Episode 5 Your sweetness is my weakness!

Sorry for the delay, my HP computer turned out to be defective. HP is selling bad juju. Anyway we are here to celebrate the love and the food.
I have been experementing with different flavors of biscuits. A friend suggested I try Sweet Potato flavored biscuits. Well I did not get to make them for an ONYX meeting I was going to but the day I got home, armed with my new rollling pin, I went at it.

First you buy a couple of nice sized Sweet Potatoes for mashing. now for the record I had never made mashed potatoes from scratch before. Any mashed I made before came from a box or premade ( which I am quickly taking a dislike to when it comes to everything). So for those who like me are new to this, DO NOT THROW THE WHOLE POTATO INTO THE POT!!!! Which I did before deciding to check a few recipes. First wash the potato off then peel it then cut it into small pieces. Throw the pieces into a pot and let boil for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes drain the pot and put it back on the stove. Then you add one whole stick of butter (YES!!!) and you take a spoon and you mash! MASH like you have never mashed before. In about 5 minutes you wil have a good sweet potato mash going.

When you taste it you will get a hint of sweetness but if you need a little more you can add honey or syrup. Then give it about a hour to cool off. I know I know it smells great and you want to dive in but sometimes the main ingredient of alchemy is patience.

Set your oven to 350 and let it heat up. Mix 1 cup of flour with 1/4 tsp of salt and 11/2 tsp of baking powder. As always when I am working with flour I like to run a wire whisk thru it a few times. Get a little air in there and it combines all the dry ingredients a lot better. Then add 3 tbsp of vegetable oil, 1/3 cup of milk. I like to use buttermilk when making biscuits but whole milk works just as well. It does not taste that different. Give everything a quick turn around stir with a spoon, literally just one quick turn, then add 3/4 of a cup of mashed sweet potatoes. Now stir it all together into a dough.

OK now here is where we go in two different directions..do you want the traditonal round biscuit or do you want to drop it like it is hot?

For the regular round toss the dough out onto a floured surface and take a rolling pan to it. Take out your biscuit cutter and you should get 10 good rounds out of it. Now until two days ago I did not have a rolling pan and I still don't have biscuit cutter so I use a plastic cup with a little flour on it to roll and I use a drinking glass to cut the rounds out. Toss em on a baking tray for about 10-12 minutes and your good to go.

Now what I have recently discovered is the love of the drop biscuit. instead of rolling the dough out I just take a large spoon and scoop up some dough and drop it on the cookie sheet. You don't get the traditional round that your use to but you get biscuits with a lot of character. This is actually how Red lobster makes those addictive cheddar biscuits.

With both for a little extra kick sprinkle just a little cinnamon on top of the biscuits before you shove them in the oven.

Now that I am a little more computer stable is there anything anyone wants to see me try?

Episode 3 Stuffed and unstuffed

Cheese! There I said it. I LOVE CHEESE!!!! My love affair with cheese started like all the other kids my age, with Kraft imitation slices. There was also the well known and highly heat resistant “government” cheese. Don’t act like you don’t know what I am talking about. It came in a block and had that oh so unique taste that I have never found in a cheese again.

There was also the cheese in the can. Yeah that was tasty! And then at some point I started getting introduced into actual cheeses. The Cheddar brothers mild and sharp and their sister extra sharp. Colby, Colbyjack, Perpperjack, Swiss, and even hog’s head.

But the subject of today’s cheesy post is French toast which sometimes uses one of m favorites…Cream Cheese! You have your usual run of the mill restaurant quality stuffed French toast.

As I said before, when beating Cream Cheese into submission I always find it best to nuke it for a few seconds to soften it up. So 1 package (8 oz) of creamy cheese and 1 tsp. of Vanilla extract whipped into a froth creamy frenzy and set aside.

In another bowl crack 4 eggs. As always I do my eggs first just in case you get a little shell in there. It is easier to get out if it’s all just egg. Beat slightly with a fork and then add 1 Cup of whipping cream ( yes who knew all this whipping violence went into making French toast?) ½ tsp of both vanilla and nutmeg.

Alright now here is where you can go one of two ways. If you’re feeling footloose and fancy free get yourself a loaf of French bread.

Did you know that while the exact origin of French toast can’t be traced it has been around since at least the 4th century? And just like chitterlings it seems that every culture has a version of it. Anyway take 1 loaf (16 oz) French bread and cut it into 1 ½ inch slices. Cut a pocket in the top of each slice and add the cream cheese filling. Then place the piece of bread in the egg mixture. While the bread is soaking up the eggy goodness get your grill and or pan good and hot. Add a little BUTTER and place the piece of bread in the pan.

Make sure you use tongs and be careful not to squeeze the filling out. Cook until golden brown.

Now if you just woke up and decided clear out the blue you want some French toast and you don’t have any French bread in the house, well I just use white bread. You do everything above until you get to the cutting the French loaf. You just take a couple of slices of your favorite slices and make a sandwich. Then you throw it in the skillet and fry both sides to a golden brown…..

Next you add a little more BUTTER, some syrup and perhaps a little powdered sugar and go to town.

Now I have a diabetic in the house who does not care for large amounts of bread. So for him I soak the bread in the egg mixture in single slices and serve them up. I leave a little cream cheese mixture if he wants to use some but it is not stuffed.

A last thought for those with sugar issues or those watching their figure… I recently discovered Neufchâtel cheese, which is much like Cream Cheese but has 33% less fat content.