Happy New Year!! Almost anyway... just a few more hours!!
Kelli wanted me to post the Sangia recipe and since I just made some last week for Christmas day at my sister-in-law's and again yesterday for a party tonight, it's easy enough to remember. I make a gallon at a time. It's easy enough to add or subtract, depending on how much you'd like to serve.

SANGRIA
1 navel orange, thinly sliced
1 lemon, seeded and thinly sliced
1/4 C. sugar (see note to follow)
1 C. orange juice (I like pulp-free)
1/2 C. triple sec
1/2 C. brandy
red wine (see note to follow)
Club soda or 7 Up

Mash and muddle the fruit and sugar in a gallon pitcher. (note on sugar: sometimes I don't add it because I plan on using 7 Up instead of club soda at the end.)
Add the OJ and mix, shake or stir well.
Add the liquors and mix again.
Add the red wine to about 3 inches from the top of the pitcher.(I like to use Franzia's Chillable Red...yes, in the BOX. I've used Cabernet, which is good, Merlot, which is a bit heavy and Shiraz, which was worst of all! Chillable red is kind of light and works well.)
Mix again and chill until ready to serve. Right before you serve it, taste it to see if it's as sweet as you like. This is where the 7 Up comes in. If it's sweet, use club soda... if you want it sweeter, use 7 Up. (Actually, I like diet 7 up or Sprite Zero. Who needs the extra sugar?)
You can add the club soda (or 7 Up) to the pitcher or pour it in the individual glasses. Just make sure it's as chilled as the wine.
Great over ice in the summertime! Actually, it's good anytime friends and family gather... like Christmas and New Years! And like my chili, it's really best served the next day. Let all those flavor "marry" and the fruit soak up the wine... it's very pretty, too.

A quick note about the chili while I'm here... It's very thick and chunky and SPICY! (It would be good in a bread bowl, Alene!) I like to serve it like the schools chili we grew up with, a cinnamon roll on the side! Kevin has since turned me on to putting shredded cheese on it, too. Never could do that growing up because my Dad made chili SOUP! If you like soupy chili, do like Dad did and add tomato juice.
Happy New Year again, kids! Hope 2009 is the year of the promised CHANGE.
Love to all, Mrs. Gravy

the people get what they want!

pictures? ok!
i put up a pic near the recipe....

right back at ya!

Well, here I am....a few days early.
To add to Shannon's post, we ARE the country mouse, city mouse.

I received my "food lady" title from a good old, long gone, never to be forgotten dog. 12 pounds of black and white dog named Lucky. Lucky was a stray and was starved when he came to belong to me.
All I ever wanted to do was feed that dog. Whatever his heart desired. Cheeseburgers? check. Biscuits and Gravy? check. Soft taco's? check. The dog ate everything and never got fat...and he loved me more than any creature could. I was HIS food lady.
And so it goes, he is gone, but the name lives on....

Mrs. Gravy and I have been fast friends for better than a few years.....(a girl never reveals her true age) but we can safely say that we were somehow switched at birth and should have been in the same family...hers or mine, doesn't matter. We think alike, we love alike, we laugh and cry alike. We are two peas in a pod.
Ask us some questions because we CAN and eventually WILL tell you some stories...whew...
However, Mrs Gravy is right. We don't always eat alike, which will give all of this some variety....
A few days ago, I made the following:

Oyster Soup ala Kelli

one half pound bacon
1 white onion chopped
garlic, in a jar, minced..a good spoonful
3 cups of milk
white pepper
salt
cayenne pepper
one container of fresh raw oysters
one stick of butter
3 tablespoons of flour
2 green onions sliced
fresh thyme however much you feel like dealing with, stems removed
1/2 cup heavy cream
chopped parsley

OK....so what you do is this:
Brown the bacon in small chunks until crispy in a 2 or 3 qt sauce pan.
Drain most of the bacon grease, but not all, leave about 2 tablespoons in the pan.
Melt the stick of butter in the bacon grease, add the onion and saute about 5 minutes or until onion is soft, add the garlic and saute for another 5 minutes or so.

Sprinkle the flour into the butter stirring to make a good paste.
Let this brown a bit, about 5 minutes.
At this time you could add about a half cup of dry white wine if you want and let that cook for about another 10 minutes.
Add the juice from the container of oysters and bring back up to temperature, wisking to keep smooth.
Slowly add the milk, again whisking so that there are not lumps.
Add salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste. (this is pretty bland so don't be afraid of the cayenne)
Simmer, stirring frequently for about 15 to 20 minutes.
When you are almost ready to sit down and eat:
Add the heavy cream and the oysters.
Allow to cook until the oysters have ruffled edges, about 10 minutes on a medium to medium low heat. You don't want soup to scald or boil.
Ladle into soup bowls and garnish with green onion and parsley.
Serve with oyster soup crackers. A good white wine doesn't hurt to have along with this. We like either a good, sweet Riesling or a clean crisp white like a fume' blanc.

YUM!
This soup was also good as a reheated leftover.

Trust me kids, what we really want to know from Mrs. Gravy is her Sangria recipe.

Okay kids, my 1st blog!! I'm so excited to start this with kelli. First a little background on us. I'm Shannon, aka, Mrs. Gravy. I got that name when my now 12 year old daughter was in preschool. I volunteered at the elementary school in the 1st grade computer lab and the teacher insisted the kids call me Mrs. Graves. Well, one little smart-ass decided to call me Mrs. Gravy... and it kinda stuck! Anywhere the kids were in town I'd hear a screech of "mrs. Gravy" followed by a bone crushing hug to my hips! I've been a special ed para for a few years now and a couple of the esl kids called me Mrs. Grapes, but Mrs. Gravy is still the arrow in my heart.
Kelli and I had thought to write a cookbook, but the more we got into it the more hassle it seemed to be, so she came up with the idea of the blog thing. Her sisters-in-law all do it and she said it'd be so easy EVEN I could do it! So far so good...
She and I have different tastes in food, so our recipes will be different. We may post the same item, just our special takes on it. Even using the same recipe we can make it unique to ourselves and our locations. In Dallas she has better access to some items than I do in the middle of no-where Nebraska! And since I am in the middle of no-where Nebraska, my food tends to be more mid-western and homey than hers. The best of both worlds as far as I can see!
So, for my 1st recipe...

Best as LEFTOVER Chili
Brown 1 pound hamburger with 1/2 a good sized yellow onion
Add it to a large dutch oven with;
2 cans petite diced tomatoes
2 cans Bush's Chili Beans~hot
1 tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. black pepper
2 tsp. chili powder
Cover and simmer for a couple hours, then cool completly and put it
in the fridge till tomorrow! You could eat it right then, but it's oh, so much
better the next day, just you wait and see for yourself!

It's an easy recipe, a couple simple items and nothing you couldn't keep on hand. But, that's the way I do things. You'll find out more of that as we go along.
Thanks for checkin us out! Hope you find something to like and will keep us in mind.
:)Shannon, Mrs. Gravy