The Home Cook: Beef n' Beans with Biscuits

I bought a new cast iron skillet...and a lid...that fit's my 12" cast iron fry pan.

My mom had a 13" cast iron chicken fryer (really big, deep, very heavy skillet) that was used and horribly abused. We committed the deadly sin of cast iron care...it was washed in hot soapy water and left to air dry...weekly. It was never our favorite pan. In fact for a very long time I didn't think I liked cast iron, but when my grandma gave me a box of cast iron skillets for my apartment in college I finally got a clue.



Ever since I've been transitioning to a full on cast-iron cooking experience. This skillet and lid complete my quest and I'm happy to say it's all I hoped it would be. The thing about cast iron is that is really does get better with age, my 9 year old 12" is by far my best pan. Non-stick, even heat....I really do love it. But what I really love is that for those recipes that ask you to fry up something in a skillet, then bake it...you've completely omitted a step AND a dish. For a lazy girl like me...tres fabulous.

(New cast iron skillet not pictured...sadly.)

Beef n' Beans with Cheesy Biscuits
Adapted from Pillsbury

1lb ground beef
1/2 of a medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 slices thick cut hickory bacon, fried crisp and crumbled
1 can condensed tomato soup
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1-7.5oz refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
2 Tablespoons melted butter
4oz. Shredded mild cheddar or monterey jack

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF. In a 10" oven-safe skillet brown beef, onions and garlic over medium high heat until thoroughly cooked. Drain off fat and return to heat, adding bacon.

2. Stir in soup, chili powder and crushed red pepper, heat to boiling. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes.

3. Separate dough into 10 biscuits and place on top of beef mixture. Brush with butter and top with cheese. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until bubbly and biscuits are golden.


Cook's Notes:

- If you don't have an oven safe skillet, use an 8x8" glass baking dish or 2 quart casserole that has been lightly greased.

- You can use a tube of jumbo refrigerator biscuits, bake at the temp and time on the biscuit container.

The Home Cook: M&M Cookies

It's raining.

Again.

This is the second summer that South Dakota has felt more like Seattle, or what I would expect Seattle to feel like since I've never actually been there. The sky is heavy and gray, the mountains are wrapped in a blanket of mist and remind me of something from Tolkien. It makes for miserable moving weather and that right there is the problem. In the middle of all this mist, rain and fog I'm moving.

Actually it would be more accurate to say WE are moving; the architectural firm I'm with is pulling up roots and heading to a new home. A place we designed, a place we own, a place that will be distinctly ours. This has been in various phases of planning, construction and more construction and even more planning for the last 24 months...even longer than that if we go back to the very germ of the idea. This week, on Friday, we're finally at the finish line. There are lots of little things that will have to be done after we move and we probably won't be really truly settled for a few more weeks, but as of Monday our little company has a place to call it's own.

Unfortunately the weather is refusing to acknowledge the occasion. Instead of sunshine and warm early summer breezes, mother nature has bestowed us with three weeks of cloudy days and rain. While spirits are high there are always ways to enhance our good cheer, even if the sun refuses to cooperate.



Since a great deal of the final installation work is being self performed by our architects, CAD technicians and a lonely interior designer there have been a lot of hours spent together over the last few weekends and evenings. Saturday and Sunday was spent installing a semi truck load of casework and while I'm handy with a small range of tools this was a little beyond me. I did what I could, but there are only so many shelves and handles that need fussing, after that I was more audience than assistance. To keep myself out of the way, I took myself off to the kitchen and baked up something to celebrate our good fortune and hard work. Something cheerful and sure to bring a smile to the faces of everyone in our firm and all of the friends and family that have been helping us.

Who needs the sunshine when we can have a bite sized rainbow?

M&M Cookies
Adapted from AllRecipes.com

1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter flavored shortening
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups M&M's

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, cream together sugar, shortening and butter until well combined. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Add flour, salt, and baking soda to creamed mixture. Blend well.

Stir in M&M candies. Refrigerate dough for one hour or overnight.

Set dough out and allow to warm for 30 minutes before dropping dough by teaspoonful onto cookie sheet.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, until the edges are just lightly golden. Allow cookies to cool on cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes and remove to rack too cool completely.



Cook's Notes:

- The cookies are very soft when they first come out of the oven, allowing them to cool on the sheet sets them up with out over baking and makes it possible to get them off the cookie sheet in one piece.

- The parchment keeps the cookies from spreading too much and helps them keep their shape.

- The dough does not have to be refrigerated, but I've found chilling cookie dough for a few hours always makes the flavor better.

- These cookies have a relatively short shelf life, they start to get stale around day 3.

Rockin' Out: Beatles

I know I've been gone, but news! I have news (Fourth story from the top)!

The Beatles are reissuing their entire original catalog in a remixed box set and a mono box set. I'm sure you're all as THRILLED as I am. Who wouldn't be?

Just in case you're wondering I'm planning to be back with real content this weekend.



No, I don't expect you to all be thrilled stupid with me, but man...it's the god damned Beatles!

The Crafty Bits: Malabrigo Scarf

I some how end up doing scarves in the spring. It makes about as much sense as knitting a tank-top in November and saps the instant right out of instant gratification. Yet it's not all bad, I have a pretty scarf tucked away for that first crisp day in October, something to reflect on in the late August when the sun is trying to bake us into oblivion and the idea of one more raspberry lemonade is threatening to drive me over the edge.

As it stands today is sunny, 67°F, a light breeze out of the north with a black bird singing in the thicket behind our office. Definitely not scarf weather, but then I'm over scarf weather...for the time being anyway...so it's all balanced in some zen karmic sort of way.

Sometimes when you start a knitting project you quickly find the yarn and needles aren't doing what your head wants. So was the case with the Malabrigo yarn. The knitting just didn't feel right and when working with such lovely yarn it felt like a crime to push forward if it wasn't 100% there. As it turns out, knitting wasn't what I had in mind.

Surprisingly it was crochet. I tend to find crocheted pieces bulky, less artistic and less flattering than knit pieces. The drape isn't as nice, the lines are messier...in general there's something not quite polished, about crochet (which if you've seen Zach and Miri Make a Porno (filthy yet hilarious) can be a good thing.) (Those are links to the knit/crocheted goodies that flooded that movie...not porn...just to clarify.) and that's generally enough to keep me on the needles and away from the hook.




In this case though I wanted the messy heavier texture of crochet; something unstructred. Mostly because I adored a scarf from a 2008 Martha Stewart article on breast cancer. After trying a half dozen different stitches, this way and that I landed on a British stitch that had a passing resemblance to the scarf in the magazine. The wonderful suprise was how well the stitch pulled out the colors of the yarn in an almost impressionistic way. Instead of intermitent stripes or bands of colors, they splash together and create a gorgeous ripple across the scarf. All in all I'm thrilled...even if I do have to wait four months before I can wear it for more than five minutes.

The Crafty Bits: Diamond Rib Socks

I once read that there are 'types' of knitters. People who knit to enjoy the end result, people who knit to enjoy the challenge of learning new techniques/stitches and people who knit just to knit (I think this means they knit just because they like the experience...). Mostly I fall into the second group, the feeling of victory after mastering something that was previously unknown is pretty awesome. That said, the part I really like about knitting is playing with the color and texture of yarn.

There is something immensely gratifying about finding a beautiful yarn and paring it with a stitch or texture that really give the final product that, "Oh, wow!" factor. There's a moment in each project when you start to get a feel for what the final product will look like...it's wonderful when you can see everything coming together and complimenting each other. The stitch brings out the color of the yarn while the color enhances the visual texture of the stitch. Very awesome stuff.


In someways I think I'm a bit entraced by this, in part because of my real-life job. Interior design is all about the play of color, texture, pattern and light....knitting is, for the most part, the same thing on a much smaller scale. I've only recently gotten comfortable enough with the howforwhytoos of knitting to really get into these aspects, but considering that I spent an hour yarn shopping on Saturday looking for just the right yarn to go with a texture I'm considering, I'd say I'm already pretty committed to the aesthetics end of the craft.


These socks are from Sensational Knitted Socks and use the Diamond Rib pattern from the 8 stitch section, I lifted the Eye of Partridge heel from a neighboring pattern because the play of the leg pattern and the echo of the diamond in the heel is beautiful. The yarn is Creatively Dyed Luxury yarn (Merino/Cashmere - definitely not everyday socks!) in Coffee Bean from The Loopy Ewe. The pair isn't done just yet, but since I finished the heel last night, I'm pretty close. After that I've got to do something with the hand-dyed yarn I bought on Saturday.

I can't wait to see if the pattern I've got in mind will work out.

Scribbles in the Margin: E.B. White

Two of my favorite things:

- The sound the spine of a book makes when it's opened for the very first time.
- The smell of a brand new (or very old) book.

Until they can make a digital media reader that can duplicate those sensations I won't be giving up my non-P.C., environmentally unfriendly tomes. It's not that I'm a Luddite or technologically unsavvy or a throw back to an older generation (I have my share of tech, I adore MarioKart and I'm only 29) it's just that I love the entire experience of reading a book. An honest to God, made out of trees and toxic glue - book.

I like the heft of a hard cover, the feel of the edges of the pages as they transition from crisp to supple, the smell of the paper and ink and the way a paper back forms to you as you read it from beginning to end. It's easy to over look, but there is a very simple pleasure in a very good book.

One Man's Meat

It seems fitting that as I'm pondering a rather "old school" stance on the physicality of literature, I'm doing so with a copy of E.B. White's One Man's Meat on the night stand next to me. Written between 1938 and 1942, White's collection of essays (written for Harper's Magazine) follow his transition from New Yorker to ruralist and I'd be flat-out lying if I said I didn't feel envious of his ease with the written word. Whether he's describing the antics of his dachshund or the unease of his new rural environment, White's writing flows along smoothly, hitching only where he wants it to.

Of course I didn't start with One Man's Meat, and it certainly hasn't been the first stop on the road. The first book I picked up was Charlotte's Web (first 19 years ago and then again in January) and while I like the book, the idea that EB White had been professional columnist for grown-up publications was much more interesting to me than EB White: Award Winning Children's Author. And so I picked up his most popular book, Essays of EB White...

Essays of E.B. White

...a collection of essays White wrote for the New Yorker on such a wide range of topics that the table of contents reads more like a card catalog than anything else. He writes about the World's Fair, the end of the Model T, Sears and Roebuck catalogs and just about anything else that tripped his fancy. Never shocking or lurid, he always feels like gentleman story-teller. I'll share something else, my favorite essay section is the first one, observations and telling moments about his life on the farm...which is how I ended up at One Man's Meat a few weeks later. A bit convoluted, sure...but worth it. There is something entirely relaxing about the reflections of a life before cell phones, laptops, MP3 players and Kindles on the page instead of a screen.

A few more times through and the cover will curl just right.

The Crafty Bits: Pirate Mitt(ens)

I'm not really sure where I want to start, but I have a few things floating about that seem like fun things to share. I'm pretty much knee deep in yarn right and quite frankly I can think of worse things to be overwhelmed with. So...let's get this show on the road!


Things on the needles (or hook in one case) include a pair of socks, a scarf, a stocking cap and a pair of mitt(ens). Can you tell I didn't get my winter knitting done? The craft box is just about bursting at the seams. As you can clearly see.

And just in case anyone is wondering, my craft containment unit is an oval reproduction hat box. So very AWESOME.

This is my "challenging project" a pair of two color fair isle skull mitts. Yes, skull mitts. I have a husband that won't let a pair of hand knit socks any where near his feet, but he would like some fingerless gloves for those cold winter evenings when he zombie slaying or flying a dragon to the far reaches of Azeroth. No, we don't have any children, why do you ask??

I don't have much more done than what's shown in the picture, but I have knit each pattern section multiple times to get the tension and holding style right for working with two yarns. It's been an interesting learning curve making the jump from one strand to two colors. I'm anticipating a fair amount of frogging to get these done so every ten row I'll be putting in a life line...or as I call them, "Oh Sh*t Save Points".

In the next week or so you'll get to see other goodies, but we have to space those things out ya' know? What else would I share...a post from the dog? Well...okay, yeah that might happen. She's pretty pissed about the decreased face time in 2008.