Sweet and Sour Sauce

• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup white vinegar
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 tablespoon ketchup

• 2 tablespoons cornstarch

Place the sugar, vinegar, water, ketchup and cornstarch in a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil. Stir continuously until the mixture has thickened.

SYNDY'S COMMENTARY:  Made this in about 2 minutes and it was great!  Served it with my crab ragoon.  YUM!!!

Bacon, Banana Pancakes with Peanut Butter Syrup

These pancakes were an idea that I came up with as I was making breakfast.

They started out going to be just bacon cooked into a pancake but then my son made the comment that they are kinda like Peanut Butter, Bacon, Banana, Honey sandwiches (which we eat often), so the idea grew.

First cook your bacon and cut it half.

Make your pancake batter, from scratch or use the mix.  Frankly here we like the mix they are fluffier and lighter than any that I've ever made from scratch.  

To make the pancakes banana, I just added 2 crushed bananas, 2 tsp of Cinnamon, and a tsp of vanilla.

place cooked bacon on griddle.  Pour about 1/2 cup of pancake batter over the bacon and cook like you would a regular pancake.  

YUM!

Peanut butter syrup is equal parts of maple syrup, and melted peanut butter mixed and served warm.  

Easy Peasy!!  Enjoy.

Buttermilk Syrup

• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 tablespoons corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a saucepan, stir together the sugar, buttermilk, butter, corn syrup, and baking soda. Bring to a boil, and cook for 7 minutes. Remove from the heat, and stir in the vanilla.

This stuff is YUMMY and addictive. I don't know if I will ever be able to eat regular maple syrup again.

Sausage Gravy

Now gravy is a thing that most people are scared to make. I was horrible at it until Chris' Grandma showed me some tricks of the trade.

1 lb sausage

1/4 cup flour

1 1/2-2 cups milk

salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste

Crumble and cook your sausage DO NOT DRAIN THE GREASE! Don't do it you will be sorry and have yucky gravy. Take the sausage out of the pan, leaving the grease behind (put the sausage in another bowl). There should be about 1/4 inch- 1/3 of an inch of grease in the pan. If you sausage does not make enough grease then you need to add some cooking oil. I like to add the cooking oil while the sausage is cooking so it has a time to flavor.

After you remove the sausage, and your grease is still hot add the flour. Whisk it with the grease until it forms a thick sauce and gets bubbly. Add milk, keep whisking. turn down you heat to medium so that it won't burn. Add spices to taste. As the milk warms up your gravy will thicken if you need to thin it out add a bit more milk until you get the consistency you want. When it's almost done put your sausage back into the gravy. Let cook for about 5 minutes.

Serve over warm biscuits, hash browns etc.

I find that this all works best in my cast iron skillet. I almost never use Teflon anymore.

Alfredo Sauce

Alfredo Sauce

1 1/2 cube cream cheese
1 cube butter
1 1/2 cup milk
3 cloves minced garlic
2 tsp onion powder

Parmesan cheese to taste

Mix all together and bring to a simmer until thick. I also add mushrooms and chicken. Serve over pasta.

Makes enough to cover one package of pasta

Pizza Sauce

Pizza Sauce

1/2 tspn of each:

Chili Powder
Salt
Basil
Sugar
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder

mix with 1 can tomato sauce put on pizza