adding milk. You could use cream, but good gravy, this stuff is already pretty damn rich... plus, honestly, I never have cream! :-) So milk it is!

Slowly keep incorporating milk until sauce is creamy and smooth, but not thin. Add a healthy dash of pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Stir, then re-add sausage and stir to incorporate all ingredients... and until sausage is re-heated through. At this point, your gravy will have thickened up a bit more. If it is thicker then you like, add a splash or two more milk, turn off heat, and stir until combined.

Now, grab those biscuits (you didn't forget them, did you?)... split in half, put on a plate, and cover with a generous amount of gravy.
Enjoy!! These puppies are fabulous (and super filling!).


So back to the weekend...
After breakfast I met up with Ro for a walk. We upped our mileage today... 6 miles instead of the normal 5. Helpful for burning off those yummy biscuits and gravy. :-) Now Trav and I are just relaxing and enjoying the free time. Tonight I head into the city again to spend the night. I have a work event tomorrow which starts extra early, so work is putting me up. I'm the lady on-the-spot. Lol. Its a long, all-day event, so I won't be checking in tomorrow. I won't be doing anything fun tomorrow... ho-hum.

In some exciting news... as of this Friday, my car will be officially, 100% paid off and mine!! Such a great feeling! It was supposed to be a five-year loan, but we managed to pay it off in just over half that. Love my little car.

Next goal... our home equity line.

Well, I'm going to go relax with my boy for a bit before its time to eat dinner and get into the city. Hope you have an easy Monday!!