Three-Way Chicken Part 2: Soup Time

Part 2 is here. If you missed it, HERE is part 1. Now that you have a stock made, it's pretty straightforward to get a soup out of it. Chicken noodle soup makes a lot, but it freezes very well and also works well as a gift. I know I like receiving soup. Most chicken noodle soups start and end the same way. Sauté vegetables, add chicken, add stock, bring to simmer, add noodles, and eat. Wow, is it really that easy? Yes, it is. This is one of those "fix it now, feed the family for two days" kind of meals. Its good for you, cost efficient, and can be modified to fit your current mood. I particularly enjoy swapping noodles for brown or wild rice as well as varying the vegetables I add. This is a great recipe to put your own spin on and develop into something you will enjoy all the time.

A word on the cut. A lot of books call for what is called "soup cut". I like to call it a large dice. Just think of the size of vegetables you want in your soup. More than likely you will want something not too large (like for stew) but not too fine (we are not making a sauce). So go in between, big enough that the pieces will have texture, but small enough to fit with broth on a spoon. Ok then, here we go.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Cooked chicken, shredded,
Chicken stock
3 carrots, large dice
2 celery stalks, large dice
1 large onion, large dice
3 cloves garlic, minced fine
1 16oz bag frozen mixed vegetables
3 T butter
1 16oz bag egg noodles
2 t fresh thyme, chopped (or 1 t dried)
Salt and pepper to taste

Remove the stock from the refrigerator (if you stored it there) and let it come to room temperature. Add butter to large pot over medium heat. Add carrot, celery, and onion, sauté for about 3 minutes until the onions just start to wilt. Add garlic, stir and cook for about 1 minute. Add the chicken to heat it through, and then add stock. You do not need to add all of the stock if you prefer a more chunky soup, just save the rest for a later application. Let the soup come to a boil and reduce heat to low so it just barely simmers. Cook for about 30 minutes or until veggies are tender.

Meanwhile, bring another large pot of water to a boil, salt it, and add your egg noodles. Boil them until still pretty al-dente (this helps prevent them from turning to mush later). Drain the noodles and rinse to stop the cooking. Add frozen veggies to the soup, return to a simmer, then add the noodles and thyme. Let cook for about 15 more minutes and then season with salt, pepper, and more thyme if you desire. The seasoning is open ended, as are the veggies you add (go with whatever is in season to change it up). This recipe makes a lot, but chicken noodle soup freezes quite well and keeps for about 3 months.

This is the first application for the chicken; next I will tackle chicken and dumplings!

Read more...

Guaca-mol-e

So I lied, due to a request for my guacamole recipe, I will continue the chicken recipes early next week. I know you are all waiting with baited breath. Let us shift our focus to my favorite green food, the avocado. Not only is it creamy and delicious, but it packs a punch with nutrition. Yes, it is the only fruit with fat. But it is mostly monounsaturated fat, the kind your doctor tells you to eat. The avocado also has 60% more potassium than bananas, a lot of fiber, and over 25 vitamins and minerals. Not bad. Avocados go in a lot of dishes, but they are most famous for guacamole.

Now we are not talking your restaurant variety guacamole (though the stuff they make table side is pretty darn good). The every day kind is the packet you get off the shelf and add two avocados to it, mix, and call it a day. Yuck. Talk about not doing justice to the pitted wonder. No, guacamole is a simple, yet refined dip that requires just a little bit of patience. Start with your avocados. Now, these things ripen at room temperature. So it is a good idea to buy them a little under ripe (i.e. hard) and let them ripen at home. If you are in a hurry, put them in a paper bag and close it up (no plastic!!). If you are in a really big hurry, throw them in a paper bag with a banana. If you are in more of a hurry than that, sorry, can't help you. Avocados are ready to use when they have some give but are not totally mushy. You do not want hard, you want creamy. After ripe, they store in the fridge for up to two weeks. Which they fail to mention at any store or market.

On to our guac. To prep your avocado, simply take a knife and slice lengthwise along the center, splitting it in two. Take your knife (big one works better for this) and take a small whack at the pit so the knife sticks in it. Twist and the pit should pop out. Reach your fingers behind the pit (from the backside of the knife, not blade side) and squeeze on the pit; it should pop right off without you bloodying a perfectly good avocado.

Once you have made your guacamole, do not put the pit back in. This is a myth that does nothing. Press plastic wrap directly over your guacamole so there is no contact with air and then put a lid on your container. If you want some extra insurance, squeeze some lime juice over the top before putting the plastic wrap on. Guacamole does not keep for very long (thanks to the avocados browning in air), so try to make it as close to your meal as possible.

Guacamole

2 avocados, pitted
2 T lime juice (lemon works in a pinch)
2 green onions, diced
3-4 T salsa (recipe found here)
Salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste

Mash avocados with a fork, as chunky or as fine as you like. Add lime juice and incorporate into avocado. This will help prevent browning. Add green onions and salsa, season to taste. Serve with chips or over whatever food you can think of.

Read more...

Top Chef

For all of you who read this blog, it should come as no surprise that I watch and love Top Chef. The only thing that might surprise me, though, is if you are not watching it. Easily my favorite cooking show on TV, my girlfriend introduced me to it two years ago and I have become quite enamored with it. It just wrapped up the fourth season, but I am pretty sure Bravo will run the entire season at least 73 times in the next month. If you are not watching it, well, shame on you. It, more than any other reality show on television, is focused on food and cooking. Yes, there is drama, and yes, the producers love to edit that in everywhere, but more so there is awesome, outrageous, gorgeous food. The really cool thing about this show is the dedication it has to promoting new chefs. Most of us just go to restaurants from recommendations of flashy advertising, but do you really know the chef behind the food? This show lets you see their flavors and choices under many different situations. I usually gravitate towards a contestant who has a flavor profile similar to my likes. I just think it’s a great thing for these chefs to get national exposure about their food. It has opened my eyes to some awesome restaurants and cooking techniques. Everyone on this show, no matter what place they finish, benefits from the exposure and the spotlight. It's great for their business.

This season (yes, I will spoil it) was won by a Chicago chef by the name of Stephanie Izard. I am excited about this for two reasons. First, she cooks in Chicago, which means that come spring and she opens her restaurant, I can be there in no time flat. Second, her flavor choices just resonate with me. While I appreciate molecular gastronomy, southern Asian, and California When she made duck spring rolls my tongue almost drown itself in my mouth. Notice I said nothing about her being the first woman to win. That is because this show, making it more awesome, does not care about that. It only cares about the food. And that's what it's really all about. flavors, Stephanie's homespun version of food is amazing, and that is just from looking at it (and listening to the judges rave about it).

So congrats to Stephanie, and for those of you not watching this show, I really recommend you remedy that.

Read more...

Three-Way Chicken

This is the first of a series post I have planned, all tied together to yield three separate dishes. I stumbled upon this method while I was trying to make chicken soup; I figured there was great potential if I could design ONE starting method for three dishes. So in no specific order this method will lead to chicken noodle soup, chicken and dumplings, or chicken pot pie. The goal here is to make life easier for people in the kitchen. If you can adapt the singular method, you will also have the skills to make the other dishes. Cool, huh?

The first part is making a stock. I use chicken stock in a lot of my dishes, and while the boxed stuff is convenient and albeit somewhat tasty, homemade stock works as both the cooking vessel and a flavor enhancer. Plus it is pretty easy to set up and walk away from for a while. The first step in this is to assemble and prep your ingredients. For soup and chicken pot pie, I tend to shred my chicken, and for chicken and dumplings I can leave it in pieces or shred it depending on my mood. So prep your chicken accordingly, but I recommend at least quartering your chicken for an easier fit in the pot and easier removal later.

This recipe calls for chicken stock or chicken bullion, which is an oddity to most. But starting with a little bit of flavor base will add a lot to your stock, as I have found most good chicken stocks are made this way. I would probably skip this step if just making homemade chicken stock and not using the meat (if you simmer the stock long enough you really end up not wanting to use the meat). So this will offset the shorter cooking time. If you would rather start with another batch of your homemade stock, all the better. Also, I cannot stress the importance of a decent stock pot. I have one I got at TJ Max that was a steal, so it's not like you have to go drop 100 bucks. But make sure it has a heavy bottom so nothing burns, holds at least 6-8 quarts, and is pretty sturdy. Now that we are set with pots and chicken, we need to get this party started.

Three Way Chicken Step 1- Stock

1 chicken, livers and giblets removed, quartered or chopped into 8 pieces
1 onion, ends removed, quartered
1 carrot, roughly chopped
2 celery stalks, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped in half
1 T olive oil
Water
4 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
4 stalks fresh parsley
Salt and pepper
4 cups chicken stock or 1 cube chicken bullion

Wash the chicken and vegetables. Tie the herbs up with string or put them in a tea ball (if using, the only one that is a must right now is the bay leaf). Heat the oil in the bottom of a stock pot over medium heat. Season chicken with salt and place skin down in pot, browning slightly on both sides, about 7 minutes. Add vegetables and stir, scraping up any bits that might have stuck. Add the herbs and stock or bullion. Add enough water to cover the chicken by about 2 inches (probably about 2 quarts, but it might be more). Bring to a boil and reduce heat so the stock is simmering. Cook for about an hour to an hour and a half, or until the chicken is starting to fall off the bone. If the water level decreases to below the chicken, add a bit more to bring the level back up. When finished, remove chicken and set aside to cool. Drain stock into a clean pot and skim off fat. Stock and chicken can be made ahead of time and keep for about 5 days (chicken is the limiting factor here) in the fridge.

That is step one, the same method for all dishes. If you want to add a bit more color and well rounded flavor, add about 2 T of tomato paste. Next time, soups on!

Read more...

Stock Piling

Chicken stock might be the most drastic change to my cooking repertoire in forever. I grew up using water or milk to make gravies, sauces, and the like, never knowing what I was missing. All the big TV chefs use chicken stock, which I likened to them using gourmet cheeses while everyone else used Colby-jack. Wrong. Chicken stock can add a lot of flavor and layers to your sauce or other cooking liquid. I use it in a lot of my dishes, from pasta sauces to chili to risotto, just to name a few.

Chicken stock comes in four varieties. The first if the kind you make yourself. I will not go into detail here, but my next post (The Three Way Chicken) will detail how to make and store the good stuff. Since I lack the large freezer to store all of my made stock, I usually opt for the second kind, boxed or canned. This stock is pre-made and is pretty much the best way to go. The third way is a flavor base, and the fourth is bullion cubes. As a rule I keep bullion cubes on hand (flavor base is perishable and a waste for me), but I try not to use them too often because they lack a lot of flavor and contain a lot of salt. But more on that in a minute.

There are two general rules I use when buying and using stock. First, use the low sodium stock if possible. You know how you like your food, salt it accordingly and do not let someone else do it for you. A lot of these stocks have heaps and heaps of salt, which can alter my final dish and get me a little peeved. Second, I will not put anything into my dish I would not drink out of hand. This means if you taste the chicken stock (and yes, you should) straight and it's nasty, don't use it! I really like the Swanson low sodium stock or their organic low sodium. Both are tasty and not too overpowering.

When using chicken stock, I like to spice it up a bit for some more flavors. When I make risotto, I add some onion, garlic, and ends of whatever veggies I use for some flavor. When I go Mexican, I add some cumin seeds and a chile pepper. You really cannot hurt your dish by doing this (it makes it a lot easier to season later); just remember to strain your stock before you add it.

Am I leaving out other types of stock? Most certainly. Chicken stock goes well in most dishes, but some will call for beef or fish depending on what you are doing. I tend to not make my own beef stock because a) I do not use it that often and b) it takes a little bit more time than chicken stock. That is not to say they are not useful. Follow the same guidelines when purchasing (low sodium, don’t buy it if you would not use as a soup by itself) and it should work out gloriously. For fish, just use shells and bodies if you want to make your own. Shrimp stock is especially good because you generate the ingredient you need, shells, every time you use shrimp! Vegetarian? Veggie stock has gotten a lot better, though it does not hurt to add a few more ingredients to it to punch the flavor.

So the next time you reach for the sink to thin out your sauce, ask yourself what you might be missing by not stocking your meal.

Read more...

Avec

Here at Boilermaker Kitchen, most of the time I talk about cooking food. But this time I want to talk about eating it. More importantly, I want to talk about and eating experience I had this past weekend in Chicago. Some friends and I decided to try out Avec, one of the top restaurants in Chicago known for tapas with an Italian and French Flare. The chef has been featured on Top Chef (as was the owner), it gets good reviews, and really interests me in terms of new cuisine. We put in for a table at about six, told it would be an hour, enjoyed a drink, and thought nothing of it. Two and a half hours later we were sat. Now, let me be the first to say that waiting a long time stinks, but I understand that it happens. It was a Saturday over Memorial Day. No problem. What I did have a problem with was the tables that walked up over an hour after us (they take no reservations) and were seated almost immediately after it was revealed they knew some of the staff. Hmmm, not cool. Treat your regulars nice, sure, but shafting your other customers is not a great idea.

After we were seated the service was mediocre at best. The waitress was in such a hurry to turn our table it seemed that she forgot one of our dishes and barely spoke to us. And the food? It was ok. The chorizo stuffed dates were tasty, though I was a bit disappointed when my gnocchi came with a pretty stringy pesto and popcorn sized shrimp. So it was just alright. Oh, and I almost forgot the foil experience. In my lovely glass of water that was refilled at top speed (complete with splashing all over me), I was treated to a nice big piece of foil in my water glass. I guess that was their way of telling me to drink wine.

I think I would have enjoyed the meal more had the service been a bit better. This just goes to show how important service and treatment of the customer can affect a meal. We were all a little preoccupied with what was going on with our wait staff instead of focusing more on our meal. It is not just the food in a restaurant that make it wonderful. And it's not just the treatment of the high rolling regulars that frequent it. It is the way the average, everyday customer is received and made to feel welcome at the establishment. Without service the food is just stuff on a plate. Nothing more. Sadly, I will not return to this place as I was pretty soured by the experience. Hopefully they note their behavior and try to bring some great service into an otherwise nice place.

On a separate note, I had lunch at Little Louie's Red Hots in Northbrook, IL (north of Chicago). One of the best hot dogs I have ever eaten, period. Go check it out, you will not be sorry.

Read more...

It's Not a Party Without a Cheese Ball

It's not a party without a cheese ball.

This is simply a fact. Salsa is super, guacamole is great, and that veggie tray is very nice, but the party cannot truly begin without a ball of cheese. I do not know who first came up with this idea, but I applaud them for creating a true party food. A cheese ball is not something I make for dinner, or pretty much any time I am not having guests. But if people are coming over, you better believe one is coming out.

So what makes a good cheese ball? Well, if you buy them from the store, that would be processed cheddar cheese, chemicals, and that odd red color they manage to obtain by some unnatural process. As you have witnessed many times before, I am not a fan of this. I prefer to make my own. And why not? It takes about ten minutes to make, probably costs less, and sure tastes a lot better. Plus you can tailor a ball o' cheese to whatever party you are throwing or attending. Italian night? Throw in some Parmesan and basil! Mexican? Green chiles and a little cumin, please. Asian inspired? Make something else! Just kidding, but a little hoisin and chili paste will do wonders.

The basic cheese ball consists of two types of cheeses, some seasonings and additions which are then all rolled into ball and coated with chopped nuts. That is pretty much the whole picture. The main component of a cheese ball is cream cheese. This gives you the texture you want, a creamy and mild flavor, and brings most of the bulk. Its offset by a sharper cheese, I use cheddar. A little seasoning and you are pretty much done. The last thing to do is to roll it in nuts. I like pecans, but walnuts work just fine. Just make sure they are pretty fine, you want a little bit of crunch but not enough to offset all of the creaminess of the cheese. Oh, and doubling this recipe is pretty much the norm for parties

Cheese Ball
1-8 oz package of cream cheese
1/4 t. Worcestershire sauce
1 T minced pimento (do not leave this out)
2-3 T grated cheddar cheese
few pinches of garlic powder
pinch of pepper
pinch of salt
chopped walnuts or pecans

Soften cream cheese and blend in mixer. When whipped, add the rest of the ingredients (except for nuts). mix slowly until combined, remove and shape into a ball. Roll in the nuts and refrigerate for about an hour (or more) before serving. Enjoy!

Read more...

Risotto- Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Note- A newer version of this recipe can be found here
I am back, now hopefully without any pesky interruptions like school and graduation and things like that.

Lately I have become quite enamored with risotto. Maybe it is the fact that I have had really good risotto and really bad risotto. The good was creamy with a small bite, tasting as if it was made with gallons of cream and slow cooked to bring out the nuttiness in the rice. The bad was well, terrible, consisting most of packed rice into some sort of art shape and lacking any form of flavor or texture. The two extremes are the reason that I never made risotto at home. But, since I am a glutton for punishment, I finally decided to give it a whirl.

First is the rice. You need medium grain arborio rice, nothing else will work as well. I like Rice Select, but most arborio rice they sell in markets is satisfactory. Next comes the liquid you will be adding to the rice to make the dish. Some recipes call for all broth, some call for all water. Some use red wine or vegetable stock. I use what I have on hand. I found that using all chicken stock can make the dish a little too strong, so I tried to find a balance in what I added. Here is my recommendation. Use half stock and half water. If you are using vegetables, use the water you cook them in. Try and incorporate the flavors you are using into the stock, this will round out the dish much better. This brings me to my next point, the additional ingredients. I am giving a recipe for asparagus risotto. But I have also made spring vegetable and shrimp risotto. This dish can take most flavor combinations, and I am even working on trying a desert dish with berries and honey.

So now that the ingredients are settled, let me quickly give instructions for how to make risotto. It is much easier than you think. First, saute an onion (or similar vegetable) in a little butter until it is soft. Add the rice to this, stirring often until the rice starts to smell toasty and just take on a tannish hue. Add warm stock about a cup at a time, stirring the rice constantly until the liquid is absorbed. If you add it all at once you will make pilaf, and that is not what we are after here. Once the liquid is absorbed, add about another cup of stock, repeating this for about 20 minutes. After 20 minutes you must start to taste the rice!! That is the only real way to know if it is done. I never use the same amount of stock, which is why I always keep extra handy. You are looking for soft rice with just a little bit of al dente in the middle. Crunch is bad, but so is mush. This is where so many risottos go bad, people do not taste what they are cooking. If it is crunchy, add a bit more stock. If it is just rice, remove it from the heat. Finish the dish with some butter and cheese, and serve. See, not so hard. A decent amount of stirring, but if you take it slow, you will be hard pressed to make a mess of this.

Asparagus Risotto

1 1/2 cups arborio rice
1 onion, diced
4 T butter
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
2 cups chicken stock (1 can)
3 cups water
1/2 bunch asparagus, trimmed of woody ends
Salt and pepper to taste

Cut asparagus into 1-2 inch pieces. Quickly steam for about 1 minute so just turn bright green but have all their crunch. Remove from steamer and rinse under cold water. Reserve cooking water and use as part of water for risotto.

In a small pot over medium low heat add the water and chicken stock until warm. In a heavy bottomed pan (I like a dutch oven, but any heavy pot will due), melt 2 T butter over medium heat until foaming, add the onion and some salt and sweat for about 3 minutes. Add the rice and stir constantly until the rice is slightly colored and smells toasted. Add the wine and stir until absorbed. Reduce the heat slightly and add about 1 cup of the stock, stirring constantly until all of the stock has been absorbed. Repeat until about 20 minutes have passed and taste rice. If slightly al dente it is cooked, if it still has a crunch a a little more stock and re taste. Once it is to your liking, remove the risotto from the heat and add the remaining 2 T butter and Parmesan, stirring to incorporate. Season with salt and lots of pepper, add the asparagus and mix. Serve hot or at room temperature

Read more...

Seasoned Salt- Scandal in the Kitchen

What I am about to write would probably get me thrown out of most professional kitchens. Then again, I don't work at any professional kitchens, so they might throw me out for being there anyways. But that's not the point. The point is, I like seasoning salt.

Shocker, eh? Yes, it is. But if put to the right use, seasoning salt can be your best friend. I use Morton's Nature Seasoning (yellow bottle) because it has more pepper than most of the others and just has a great all around taste. So, why use it? Well, seasoning salt is a blend of salt (duh), pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, celery salt, and a host of other things. I use it to rescue dishes that need to be balanced out, seasoning grilled meat, and in my sausage gravy, just to name a few.

Here is my argument. Seasoning salt is developed by professionals who have used blind taste tests to get the perfect ratio for maximum flavor (cinnamon sugar is made the same way). That is much more than I could EVER possibly come up with. So while I do not use it all the time, it allows me to evenly season my roast chicken with balanced flavor.

So why write about seasoning salt? Because most kitchen cooks should have it in their spice collection. It can save time, effort, and provide you with just the right amount of balance to your dish. Try it, you will never go back, even if it does get you weird looks from restaurant chefs. They don't know what they are missing.

Read more...

The Journey to Perfect Biscuits

I have eaten a lot of biscuits in my travels. Good, bad, delectable, and downright gross all come to mind when I think about it. I have a biscuit recipe of my own that I have been tinkering with for about 10 years now, and I am still not completely satisfied with it. I have done much research, thrown many batches out (or used them for hockey pucks), and smothered even more with sausage gravy (for that lovely tidbit, search the archives). So what is it that drives me to adapt and change my biscuit recipe? The fact that a perfect biscuit is one of the most pure, simple, and delicious breads known. It has a long history and a lot more variations than I care to count.

Almost every component of biscuits, as well as the method they are made, can drastically effect the taste and texture of biscuits. So let me break it down the best I can. First off, the flour. Regular, unbleached all-purpose flour seems to work the best because of its fine consistency. I have found that sifting it works the best. Bread flour contains a lot of protein, which can make the biscuits dead weights.

Next is the baking powder/baking soda and buttermilk mix. This is quite possibly the most important part of the biscuit recipe (that and the butter). Let us go off on a tangent for a moment and talk some science. Buttermilk is an acid, baking soda is a base, and baking powder is a combination of cream of tartar and baking soda, the tarter making it a bit of an acid. The rising of your biscuits completely depends on the acid/base balance in your dough. Too much acid and the baking soda is neutralized. Too much soda can make the biscuits too basic, again causing a bad rise. Normally the amount of baking powder is kept constant in the recipe. If using regular milk (which lacks the large amount of acid and the tang of buttermilk) you can use about 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda and get a good balance (the rest of the dough contains enough base to counter it). But for every cup of buttermilk you add, you need to add about 1/2 teaspoon of soda to bring the balance back. And for anyone out there who does not use buttermilk in their biscuits, you might as well buy the prepackaged ones. Buttermilk adds a lot of flavor and should never be skimped on. Don't have any? Not an excuse. You can make a substitute by adding 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice to enough milk to make a cup. Let sit for 5 minutes. Tasty.

Ok, now that we have the acid/base stuff out of the way, lets move on to seasoning and the butter. I like a little bit of sugar in my biscuits in addition to salt, but its completely optional. But the butter, not so much. Some recipes call for 1/2 butter and 1/2 lard or shortening. Butter brings flavor and shortening brings flakiness. I have switched from all butter to this.

So that brings us to the recipe. It's not complete, as I seem to love to change it about once every few months. Don't worry, I will update it. But suffice it to say that even picky Boston eaters and Hawaiians love them.

Buttermilk Biscuits

2 C all-purpose flour
4 t baking powder

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1 t sugar

2 T cold butter, cut into pieces

2 T shortening

1 C buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425. Sift dry ingredients into bowl. Add the butter to the dry ingredients and using a fork or fingers mash the butter up until it is in small pieces and pretty much evenly distributed among the flour. The pieces do not need to be uniform (over mixing here can make tough and leaden biscuits). Slowly add the buttermilk and mix as little as possible. You might need to add a bit more, in fact, I do not even measure it, I just know there is enough when the dough is nice and sticky. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, sprinkle with a little flour, and knead them lightly about 3 or 4 times. The less you knead, the lighter the biscuits. Flatten the dough gently to about 1/2 inch and using a biscuit cutter or down turned glass cut out the dough. When you run out of room reshape the dough and cut again. You should get about 12-15 for a batch. Place on an ungreased sheet pan so the biscuits are all slightly touching (its ok if they are all on one side of the pan). Letting them touch prevents them from spreading (like cookies do) and helps give a better rise. Place in oven and cook for 12-15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. If your oven has a tendency to rapidly heat from the bottom (which will burn the bottom of your biscuits), place another sheet pan on the rack below to prevent this. Neat!

So thats it. I am certain I will continue playing with my recipe over the years and incorporate other ratios to make the perfect one. But until then......biscuits. Tasty.

EDIT: See, already changed it! I have been converted to the shortening/butter combo instead of all butter. Flaky and tasty!

Read more...