Mile High Biscuits

I love me some biscuits...how about you?  Smothered in butter, drizzled with honey, smeared with jam...that's what I'm talking about.  I have two recipes that I love and this is one of them.  These biscuits have endless possibilities...a complement to any meal, strawberry shortcake, smothered in sausage or chipped beef gravy, ham sandwiches...use your imagination.

Here's what you'll need:

2 cups of all purpose flour

4 t.baking powder

1/4 t. baking soda

3/4 t. of salt

5 T. of  chilled butter

1 cup of buttermilk

Preheat oven to 450 and make sure you have a rack ready in the center of your oven.  In a food porcessor combine the dry ingredients.  Cut the butter in small chunks and add to flour mixture.  Pulse until the mixture resembles course crumbs (be sure not to over mix...chunks of butter make fluffy biscuits).  Transfer to a bowl and stir in the cup of buttermilk.  Use a spoon to mix until it starts to hold together.  Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until most of the mixture sticks together.  Try to work quickly so the heat from your hand doesn't  melt the butter.  Pat out into a circle about 1/2 inch thick.  Use a biscuit cutter to cut.  Continue gathering the dough and cutting until all used up (I usually get 8 biscuits)...remember work quickly with as little hand contact as possible.  Place biscuits on a pan lined with parchment paper.  Bake for about 10 minutes or until light golden brown.  Serve warm.  Enjoy...everyone needs a good biscuit in their life!

Olive Garden Dressing Knock Off!

I've always loved the salad dressing at Olive Garden, and I'm ashamed to even admit how much salad I eat when I go there.  There are many "knock-off" recipes floating around the web and this is the second I've tried.  I have to say this is the better of the two and I'll be using it over and over.

If you don't often make your own dressings, I'd encourage you to do so...the stuff at the store just doesn't compare and making it at home makes is so much healthier.

Recipe adapted from Food.com

You will need:

1/2 cup of mayonnaise (not miracle whip...gag!)

1/3 cup of white vinegar

1 t. of veg. oil

2 T. of corn syrup

2 T. of Parm. cheese

2 T. of Romano (note:  I was all our of fresh grated Parm/Rom. cheese so I used Kraft grated Three Cheese Blend...still taste good to me, but if you have fresh use it)

1/4 t. of garlic salt

1/2 t. of Italian seasoning

1/2 t. of parsley

1 T. of fresh lemon juice

1 t. of sugar

dash of pepper

Place all ingredients in food processor and blend for about a minute.  Transfer to a cruet.  Refrigerate for one hour before serving.





Skillet Penne with With Chicken Sausage and Spinach

This is a quick and delicious week night meal!  Everything cooks together just beautifully and the taste is out of this world.  You only need one pan from start to finish...can't beat that!  My kids loved this...spinach included.  Using Chicken Sausage cuts back on the fat, but still delivers that spicy sausage flavor that is so good in pasta dishes.  Give it a try...it might just become one of your go-to recipes.

You will Need:

1 Tab. of olive oil

1 lb. of hot or sweet chicken sausage (turkey sausage would be good too), cut into 1/2 inch pieces

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 1/4 cup of chicken broth

3 1/4 cup of water

8 oz. of penne or rotini (I use whole wheat)

1/2 cup of oil packed sun-dried tomatoes, rinsed, dried and chopped fine.

1/2 tsp. of salt

3/4 cup-1 cup of heavy cream

6 oz. of baby spinach

1/2 cup of grated Parmesan Cheese

Begin by heating the olive oil in a large skillet just until smoking.  Add the sausage and cook until slightly browned.  Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds more, until the garlic becomes fragrant.  Add the chicken broth, water, pasta, tomatoes and salt.  Over medium-high heat, cook until the pasta is tender and the liquid had become thicker, about 18 minutes or so...keep an eye on it.  Stir in the heavy cream (begin with 3/4 cup and then add an additional 1/4 cup after you add the spinach if you feel the sauce needs thinning). Start adding the baby spinach one handful at a time and cook until wilted.  Remove from heat and add Parmesan cheese.  Serve immediately with an additional sprinkling of Parmesan.  Enjoy.

~adapted from a recipe originally in Cooks Illustrated, May 2007









Whole Wheat Chocolate Crinkle Cookies

So the other night I was really craving some chocolate (what's new) but I wanted to make something a little on the healthier side. Now please understand when I say "healthy,"I don't mean tasteless. I mean something that is just as good as it's "less healthier" counter part. The hubs and kiddos ate about half of these before they were even cooled. I'd say that's a pretty good sign that they were really good.

You will see that the recipe uses Succanat. If you've never heard of it, it is sugar in it's purest form(Succanat stands for sugar-cane-natural). It is completely unrefined, unprocessed which makes it a "whole" food. It was developed by a man in Switzerland as a way to combat cavities and tooth decay in children. Its flavor very much resembles brown sugar with a molasses overtone. I find it works very well in chocolate, but not so much in say, sugar cookies. You can find it in the health food section of most grocery stores. Give it a try if you like, otherwise just use regular sugar instead. It's up to you. Okay, here we go....

You will need:

1/2 cup of confectioners sugar

1 2/3 cups of whole wheat pastry flour or soft white wheat (same thing really)

1/2 cup of cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. of salt

1 Stick of butter, at room temperature (let's hear it for butter!!!)

1 cup of Succanat (If you're using sugar make it 1 1/4 cups)

2 eggs

1/2 tsp. of vanilla.

Preheat oven to 350 and grease to baking sheets with butter.

Put the conf. sugar in a bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl combine butter and sugar/succanat until creamy. Add the eggs and vanilla, beat until well blended. Next add the flour, baking powder, cocoa powder and salt ( you can mix these separately before adding if you like, but I use my Kitchen-Aid and just throw them all in without mixing before hand). Beat on low speed just until blended.

Grab about a tablespoon of dough and form it into a ball. Roll the ball in the confectioners sugar until completely covered. Place on baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake for about 10 minutes, until cracked and puffed. Don't over bake, you want them to be a little soft. They will harden as they cool. Let cool on pan for about 15 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool. Ours barely made it to the wire rack, we ate them right out of the oven...and they were good. Really made me feel like I was living on the edge eating them right out of the oven instead of letting them cool...when will the madness end??? What more could you ask for? A chocolate cookie that is healthy AND taste good...it is very possible that this may bring about world peace;) Blessings!

Smokey Potato Bake

Pay no attention to that hole on the left side of the casserole...that's where I tested to make sure they were heated through...and I enjoyed every second of it!

Hey you there...do not even think about NOT making these potatoes. They are fan-tab-u-lous! Seriously...sometimes I wonder how something so simple can taste so good. I served them with ham but they would probably work well as a midnight snack too or say in place of a birthday cake;) Really...you NEED to make these.

All you need is:

1 32 oz. package of southern style hash browns.
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 cup of sour cream
2 cups of 4-cheese Mexican blend cheese (you could use whatever you like)
About 4 drops of liquid smoke
2-4 Tab. of melted butter (for good measure)

Set aside about 1/2 cup of cheese to sprinkle on top.

Grease a casserole dish (make sure it's big enough to hold all the hash browns). In a bowl combine the soup, sour cream, cheese and liquid smoke. Place half of the hash browns in the pan. Spread half of the cheese mixture over the the top. Repeat again (potato, cheese mixture). Sprinkle remaining cheese over the top. Drizzle melted butter over all and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes until bubbly and heated through (I checked to be sure). You can cover loosely with foil so the top doesn't get too brown, but I didn't have any problems with my oven.

Try to share some with your family:)

Sweet Potato Biscuits

These lovely little rolls you're looking at are sooo good! I really, really, love biscuits and scones, especially with a good cup of coffee. A lot of people have been turned off by scones and biscuits thinking they are just to dry...and rightfully so. If they are not made right, or handled too much they just don't have that light, fluffy quality that makes them out of this world. I'll give you a little bit of info here. I've read a lot about how to make scones that melt in your mouth and biscuits that are so light they float and here is what I found. Follow these things and your biscuits will be fantastic every time. If I'm wrong, I'll owe you a batch of cookies or pan of brownies;)

~Put your butter in the freezer...the colder the better

~Handle the dough as little as possible. The heat from your hands makes the fat warm. The fat (butter or shortening) is what makes your biscuits so light. Chunks of butter and shortening are a very good thing. During baking the butter melts and creates soft, light flaky layers.

~Put your bowl in the freezer...cold is good, very good

~Use a sharp biscuit cutter, not a glass. Using a glass kind or "welds" layers together as you cut through the dough. A sharp edge creates a clean cut resulting in fluffier biscuits.

*Please note this recipe is different than most because it melts the butter (typically you never do that). Also it uses whole wheat flour which makes it heavier than traditional biscuits, but these are still really good.

You will need:

1 cup plus 3 Tab. of flour

3/4 cup of whole wheat flour

1/2 cup toasted wheat germ

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

2/3 cup of mashed sweet potato

1/4 cup butter

2 Tab. honey

In a large bowl, combine first six ingredients. In another bowl, whisk the buttermilk, sweet potato, butter and honey; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead 8-10 times. Pat or roll dough out into 3/4 inch thickness, cut with a floured biscuit cutter.

Place 2 inches apart on greased baking sheet. Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve warm with butter and drizzled with honey.

Mocha Scones

My husband is the love of my life. Chocolate and Coffee are fighting for second place. Today however the two can share the coveted second place status in these scones. These are worth the effort. Seeing that mocha drizzle dripping down the side of this chocolate studded yumminess should be enough to convince you, but in case it's not I think they are very, very good. I consider myself a scone connoisseur...these ROCK! Go make them.

By the way, wish I could take credit for these babies but I found them here.

Take some time to check out all her great recipes.

You will need:

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, frozen
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup strong coffee, room temperature
1 large egg

For the Mocha Glaze

1/4 cup strong coffee
1 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted (I used semi-sweet because it's what I had and they worked fine).

1. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or grease pan and double up your pans...keeps them from burning.

2. In food processor mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add cold butter (cut in big hunks) and process until if resembles course crumbs. Pour into a large bowl and stir in the chocolate chips.

3. In a small bowl, whisk sour cream, coffee and egg until smooth.

4. Stir sour cream mixture into flour mixture until the dough comes together. I typically just use clean hands for this process. Then use your hands to press the dough against the bowl into a ball. The dough will be sticky, but it will come together.

5. Place on a lightly floured work surface. Now at this point you can either pat the dough into an 8-inch circle about 3/4-inch thick and use a sharp knife to cut it into 8 triangles. Or you can pat it into a rectangle, then use a sharp knife to cut 10 even squares. Then cut 10 even squares in half to create 20 smaller triangles.

6. Place scones on prepared baking sheet, about 1 inch apart. Bake until golden, about 15 for smaller triangles and 18-22 minutes for larger triangles.

7. Cool on wire rack. Once scones are cool, prepare the glaze.

For the Mocha Glaze

1. In a small bowl, combine coffee and confectioners’ sugar and whisk until smooth. Whisk in melted chocolate until thoroughly combined.

2. Drizzle chocolate glaze over the scones (do this however you want. I used a spoon, but you could also use a pastry bag or Ziploc bag with a small hole snipped in the corner...whatever works) .