How to make Delicious Southern Biscuits from Scratch

It’s Sunday morning in North Carolina. Whether you went to church or not, you know what time it is if you’re home now: it’s time to get down in the kitchen.  My grandmother used to make these fluffy biscuits for us every Sunday morning before church, usually accompanied by country ham, red-eye gravy and heaping bowls of long grain rice (I am a Southern Geechie Gal after all). Most times, she’d let us pour a tablespoon of bootstrap molasses on the side of our plate to dip the hot biscuits straight out of the oven.

We may have been a little sleepy in church but Lordy, our bellies were already in Heaven.

Delicious Southern Scratch Biscuits

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 2 Cups self-rising flour
• 1/3 cup Crisco shortening (count the bars on the Crisco packaging stick)
• 2/3 cups milk
• pinch of baking soda

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 450 degrees (f).
• Put 2 cups of self-rising flour into a large mixing bowl. Add 1/3 cup of Crisco shortening. Partition off half of the flour in the bowl and use a butter knife or potato masher to ‘cut’ the Crisco into the flour. Once you’re done, you should have a minced mixture of flour-covered Crisco.
• Use a fork to gradually stir the milk into the flour-Crisco mixture. It will quickly become a sticky dough so as the fork becomes harder to turn, simply dust your hands in the dry flour and put them into the mix! Roll and knead the dough until it is light and fluffy and no longer sticks easily to your hands.
• Caution: If you need to add a LITTLE extra flour, do so but I strongly caution you not to add too much flour as this will turn your light, fluffy angels into rock-like hockey pucks when you take them out of the oven.
• Your pre-cooked biscuits should now be ready! Pinch off 3 inch ‘balls’ and roll them briefly in your flour-dusted palms. Place each ball onto a non-stick baking pan — close enough together so they slightly touch. If necessary, gently tap down their heights to 2 to 2 1/2 inches because they will rise a little during cooking.
• Place the biscuits on the top oven rack in your conventional oven. This will help to ensure that they do not burn on the bottom while getting a nice brown on top. Baking time in a regular oven takes approximately 10 minutes.

That’s it! The entire process from prep to finish should take no more than 30 minutes.

Our family’s recipe yields 6-8 medium sized, mouthwatering biscuits.

Add a side of molasses, honey or the marmalade of your choice and you’re ready to go.

Just ask a woman who knows — these are the BEST.

The Absolute BEST Recipe for Baked Southern-Style Macaroni and Cheese

Thick and Delicious Baked Macaroni & Cheese

Baked Southern-Style Macaroni and Cheese – a MUST HAVE dish any day, anytime. For years, I have searched high and low for the perfect custard-like Macaroni and Cheese recipe to rival the best I’ve had at southern-style, soul food restaurants like Sylvia’s of Harlem and Justin’s in New York City and Atlanta. If you also remember the now-closed Maroon’s that used to be in Chelsea (NYC), then you know what I’m talking about.

Until today, I have come up empty-handed in my pursuits. Macaroni and Cheese was that one dish that this Carolina girl’s family never perfected.

How sweet the smell and taste of success! After sifting through numerous recipes on the net, and combining a tablespoon of this and a dash of that, I’ve just made the BEST Macaroni and Cheese I’ve ever tasted anywhere. It’s rich, thick and wonderfully cheesy.

Enough talk.  Let me get you on your way to making your own!

Ingredients (serves 4-5):

• 1 lb box of uncooked macaroni
• Pot of Boiling Water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 8 oz block Kraft monterrey jack cheese, grated or thinly sliced
• 8 oz block Kraft sharp cheddar cheese, grated or thinly sliced
• 12 oz can evaporated milk
• 1 egg
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon dry mustard

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• Add the 2 tablespoons olive oil to the pot of boiling water, immediately followed by the uncooked macaroni. Cook the macaroni about 7 minutes until it is al dente, not overcooked or mushy.
• Place a small saucepan on low heat and add the full can of evaporated milk until it’s very warm but not boiling.
• Add the butter and stir until it melts.
• Stir in the flour and dry mustard as well.
• Remove the milk mixture from the heat and add both blocks of grated or thinly sliced cheese*.

*You can either grate the cheese beforehand or use a sharp paring knife and sliver it into long, thin slices; either way, it will melt quickly. I prefer the latter method using the knife because it’s fastest for me.

• Return the milk and cheese mixture back to the low heat and stir constantly until the cheese completely melts.
• By now, you should have a textured, frothy mix of milk and cheese.
• In a separate cup, whisk the egg.
• Stir the egg into the milk and cheese mixture.
• Immediately layer ½ the cooked macaroni into a lightly greased, oven-safe glass or metal casserole dish.
• Pour ½ the milk and cheese mixture onto the layer. Add the remaining macaroni and repeat, adding all of the remaining milk and cheese mixture.
• Cover the dish and place in the oven on the medium rack. Bake for approximately 30 minutes.
• Remove from oven; remove top carefully as the macaroni and cheese will be hot and steamy.

That’s it – Absolutely wonderful!

- Adrienne C Barr

If a Picture Paints a Thousands Words, Make Mine Red with Juicy Seeds… Lots of Them!

I love the fall for one reason: pomegranates. This is the one time of year when I can indulge in the pure deliciousness of my favorite fruit.

"Punica Granatum" By Eric Lafforgue (all rights reserved)

Canadian Ice Wine: A Delicious Gift from our Friends Up North

I was at a beautiful vineyard located just across the US-Canadian border in Niagara on the Lake, Ontario back in 2007 when I had my first taste of that sweetest elixir the Canadians call ‘ice wine.’  While it may be made in other places, Canada definitely owns the figurative patent on this perfect aperitif or dessert wine. The Washington Post has written an excellent article that not only describes the unusual process for making ice wine but also its rewards to the palate:

Ice wine — exquisite, pricey and deliciously potent — is made from grapes harvested and pressed at a full 15 degrees below freezing. Every sip betrays its frosty heritage. Ice wine is crisp and invigorating in a way that table wine is not. It’s nectar-sweet but never cloying. It’s also unfailingly addictive.

Vineyard@Niagra on the Lake, ON

I couldn’t have said it better!  Read the Post’s full article via this link, “December is harvest time for ice wine in the Okanagan region of western Canada.”

Though ice wines can be expensive, you owe it to yourself to try a glass at least once. Each time I make a trip to that great land up North, I never come home without at least one of those slender, distinctive bottles in tow.

The Absolute BEST Recipe for Baked Southern-Style Macaroni and Cheese

Thick and Delicious Baked Macaroni & Cheese

Baked Southern-Style Macaroni and Cheese – a MUST HAVE dish any day, anytime. For years, I have searched high and low for the perfect custard-like Macaroni and Cheese recipe to rival the best I’ve had at southern-style, soul food restaurants like Sylvia’s of Harlem and Justin’s in New York City and Atlanta. If you also remember the now-closed Maroon’s that used to be in Chelsea (NYC), then you know what I’m talking about.

Until today, I have come up empty-handed in my pursuits. Macaroni and Cheese was that one dish that this Carolina girl’s family never perfected.

How sweet the smell and taste of success! After sifting through numerous recipes on the net, and combining a tablespoon of this and a dash of that, I’ve just made the BEST Macaroni and Cheese I’ve ever tasted anywhere. It’s rich, thick and wonderfully cheesy.

Enough talk.  Let me get you on your way to making your own!

Ingredients (serves 4-5):

• 1 lb box of uncooked macaroni
• Pot of Boiling Water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 8 oz block Kraft monterrey jack cheese, grated or thinly sliced
• 8 oz block Kraft sharp cheddar cheese, grated or thinly sliced
• 12 oz can evaporated milk
• 1 egg
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 tablespoon dry mustard

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350F.
• Add the 2 tablespoons olive oil to the pot of boiling water, immediately followed by the uncooked macaroni. Cook the macaroni about 7 minutes until it is al dente, not overcooked or mushy.
• Place a small saucepan on low heat and add the full can of evaporated milk until it’s very warm but not boiling.
• Add the butter and stir until it melts.
• Stir in the flour and dry mustard as well.
• Remove the milk mixture from the heat and add both blocks of grated or thinly sliced cheese*.

*You can either grate the cheese beforehand or use a sharp paring knife and sliver it into long, thin slices; either way, it will melt quickly. I prefer the latter method using the knife because it’s fastest for me.

• Return the milk and cheese mixture back to the low heat and stir constantly until the cheese completely melts.
• By now, you should have a textured, frothy mix of milk and cheese.
• In a separate cup, whisk the egg.
• Stir the egg into the milk and cheese mixture.
• Immediately layer ½ the cooked macaroni into a lightly greased, oven-safe glass or metal casserole dish.
• Pour ½ the milk and cheese mixture onto the layer. Add the remaining macaroni and repeat, adding all of the remaining milk and cheese mixture.
• Cover the dish and place in the oven on the medium rack. Bake for approximately 30 minutes.
• Remove from oven; remove top carefully as the macaroni and cheese will be hot and steamy.

That’s it – Absolutely wonderful!

- Adrienne C Barr

Thinking of Jogging Off Extra Holiday Pounds? Think Again.

Just in time to usher in the holiday spirit, the New York Times has published another article on the link between weight

Everything in Moderation

management and exercise. The news on weight loss is never good. The minute we decide to focus on our eating habits and intake, science comes back and tells us that the key to effective, long term weight loss and management is exercise. Then, we choose more strenuous exercise over moderated meal portions, and that doesn’t seem to do us much good either. Frankly with so many additives being secretly loaded into our meats and other foods, it’s hard to say where the key to effective weight loss lies.

In many parts of the world, we’re heading into 30-45 days of family-sanctioned imbibing on some of the best cooking of the year so many of us are expecting to be carrying a little something extra by the time we ring in 2010.

In spite of my disdain for diets and working out, I will exercise and I will eat sensible portions through the holidays and beyond. Now please pass the stuffing and the gravy again — this time with a measuring spoon.

Good Eats: How to Make Incredible Fried Salmon Cakes

It’s a weekend brunch and you want something a little different. If you’ve been to a serious Southern

Southern Fried Salmon Cakes

restaurant, you’ve probably seen or been served tasty fried Salmon Cakes. My grandmother used to make these for us most any day of the week and serve them up with hot biscuits and rice.

Cousin to those other delicious fried rounds known as Crab Cakes, the crusty (and sometimes crunchy) fried Salmon Cakes can be appetizers or the main dish. It may take you a couple of times to get these ‘right’ for you but once you DO, they are uncommonly GOOD.

Scrumptious Fried Salmon Cakes

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 1 – 16oz can of pink Salmon
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 5 – 7 saltine minced crackers OR 2 tablespoons of stone-ground cornmeal
• Olive Oil for frying

Directions:

• Remove the Salmon from the can, saving the ‘juice’ in a separate container for now.
• Manually separate the canned fish pieces and remove the skin and bones (very easily done by hand). NOTE: Many southern cooks and even restaurants actually leave the bones in and cook them into the cakes; it’s a matter of personal preference.
• In a large bowl, mix together the de-boned/skinned salmon, the egg, mayonnaise and crackers. Add the ‘juice’ as needed to make the cakes moldable without being too ‘juicy’. Use a potato masher to quickly mince all of the ingredients together to form the makings for the cakes. The mix is ready when it is of a ‘hamburger-ish’ consistency.
• Put 2-3 heaping tablespoons of the mixture into the palm of your hand to form each ‘cake’ for frying. After gently shifting back and forth 3-4 times, pat the cakes down to approximately ¾ inch of thickness and 4 inches or in diameter. Your mixture should yield 6-8 cakes.
• Place the cakes on a dish as you mold them and put them aside for frying.
• Heat an iron skillet with approximately ¼ to ½ inch of Olive or other cooking/frying oil. The amount of Olive Oil will determine how crispy your cakes turn out, again a matter of personal preference.
• The heated Olive Oil should be very hot but not smoking. NOTE: the heat of the oil is very important to how your cakes turn out. If it is too hot, they will cook too quickly and burn without the insides being thoroughly cooked. If the oil is not hot enough, the mixture will absorb the oil and your cakes will be oily and soggy. I can’t tell you an ‘exact’ frying temperature but on a scale or stove dial of 1-10, the oil should be heated to 7.5 – 8 for the proper temperature. This will allow for a nice crust to form while also giving the mixture ample time to cook all the way through.
• Use a spatula to add each cake to the hot oil. NOTE: Be very careful with this process as you should expect to get light ‘pops’ of hot oil as the cakes are added to the pan. This is normal but again, if it’s your first time preparing the cakes, it can be a little tricky! It’s the same as frying chicken.
• Add as many cakes as will comfortably fit within the frying pan at the same time, usually 4 – 5.
• Fry the cakes on each side approximately 7 – 9 minutes, or until they reach a nice, even brown color with a light crust.  Personally, I fry mine to a darker brown because I like them crunchy.
• During the frying process, you should only need to flip each cake once. Be careful in the ‘flipping’ process as you will again experience oil ‘pops’ and you also want to be careful to keep the cakes in form during this process.
• After the cakes have been cooked and crusted on both sides, remove from the oil and drain on a doubled paper towel.
• Serve immediately while hot!

That’s it! The entire process from prep to finish should take no more than 30 – 40 minutes.

If you’re REALLY southern, you’ll serve them with rice and biscuits. Then again, some folks just enjoy these delicacies by themselves.

I cooked up a small batch for a friend of my last year and they melted in his mouth — these are the BEST!

When a Man Cooks for a Woman

Most women can cook. That’s not  conjecture, it’s a fact. Most of the time we cook out of necessity not choice.

But when  men cook for us, it’s pure magic. I think the years of watching moms, girlfriends, sisters, and others in the kitchen has given them this innate sense of competition to do ‘us’ better than we do ourselves with those  cutting boards and knives on the kitchen counters.

And compete they do! In my own family, men have always made the better cooks. They tend to perfect the basic and leave you scrapping for even that last morsel on the plate at the end of the meal.

Like many occasions before, I spent this past weekend in Pittsburgh with my best friend who is by far the most talented weekend chef I’ve ever had the pleasure of being served by. He cooks everything from scratch – deliciously and perfectly. Now, he doesn’t cook like this everyday, but every time I come around (including a fantastic New Year’s Eve Dinner he prepared of Roast Duck), he DOES WORK!  I love him for it because my culinary skills pale in comparison to his.

Without further ado, here are a few of his dishes that keep me begging for  more (Check out more shots in my Pittsburgh Set on Flickr):

Bayou Cajun Shrimp

Cooking and Serving it up with Mike - Step 1

Mike preparing Cajun-Seasoned, Buttered Shrimp w/Bread Bowl

Cajun Shrimp Bowl - SERVED!

New England Seafood Pot

Mike's Prep for NE Seafood Pot (w/sweet corn, andouille sausage, onions)

Mike's Prep for the NE Seafood Pot

Mike's New England Seafood Pot

Needless to say, I’m at his place often because Ask A Woman Who Knows: If you find a man who LOVES to cook for you, you’ve got a KEEPer! Want to see more of his good cookin’? Check him out in my Pittsburgh Set on Flickr.

How to make Delicious Southern Scratch Biscuits

It’s Sunday morning in North Carolina. Whether you went to church or not, you know what time it is if you’re home now: it’s time to get down in the kitchen.  My grandmother used to make these fluffy biscuits for us every Sunday morning before church, usually accompanied by country ham, red-eye gravy and heaping bowls of long grain rice (I am a Southern Geechie Gal after all). Most times, she’d let us pour a tablespoon of bootstrap molasses on the side of our plate to dip the hot biscuits straight out of the oven.

We may have been a little sleepy in church but Lordy, our bellies were already in Heaven.

Delicious Southern Scratch Biscuits

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 2 Cups self-rising flour
• 1/3 cup Crisco shortening (count the bars on the Crisco packaging stick)
• 2/3 cups milk
• pinch of baking soda

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 450 degrees (f).
• Put 2 cups of self-rising flour into a large mixing bowl. Add 1/3 cup of Crisco shortening. Partition off half of the flour in the bowl and use a butter knife or potato masher to ‘cut’ the Crisco into the flour. Once you’re done, you should have a minced mixture of flour-covered Crisco.
• Use a fork to gradually stir the milk into the flour-Crisco mixture. It will quickly become a sticky dough so as the fork becomes harder to turn, simply dust your hands in the dry flour and put them into the mix! Roll and knead the dough until it is light and fluffy and no longer sticks easily to your hands.
• Caution: If you need to add a LITTLE extra flour, do so but I strongly caution you not to add too much flour as this will turn your light, fluffy angels into rock-like hockey pucks when you take them out of the oven.
• Your pre-cooked biscuits should now be ready! Pinch off 3 inch ‘balls’ and roll them briefly in your flour-dusted palms. Place each ball onto a non-stick baking pan — close enough together so they slightly touch. If necessary, gently tap down their heights to 2 to 2 1/2 inches because they will rise a little during cooking.
• Place the biscuits on the top oven rack in your conventional oven. This will help to ensure that they do not burn on the bottom while getting a nice brown on top. Baking time in a regular oven takes approximately 10 minutes.

That’s it! The entire process from prep to finish should take no more than 30 minutes.

Our family’s recipe yields 6-8 medium sized, mouthwatering biscuits.

Add a side of molasses, honey or the marmalade of your choice and you’re ready to go.

Just ask a woman who knows — these are the BEST.