Easy Buttermilk Biscuits... from Scratch!

Biscuits are not unfamiliar at our home. They are one of Matt’s favorite breakfast dishes, especially when paired with sausage. I love biscuits with melted butter and raspberry jam, and can eat them by the plateful.

It’s hard to find a flaky, flavorful recipe for buttermilk biscuits that doesn’t involve a pre-made mix, or that doesn’t feel painfully excruciating and complicated. That’s why I love the recipe found in Mac and Cheese Cookbook by Allison Arevalo and Erin Wade.

These lovely cooks suggest not over-mixing your dough, which allows for a fluffier, lighter biscuit. I was skeptical at first, but after eating these beauties, I have a hard time believing I’ll try anything else. As a bonus, this biscuit recipe is deceptively simple, making them a perfect choice for brunch, breakfast and snack time.  Enjoy!

Easy Buttermilk Biscuits 

Ingredients: 

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon kosher salt

8 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, plus melted butter for topping your biscuits

1 cup buttermilk

Instructions:

•  Preheat your oven to 450°F. Grab a baking sheet and line it with parchment paper. 

• Mix your flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. 

• Cut your butter into small chunks or pats, and slowly incorporate the cold butter into your flour. Use your pastry cutter to blend (if you’ve got a mixer, use your paddle attachment on a low speed). Your batter will be coarse. 

• Add your buttermilk and mix your batter until the ingredients are barely mixed together.

• Turn your dough out onto a floured surface, and pat it into a thick round, about an inch thick.

• Take a cookie cutter and cut rounds of dough (about 2-inches in diameter). Place them onto your lined baking sheet, and brush them with melted butter. 

• Bake for about 10 minutes, or until your tops are a nice, golden brown. Allow them to cool, and then enjoy them by the bunches.

Super Simple Cast Iron Flat Bread

This week has been crazily busy for us. We have been trying to adjust to the summer schedule, which includes my driving an hour and a half every morning and afternoon, on top of preparing for summer school students. Matt still has his nightly schedule, and has to deal with odd hours. Needless to say, it's been exhausting, and I still need to feed us.

This weekend, I really didn't feel like cooking at all, but still wanted to eat something delicious. When I was single, I'd go to a gastropub called the Flying Pig nearby that makes a wonderful grilled flatbread with tons of toppings, including prosciutto, salami, ricotta, tomato sauce, and garlic confit.

Matt had never had anything like the sort (surprise), so I wanted to create a home version. I found a great flatbread recipe online to be my base. I don't have a grill on hand, so I decided to use the next best thing: a cast iron grill. 

Once the dough is ready to cook, it really isn't too much longer before you're wolfing down a great, but simple to make, meal. Bon appetit!

Super Simple Cast Iron Flat Bread

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 7 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream (feel free to use greek yogurt)
• Vegetable oil (for cooking)

Instructions

• Dissolve yeast in 3 cups warm water in a large bowl. 

• Add the all-purpose flour to the bowl one cup at a time, and mix with your fingertips until a shaggy dough forms. 

• Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for 20 minutes.
• Sprinkle the two tablespoons of salt over the dough, then add sour cream. 

• Knead in the salt and sour cream until it is incorporated. You will know when the dough is well mixed because the dough will pull away from sides of bowl and holds together in a loose, wet ball. To mix the dough without it sticking to your hands, make sure they are nice and moist. 

• Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rise at room temperature for 30 minutes.
• Knead dough an additional 4–5 times to remove the bubbles. If you have prepared the dough before you need it, it can keep in the fridge for for up to 2 days. The dough will develop in flavor and continue to rise slowly in refrigerator.
• If you are planning to use the dough immediately, let the dough stand at room temperature until doubled in volume, which will take anywhere from 3–4 hours. To make the cooking process easier, chill for one hour before cooking.

• Divide your dough into 8 equal portions. Press out the dough with your hands until it is 1/4-inch-thick. It doesn't have to be perfectly round.
• Preheat a dry cast iron or non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Place the flatbread in the hot pan and spread it out as much as you can. Allow it to cook for one minute, or until small air bubbles appear. 

• Flip over and cook for another minute, and then finish by flipping over one last time for another minute. During the third minute the bread may puff up, and small charred spots will form on the surface. Those parts taste the best.

Remove to cool slightly. Once all are finished, the flatbread is ready to eat. If you’re like me, you’ll want to eat the bread with that mixture of garlic confit, arugula, spicy tomato sauce, ricotta cheese, and prosciutto combo I was talking about at the beginning. Enjoy! 

Sautéed Chicken in Worcestershire

I was tired tonight. It’s the middle of the week, and one of the other teachers at my itty bitty private school called out, so we were stretched thin. So when I got home, I knocked out on the couch immediately.

I was woken up by hunger pangs, and realized it was already late. I really didn’t want to spend hours cooking, overeat, and then stay up late again. I needed something fast.

I went online to find something I could make in under an hour, and that wouldn’t taste greasy. I found this recipe online on Epicurious, and was willing to give it a shot. It cooks under 45 minutes (!), and had relatively few ingredients. Turns out, this is tasty, and we didn’t feel bogged down by a heavy dinner. I’ll definitely make this again.

I wolfed this down with two helpings of my succotash.

Quick Zucchini and Corn Succotash

I tend to compulsively buy vegetables without a plan for them. I figure, at some point I’ll eat them, since we’re all eating vegetables every day, right?

Well, what ends up happening is that most of my favorite veggies get consumed immediately, with only a few stragglers left behind because they were bought in bulk. I had some extra zucchini that was going to go bad if I didn’t do something with it immediately, so I scrambled to find something yummy and filling. I found this recipe on Stamps Postings, and gave it a try.

Veggies. So much better than pizza.

I love succotash, and felt that pairing up my zucchini with something spicy and sweet would be the best way to make it disappear. I was right. This makes a great side to chicken, or even a snack. Have fun with it!

Amazing Vietnamese Spring Rolls with Pork and Shrimp

I know it’s the middle of winter, but as a lucky Southern California native, it’s always beautiful outside. With that, there’s no such thing as ‘summer foods’ or ‘winter foods.’ Today was beautiful, and I had the hankering for something cool, filling, and refreshing. I’d spent a lot of the weekend making fatty

foods, so I needed something to help me reboot my tummy.

I came to the conclusion that some fresh spring rolls with a homemade peanut sauce were in order. These seem daunting, but once you get the hang of cooking a spring roll, you can start eating within the hour. If you’re like me, it’ll be near impossible to not eat all of your ingredients while you cook.

I took a recipe from a very popular blog, White on Rice Couple, and made a few tweaks to add some extra pow to the meal.

Vietnamese spring rolls

Serves 3-4

Ingredients: