Last night I used my trusty bacon and sausage drippings to whip up a batch of gravy for biscuits. Today I fried eggs in more drippings (in a cast iron skillet).

While my affinity for bacon drippings may not qualify me for any healthy-living awards, it garners me kudos as a cook, which is what it’s all about, right?

Curiosity is killing me - do you use drippings? Is it a Southern thing? I’ve got a perfectly good polls plugin sitting here gathering dust, so I thought I’d put it to good use and ask y’all.

Inquiring minds want to know:

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Thanks for participating!

Three of my boys and I will be working at the GHEA conference this week, and my little guys will be hangin’ with Daddy. In an effort to boost my popularity and assure that I will be missed, I served Pioneer Woman’s Apple Dumplings for lunch Wednesday. Did I say for dessert? No, I said for lunch.

When I walked in the room with my camera (because these dumplings were a photo opportunity if I ever saw one) my daughter was poised above the pan, eyes closed, sniffing that lovely cinnamon and apple scent.

She asked if we could have them for lunch every day, and that was before she’d even tasted them!

Serve these to your family, and I assure you they’ll be as happy (and you’ll be as popular) as we were today.

Yesterday we had one of those exhausting school mornings: toddlers keep interrupting; no one can concentrate; mental meltdown. I think this picture says it all:

You can’t just hand out PB & Js after a morning like that, right? We needed something different. Opening the refrigerator, I spied the Queso Fresco…

I had purchased some once, anticipating amazing Mexican-restaurant-worthy queso dip. Wrong. Queso Fresco will soften, but not melt when heated, leaving you with some seriously disgusting cheese dip. Yuck.

This time my husband had purchased it, thinking amazing Mexican-restaurant-worthy cheese dip. I Googled it because I knew this cheese must be good for something (besides disgusting cheese dip). Quesadillas! My kids love cheese quesadillas, as any employee at our local Moe’s could tell you.

We have a quesadilla maker, but instead I decided to whip them up Moe’s-style: on the grill.

I recommend you add the cheese before you place them on the grill, since Queso Fresco is a crumbly mess. Serve plain or with salsa and sour cream.

I already have requests to make them again today! How do you beat the lunchtime blahs?

View my favorite shot from yesterday on photoblog.

Overheard in my kitchen: “Man, it smells like yesterday!”

I don’t think my six-year-old son wanted the same thing for lunch two days in a row.

Visit 5 Minutes for Mom or Wordless Wednesday for more Wordless Wednesday participants.

I mentioned recently attending my friend Allison’s birth. Afterward, Allison’s father-in-law sent us a gift package from Thompson Farms. It contained the best bacon and sausage (we haven’t eaten the ham yet) I’ve ever tasted. Like a good Southern girl, I hated the thought of letting those sausage drippings go to waste, so I saved them.

A few years ago I decided it was beneath my dignity as a cook to buy Bisquick. I can make buttery melt-in-your-mouth homemade biscuits from scratch, I just don’t do it very often. As a result, we haven’t eat biscuits much over the past few years.

Earlier this week I saw Bisquick on the shelf at the grocery store and remembered the drop biscuits I used to make. And then I remembered those sausage drippings. Lately we’ve been desperate for a little variety at lunch. After all, you can only eat so many PB & Js and grilled cheese before you start to gag at the thought.

Today at 11:30 I pulled out my apron and my newly-purchased box of Bisquick. The kids were curious. I am ashamed to admit that when I told them we were having biscuits and gravy for lunch, my 6- and 7-year-olds asked what gravy was. I have obviously completely dropped the ball if they have to ask.

We devoured 20 biscuits and a double batch of sausage gravy. When I took my first bite, I felt like I was sitting in my grandmother’s kitchen again. I was “home” in a way only food could take me - back to my gravy-soaked roots.

Overwhelmed with Joy will once again be hosting Holiday Cooking, Blogger Style! Mark your calendars for next Friday, October 5th. On that day she will post the specific instructions for this holiday recipe exchange and then open up Mr. Linky so that those interested in participating can be listed in one central location.

Here’s a link to my post from last year.  This really makes me excited about cool weather and great holiday recipes!