The Wife of A Southern Man: Biscuit Update

For even better biscuits, my friend Ann suggested that I try using buttermilk.  After a few tries, I have decided that my biscuit recipe really does deserve a permanent change in this direction.  Since I am a bit on the frugal side I don't use store purchased my husband tells me that "boughten" isn't a real word  buttermilk, but I simply sour my milk as the first step whipping up a batch of biscuits.  It only takes a few seconds and the results are fantastic.  So with out further ado, the mind blowing change to my biscuit recipe is:

Mix 2 TBL lemon juice in 1/2 cup milk and let stand while mixing the dry ingredients.  The acid in the lemon juice will thicken the milk and cause it to clabber some no you didn't just ruin your milk.  Use this soured milk instead of the 3/4 cup regular milk called for in the original recipe.  It makes the biscuits just a bit lighter and improved the flavor. 

And for any doubters, yes Superman approves. 

The Wife of a Southern Man: Biscuits

Growing up, I thought men lived for homemade cinnamon rolls topped with gooey, melt in your mouth caramel.  Imagine my surprise to meet Superman and learn that he didn't even know cinnamon rolls were suppose to have caramel on top, much less be made at home.  It didn't take me long however to discover that what Southern men live for is biscuits.    Like most of his ilk, my husband would eat biscuits with every meal.  Thankfully, biscuits are much quicker to whip up than cinnamon rolls are.  Although I had to call a halt and cut down on biscuit production when we started going through a pound of butter every week.  Can we say heart attack?

Perfect biscuits can be a bit elusive, but once the secret is mastered they can easily be added to almost any meal.  The true secret to biscuits is in the butter.  It must be BUTTER.  Not margarine or shortening or vegetable oil.  Only real, old fashioned, calorie laden butter works.

 Additionally, the butter must be cold.  Don't even think about warming it up to room temperature and creaming it into the dry ingredients.  Instead, use a sharp knife to cut the required butter into 1/8 inch cubes and crumble it into flour and leavening with clean, dry hands. 

Sissy's Southern Style Biscuits

2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup cold butter (cubed)
3/4 cup cold milk

Mix together dry ingredients in medium sized bowl.  Crumble in butter until well incorporated (the bowl will look like it is full of pea sized crumbs).  Add milk and knead in lightly to create dough. 

On a floured surface roll out dough into a sheet 1/2 inch thick and cut biscuits out with the mouth of a drinking glass.  For quicker biscuits, omit this step and shape dough into balls by hand then flatten to 1/2 disks.  Just keep in mind that these are what Superman calls "ugly biscuits," but they taste just as good. 

Place shaped biscuits 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet.  Once biscuits are panned, place them in  the refrigerator while the oven pre-heats to 475 degrees.  The cold dough produces light, flakey biscuits. 

Bake at 475 for 12 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve right away (with more butter of course). 

*                               *                            *

As much work as I have put into my biscuit recipe, it is not perfect.  That market has long been cornered by Bojangles'.  If I can ever get my hands on their recipe, then I will claim to make perfect Southern style biscuits.  For now, I just make good biscuits. 

Baby's first meal out was at Bojangles': she slept, we ate.

Wonderful White Sauce

White sauce is deliciously simple and should be a staple in any cooks bag of tricks.  Using a little imagination and 20 minutes, one can create restaurant quality meals at home.  It is a great accompaniment to pasta and chicken of course, but also can be used as the base for cheesy dipping sauce or homemade mac and cheese.  Thickened and heavily peppered it is also what many folks call Country Gravy and will transform last night's biscuits from fossilizing hockey pucks into breakfast (wrap the biscuits in a damp paper towel and microwave 30 seconds to soften). 

Besides it's versatility in flavor and use, white sauce is very easy to create in any quantity desired. Really it is more of a formula than a recipe.

1 Tbs Butter -to- 1 Tbs White Flour -to 1 cup milk 

Easy peasy!  That said, I am going to present my first tutorial along with my recipe for Easy Peasy Pasta.   It is a great summer weight pasta that is quick, easy and incredibly tasty. Uncharacteristically, this recipe has no onion or garlic, but derives the majority of it's flavor from the bacon.  As a one dish dinner, this meal feeds 4. 

 

Easy Peasy Pasta

 

2 Tbs butter

2 Tbs white flour

2 cups milk

4 strips turkey bacon

1 cup chopped fresh spinach

1 cup fresh or frozen sweet peas/ English peas

salt and pepper to taste

pasta prepared to package dirrections

 

Melt butter in a large, non-stick pan.

 

Add flour and work into butter using the bottom of the spoon to create a smooth paste.

 

Slowly pour in a small amount of milk and work the same way as the flour. Once a smooth paste is obtained the remaining milk can be stirred in with out worry. 

 

Stir sauce frequently while it thickens.  For this recipe the sauce will need to thicken to nearly a gravy consistency to make up for the water that the vegetables will release when they are added.  Salt and pepper to taste.

 

Cook bacon until firm and chop.

 

Add chopped spinach and peas to sauce and heat through.

 

Stir in diced bacon and remove from heat.  Serve immediately over hot pasta.

 

 

 

There it is, easy peasy just like I promised.  This dish is inspired by a fancy $12 dish I ate at a Miami Beach bistro a few years ago.  It lacks nothing in taste compared to the original, but feeds 4 people for right at $3.  For that kind of savings, I will gladly do the dishes myself.  

 

 

 

Go To Goulash

As much as I love slow food and cooking from scratch, with a new baby in the house I find myself relying on quick meals a few nights a week.  This goulash is similar in concept to Hamburger Helper, but is almost homemade and costs merely $1 more for three times the yield.  Not to mention it tastes a whole lot better and has a recognizable ingredient list. 

This happens to be one of Superman's favorite meals and it dresses up enough to serve to last minute dinner guests as well: just add a salad and garlic toast.  Serves 4-6. 

Go To Goulash

1 lb ground chuck
28 oz diced tomatoes with juice
28 oz cut green beans, drained
1/2 cup onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste

1 lb pasta noodles, prepared to package directions

In a large pan, heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add onions and garlic, cook until just tender.  Crumble in ground chuck and cook until no pink remains.  Drain off any excess fat remaining in pan.

Stir in tomatoes and green beans, then cook over low heat to warm through.  Add hot pasta and stir well to incorporate.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Serve hot.   

Ames Family Breakfast

Living in my husband's home town, he frequently finds the opportunity to show my a glimpse of his childhood.  The other morning I decided it was high time to show him a glimpse of mine and set out to create one of the ultimate comfort foods of my childhood:  sourdough pancakes. 

Not trusting myself to eyeball the process and come up with a satisfactory "dough" I once again hit up the internet for some direction.  Seriously, what did we do before internet searches?  This recipe had all the right ingredients, so after quickly jotting down the proper quantities of each I headed back into the kitchen and got to work.

I made the doughs just as the recipe instructed up until the moment they went on the hot griddle.  Then instead of using a large scoop of batter, I opted for a much smaller scoop and spread it thin like my Grandpa would have done.  While the doughs were cooking fried several eggs over easy and a stirred up a small batch of Mapleine syrup for a complete George Ames Special:  served with the eggs sandwiched in a stack of doughs. 

Quite honestly, I was in breakfast heaven.  The sourdough pancakes came out just like the ones I remember from my childhood.  Superman wasn't quite so impressed (like me and fried bologna sandwiches), they just didn't taste right to his southern pallet.  He ate them politely, then asked for "real pancakes" next time.  He even turned down my offer for seconds ***SHRUG*** which worked well for me since I wanted the last stack for myself anyway.  I polished off every single one of those doughs and even forgot to save one to eat for an afternoon snack all rolled up with peanut butter and jelly. 

A Quick Loaf

A few days ago, I peeked in the refrigerator and realized that **GASP** we were out of bread.  Now as the Queen of Carbs I just couldn't let that plague my kingdom, so I took immediate action.  With my sourdough starter still on late pregnancy hiatus in the fridge, I scanned the internet for a simple white bread recipe.

After briefly considering a batter bread, I settled on this Rich White Bread recipe that requires no kneading and is made in the food processor.  It looked quick and easy, and since it only yields one loaf there was little commitment.  Since a few reviewers labeled it as "too dense" I added 4 tsp vital yeast gluten, but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. 

The process of making the recipe was as painless as it looked and the resulting loaf rose nicely (which is always a pleasant surprise with quick breads).  Once baked the loaf was as beautiful as any baker could ask for and had an enticing aroma, but we somehow managed to resist cutting into it until the following morning. We both enjoyed it as toast for breakfast and shared what remained of the loaf with my aunt and uncle over a country dinner.   I must say that this recipe produced very tasty bread and I will keep it on hand for future carb related emergencies.  It is a bit dry, so next time I will slightly increase the butter content. 

Let Him Eat Cake

Superman doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, but he does have a weakness for cake.  This past week, I indulged him with a White Sour Cream Cake slathered in Orange Butter Cream Icing.   Uncharacteristically , I followed the cake recipe exactly and used my basic butter cream recipe as a base for the icing.   The humidity was pretty high and started getting to my icing before I could get it in the fridge, but even messy it tastes amazing (if I do say so myself).

Orange Butter Cream Icing

1/2 cup butter (softened)

zest of 1 orange

4 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup orange juice

 

Using a mixer blend the butter, orange zest, and powdered sugar in a large bowl.  Add orange juice and mix until creamy.  If icing is too dense, add more orange juice 1 tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached. 

 

Since I originally planned to use marmalade between the layers of cake, I only made one batch of icing.  When Superman nixed the marmalade idea, I didn't feel like making more so I scrimped on the inside layer.  For best results, when laying and frosting double recipe. 

 

Homemade Wet Wipes

I have always been a cloth diapering mama, but this time around I have decided to use cloth wipes also. Might as well, I'm already washing diapers!

These 8x8 squares are simply cut from soft flannel using pinking sheers and then layered in a Rubbermaid container with a tightly closing lid.  After using up all the flannel scraps in my fabric stash, I purchased an additional yard (the pretty pink batik pictured) and was able to make 20 wipes.  When I am ready to start using them, I will wet them with a simple solution of baby oil, baby soap, and warm water.