Comfort Foods and Indulgences

To make amazing buttermilk biscuits, you don't have to make them by hand.  Using a stand mixer is the way to go when changing up a few ingredients that yield tender, flaky biscuits everytime.

This recipe also calls for cake flour which is not the norm for biscuits.  However, cake flour has a lower protein content, allowing the dough to withstand more mixing without overworking it and developing gluten, which will ultimately toughen the biscuits.

Every Sunday I roast a few chicken breasts (bone in, skin on). It’s easy. Having shredded chicken in the kitchen at all times prevents me from randomly eating empty calories during the week. Plus, having pre-cooked, roasted chicken on hand, gives me lots of inspiration for one pot meals.

Generally, I don’t really like leftovers. With that said, I always make enough food for dinner so M can take lunch to work with him the next day and the kids have something healthy to put in their lunch box. Yet, by the time Thursday rolls around, even though I have “planned” a particular meal for that night (yes, I do meal plan every single week), sometimes it is hard to motivate. Whipping up a meal in less than 2o minutes is sometimes much more desirable than what was supposed to be on the table that night and this leftover hash was created on one of those nights.

Left over roasted potatoes, shredded chicken, half of a red pepper, a few leeks, additional random veggies, and some spices, created one of our new favorites; Chicken-Potato Hash. It is equally delish with or without the poached egg. Eli and I prefered it with the egg, where as Isaac cannot sit next to us when eggs are on the menu. Instead, he added a bit of ketchup. This also makes a wonderful and highly requested Sunday morning breakfast. Sausage works just as well and I have been known to a throw in some left over green beans, roasted carrots (or other roots), and a dollop of goat cheese.

The year was 1996. I had just moved to San Francisco from Chicago, finally ridding myself of those long midwest winters and trading them in for even colder summers in the Bay Area. All joking aside, it was an eye-opening experience for me and one that I embraced fully. I absorbed the California experience on every level and tasted my way through the City, spending Saturday mornings at the old farmers’ market before it moved to the Ferry Building and familiarizing myself with local foods and personalities.

I grew to love Peet’s coffee (trust me, it took some doing), developed a huge crush on Albert Strauss, became obsessed with Tu Lan and all its horrors and discovered what eating fresh and local was all about.  Somewhere in there I discovered meyer lemons and instantly became obsessed with them. I started buying them whenever I could find them, matching them up with just about anything I could and realizing that while I may suffer from high cholesterol I will never ever develop a case of scurvy. Hallelujah!

Every time I step into a meat market, I think of my mom. I can’t count the times I impatiently waited as she stood in front of the clear glass that separated her from rows of raw meat. As the butcher stood on the other side of the meat case waiting for her order, she examined the ground beef and the red, marbled roasts.

She carefully inspected the pork chops and the loins. The beef she would eventually purchase must have just the right amount of marbling running through. The pork must have enough fat to give it flavor and keep it moist as it cooked.

Somehow, my antsy behavior in all of those meat markets I frequented with my mother has made a complete turn-around over the years. I’ve become my mother. Meat markets and chocolate shops (she couldn’t pass up a Fanny Farmer store) are high on my list of places I love to visit.

Last week I had the opportunity to stop into Steve’s Meat Market in Ellendale, Minn. Owner, Donnavon Eaker, was busy helping a customer as I stepped into the smokehouse-scented store.

“Having steaks on the grill tonight?” the petite Eaker asked her customer as she added up the cost of the meat purchase. The happy customer shared her plans for that day’s meat purchase and walked out with a hefty bag of meat.