Tag: biscuits

Making it Work > biscuits

Biscuits and Jam

Posted on January 6, 2017 by pioneerintrees

When you have a cold day, a warm fire and a book to read, all you really need to top it off is a few biscuits with jam.

I found a new recipe for Buttermilk Biscuits this past summer when I was experimenting with Bourbon (you have to read the post – lol). They turned out marvellously, so the recipe has usurped the baking powder biscuit recipe from Grandma Mack. (Sweet Jesus, don’t tell anyone in the family…) You do have to have a little foresight though, so that you can pop 1/2 cup (one stick) of butter into the freezer. I’m also not sure that the oven REALLY has to be at 475 degrees … 425 works just fine, thank you very much. If I go to 475 my oven will think it’s self cleaning and bad things might happen like they did the last time.

The ingredients are really basic. Today I planned to use lemon juice to sour the milk so I decided to grate the rind into the batter and then chop up some dried cranberries to go in the biscuits. Sadly this will mean that the kids won’t like them. AW DAMN.

Oh and for the love of Jesus, add some salt! Why it’s not in the recipe I’ll never know.

I use these super nifty cutters from Lee Valley. I bought them for myself during the Christmas online ordering season, as a reward for getting through all of the crazy shit at school. I think I deserved them. And only $20! What a deal.

Couldn’t help but slather them with a little more melted butter and sprinkle on some demerara sugar.

With a banana-peach smoothie and some home made peach jam on the side, they’re the perfect snack!

Expanded Family, Same Old Traditions

Posted on September 24, 2016 by pioneerintrees

The week gone by was, well, life changing. Not just for me, but for my whole family, and for Bree, the wonderful girl who has joined it. All sorts of meetings and stress are behind us, and while there are likely many challenges ahead, we’re feeling pretty peaceful for now. We’re at the cabin, happy to show her around and share with her some of our traditions. She has already noted that we are a very “singy” family … so when we did our Disney princess challenge on the way in (in which one person sings a Disney song and the others try to name the movie faster than the others), she wasn’t overly surprised.

The other day she asked what exactly we DO up here. I think she’s figuring it out, and is starting to find her own groove. She’s been swimming, enjoying big breakfasts and plenty of baking, relaxing, exploring the woods. She likes to fish but is terrified of boats. We’ll have to work on that.

Today has been a day to make a few of the comfort foods that we love to eat when at the cabin. Buttermilk biscuits for breakfast…

Cinnamon buns for an afternoon snack …

Pasta salad, chicken parmesan and Gingerbread cake to take with us to Andrea & Mike’s for dinner…

Paul flattens and breads chicken, then fries it. Mmmm.

Gingerbread cake is cooling. Almost ready to make the icing.

A good day so far!!

Peace out.

Another Bourbon Experiment

Posted on September 4, 2016 by pioneerintrees

In keeping with my bourbon focus, I put the following search into Pinterest: appetizers, bourbon, savory. Came up with a whole host of very yummy looking things. I wanted to make a chutney or something with cream cheese – something spreadable. After scrolling through, I settled on Bourbon Bacon Jam since I had most of the ingredients at hand. Here they are:

Had to substitute vidalia onion for shallots.

Pretty standard ingredients, and easy to make – all you need is time to cook up the bacon, then onion and garlic, and finally simmer it all down.

Finally, after about an hour and a half it seemed jam-like. Too hot to taste so I just went with it and watched the consistency.

Meanwhile, I needed to figure out what to serve this jam ON. I thought that mini tea biscuits might be easy enough. Since I had time while the jam was stewing away, I decided to try out a new recipe. I use shortening in my “baking powder biscuits” recipe but wanted to try one that used shaved frozen butter. I’ve heard they’re MUCH better. Back to Pinterest for a recipe and off I went.

Turns out, the shaving frozen butter trick is excellent. I’m never going back. (Unfortunately I cut the shit out of my finger when I was trying to get the last bits of butter out of the grater… I have a love-hate relationship with graters.)

Taste-wise, the overall result is VERY good! Hard to describe, but overall, a deep sweet meaty flavor. Like sticky ribs. Paul moaned when he tried it. Lol

Buttermilk tea biscuits and bourbon bacon jam.

Here are the links to the recipes:

http://www.savoryexperiments.com/bourbon-bacon-jam/ and http://foodlove.com/fool-proof-buttermilk-biscuits-from-scratch/