Move over, Martha!

Since moving to Japan, we have, of course, missed a few things from home. On the top of that list is biscuits and sausage gravy or should I say, was the top on that list. I am happy to report that we successfully created a delicious Ozarks breakfast yesterday morning.

Thanks to a couple friends here, they passed along a delicious breakfast sausage recipe. We combined some spices and ground pork. The tricky part was the biscuits. Travis bought some buttermilk biscuit Bisquick mix last time we were home knowing full and well we don't have an oven here. It pained me to see the mix every time I opened the cabinet door. Until we decided to give them a shot on our gas stove. I know this isn't the most novel concept, but for us, it was. We successfully cooked the biscuits in a frying pan with a lid. And, alas, we had the most amazing sausage patties, biscuits and sausage gravy. It can be done. No Jimmy Dean and no oven.

After the biscuits and gravy breakfast, I got really crazy. My mom sent me a carrot cake mix with cream cheese frosting for my birthday. She knows we don't have an oven, but she thought I could take it to a friend's house to bake it. 

For a few weeks, I opened the cabinet door to hear the cream cheese frosting mocking me. I often considered ripping off the foiled seal, grabbing a spoon and devouring it, sans cake. But, because I have incredible self-control, I resisted. Until yesterday.

After seeing the success of the biscuits, I decided to try baking the cake on the stovetop in a sauce pan. And, after two rounds of baking, it worked. Only took about 15 minutes for each layer. It's the most delicious cake I have ever tasted. It's extremely moist because of the lid used while baking, I suppose. So, I must say, the Hartman House is a happy place to be this weekend. Take that, oven.