Biscuits and Bargains

Hi Everyone,

For the past week I have been going to rummage sales around Ottawa searching for stuff for my house next year. I have been finding so many deals! This morning I drove by a lawn bowling club and they were bringing the leftover merchandise out to the curb because the sale had finished. I ended up getting a crock pot, some pots and pans, a table top lazy Susan, and a water jug for ten bucks. The woman and I were bonding and she was basically begging me to take things "off her hands".

I also bought a lovely white ceramic cake pedestal from Chapters (who would have thought?) thanks to a gift card from my god parents Tim and Barb. If you're reading, I'd been saving it for something I absolutely needed to have and the cake stand is gorgeous, so thanks a bunch. I will post photos when I make a cake worthy enough to sit on top of it.



This week I went through a few more of my cookbooks and found some awesome cooking blogs. I used a recipe from The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook (2001-2010) to make their Best Drop Biscuits. Trust me, they are seriously the best! I have tried many biscuit recipes that have turned out flat or dry but these were light, fluffy, buttery, and just perfect. I made a batch and ate some with some chicken salad I had made with leftover bbq chicken and a few other ingredients laying around (apples, carrots, onions, mayonnaise, s + p).

Best Drop Biscuits

From The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook (2001-2010)

It is supposed to make 12, but I made 9 slightly larger biscuits.

- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

- 2 tsp baking powder

- 1 tsp sugar

- ¾ tsp table salt

- ½ tsp baking soda

- 1 cup buttermilk, chilled **

- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly, plus 2 Tbsp melted butter for brushing the biscuits.

Note:

** I never buy buttermilk, but instead I make it with lemon juice and milk. Just poor a Tbsp of lemon juice in a one cup measuring cup and top it off with milk. Let it sit for two minutes and you're good to go!

✿ Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 475 degrees. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper (FYI, I swear by parchment paper! Makes evenly baked goods and no need to grease the pan.) Whisk the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and baking soda together in a large bowl. Combine the buttermilk and ½ cup of the melted butter in a medium bowl, stirring until the butter forms clumps (Clumps are good, don't fret!).

✿ Add the buttermilk mixture to the dry ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until just incorporated and the batter pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Using a greased ¼ cup measuring cup, scoop a level amount of batter and drop onto the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining batter, spacing the biscuits about 1½ inches apart. Bake until the tops are golden brown and crisp, 12 to 14 minutes. 

✿ Brush the biscuit tops with the remaining 2 Tbsp melted butter. Transfer to a wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving.

✿ To refresh day-old biscuits, heat them in a 300-degree oven for ten minutes.

I had put two biscuits on my plate for lunch but they are just so filling I only managed to finish one of them. These are so simple and speedy, you don't need a whole roast beef dinner for these, they can be whipped up on a week night.

I am currently working on a super post about single serving mug desserts thanks to my friend Erica who showed me some awesome posts. I am tweaking a lot of the recipes because everyone's microwave is different but it's great because they're only one serving so if it turns out not that great, I didn't ruin a whole batch. Here's a little preview of what's in store ;)

xox Gaby

p.s. Hi Kelly! I told you I would make you blog famous. Miss you.