Comfort food, thy name is Biscuits and Gravy. This is usually my first stop on the menu at a new breakfast or brunch joint, and there’s no way I want it to be anything other than a soft, fluffy biscuit nestled in a wave of rich gravy and crumbled breakfast sausage. Woe to the trendy places that try to gussy it up.

But this hearty meal is also incredibly easy to make at home. So maybe it’s really woe to me for not doing so every damn weekend.

First up, the biscuits. These ones are super easy and super fast. The ingredients are pretty basic, and I keep most of them on hand on a regular basis. No raising, very little kneading, and just a few passes with a rolling pin and we’re on our way to biscuit magic.

Next, the gravy. Which honestly, is even easier than the biscuits. All it takes is a pound of sausage, some flour and milk, and a little seasoning. I love my gravy a little herb-y, so I like adding rosemary or sage, too.

With two recipes so easy to put together, there’s really no reason you can’t start a brunch place in your very own kitchen. I guarantee you it will be a shorter wait.

Buttermilk Biscuits
Adapted just a bit from my Grandma’s recipe

Makes 5-6 medium-sized biscuits

2 c all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder (2 tsp at high altitude)
1 tsp baking soda (1/2 tsp at high altitude)
1/2 tsp salt
4 T salted butter, cold
about 1 c buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425°F. Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl or food processor and mix with a fork. Chop butter into small cubes and add to the bowl. Cut the butter into the flour mixture using a pastry cutter or by pulsing in a food processor until the mixture is crumbly. Slowly add the buttermilk and mix until slightly sticky. You made need slightly more or less than 1 c of buttermilk.

Place the sticky dough on a floured surface and knead lightly for about 5 minutes. Roll out until about 3/4″ thick. Cut into biscuits using a round cutter, or use a knife if you prefer square biscuits.

Place biscuits on a baking sheet and bake for 12-18 minutes or until the tops of the biscuits are golden brown.

If desired, add a small pat of butter to the top of each biscuit as soon as they are removed from the oven. Serve with gravy, butter and jam, or just by themselves. Store in an airtight bag for up to 4 days.

Rosemary Sausage Gravy
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman

Enough for 5-6 medium-sized biscuits

1 pound ground breakfast sausage
3/8 c flour
4 c milk
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp seasoned salt
1 1/2 tsp ground rosemary

Cook sausage in a large frying pan until browned. Add flour and mix thoroughly so it can soak up any grease. Cook for 1-2 minutes. Add milk and set at medium-high. Stirring fairly constantly, cook until the gravy has thickened to the desired consistency. When it’s ready, it should slide off a spoon rather than drip. Add the pepper, salt, and rosemary and adjust seasoning as needed.

Spoon over biscuits and serve.

Do you like Italian food Do you like food that is kind of like lasagne but not exactly like lasagne?

Do you like making a multi-step meal that involves scratch-made sauce and hand-filled pasta?

Do you like leftovers that last for days and only get better with time Do you like perfectly delightful combinations of pasta, cheese, spinach, and meat sauce  Do you like noodle tubes filled with magic and topped with awesome?

If you answered yes to any of the above, then this is a recipe for you!

I started making manicotti a couple years ago when I was home for Christmas. My mom, a long-time lasagne maker, decided to mix it up and buy manicotti shells instead for a family dinner. I volunteered to help, and though it was a lengthy process, I genuinely enjoyed stuffing a cheesy, spinach-y goo into the shells. Since then I’ve tinkered with different recipes, and I finally landed on the right balance. Like, a year ago. But it takes a long time to make already, so I hadn’t yet talked myself into taking the time to photograph the process. Not to mention, I keep making it in the winter when I have little evening light for shooting photos, soooooo.

Sorry for the delay!

A warning: if you’re looking for a quick week-night dinner, this is not the right choice. It could be if you decide to use frozen spinach instead of fresh or pre-made pasta sauce. But where’s the fun in that?

We start with a full pound of fresh spinach and trim all the stems off. Honestly, when I’m being lazy, I don’t trim the stems, but can I urge you to do so The texture is just so much better without them.

Once trimmed, the spinach needs to be cooked down. Lots of people recommend boiling the spinach, but I actually prefer to sauté it. Since the spinach needs to be squeezed of moisture later, why introduce a pot of water to the equation?

So the spinach is washed, trimmed, sautéed, drained, squeezed, and chopped. Alternately, use a 10 oz package of frozen spinach. Your call.

Next up Saucy saucy. I love using my Favorite Quick Spaghetti Sauce for this with the addition of ground beef. If you’re not a carnivore, or even if you are but don’t feel like having meat today, you can also totally make this without and be perfectly happy. I like options!

NEXT! While the sauce is simmering along, mixing up the filling doesn’t take much time at all. A blend of ricotta, mozzarella, and parmesan is added to the spinach, along with an egg to keep the mixture nice and fluffy in the oven.

Also, cook your noodles. You’ll need those.

Sauce Check. Noodles Check. Filling Check.

Now it’s time for the fun, messy part!

Do not, under any circumstances, attempt to fill your noodles with a spoon. You’ll just end up with cheese everywhere around you with not nearly enough in the noodles.

I use a large pastry bag with an opening about 3/4″ in diameter. If you won’t have one of those, no sweat, just trim the end off of a plastic baggie.

Fill each noodle until it feels firm and the cheese is barely oozing out the ends.

Fast-forward 10 minutes and voila! You’re done! Now just a coat of meat sauce and a generous sprinkle of parmesan before it’s time for the oven.

I won’t lie: this is a lot of work. But the final product is so worth it! Next time you have a Sunday afternoon free and wanna make a splash at dinner, make this! You’ll be glad you did.

Manicotti
Adapted from Food Network Kitchen

For the Filled Manicotti Shells
1 lb fresh spinach (or a 10 oz package of frozen spinach)
1 1/2 lb (3 c) ricotta
6 oz (about 2 c) mozzarella cheese, freshly grated
2 oz (about 1 c) parmesan cheese, freshly grated
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 tsp course salt
a few cranks freshly ground black pepper
1 lb manicotti shells

For the Sauce
2 tsp olive oil
1 c diced yellow onion
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 pints basic tomato sauce
2 T sugar
2 tsp dried parsley
2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 lb ground beef

If using fresh spinach, remove stems and wash thoroughly. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat and add spinach in batches, cooking until spinach is soft, fairly dense, and dark green. Remove to a colander and repeat with remaining spinach. Squeeze as much liquid from the spinach as possible and chop finely. If using frozen spinach, thaw completely, squeeze the liquid out, and chop finely. Set spinach aside.

In the frying pan you used to cook the spinach, heat over medium and add ground beef. Season with salt and pepper and add a couple tablespoons of water to help break down the beef into small bits. Cook until browned through and set aside.

While the beef is browning, dice onion and mince garlic for the sauce. Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan and saute onion and garlic until they have a bit of color. Add tomato sauce and all seasonings and stir well. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 15-20 minutes or until sauce has begun to thicken. Once the sauce has reached desired consistency, blend with an immersion blender, blender, or food processor. Add the sauce to the ground beef and set aside.

While sauce is cooking, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add manicotti noodles and cook for 10 minutes or until noodles are al dente. Drain in a colander.

While the noodles are cooking and the sauce is simmering, grate mozzarella and parmesan cheese. In a small bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Combine spinach, ricotta, mozzarella, half of the parmesan, salt, pepper, and the eggs. Mix well.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spread a thin layer of the meat sauce into the bottom of a 13″x 9″ baking dish. Scoop filling into a large pastry bag, or, trim the end off a plastic storage bag. The opening of either should be about 3/4″ in diameter. Fill each manicotti shell by placing one end against the pad of your hand (to prevent filling from squeezing out) and filling to the top. Make sure each shell doesn’t have any empty sections. Place filled shells in the baking dish. You’ll have to press them fairly close together so they will all fit.

Spread the remaining meat sauce across the top of the manicotti. Sprinkle remaining parmesan cheese over the top of the sauce and bake for 30 minutes.

The benefits of apartment dwelling are many. We’ve managed to get our leasing office to fix everything from bathroom light bulbs to water filters in the freezer to warped baseboard in our storage room. We have the freedom to move when and where we choose (within the limits of an annual lease, of course) and there is not much gossip over fences about whose lawn is the most unsightly (though I expect when the time comes, mine may take that prize).

There are, however, many downsides as well. And on a week like this, leading up to the ceremonial end of summer, the fact I begrudge the most is that I am forbidden from using a grill on our little balcony. I get it, I do, we can’t have apartment buildings combusting every time a three-day summer weekend rolls around. Still, I’m cranky about it all the same.

But there are times when, despite the glaring lack of grill, I just want a damn good hot dog.

Now I typically don’t like much fuss for my hot dogs. A bun, a dog, and some ketchup will serve me just fine. But this fancy-pants one became my new favorite after a friend of mine in North Carolina practically forced it upon me when I confessed I’d never stopped by the hot dog cart outside our building. Though the cart is no longer a staple on Duke’s campus, the legacy lives on, and I pity the Duke students going forward who won’t benefit from the culinary stylings of Pauly Dogs.

Christened on the menu as the “Chips Plus”, this hot dog features smoky flavor from barbecue sauce and Old Bay seasoning, some cheese for good measure, and a delightfully salty crunch from some cheap potato chips. It’s a perfectly blended solution of delicious and ridiculous. And most importantly, you really don’t need a grill to make them awesome.

You don’t need much time either. While the hot dogs develop a light blister in a frying pan, grate some cheese and smear the barbecue sauce on the buns. For this indulgent dish, I prefer my hot dog buns cheap, soft, and full of white flour. Why mess with perfection?

I urge you to add these toppings to your Labor Day shopping list. You may not even need to buy much extra…this is a great way to use up those annoying crumblies at the bottom of a potato chip bag, which you likely will have at your festivities. Waste not!

Chips & Cheddar Hot Dogs
Adapted from Pauly Dogs, formerly a Duke University food cart

Makes 4 hot dogs (though you can obviously adjust the recipe up or down depending on your needs)

4 hot dogs
4 hot dog buns
1/3 c barbecue sauce
1/2 c finely shredded mild cheddar cheese
10-15 crinkle-cut potato chips
1 tsp Old Bay seasoning

Cook hot dogs on a grill or, if you don’t have one, cook over medium heat in a medium frying pan, turning frequently until all sides are lightly blistered and hot dogs are cooked through.

While hot dogs are cooking, spread barbecue sauce evenly over the hog dog buns, reserving about a tablespoon. Place a cooked hot dog on each bun and spread a thin stripe of barbecue sauce on the top of each hot dog to keep the other ingredients in place. Sprinkle the cheese evenly over each hot dog. Crunch the chips into very small pieces, not crumbs, but about the size of the annoying end of a chip bag. Top each hot dog generously with the crunched chips. Finally, sprinkle about a quarter teaspoon of Old Bay seasoning over the chips on each hot dog.

Serve immediately.