Basic Buttermilk Biscuits

Biscuits are one of the simple pleasures of cooking. They provide excellent support to many good meals - some as little more than a garnish, some as an integral part of a meal.

Below is a recipe for a nice, light, flaky, southern-style buttermilk biscuit. This recipe is derived from a recipe found in James Villa's Biscuit Bliss. Excellent by themselves with honey or jelley; as the "bread" of a Virginia ham biscuit sandwich!

• 2 cp. White Lily flour
• 1 Tbsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• ¼ cp. shortening (chilled)
• 1 cp. buttermilk

Preheat your oven to 450°F

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, bakind soda and salt. Add in shortening - folding it in with a pastry cutter or rub with fingertips untl the mixture is mealy. Gradually add the buttermilk, stirring with a wooden sppon until the dough is soft and slightly sticky.

Transfer the dough to a lightly flowered work surface (a Silpat on a flat kitchen counter works great). Using a light touch, turn the edges of the dough toward the middle, pressing with your hands to create an even dough-ball. Then, flatten the dough out to about ½" thickness.

Cut dough into even rounds with a circular cookie-dough cutting form. Continue cutting until there isn't enough contiguous dough to cut any further rounds. Take remaining dough-scraps and pat together into a new, smaller dough-ball. Flatten this leftover-ball into another ½" thick cuttable shape.

Repeat the cut and scrap-merge until the dough is completely used up. 

Arrange the fresh-cut rounds onto a baking sheet. The rounds should be arranged with sides touching (or no further than ½" of separation). Place baking sheet into top third of the oven and bake till browned on top (approx. 12min. baking time).

Note 1: Choice of flour is critical to producing good biscuits. White Lily flour is recommended as it consistently produces light, flakey biscuits that bring out the texture and flavor of the buttermilk. Other brands may be substituted as necessary, but always try to choose a "southern-style", self-rising flour.

Note 2: biscuits will tend to achieve a more optimal rise, while baking, if spaced closely together. The further apart they are spaced on the sheet, the less they will rise. The more you allow them to rise, the lighter and flakier the resulting biscuits

Brussels Sprout Hash with Caramelized Shallots

Brussels sprouts are a frequently-maligned mini-cabbage. I think that a lot of the negative attitudes about brussel sprouts comes from people not knowing how to prepare them in appetizing ways. Before I came up with this recipe, my husband was always very insistent on how much he loathed brussel sprouts. He actually asks for seconds from this recipe:

• 6 Tbsp. Butter
• ½ lb. shallots, thinly sliced (golden shallots, preferred)
• Coarse kosher salt (fresh-ground, preferred)
• ground pepper (fresh-ground, preferred)
• 2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 4 tsp. sugar
• 1½ lbs. brussel sprouts trimmed (fresh off the stalk, preferred)
• 3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cp. water

Recipe makes 8-10 servings; reduce as necessary

Caramelize the Shallots
Melt 3 Tbsp. buteer in a medium skillet over medium heat.

Add shallots and sprinkle with coarse kosher salt and pepper. Sauté until soft and golden (this typically takes aout 10 minutes in my pans).

Add the vinegar and sugar and stire until brown and glazed (this typically takes about 3 minutes in my pans).


Brussel Sprout Hash

Halve your brussels sprouts, lengthwise. Cut halves, lengthwise, into thin (approx. ⅛") slices.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add hashed sprouts and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sauté until slightly browned at the edges (usually about six minutes).

Add 1 cup of water and 3 tablespoons of butter. Sauté until most of the water has evaporated and sprouts are tender but still bright green (usually about three minutes).


Add the previously caramelized shallots and season with salt and pepper to taste.


Bonus!

We recently discovered that this recipe marries well with bacon. Not much of a discovery, given that bacon makes just about everything better! This modification requires six, thick-cut slices of bacon (beef or pork doesn't seem to matter - if you choose to use turkey bacon or some other atrocity, please don't tell me about it;)).

The following procedures should be completed prior to or coincident with caramelizing the onions.

Chop bacon into 1" squares and fry until lightly crisped.

Remove the bacon from skillet and allow to dry on a paper or cloth towel.

Top the finished brussels sprouts dish with the (now dried) bacon and mix gently.

Holiday Cranberry-Orange Relish

Each year at Thanksgiving, as an alternative to the stereotypical horrid "cran-in-a-can" cranberry jelly, I prepare a cranberry-orange relish. Thus far, no complaints and lots of converts. This relish will require the following components:

• 4 cp. fresh cranberries (approx. 1lbs.)
• 1 cp. orange juice
• ¾ cp. sugar
• ⅓ cp. brown-sugar
• 3 cinnamon sticks, each broken in half
• 4 tsp. finely-grated orange peel
• 1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• 1½ Tbsp. fine-grated lemon peel
• ¼ tsp. ground all-spice

Combine cranberries, 3/4 cup orange juice, sugars, cinnamon sticks, orange peel, lemon juice & peel, and allspice in a heavy saucepan. Bring to the boil over medium-high heat, stirring util sugar dissolves.  Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until berries burst and liquids start to thicken, stirring occasionally, about 6 minutes.  Remove from heat and cool.  Mix in remaining 1/4 cup orange juice.  This recipe can be made up to 4 days before serving, just cover and keep chilled.  To serve, remove cinnamon sticks and transfer to a serving bowl.    

Tomato canning, 2010 edition

I've made a tradition out of tomato canning over Labor Day Weekend. I started it last year, and we did it again this year, and it's gone so swimmingly well that we (Tom and I) plan to do this every year, because there's nothing quite like homemade catsup. :)

Anyway, to start, a few weeks before Labor day, we place an order with Three Way Farm (Virginia), who sell produce at two farmer's markets we go to, on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The order is placed for two boxes (about a bushel, total) of Roma tomatoes.

½bu. Roma Tomatoes

Working in batches for each recipe, the tomatoes get dunked into boiling water for 30 seconds or so to make them easier to peel.

Coring the Tomatoes

Skinned & Cored

Tomatoes are seeded and chopped or sliced as needed. For tomato paste and catsup, the tomatoes are cooked with some other vegetables and seasonings, and then put through the food mill.

Using the manual food mill

Catsup add-ins

Mashing Tomato Paste

Catsup & tomato paste are fairly labour-intensive, but for us, it's so worth the effort. We've come to prefer to know exactly what's in our food and where it came from.

Filling the jars (catsup)

Catsup

Tomato paste, with bonus shot of a basket of veggies
harvested from our garden. :)

stewed tomatoes, stewed tomatoes with green chiles.

An Introduction

Hello:

My name is Donna. I have a long-standing interest in crafty pursuits such as sewing for fashion, costuming and practical needs. I also like to quilt - both for practical and artistic reasons.

In recent years, as I've become more aware of issues related to the "typical American diet", I came to embrace the "slow food" movement. Along with this came an interest in organic foods, going to farmers markets, gardening, canning and all sorts of "old fashioned" home cooking. My interest in gardening, farmers markets and canning/preservation help support my interests in eating local (sometimes referred to as being a "locavore").

In pursuing these interests, I've done extensive collection of vintage sewing patterns, cookbooks and handy/thrifty techniques. I know that there are others out there who may also be interested in such things but haven't had an easy time getting started. It's my hope that, by relating my own experiences, I can help others to enjoy some of the same things I do. I look at this as my way of "giving back" and ensuring that some of the things I've learned don't get "lost".

As an aside, I make reference to "home front", as a lot of the things I found come from World War II era materials - a time when people undertook many of these things as part of the "home front campaigns" of that era.

Any way, I hope you find this site a useful resource. I look forward to hearing from any of you that might have questions or suggestions for furtherance of my "home front" goals.