feel good foods: sausage gravy & chicken noodle soup

Gluten Free Sausage Gravy

With fall's breezy, chilly weather in the air, and my parents taking an anniversary roadtrip to the Great Smokey Mountains, I got a hankering for sausage gravy on Saturday.  Really, what I wanted is home-processed gluten free venison sausage for my gravy, but alas, I'm out.  Since it's not exactly something you can buy at the local corner grocer, I opted for Applegate Chicken & Apple Breakfast Sausage. It's tasty, gluten free, available at Kroger, and I had it on hand.


I'm adapting this recipe from Lynn's Recipe Adventures:

• 1 lb package sausage (be sure to use gf sausage)
• 1 tablespoon butter (more if your sausage is really lean)
• 3 tablespoons potato starch
• 3 cups milk
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Place sausage in a large skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until evenly brown.
2. Remove sausage with a slotted spoon, leaving the drippings in the pan. Stir in the butter until melted.
3. Reduce heat to medium and add potato starch. Stir for about 1 minute.
4. Gradually whisk in milk, and cook until thickened.
5. Season with salt and pepper, and stir in cooked sausage.
6. Reduce heat, and simmer for a few more minutes or until it is the desired consistency. If gravy becomes too thick, stir in a little more milk.

Mine, however, may be what not to do. I was in a hurry because I was hungry and really didn't want to make a run to the store. I had a half package of sausage links (rather than a full pound), which had to be broken up once thawed.  Since it's a very lean sausage - and I come from a family of Buttertons - I used roughly 2 tablespoons of butter.

Instead of potato starch, I used 3 cups of King Arthur Gluten Free Flour - my favorite all-purpose flour.  (Bob's Red Mill GF All Purpose Baking Flour is also very good.  Both are available at Kroger.)  King Arthur would have worked fine, I'm sure, if I'd read the word gradually...and realized that I had just less than 3 cups of milk in the fridge. Oops.
 
However, I stirred & allowed the ingredients to cook down.  I poured the gravy over torn up slices of Udi's Gluten Free White Sandwich Bread, and it was delicious.

Gluten Free Chicken Noodle Soup

Today I had an intense migraine that made me very sick to my stomach.  Scott was a doll and surprised me with fantastic homemade chicken noodle soup.  Here's his recipe:

• Kroger clear chicken broth
• Schär Anellini pasta (1/4 box)
• small handful of frozen peas
• small pinch of shredded carrots
• 1 chicken tender

While the broth simmered, he cooked the chicken in a separate pan.  He added the peas, carrots, and noodles, allowing the noodles to soak up the broth.

Anellini is Italian for "small rings".  It's a circular pasta that looks like what is in Spaghetti O's.  I've missed the little rings, and this is our first trial with the Schär brand of pasta.  Marketed as Europe's #1 gluten-free food brand, many Schär products are available at Jungle Jim's.

Once the chicken was fully cooked, he added it to the soup & served dinner in bed.  It was delectable and helped immensely.

Happy eating! :)