The Home Front

When you arrive at a family gathering, it’s likely a conversation starts with a bygone story about food. Someone says, “Remember when…” and then we get told once again how Old Uncle So-and-So (names have been changed to protect the guilty) spilled the gravy all over the floor at one of our traditional day-after-Thanksgiving breakfasts.

How did it happen? Well, my wonderful mother-in-law, Patty Holt Standridge, who is known as Aunt Patty at the Holt family get-togethers, makes the best sausage gravy on the planet. As a special annual treat on the day after Thanksgiving, Aunt Patty makes a huge batch of sausage gravy, and Aunt Phyllis, her sister, makes her scrumptious biscuits. At one Thanksgiving, Moma Holt, the matriarch of the whole 80-plus bunch, said, “Get your food ready, the gravy’s almost done.” So, as we were setting up the ham, turkey, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, biscuits, breakfast casseroles, coffee, jams, jellies, and fruit, we heard a huge crash and looked up to see the makeshift table- holding the big bowl of gravy- toppling to the floor. You could have heard a pin drop as all 80 pairs of eyes became glued to the sight of Aunt Patty’s delicious gravy slowly spreading all over the floor amongst the rubble of the broken bowls and broken platters filled with meat and eggs. Taking stock of the situation, Moma Holt hollered with anguish, “It’s ruined! It’s ruined! The whole meal is ruined!” Right on her heels, Cousin Cory yelled out what we were all thinking: “Oh No! Not the gravy!” Y’all, it was a big ol’ mess. Gravy, eggs, meat, and lots of grease was all over the floor. So, Aunt Patty, cousin Karen, and I worked as the clean-up crew while Aunt Phyllis and the other sisters went back to the kitchen to cook up some more breakfast. But, we were out of sausage. There would be none of Aunt Patty’s sausage gravy that year. We had to make do with what was left after all the meat, eggs, and gravy were cleaned up and thrown out. We were devastated, to say the least.

We Alabamians have been taught from a young age to be kind and to sympathize with folks who find themselves in a bad situation. Never make a person feel bad if a bad thing happens to them. So, after the initial shock had worn off, we had an uproar of conversation amongst ourselves to find out what happened to our gravy and who was the culprit all while trying to not make him feel bad. We learned that someone had leaned on the table sending Aunt Patty’s delicious homemade gravy crashing to the floor. We commiserated with him about his accident and checked on his aches and scratches from the fall, thankful that the hot gravy didn’t land on him. And, we were still nice to him, you know… To this day, if he is not in the room, and sometimes just because he is in the room, someone will always say, “Remember when Old Uncle So-and-So spilled the gravy?” And, just so you know, we keep a careful watch on him when we are having gravy- just saying.

-Danna Standridge

Author of Happiness is Homemade Y’all! and 2024 Sweet Grown Alabama Ambassador 

Read her faith story at www.birminghamchristian.com/issues.

Join her in the kitchen on Facebook and YouTube.

Moma Holt’s Sausage Gravy 

Ingredients:
1 lb. sausage
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup bacon grease
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 cups water added to 1 can evaporated milk*

Instructions:

Put bacon grease in skillet over medium heat and cook sausage in it until it is brown. Stir in flour, salt, and pepper. Cook flour until it reaches a tan color, stirring constantly. Pour milk into pan, stirring constantly. Turn heat to low so it will simmer slowly until it thickens. If it gets too thick, stir in a little milk. For the best gravy flavor, put it in a warm crock pot and let it simmer for at least 30 minutes before serving.

*Evaporated milk adds a silky creaminess to the gravy and is sold in small cans in the baking section of the grocery store. However, 2 1/2 cups of regular milk can be substituted if you don’t have evaporated milk.

Watch the video below to see Danna make Moma Holt’s Sausage Gravy with Paula Deen.