Buttermilk Angel Biscuits

Another very overdone recipe, but biscuits are such basic comfort food that I would never scoff at them. Not only can you serve them fresh from the oven with delicious, creamy, warm white gravy with sausage (vegetarian, of course......), but you can also use biscuit dough to top a casserole, making a delicious soft, crunchy topping, or to make delicious dumplings for a stew. I loooooooove biscuits, and I hope that after you try these that you will, too.

I'm so excited! I FINALLY got the Bon Appetit, Y'all cookbook in the mail yesterday, and I have fallen in love with it. The Southern-with-a-French flair recipes all look so delicious, and I want to go and make all of them Right Now! I adapted this biscuit recipe from that book, and everyone in my family loved them. These biscuits are special because they use both yeast and baking powder as leavening agents. This produces a much softer and fluffier biscuit than just baking powder alone, and if you let the dough rest in the refrigerator for a few days (which I'll probably try next time), they take on a fabulous sourdough flavor. The buttermilk reacts with the small amount of baking soda to make the biscuits rise higher than normal.

Buttermilk Angel Biscuits (from Bon Appetit Y'all by Virginia Willis)

1 package active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
1/4 cup warm water (100-110 degrees F)
1/4 cup sugar
6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for surface
and rolling pin
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup solid vegetable shortening (Crisco preferred)
cut into bits
2 cups buttermilk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1. In a liquid measuring cup, combine yeast, water, and 1 tablespoon sugar. Set aside until mixture becomes creamy and foamy, about 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together flour, remaining sugar, baking pwder, baking soda, and salt. Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut shortening into dry ingredients until mixture resembles coarse meal.
3. Add yeast mixture and butter and stir until dough just comes together. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead 5 or 6 times: dough should be soft and moist. Return dough to bowl, cover bowl with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight or up to 1 week. ( I just let it rise at room temperature for an hour)
   
4. Turn dough out onto a heavily floured work surface. Knead dough about 10 times. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll dough out to 1/3 inch thickness. (I like my biscuits very tall, so I rolled it out 1 inch thick) Using a 2 1/4-inch cutter, cut biscuits as close together as possible. Gather dough scraps and place one on top of the other. Knead and roll out dough again. Stamp out as many biscuits as possible. Discard remaining scraps.
5. Arrange biscuits, with sides touching, on an ungreased baking sheet. Brush with melted butter and set aside to rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Bake biscuits until golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Serve warm.

Supposedly, this recipe makes 36 biscuits, but I only got about 16 because I made them bigger than the recipe said to.

Way Overdone-- but my Brother's Favorite!

Yeah, Yeah, I know....... another recipe for Chocolate Chip cookies. Booooooooooooooring. NOT! These are the best-- Soft, chewy, and yet not too thick. Delicious! My brother loves these; I made at least 4 dozen the other day and they're already half gone. Sorry I didn't get any photos while I was making them, I'll have to start remembering to do that.

The secret to perfect chocolate chip cookies lies in the way you beat in the eggs and vanilla. You need to beat in each egg individually in order to denaturalize the polymers in the yolk and white to make them as light and fluffy as possible. Vanilla extract, which contains alcohol and will therefor inhibit this process, must be added afterward.

So, what are you waiting for? Go on, make chocolate chip cookies!

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
2 cups chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
   
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the one at a time and stir in the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Finally, mix in the walnuts, if using, and the chocolate chips. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges are golden. Remove from baking sheet to cool on wire racks.

Banana Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes

Decadent.

To make these bundles of deliciousness, you need to make 3 things: yellow cupcakes, banana pastry cream (kind of like a pudding), and chocolate ganache. Even though this recipe sounds kind of complicated, it's really very simple. Just pop the filled cupcake pan in the oven and make the creamy filling and ganache while it's baking.
I found the original recipe at http://cupcakeblog.com/?p=72 , but I tweaked it a little bit to make the banana taste a little less overpowering and to make the cupcakes a little less dense. (Note-- if you don't have maple flavoring on hand, just substitute vanilla)

To make the cupcakes:

1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1½ teaspoons maple extract
¾ cup milk

1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time; scrape down bowl, and beat in maple.
3. Add flour mixture and milk alternatively, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
4. Divide batter evenly among cupcake liners, about three-quarters full each. Bake until golden and tops spring back to touch, about 20 minutes, rotating pan once if needed. Transfer pans to wire rack; cool completely.

While the cupcakes are in the oven, make the filling and chocolate ganache:

Banana Pastry Cream

2 cups Whole milk
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon maple extract pinch salt
4 egg yolks
¼ cup cornstarch
1 banana, chopped

1. Heat milk, ¼ cup of the sugar, the maple, and salt in a pan over medium until it reaches a simmer
2. Whisk egg yolks, cornstarch, and remaining ¼ cup sugar in a medium sized bowl until combined.
3. Slowly add ½ cup of the hot milk mixture to the egg mixture, whisking continuously.
4. Add remaining milk mixture slowly while whisking.
5. Transfer back into the pan and heat over medium-high heat, whisking constantly until it thickens. It will thicken all of a sudden, give it a good whisk then take it off the heat.
6. Transfer to the bowl again and fold in the chopped banana


To make the ganache, empty 1/2 of a bag of chocolate chips into a saucepan and add 1/3 cup of evaporated milk. Heat over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until chocolate is melted and the mixture is completely smooth.

Boston cream cupcake assembly:
1. Using a small pairing knife, cut off the top of the cupcake in the shape of a cone. Flip the top over and cut off the cone.
2. Fill the cavity with the banana pastry cream.
3. Replace the top of the cone.
4. Scoop a tablespoon of ganache on top of each cupcake and spread it around to cover the edges of the filling cavity.
5. (the most important step) eat all of the cupcakes yourself, reminding family members who beg for them of the story of the little red hen.

crochet cables

And you thought that cables could only be knitted! I looooooove crocheting cables because they look so impressive and beautiful but are really very simple to make. These directions just teach you how to crochet a single cable, but you can easily increase the initial chain stitch so that you will be making multiple cables. On the piece in the picture, I chained 29 stitches.

Here's how:

Start by working 13 chains using a fairly large hook--I used a size J.

1. Double crochet into the 3rd chain from hook. Double crochet into each chain to the end (12 stitches (sts)).
2. Turn, chain 2, work 1 double crochet into each of next 3 stitches. (bpdc - back post double crochet)Work double crochet around the back 'post' of each of the next 4 stitches. (That means that you yarn over, push your hook through the gap from the back right of the next stitch below across the front and through to the back left of the stitch, yarn over, pull the yarn back through to the right and finish your double crochet as normal - 4 times total.) Then work 1 double crochet into the next 4 stitches.
3. (Cable row) Turn, chain 2, work 1 double crochet into each of next 3 stitches. Skip 2 stitches, work 1 treble crochet around the front 'post' of the next stitch. (Yarn over twice, push your hook into the gap to the right of the stitch below from front to back, around the back of the stitch and out at the front to the left of the stitch, yarn over, pull back through to the right and complete your treble crochet as normal.) Work 1 treble crochet around the front post of the next stitch too. Go back to the first skipped stitch and work 1 treble crochet around the front post of that stitch, then work another treble crochet around the front post of the second skipped stitch. Work 1 double crochet into each of the next 4 stitches.
4. Work as row 2.
5. Turn, chain 2, work 1 double crochet into each of next 3 stitches. (fpdc - front post double crochet)Work double crochet around front post of the stitch below. (Yarn over, push hook from front to back through gap to right of stitch below, around back of stitch and out to front at left of stitch, yarn over and pull back through to right. Complete double crochet as normal (4 times).) Work 1 double crochet into each of next 4 stitches.
6. Rows 2 - 5 form the crochet cables pattern repeat.

Vegetarian Ravioli

This isn't a very good picture, but this is one of the most delicious things ever! It's sooooooooooooooo good! This recipe makes enough ravioli for 5 or 6 people.

Filling ingredients:
1 package Morningstar Farms chick'n strips, chopped
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup fresh baby spinach, chopped
1/3 cup bread crumbs
salt and pepper, to taste

Pasta Dough ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 egg
1/4 cup water
1 Tbsp olive oil

Sauce ingredients:
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
1 stalk of celery, chopped
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 small onion
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tomatoes, chopped

1. In a medium-sized bowl, mix together all of the filling ingredients. Set aside in the refrigerator.

2. In another bowl, stir together all of the pasta dough inredients. Turn the dough out on the counter and knead for several minutes until the dough holds together and is fairly smooth. It will seem to be way too dry and hard, but just trust me on this one and keep kneading. Put the dough back into the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit for about ten minutes to soften.

3. Unwrap the pasta dough and cut into thirds. Working with one third at a time, flatten the dough with either a pasta machine or a rolling pin until it is very, very thin and long. Remove the filling from the refrigerator.

4. Cut the dough into strips about 2 inches wide by 4 inches long. Put a teaspoon or so of filling into the center of each strip of dough and fold it shortways (hamburger-style) so that the filling is covered. Using your fingers, crimp the edges of each Ravioli. Let the Ravioli rest for thirty minutes to an hour.

5. In a medium-sized saucepan, heat the olive oil and saute the celery, onion, and tomatoes unti they are very soft. Add the rest of the sauce ingredients and bring to a boil. Simmer for 3-4 minutes, and then let sit with the stove off to mix flavors. Meanwhile, bring a large stockpot half full of slightly salted water to a boil.

6. After the Ravioli have rested, boil them for 4 or 5 minutes until they have reached al dente perfection. Drain them in a colander, place them in a large bowl, and cover with the sauce.

Bon Appetite!!!

Granny Squares

Granny squares are fabulous, and you can use them as a building block to make pretty much any crochet project you want, including scarves, bags, blankets, and ponchos. Here's how to make these nifty little squares:

1. chain 6 , ss in first stitch to form a ring.

2. chain 3, work two dc in ring, ch 2, ( work 3 dc in ring, chain 2) 3 times, join to end of initial chain 3 with a slip stitch.

3. ss into first ch 2 space, chain 3. work 2 dc, 2 ch, and 3 dc into same space. Chain 1. *In next space, work 3 dc, 2 ch, 3 dc, and 1 ch* repeat from * around, joining with a slip stitch.

4. ss into first ch 2 space, ch 3. work 2 dc, 2 ch, 3 dc, and 1 ch in same space. * work 3 dc in next ch 1 space, ch 1. In next ch 2 space, work 3 dc, 2 ch, 3 dc, and 1 ch.* repeat from * around, joining with a slip sstitch.

5. work the following rows in the same way, working 3 dc and 1 ch in each ch 1 space, and 3 dc, 2 ch, 3dc, and 1 ch in each ch 2 space.


I know this looks a lot more complicated than it is, but after a few rows of granny square making I'm sure you'll have it down pat.

Irish Rose Granny Squares!!!!!!!

I've been looking everywhere for a pattern for these, but couldn't find one. So, I made my own! They're really easy to make and are great for using up short bits of yarn that are lying around. You'll need two colors of worsted weight yarn and one size G crochet hook.
Here's the pattern:

Round 1: Using one color of yarn, chain 5 and join to first stitch to make a ring.
Round 2: 8 sc in ring
Round 3: chain 5, *dc in next sc, ch 2* repeat from * around, join with ss to third stitch in chain.
Round 4: *in next ch 2 space work 1 sc, 5 dc, and 1 sc* repeat around
Round 5: * ch 5, ss in between next two petals* repeat from * around, join to beginning of row with ss.
Round 6: *in next ch 5 space work 1 sc, 5 dc, and 1 sc* repeat from * around
Round 7: *ch 6, ss in between next two petals* repeat from * around
Round 8: *in next ch 6 space, work 1 sc, 7 dc, and 1 sc* repeat from * around
Round 8: *ch 6, ss in between next two petals* repeat from * around
Round 9: ss into first ch6 space, ch 3, in same space work 2 dc, 2 ch, 3 dc, and 1 ch. * in next space, work (3 dc, ch 1) two times. In next space, work ( 3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc, ch 1).* repeat from * around, joining to the top of the chain 3
Rounds 11 and 12: work as for a granny square