Good gravy !

As most of you know, I consider myself to be a fairly decent cook. In general , my meals are tasty and relatively nutritious , but there are just some things that I can't seem to get right for love nor money , and gravy is one of them.

For those of you not from around here, in these parts, gravy is sort of an art form . It requires skill , and dexterity, and perfect timing ( unless of course your one of those cheating bastards who uses a store bought mix packet, in which case you probably have no trouble at all, do ya ? ) . For years , I used pre-made canned gravy or mix-pack gravy , with my head hung down in shame , praying that no one knew my secret ( of course, as soon as they tasted it they knew I had cheated , so what was the point ? )  but I digress, about 6 months ago , I decided to hell with store bought gravy ! I was gonna learn how to do this shit myself ! How friggin' hard can gravy be I ask you  ?  Well, as it turns out , pretty damn hard . ( at least for my clumsy ass)

So for the last six months or so , my family has been subjected to " the great gravy trials of 2013" , as of yet , there have been mo casualties , but plenty of bellyaching and complaining.  Once I had made up my mind I was gonna do this, I started Making gravy every chance I got !  ( which wouldn't normally be a problem , since hubby loves gravy and would eat it on just about everything if he could ) sadly , the first batch of gravy I made tasted a lot like the paste I used to eat in kindergarten , with just a subtle hint of chicken flavor .  I tried again the following night with similar results, much to the chagrin of my family .  At one point I abandoned my great gravy quest at the urging of my family who were tired of having " gravy paste " at every meal .

Then one night sister Buffy was over , and I decided to try and make gravy for her . Again , I produced ( despite my best efforts otherwise) that horrid , atrocious "gravy paste " . Unknown to me at the time , dear Buffy is something of a gravy connoisseur , and she was able to tell me what I was doing wrong ! ( bless her ! ) She told me to put the flour in the grease and stir it in before adding the milk, well as it turns out, that helped a LOT. Sadly , I went from producing "gravy paste" to making lumpy, bumpy " gravy soup " but Buffy assured me , " it just takes practice " so in spite of my family's complaints , and their relentless begging me not to , I just kept trying !

Last night it finally paid off ! Last night I produced what my Husband heralded as " the most edible gravy you have ever managed !" ( high praise from someone coming off six months worth of gravy paste) not quite gravy mastery , but the closest I have ever came ! Woo hoo ! ( it's the little things :-)  Tonight we shall celebrate by making sloppy joes , and taking it easy on Miss Quiser , lol !  My quest for the perfect gravy is ended , close enough is good enough for me !  Besides, I'm sure I can find some more trouble to get into somewhere , or another new means of driving my family insane .

It's amazing what you can do when you apply yourself !