Biscuit Variations

Biscuits are a family staple of both sides of my family. Every time the family gets together at the G&G Evans' house we have them for breakfast. On the other side, my mom often makes them for dinner to go with soup. Since mom's girlfriend is vegan and Grandma Luna is wheatless, I've included both versions.

Grandpa's 4-3-2-1 Biscuits (Mom's wheatless, vegan version in italics)

4 tbls Unsalted butter (imagine's non-hydrogenated shortening or olive oil)
3 tsp Baking soda
2 C All purpose flour (use Barley Flour)
1 tsp Salt
2% or non-fat milk or plain yogurt (Use plain soy milk /yogurt or even water)

Preheat oven to 425F. Combine dry ingredients thoroughly. Cut in butter with pastry blender or two knives. Once the butter pieces are pea sized starting adding the liquid little by little until you have the desired consistency.

For drop biscuits, you'll want it to be sticky and fairly wet, so that you have to use a spoon to scoop the dough. Grease a square or round glass baking pan. Using a tablespoon, place dalops of dough into the pan so that they are all touching. Once baked, they will break apart easily, so don't worry if you have to squish them in. Bake until the tops are brown and they tear apart easily. (About 20-25 minutes)

For rolled biscuits, you'll want the dough to be fairly dry. Grease a cookie sheet. You should be able to handle it without too much sticking to your hands. Flatten onto a floured surface and roll out with a rolling pin. Use a round cookie cutter or jelly jar to cut biscuits. Don't twist the cutter - that will seal the edges of the biscuits and they won't rise as much. Just go straight in and back up. Place on the sheet and bake until golden brown and not doughy in the middle. (about 15-20 minutes)

Yummy additions:

Diced Fuyu Persimmons - I diced 1 whole Fuyu into small pieces and mixed in before baking.

Cheese and Herbs - Jack, asiago, mozzarella, cheddar, etc. I did a blend of jack and asiago with thyme and oregano. Mix into flour before adding butter. It was scrumptious!

Cinnamon and Brown Sugar - Mix together about 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4-1/2 c brown sugar and 1/4 butter and a pinch of salt. Spread mix on rolled dough. Roll up into a log and cut into slices; place them in a buttered glass baking pan so that they are touching. Bake until bubbly.

Cheap Eats

So my friend Chad mentioned the unhappiness that is eating when broke and so I started scheming what I eat when I'm feeling less than flush, um, which is often...but still want to actually cook something good instead of eating instant stuff or a can of soup, you know? Trader Joe's seriously helps this list but you could probably do it just as cheaply at other stores. Most of the ingredients are pretty straight forward. I've tried to avoid

My top ten cheap eats in varied categories:

Snacks:

1. Homemade popcorn
Start with a heavy bottomed pan, about the volume of popcorn you want to make.
Coat the bottom of the pan with canola oil (can withstand heat better than olive oil) and place on medium heat, add enough popping corn to cover the bottom of the pan and cover. Wait until the popping sounds are a few seconds apart. It might smell like burning a little but that's just the oil... unless it's actually burning. You'll learn to time it after a few tries or you'll end up with a bunch of unpopped kernels at the bottom.
I add butter, salt and nutritional yeast (and sometimes dried oregano).
Oil ~ $3/bottle
Pop Corn ~ $2 1 lb bag

2. Apples and peanut butter/ celery and cream cheese
Okay - it's two different snacks from your childhood but it counts as one because I have more than 10 ideas.
Tart apples and salty peanut butter work best in my opinion
Celery and cream cheese is delicious (some weird people like celery and peanut butter too)
Apples ~ .50c each
Jar of Peanut butter ~ $3
Bunch of Celery ~$2
Box of Cream Cheese ~$3

3. Toast
There's nothing like toast with butter, jam, cinnamon and sugar as a late night snack.
Bread is super cheap!
Butter lasts a while
Jam lasts a while (add some of the peanut butter from #2 for a more filling snack)
Toast and tea is also my all time favorite afternoon snack.

Dinners:

4. Pasta con Queso
Pasta is boring. Yes, but when I lived in Sweden I was seriously broke. Living on practically nothing. yikes. I don't know how I did it. Eating lots of pasta, I guess. The thing that makes it good - cheese. Not Parmesan or asiago, which are delicious but I put the mild, melty Swedish cheese on it - lots.
1 lb Pasta ~$1 at TJs
Jar sauce ~$2 at TJs
Some cheese ~$4 at TJs (Edam, Havarti, Mozzarella)
Occasionally frozen meatballs (or veggie meatballs) can be added too for extra protein
Throw some mixed greens and a bottle of goddess dressing and you've got dinner for under $12, probably leftovers for lunch the next day too.

5. Tuna Casserole
My mom used to make this for us since her mom used to make it for her. Cute Grandma Rosamund had a dinner for each night of the week, Monday pot roast, Tuesday tuna casserole... etc. While I'm not quite down with that much regularity in my diet, it's a nice idea.
So, despite previous encounters with this infamous casserole, please try it!
1 lb pasta ~$1
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup ~$1
1 pound frozen peas, carrots, corn mix ~$3
1 can dolphin safe tuna (in water, chunked) ~$1.50
cheddar, mozza, or some kind of cheese

Cook past until al dente, mix with tuna and condensed soup, add the frozen veg last. Put in a casserole dish and throw some grated cheese on top. Bake at 350 for 20 or so minutes until hot and bubbly. Salt and pepper to taste. Yum. Seriously.

6. Pork chops and mashed potatoes
Pretty simple:
Boil red potatoes until tender. Mash with butter, milk, salt and pepper. Throw in garlic, sour cream, cheese, whatever you have/want/think would taste good if you feel like being adventurous.
Heat a pan with a little olive oil until it smokes lightly. Add salted and peppered pork chops. Cook on one side until browned then flip and cook until the insides are no longer pink and the juices run clear.
Potatoes are cheap. I don't know how much exactly but they are.
Two pork chops are ~$6
With salad still under $12 and left overs for the next day. Or green beans steamed lightly probably ~$3.

7. Tacos
Another mom staple. Somehow I don't think her mom was making them too often. Who knows, maybe GR was ahead of her time.
Corn tortillas ~$1
Refried Beans ~$2
Brown Rice ~$5 bag, but it lasts for a while!
Grated Jack ~$4
Salsa ~$2
Sour Cream ~$2
Lettuce ~$2
Seems more expensive up front but you can use the ingredients for other stuff(rice, lettuce, sour cream, salsa)
Bonus - Tortilla chips, TJs red salsa (the one with the yellow lid) and sour cream is a delightful snack too!

Sweets/Desserts/Breakfasts:

8. Yogurt and Fruit
Fage yogurt or TJs Greek style yogurt with a banana or other fruit of choice. For crunch add granola, even the cheap crappy kind will work and taste good. I promise. Or make your own!

9. Baked apples
Core an apple (s) and stuff with raisins/craisins, brown sugar, cinnamon and a little butter, bake at 375F until mushy.

10. "Quick" Chocolate Mousse
My friend from grade school Lillian's dad Phillipe taught us this recipe:
whip one small carton whipping cream ~$3
melt 12-16oz semi sweet chocolate chips ~$3
gently fold into whipped cream, leaving some ribbons of chocolate.
Place in freezer for at least an hour. Patience! Patience! Enjoy.
Vegan alternative:
Blend 1 package soft silken tofu until smooth. Fold in melted chocolate and refrigerate.

There you have it. Chad, I hope this brings more variety to your life! One of my favorite things about cooking with other people is that they make things I wouldn't normally since I tend to get stuck in ruts. So since we're too far apart to cook together - this'll have to do until you come visit or move.

French Almond Macarons 2

Success! Well, for the most part. I forgot to take pictures of the finished product, so I have no true proof other than happy friends, but let's just say I got as excited as Veronica when my macarons developed their "feet". Here's the only picture I have:


This time I used the same recipe that she used that can be found here.
- 1 ¼ cups icing sugar
- 4 oz (1 cup) almond flour or finely ground almonds
- ¼ cup plus 2 tbsps egg whites at room temperature
- pinch of salt
- ¼ cup granulated sugar

Interestingly, this recipe has less almond meal and maybe less egg. Hard to say: 1/4 c + 2 T v. 3 egg whites. I guess it depends on the eggs.

I quadrupled the recipe, using almond meal from Trader Joes ($3.99 for 16oz)! Who knew? Thanks to my friend/neighbor Diego for that hot tip. It was actually finer than the meal I bought at Whole Foods made by Bob's Redmill ($9.99 for 16oz). I called Rainbow to check if they had it and they do in bulk, so that's an option too.

I let the eggs sit out (covered since we have fruit flies, ewww) for over 48 hours. They were hard to scoop and measure, so I think I had a little less than the recipe called for.

I split the finished batter in half and put pink color in one and yellow in the other. I tested the letting them sit once piped trick and it worked. At first I thought it was the fact that I was using two different pans (one double insulated and the other just your basic cookie sheet). Once I let them both rest, both pans produced equally feet-y cookies.

I used Martha's Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe.

• 4 large egg whites
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, (3 sticks), softened, cut into tablespoons

Whisk whites until stiff, slowly adding sugar until forms stiff peaks.
Switch to paddle and slowly add the softened butter.
At this point I divided the frosting into two and added pink food coloring gel and rose water (about 3 tsp) to one and yellow food coloing gel and some safron honey from Italy to the other. I piped the pink into the pink cookies and the yellow into the yellow.

They were so cute and so delicious! I love anything rose or violet flavored, so this little trend will likely continue.

Scones for Keenan and Jeff

My friend Keenan and his brother Jeff decided to bike over for dinner... from Alberta. ha. just kidding. I mean, they really biked but not to see me or just for dinner. They're en route to Argentina on an epic trek down the West coast of the Americas. I am serving as their pit stop for a few days in San Francisco. They have a website and a blog and a facebook group you should check out.

Anyhow - being me, I had to bake them something. I had left over lemon curd and cream cheese frosting from Matthew's cake, so I made some scones.

Basic Scones

3 C Flour
1.2 C Sugar
1 T Baking Powder
1/2 t salt
3/4 C butter
1 Egg
3/4 C Milk

Mix dry ingredients together, cut in butter until pea sized.
Combine egg and milk and add to dry ingredients. Add a little more milk if necessary. It should be stickier than pie crust, but less sticky than cookie dough.

Form into a round shape on a floured surface and cut into equal sized scone shaped pieces. Roll in sugar for a pretty finish. Bake at 400F until golden brown about 20 mins. Use tooth pick or something to test. If any dough sticks to it, bake a little longer.

Variations:
Add orange zest and cranberries
Add almond extract and sliced almonds
Add poppy seeds and top with lemon icing
Add blueberries and white chocolate chips

Veggie Soul Food!

My friend Noah and his girlfriend Leah came over for dinner last night. I'd discovered left over corn meal and wanted to make corn bread. Found "the best" recipe and thought I'd try it.

Now for the rest of the meal - gingered greens, fried tofu and butternut squash.

Corn Bread from Mark Bittman of the NY Times

• 4 tablespoons butter, olive oil, lard or bacon drippings
• 1 1/2 cups medium-grind cornmeal
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups milk, more if needed

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put fat in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet or in an 8-inch square baking pan. Place pan in oven.

2. Meanwhile, combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix eggs into milk, then stir this mixture into dry ingredients, combining with a few swift strokes. If mixture seems dry, add another tablespoon or two of milk.

3. When fat and oven are hot, remove skillet or pan from oven, pour batter into it and smooth out top. Return pan to oven. Bake about 30 minutes, until top is lightly browned and sides have pulled away from pan; a toothpick inserted into center will come out clean. Serve hot or warm.

I thought the amount of fat in the pan was a bit extreme and in the end it was a lot, but it sure made it tasty! I would say 3T would be enough. I also ended up with some eggy bits once baked, so I would say make sure you really mix the eggs before you mix it with the dry ingredients.

Gingered Greens
In a sautee pan, place roughly chopped, cleaned greens (chard, kale, collards, mustard greens) with a little water and butter. Once they cook down, add freshly grated ginger and serve hot!

Fried Tofu from the PPK
The recipes says to freeze the tofu for 2 days, but it doesn't say why. Being short on time and a skeptic, I froze it for about an hour. Worked fine. I also altered the recipe a little.

Ingredients
1 block of tofu defrosted and cut into triangles.
Organic White Flour
*Cayenne pepper
*Sea Salt
*Fresh ground pepper
1/4 C. Nutritional yeast
1 cup warm water
1 heaping tablespoon of miso
Olive and canola oil for frying

*All of these are according to taste*

Directions
In a separate bowl, mix the 1 cup of warm water with the miso until it dissolves.

In a larger shallow bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients together.

It turns out better if you 'double dip' the tofu. Take a triangle and dip it into the flour mixture first. After that, dip in the miso mixture and then back into the flour until evenly covered. Set the battered tofu on a plate and prepare the rest of the pieces the same way. Get your oil good and hot.

Fry your battered tofu and turn regularly until brown on all sides.

Delicious!

Butternut Squash

Halve and bake at 400F until tender

Leah had the great idea to put cinnamon and butter on it. Delish!

Fall foods I love

My friend Geoff (sadly sans Steph, who's back in the GWN*) came for an impromptu dinner on Wednesday.

I missed the stop by the store, so I skipped it and worked with what I had:

yellow potatoes
chard
a bit of jack cheese
a bit of parmesan cheese
cream
cream cheese
butter
garlic
salt
pepper

I made a roux and mixed in about a 1/4 c. each of parmesan jack cheese and cream (could be milk or half and half too). Then I mixed in a few tablespoons of cream cheese into it and then about a cup of chicken stock.

We cut a garlic clove in half and rubbed in on the bottom of the pan (by we I mean Geoff) and then layered the potatoes and chard in the dish. I poured the sauce over it and baked it at 375 for about half an hour until the potatoes were cooked. Half way through I pushed the top potatoes down so they were in the sauce a bit more.

For an appy while we waited I popped about 1/2 c. yellow corn in a large soup pan with a bit of canola oil over low heat. Once done, I put melted butter, salt and nutritional yeast on top. YUM!

*GWN = Great White North = Canada

Birthday Cake for Matthew

I wasn't able to attend my friend Matthew's birthday party so I promised I'd make him a cake.
These are the recipes I'm considering:

1. Blueberry Almond Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
It calls for almond paste (which I have from my sister's honeymoon in Italy)

2. Vanilla Saffron Cake with Rose Buttercream
This one calls for saffron (also from the Italian honeymoon) and rose water, which I have a bottle of in my cupboard.

He said not too sweet, so I'm thinking the first. It sounds so good, I'm just worried about getting blueberries since the season is kinda over. Maybe I'll use frozen. Egads!

UPDATE
I ended up making the Blueberry Almond Cake recipe above.
I didn't have enough of the almond paste, so I made some makeshift. I made 1/4 c. simple syrup, and mixed it with 1/2 c. almond meal and 1/2 c. sugar. It wasn't as sweet or smooth as the almond paste I had from Italy or as fragrant, but it did the job!

I ended up using frozen blueberries on the inside. I didn't get any shots of it cut. And I decided to put raspberries and lemon curd as decoration since the raspberries looked so good at the farmers market that morning.