Buttermilk biscuits here we go…

Yeah, a little Sir Mix a Lot to start a Friday morning!  I wanted to share this recipe before the weekend so you can make these biscuits tomorrow morning.  Remember that left over buttermilk you have in your fridge from making waffles…  well here’s what to do with the rest of it. 

Bobby Flay’s Black Pepper Buttermilk Biscuits

4 cups all purpose flour	4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda	1 tsp salt
12 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pcs	1 1/2 cups cold buttermilk
1/2 cup cream	2 tbsp coarsely ground pepper

Preheat oven to 450*   Combine dry ingredients

  

   

Cut butter into pieces.

This is an important step.  Break the small pieces of butter up with your fingers but still leaving some larger chunks.  This allows for nice and flakey biscuits.  When the butter melts it leaves little air pockets as they bake.

  

Add buttermilk and work together with a fork.  When the flour on the edges pulls away you should have the correct consistancy.  You want your mixture wet enough to hold together but dry enough that it doesn’t stick to your hands and your work surface.

  

Turn your dough out onto your work surface.  Knead and fold until combined without over working the dough.  Shape dough into rounded shape with a 1/2” thickness.

Flour your biscuit cutter and cut your biscuits.  Place on cookie sheet.

   

Brush biscuit tops with cream (or we’ve used extra buttermilk as well)  Bake for 12 -15  minutes.

   

YUM!

We also made some sausage gravy for our biscuits…  Super easy.

   

1.  Scramble sausage – make sure not to use a non-stick pan (we used 1/2 lb) 
2.  Add flour (1/4 cup flour)

    

3.  Mix flour with sausage (coating sausage with flour) 
4.  Add milk (2 cups)

5.  Bring to simmer.  Gravy will thicken and it will delish!

Weeks 7 & 8

EIGHT WEEKS!  Wowza…  This little boy is so precious.  He is a good baby.  Isaac likes to sleep and EAT.  He’s already eating 4 oz consistently and we’ve had a couple feedings of 5 oz and one time he wanted 6 oz!  We go next week for his 2 month appointment.  You know what that means…  SHOTS.  eek!  I also can’t believe I only have 4 weeks left at home with the little one before I go back to work.  I have been so blessed to get 12 weeks – I can’t imagine only getting 6 weeks of maternity leave.

Isaac playing with his friends

We are having so much fun watching this little man grow!  So blessed!!

Ladies Dinner

This past Friday I had a few ladies over for a little dinner at the house.  I have to say I really enjoyed making dinner at the house and having people here.  Before Mr Isaac made his appearance, we would have planned a dinner out a restaurant, but (as MANY people told us) life is a little different with a little one. 

I wanted the menu to be something that I could prep before hand and just pull together easily once my girls were here.  So I chose Roasted Spanish Chicken with sweet potatoes and onions and sautéed Brussels sprouts with craisins. 

Roasted Citrus Chicken & Sweet Potatoes
adapted from Nigella Lawson & Life is Great

4-6 Chicken Thighs	1 sweet onion
2 Orange	1-2 tbsp dried oregano
3 medium sized Sweet Potatoes	Salt and pepper
1-2 tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven 350*.  Wash sweet potatoes.  Chop into even sized cubes (about 1/2” square).  Chop onion in similar size pieces.  Place on jelly roll pan (cookie sheet with raised edges).  Drizzle olive oil over veggies.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper – toss to coat.  Spread veggies out leaving room for chicken thighs.  Place chicken on pan and drizzle with olive oil.  Salt and pepper chicken.  Zest orange over chicken thighs.  Sprinkle oregano over chicken.

Place in pre-heated oven and bake for 45-50 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and veggies are tender and caramelized.

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Brussels Sprouts with Craisins

1 bag Brussels sprouts	1 bag craisins
1/2 onion, chopped	1 tbsp olive oil

Soak craisins in a bowl of water (we’ve also used red wine before) to re-hydrate cranberries.  Remove outer leaves of Brussels sprouts.  Chop off bottom.  Then thinly slice / chop the Brussels sprouts.  Dice onion.  Heat sauté pan over medium high heat.  Once pan is hot add olive oil, sprouts and onions.  Season with salt and pepper.  Sauté until sprouts are tender and onions are translucent.  Drain craisins and add to pan.  Serve immediately.

For dessert I did a simple Peach Crunch Cake from Bakerella.  It’s super tasty and I know it’s a very well known recipe.  I’ve made it before with strawberries but it’s nice to have some yummy fruit cobbler in the winter.  I would use another can of peaches if I made it again.  I would like more peaches!!

Have you been to any dinner parties recently?  Maybe thrown your own??  What’s your “go-to” recipe for having company?

2/52

Week 2 of Project 52

“Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.”
― Mother Teresa

Week 1

Buttermilk Waffles

These are some of the BEST waffles I have had.  The buttermilk gives these a little tangy flavor that balances out the sweetness.  You can add all the obvious additions to specialize your waffle.  We’ve done blueberries, chocolate chips and bananas, etc.

Classic Buttermilk Waffles
from King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion

Makes 4 waffles (you can easily double the recipe if needed)

1 large egg	1 tbsp sugar
7 oz buttermilk	1 tsp baking powder
1/2 stick butter, melted & cool	1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla extract	1/2 tsp salt
1 c all-purpose flour

Mix wet ingredients in bowl. In separate bowl, mix dry ingredients and whisk together then add to wet mixture.  Mix until just blended.  Add any additional fruit or chips.  Pre-heat waffle iron, once heated add waffle batter to waffle iron.  When the waffle iron stops steaming, the waffle is ready.

I pre-heat the oven to 200* and put my waffles in there while the others cook, that way you can all eat together and have a hot waffle!  In this batch I added blueberries and butterscotch chip…  YUM!

  

 

I know buttermilk isn’t a super popular item to have in your fridge but I would recommend you picking up a small carton.  We use it for making biscuits, soaking chicken for fried chicken, making dips, etc.  It has a pretty long shelf life so you should be able to use it before it goes bad.

Real life Pinterest

As you probably know…  I ♥ Pinterest.  I’ve told you about multiple different things I have pinned.  But I haven’t shared any actual pins that came to reality recently… So today we share!

Exhibit A.

Idea from Chiot’s Run

Our version:

    

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Exhibit B:

Martha Stewart’s Christmas card display

    

And ours…  I took this photo before the majority of our cards came in.  I loved the way it looked when it was full of our loved ones.

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Exhibit C:

Better Homes & Garden beautiful front door

I also pinned lots of ideas for gifts for the Holiday season.  I made a goodie basket for the neighbors from recipes I found on Pinterest.

     

Links to sources click on picture

These cookies were delicious!!  I highly recommend them!  They are little nuggets of nutty goodness.  In the instructions it states that they are good for 3 days which is true… so eat up and enjoy right away!

And some other Christmas present ideas…

The Lemoncello is still steeping away – but coming along nicely!  The ornaments were a little more tricky than I thought they would be.  The earrings were a big hit and fairly easy to produce, a good “busy work” project.

   

Have you been pinning?  What projects has it led you to complete?  Would love to see!

1/52

2012 was an amazing year for our little family.  I can clearly remember sitting on the sofa at the beginning of January last year and telling Joe that this was going to be the year we “did something” about expanding our family.  Of course our good Lord already knew that 2012 would be the year to do that, but He doesn’t always share His plans with us in advance. 

So much happened last year and I can’t say I did the best job of documenting it here on the blog.  I know that life with a baby will only get crazier as Isaac grows so I want to make a goal of documenting his first year with weekly portraits.  He will only grow up once.  He will only have his “first” once.  So I don’t want life to get in my way of remembering those moments.  The pictures may be from my phone, instagram or my actual DSR but  there will be some sort of documentation of our week.

So I’m putting it out there…  I will post 1 picture of that sweet boy once a week for the next 52 weeks.  I hope you’ll enjoy the journey with me and keep me accountable if I slip up and miss a week.

5 weeks old – 1/1/12

Weeks 5 & 6

As all parents say – Time is flying!  Isaac is doing well!  He actually got weighed today and is already 10 pounds 2 ounces!!  The boy is growing for sure.  We are all sleeping pretty well; we get one 4-5 hour stint and then a 3 hour stint to finish up the night.  Joe and I are taking turns on feeding so the other one gets some rest.  On to the important stuff…  PHOTOS!

 

Such a beautiful baby, if I do say so myself!  I could stare at him for hours (and that may be why my house is a mess!)