Yellow Cake From Scratch
This yellow cake from scratch is the perfect birthday cake for your favorite person! Topped with a swath of chocolate frosting, it’s a delicious treat! Plus, it’s a one-bowl cake, so there are hardly any dishes to wash! So easy and tasty!
Biscuits and Gravy Casserole
Biscuits and gravy casserole has all of your favorite components of a good old Southern breakfast baked into one dish. It’s great for your Southern Christmas breakfast!
What are your Christmas breakfast traditions? When I was a kid, my grandmother would make an egg soufflé with sausage, eggs, and cheese every Christmas morning. It was the only time that she made it, along with Pillsbury orange danishes, and it was delicious and special. Every time I make it, it (naturally) makes me think of my grandmother.
These days, my family’s Christmas breakfast consists of more typical Southern breakfast fare…biscuits, gravy, bacon, eggs, and sausage balls because, you know, Christmas. I started thinking about how I could combine all of that (sort of) into one dish…and that’s how this Southern biscuits and gravy casserole was born.
As I was researching biscuits and gravy casserole, I found a common theme: canned biscuits. One recipe was made with powdered gravy. Sorry…this Southern girl does not do powdered gravy. If you want to use pre-made biscuits, that’s between you and the Lord??. Just please do me a favor and make the gravy from scratch!! I promise that it’s one of the easiest skills you can ever master, and your tastebuds (and family) will thank you.
I made my own sausage, and I’ve included the recipe here. Feel free to use store-bought sausage, though. No shame. I just wanted to share my recipe for homemade sausage here because it’s gooooood. And, like the gravy, it’s extremely simple to make – just mix some herbs and spices into ground pork. Done.
Biscuits and gravy casserole turned out to be everything I dreamed that it would be. Biscuits and sausage gravy and eggs, all baked up in one-dish for the most Southern breakfast casserole you’ve ever eaten. Amen and amen.
Shared on The Weekend Potluck on The Country Cook!
Yield: 6-8 servings
10 minPrep Time:
45 minCook Time:
Ingredients
- 10 biscuits, baked a few days ahead (can use homemade, frozen, or refrigerated)
- 6 eggs
- 1 3/4 cup milk, divided
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 pound breakfast sausage
- 1/4 cup flour
- Additional salt and pepper to taste
- 1 pound ground pork
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried sage
- 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
- 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Crumble the biscuits into a 9-inch square baking dish. Whisk the eggs, 1/4 cup of the milk, and the salt and black pepper together in a medium bowl. Pour over the crumbled biscuits and press the biscuits down to submerge them into the egg mixture.
- If you are making your own sausage, combine all breakfast sausage ingredients in a large bowl, being careful not to overwork the meat.
- Preheat a 10-inch skillet (I used cast iron) over medium heat. Add the sausage and cook until no pink remains and mixture is lightly browned. Sprinkle with the flour and cook for one minute. Gradually pour in the milk while stirring constantly to combine. Cook until thickened. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Pour the gravy over the biscuit and egg mixture. Set the baking dish on a sheet pan. Bake for 30 minutes until the eggs are set. Serve immediately.
Click here to print the recipe for biscuits and gravy casserole!

My Grandmother’s Christmas Pie
Christmas pie is my grandmother’s classic recipe, and it is simplicity in a pie dish. That may be what makes it so beautiful and delicious! Sugar, egg whites, gelatin, milk, almond extract, vanilla extract, and coconut in a baked pie shell – that simple! This is an easy and classic Christmas dessert that is a family heirloom!
Save this recipe for later!
Salty or Sweet?
Which do you prefer – sweet or salty? Most of us in my family are pretty balanced between having a sweet tooth and a salty tooth (though I have to admit that it would be a rare occasion that I would choose a cupcake over a bag of nacho Doritos or some stovetop popcorn). My dad, though…he does not care much for sweets (he’s been digging into the desserts a little bit more over the past few months, and I am sure he’d deny that).
Christmas Pie
One dessert that he can’t say no to, though, is my grandmother’s Christmas pie. It’s something that she made every Christmas, and I am sure that’s why. You know, the whole childhood/nostalgia thing. I mean, besides that fact that it’s delicious, of course.
My grandmother was a phenomenal cook. Everything she made was delicious. And visually perfect. I wish I had her eye for detail. Maybe one of these days I’ll have the time to perfectly measure my cookie dough then roll it into perfect little balls so that every cookie is the same size and shape. Not that she wasn’t busy, but perfection in the kitchen was important to her.
Christmas Dessert Recipe
Anyway, back to Christmas pie. Honestly, I do not remember it. Not.One.Bit. I don’t remember her ever making it, though I’m told (as I mentioned before) that she made it every Christmas. As a kid I hated coconut, so that’s probably why I don’t remember this pie.
It’s okay, though. When you have an aunt who loves to cook as much as you do and as much as her mother did, and who has amazingly organized binders of all of her favorite recipes, you can always ask for the recipe. That’s just what I did.
Easy Christmas Recipe
This Christmas pie recipe is just as my grandmother made it. I did add a little decoration, you know, for pictures. Everything else, though…it’s exactly as my aunt wrote it down. No cheating here, and no embellishment.
Really, this Christmas pie is so simple, it just reminds you that food doesn’t have to be difficult or fancy to be perfect and tasty. This delicious Christmas dessert takes a little time, but every step is so easy! Definitely worth it to bring back my dad’s childhood memories.
I hope that you enjoy my grandmother’s white Christmas pie!
Shared on the Weekend Potluck on Served Up With Love!
Click here to save this recipe on your Pinterest Christmas baking board for later!
Mary
Yield: 1 9-inch pie (about 8-10 servings)
25 minPrep Time:
40 minCook Time:
1 hr, 5 Total Time:
Ingredients
- 1 pie crust (use your favorite recipe or a store-bought crust)
- 2 cups granulated sugar, divided
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 envelope unflavored gelatin
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 3/4 cup whole milk
- 3/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 egg whites
- 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut (or mix 1/2 cup sweetened coconut and 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut), plus another 2 tablespoons for decorating the top.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Form the pie crust in the dish and press a sheet of aluminum foil into the crust. Fill with pie weights. Bake until light brown, about 25 minutes. Set on a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Fill the sink with about 3 inches of water and 4 cups of ice (2 ice trays).
- In a medium saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups of the sugar, the flour, the gelatin, and the salt. Gradually whisk in the milk. Set over medium high heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Once the mixture boils, boil it for one minute. Remove from heat and place into the ice bath. Stir from time to time and allow to cool until the mixture mounds slightly when dropped from a spoon (this took about ten minutes for me). Stir in the vanilla and almond extracts.
- In a stand mixer or using a hand mixer with a large bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar on high until soft peaks form. With the beater still going, gradually pour in the remaining half cup of sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form. Fold the beaten egg whites into the milk mixture.
- Wash and dry the mixing bowl. Beat the heavy cream on high until stiff peaks form. Fold into the milk and egg white mixture until completely combined, then fold in the coconut. Pour into the pie shell and sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons of coconut on top. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, until firm.
Notes
NOTE: This recipe contains uncooked egg whites. People with compromised immune systems, young children, and elderly people should avoid consuming raw eggs due to food borne illnesses. However, you can purchase pasteurized eggs at many grocery stores. Pasteurized eggs are processed in a way that makes them safer to consume raw. I purchase eggs that I am comfortable consuming without cooking them.
Baconage Breakfast Casserole & Baconage Free Adaptations
Bacon + sausage = baconage. With potatoes, cheese, eggs, and baconage, baconage breakfast casserole takes your special occasion breakfast to the next level.
It’s been a while since I talked about baconage. Back when every Wednesday afternoon was spent at the Main Street Farmers Market, baconage was a pretty regular occurrence around here. Since I quit working downtown, it’s a little harder to get down there, so it’s not something I keep around. A recent trip to Main Street Meats, though, resulted in a package of baconage. And a refresh of one of my favorite breakfast recipes, baconage breakfast casserole.
For those of you who don’t know, bacon + sausage = baconage. Does that sound like a thing of beauty? IT IS. Baconage is great for anything you’d use regular breakfast sausage for: biscuits and gravy, breakfast tacos, and perhaps best of all, breakfast casseroles.
This isn’t your standard breakfast casserole, which is usually made with bread (and lots of it). Instead, I use potatoes here and get my bread in the form of White Lily biscuits because White Lily biscuits. Of course, it does have plenty of cheese, because I’m not a hack. I baked the potatoes the night before and made my casserole right before popping it in the oven, but you could totally do everything except the baking the night before and just bake it when you get up.
After all, isn’t that what makes breakfast casserole pretty much the perfect breakfast dish? You make it the night before, then the next morning you stick it in the oven. It’s perfect for a lazy Saturday…no fiddling with pans or waffle irons or dredging stations. Preheat, bake, done.
Of course, there’s a pretty good chance that you don’t have a store near you that you can visit to stock up on baconage. That doesn’t mean that you can’t put baconage breakfast casserole on the table. Nay nay…you have lots of options. You could pulse 4 ounces of bacon in a food processor until it’s finely chopped then cook it with 4 ounces of breakfast sausage. You could just use sausage here instead of baconage. You could even sub in half a pound of chopped ham or cooked crumbled bacon.
Really, it doesn’t matter how you make baconage breakfast casserole, it’s going to be good. Trust me.
Shared on The Weekend Potluck on Served Up With Love.
Mary
Yield: 6 servings
15 minPrep Time:
1 hrCook Time:
1 hr, 15 Total Time:
Ingredients
- 4 small to medium potatoes (baked, cooled, and cut into chunks)
- 1/2lb Link 41 baconage (or substitute sausage, chopped bacon or ham, or a combination of finely chopped bacon & ham or bacon & sausage)
- 1 small or 1/2 large onion
- 1 cup shredded cheese (any variety (I used buttermilk cheese))
- 1 cup milk
- 5 Large eggs
- salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Brown the meat in a large skillet (I used a 10" cast iron skillet). Remove to drain on paper towel.
- Cook onions in the fat from the meat until they begin to soften, then add the potatoes. Cook until browned.
- Place the potatoes in a 9-inch pie pan and spread out to cover the bottom of the pan. Cover with the cheese, then the meat.
- Beat the eggs with the milk. Add salt and pepper. Pour the egg mixture over the meat, cheese, and potatoes.
- Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and bake until the eggs are set and the cheese is browned, another 30-40 minutes. Allow to stand for about ten minutes before serving.
Notes
You can make this the night before. Complete recipe through step 4 then cover with foil and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. To avoid thermal shock, remove the casserole from the refrigerator at least 15-20 minutes ahead of time. Bake covered for 15 minutes, then remove the foil and bake for another 40-45 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to sit for 10-15 minutes before serving.
