We’ve Moved- Really!

So, officially, for reals, this time, the move is official.

Say goodbye to this format, and the forwarding, and say hello to the new and improved

biscuitsandsuch.com

We know you’ll love it, so we hope you follow us there!

Banana Nut Bread

When I was a kid, my mother’s freezer always had black, frozen bananas in it.  Now, in turn, my freezer always has black, frozen bananas in it.  It’s a combination of the fact that I always have bananas laying around that don’t get eaten and the fact that I’m always intending to make banana bread.  

Banana bread is an easy, healthy snack that keeps for a few days and is appropriate any time of the day.  And, the recipe is very adaptable.  I used pecans, but you can use any nut.  Or, if you don’t like nuts, you can leave them out entirely and this is still a delicious bread.

While I always use frozen bananas in this recipe, as a way to use and eat all the bananas we buy, you can absolutely use fresh bananas.  If you do decide to use frozen bananas, you can go ahead and chop them and mix them in while they’re frozen.  By the time you’re done adding in all the other ingredients, they’ll be thawed.

Finally, I am going to take a last opportunity to plug silicon bakeware.  For cupcakes, bunt cakes, and loaves, this is really the best bakeware.  While I was making this, I was watching Ultimate Recipe Showdown on Food Network (a Saturday favorite in the Rosemond-Hoerr household), and one woman was making bunt cakes.  She pulled the cake-removal off perfectly, but the stress that she (and the judges) had about that moment was palpable.  And totally avoidable, if you ask me.

Banana Nut Bread

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

3 ripe bananas (frozen or fresh), diced

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped pecans (or other nut)

1 tsp salt

2 cups flour

Peel and dice your bananas, and chop your nuts.

One by one, whisk together the ingredients, in the order that they’re listed.  

Bake at 400* for 60 minutes.  Let cool and serve.

Follow us on the Internets!

So, my having all this inauguration-related time off has led to some big technology upgrades for biscuitsandsuch!  While this week will be bringing an upgrade to the actual site, we’ve also put ourselves out there in a few other ways.  

You can:

find us on flickr here

find us on twitter here

find us on facebook here

And like I said, if I play my cards right and bug Dan enough, www.biscuitsandsuch.com will break from it’s wordpress blog format and get some tweaking this week!

Damn Fine Gumbo

This Christmas I also got a cookbook from my parents titled The Best of the Best from North Carolina.  As you can probably guess, it is a collection of recipes from North Carolina recipe books.  Browsing it on Christmas morning we had a few chuckles at recipe titles (Otis’s Dipsy-Doodle Cake, for instance), my father scoffed at the two brunswick stew recipes, and I got very excited about the possibilities.  My sister Lauren, had she had the opportunity, would have probably scoffed at the gumbo recipes.

You see Lauren, North Carolinian that she is, has recently moved to New Orleans.  During school she lead a ton of service trips to the gulf for Katrina relief, and she loved it so much that after she graduated, she moved down there.  She is now a full fledged bourbon drinker, and I’m sure that her gumbo skills would blow mine out of the water.  Never-the-less, she is over a thousand miles away, so this weekend I made Beaufort Grocery’s Darn Fine Gumbo from my new recipe book.

As you may well have realized, the 44th president, Barack Obama, is being inaugurated this weekend, just down the street from our Takoma Park apartment.  And while I initially had aspirations to see this historic election in person, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton’s warnings, the D.C. metro’s statistics, and the constant NPR and Washington Post reports about how gridlocked and insane the District is going to be this weekend made me rethink.  Not to mention that they are predicting that it will be very cold.  So, Dan and I decided that our best bet was to hunker down and get a front row view on MSNBC.  

And all hunkering down includes a plethora of food, so on top of other snacks, I decided a pot of something hot and slow cooked would be a good option for all day no schedule eating.  I skimmed my new cookbook, and was attracted by the ingredients (most of which I had on hand), and the proprietor.  I’m partial because Beaufort Grocery is catering my wedding.

The only hitch was the title of their recipe.  You see, a childhood strip test revealed that I’m allergic to saying the word “darn” unless I’m mocking someone.  And even then I have a high risk of breaking out in hives.  Thankfully, I would categorize this gumbo as damn fine, and I think even Lauren would agree.

Damn Fine Gumbo
Source: The Best of the Best from North Carolina, North Carolina’s Historic Restaurants and Their Recipes

4 pieces of bacon, chopped and fried

1/2 cup clarified butter

1 cup chopped green bell pepper

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup chopped onion

2 tbsp paprika

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp coriander

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp cayenne

1 tbsp gumbo file

1 cup flour

2 quarts chicken stock or water

1 cup chopped cooked chicken

1 cup chopped cooked sausage

8 ounces chopped okra

2 cups scallops 

Dash of salt

2 tbsp tabasco

Cooked rice

Parsley to garnish

Fry bacon in the bottom of your pot, set the bacon aside.  Mix in the butter with the bacon grease.  Add green pepper, celery, and onion.  Saute until tender.  Add garlic and spices, and stir.  Mix in flour and stir continuously for five minutes.  Slowly add stock, and let simmer for twenty minutes.  Add chicken, sausage, bacon, and okra, then let simmer an additional fifteen minutes.  Add scallops and cook until they’re almost completely opaque.  Add salt and tabasco.  

Serve over cooked rice, garnished with parsley sprigs.  

 

Spicy Pecan-Crusted Dolphin Fish

When I was a kid, our family friend, Captain Fred Cates, used to take us fishing on his beautiful sports fishing boat.  Capt’n Fred was actually my grandfather’s friend.  The former mayor of Hillsborough, he is a bastion of hilarious stories about my parents and grandparents.  He also spent all of my elementary and teen years trying to set me up with his grandson, Chase.  Who, as I was frequently reminded, has a four door truck.

On these fishing trips off the coast of North Carolina, into the gulf stream, there was an award system.  Golden hooks were awarded for biggest fish, most fish, so on and so on.  I rarely won, and when I did go home with a golden hook it was usually because my father or uncle had helped me reel in the fish.  Mostly I remember fishing for dolphin fish, but I’m sure we were after other game as well.  

Dolphin fish, also known as mahi mahi (which I refuse to say, seeing as how I am not Hawaiian), is a delicious fish.  It is also, in my opinion, a beautiful fish.  It has this incredible shimmer to it, changing from yellow to green to bright blue, depending on how the sun hits its scales.  The meat is light and full of flavor, not fishy at all.

For this recipe, I was looking for a good winter twist on a fish dish.  Usually I like dolphin served with lime and cilantro.  But, since it’s winter, I thought something a little heavier was fitting.  So, I made a quick pecan breading, with a little spice to add a kick.  I served it with lightly cooked asparagus that I topped with lemon and parmesan.  It was scrumptious.  Dan suggested that these might make a great appetizer, on toothpicks served with spicy mustard.  

Spicy Pecan-Crusted Dolphin Fish

1 dolphin filet

1 cup of pecans

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp chipotle pepper

1/2 tsp paprika 

1/4 cup peanut oil

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk

Salt & Pepper

Rinse your filets in cold water, and pat dry.  If your filet still has the skin on it, peel the skin off before you rinse.  For instructions on how to filet a dolphin see here.  Season with salt and pepper, and set aside.  I sliced them into squares to increase the breading surface.  Also, cutting them makes the filets go further portion wise.  Dan and I split one filet, and combined with the asparagus, we were full.  I actually didn’t even finish my half.

In the food processor, blend pecans, flour, sugar,  salt and spices.  In a heavy nonstick skillet or cast iron pan, heat the peanut oil.  

Dip your filets in the dry mix, then in milk, then in the dry mix.  Set aside.

When the peanut oil is hot to the touch, drop your filets in.  Cook for two to three minutes on each side.  Use tongs or a fork to drop the fish onto a paper towel.  Allow to cool at least a few minutes on the paper towel (which will also absorb some oil) before plating.

 

Asparagus with Lemon and Parmesan

1 bunch of asparagus

1 lemon

2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese

Fill your saute pan 1/4 to 1/2 of the way with water.  Add 1 tbsp olive oil and bring to a simmer.  Rinse your asparagus and place in the pan.

Slice your lemon in half.  Squeeze half of the lemon over the asparagus, and place the lemon half in the pan.  Cook the asparagus for 10 minutes, or until it has become a darker green.

Plate your asparagus, then squeeze the other half of the lemon over it.  Grate parmesan over the asparagus and serve.

Scallops with Sage and Corn

As a twentysomething planning her wedding, you can be sure of two things.  For one, I am constantly skimming theknot.com for ideas on flowers/decorations/hoopahs (or nondenominational ceremonial arches, as we’re calling them in our secular wedding), etc.  Secondly, I am trying not to get fatter, a goal which was complicated by the holidays and tons and tons of pie.  So when I stumbled upon a healthy scallop recipe on theknot’s affiliate website thenest.com, I jumped on it.

Whole Foods had BEAUTIFUL scallops, and while I die inside paying the prices at Whole Foods, Safeway only had frozen, and I really wanted fresh scallops.  They were big and juicy, and so delicious.  The flavor of the sage complimented the buttery taste of the scallop, and the corn and pepper added texture and flavor to the dish.  

 

Scallops with Sage and Corn
Source: theknot.com, Jeanne Jones

1 pound fresh or frozen scallops

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

 1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup fresh sage, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

2 cups fresh corn kernels

1 large red bell pepper, diced

Sage sprigs

Rinse scallops and pat dry.  Sprinke with lemon juice, salt, and pepper.  In a large skillet, sautee sage and garlic.  Add scallops, and make sure to be attentive about stirring.  When the scallops have turned from translucent to opaque, remove from the pan and set aside.  Cook the corn and pepper in the same skillet.  Once the pepper is tender, add the scallops, toss, and remove from heat.  Garnish with sage and serve.

Iced Maple Sugar Cookies

So after making Dan’s birthday cake, I had a lot of left over icing.  And since it took me ages to finely chop all those strawberries, I certainly didn’t want it to go to waste.  So, I made sugar cookies, and iced them with my leftover strawberry icing.  I will also note that Dan loves iced sugar cookies, so this counts as extra birthday baking.

For Christmas, Dan’s mom gave me a book of Christmas cookie recipes, and this was from the book.  It’s a recipe from April Gadoury, and she titles it “Best-Ever Sugar Cookies.”  And she does not lie.  The maple syrup adds an extra sweetness, but the cookies aren’t overwhelmed with the flavor of maple.  They also iced really nicely, I just popped them back into the fridge after I iced them so everything could solidify.  My only tweak would be that instead of trying to roll them out and use a cookie cutter, I think next time I’ll form them into a log before putting in the fridge so that I can just slice and bake them… much easier!

Iced Maple Sugar Cookies
Source: Christmas Cookies, April Gadoury

1 1/4 cup sugar

1 cup butter, softened

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 tbsp vanilla extract

3  cups all purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Strawberry Icing (recipe here)

Combine sugar and butter in a large bowl.  Mix with an electric mixer until fully incorporated.  Add in eggs, syrup, and vanilla, and mix.  

Whisk together  flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Gradually beat into sugar mixture.  Divide the dough in half.  Roll each half into a log, and wrap with plastic wrap.  Refrigerate overnight.

Slice hardened log into 1/4″ thick cookies.  Bake at 375* for 6-10 minutes.  Let cool, then ice.

White Cake with Chocolate and Strawberries

While I would consider myself a pie person, I also really enjoy cakes, both baking and eating.  I think that my penchant for pie comes from my July birthday.  Because my birthday is usually in the summer, the ideal celebration dessert is a blueberry mountain pie, a recipe I’ll share for my birthday this year.  It’s a hot cobbler served with vanilla ice cream, and it epitomizes the feel of my birthday, for me.  

But, this weekend is Dan’s birthday, not mine.  So, I made a cake.  I prefer chocolate cake with thin chocolate icing , but Dan is a vanilla cake person, and since it’s not my birthday, that’s what I did.  I made a white cake with strawberry icing between the layers and chocolate icing on the top.  Strawberries were on sale at the market, so I bought two packs and garnished the cake with sliced strawberries.

Now, for the embarrassing part.  So this cake was supposed to have three layers.  In fact, I MADE three layers.  But as I was pulling the pans out of the oven, I (typical) dropped the pan.  It slid out of my oven mitted hands and onto the bottom of the oven, cake side down.  I’m not beyond using food that I’ve dropped, but the cake completely feel out of the pan and crumbled at the bottom of my oven.  It was devastating.  And since I have to work today and didn’t have time to repeat the laborious process of making a white cake just for one layer, Dan’s birthday cake was stunted.  

I also forgot to add the extracts.  I was skimming the recipe a little too fast, I guess, and just never saw the part of the instructions where they mentioned extract.  The cake still tasted good, and with all that icing you couldn’t really tell the difference.  All in all, it turned out well.  The strawberries jazzed up what I would usually consider kind of a boring cake, and I love the strawberries and chocolate combination!

Basic White Cake
Source: Southern Living, July 2008 

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup shortening

2 cups sugar

3 cups cake flour (or 2 1/2 cups all purpose)

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 tsp almond extract

6 egg whites

Beat butter and shortening with an electric mixer, at low to medium speed.  Beat until creamy, then gradually add sugar.  

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Combine milk and water.  Alternate adding dry and wet ingredients to the butter, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.  Use a silicon spatula to fold together.  When you’ve combined all three mixtures, stir in extracts.

Beat egg whites at a high speed until stiff peaks form.  Fold the egg whites into the batter one third at a time.  Grease your baking pans, and split the batter between them (3 8″ baking pans)

Bake at 325 for 30-35 minutes.  Cool for fifteen minutes.

Spread out a sheet of plastic wrap on the counter.  Turn one of your pans upside down onto the wrap, so that the cake is touching plastic.  Use your hands to gently hit the bottom of the pan.  Don’t get violent, but you want to hit the pan hard enough to dislodge the cake.  Move your hand around the bottom of your pan until you hear the cake plop down.  Wrap in plastic wrap and put in the freezer.  Repeat with other two layers.

Freeze for 4 hours.  Unwrap frozen layers, spread on icing.  Allow to stand at room temperature for two hours.  Garnish and serve.

Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
Source: Southern Living, July 2008

1 cup butter, softened

1 32-oz package powdered sugar

1 cup finely chopped fresh strawberries

Use an electric mixer to beat butter until fluffy.  Add sugar and strawberries, beating until creamy.  Refrigerate until you’re ready to put onto the cake. 

Milk Chocolate Frosting
Source: Southern Living, July 2008

1/2 cup butter, softened

3 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/4 cup milk 

Use an electric mixer to beat butter until creamy.  Add the remaining ingredients, one at a time, beating until smooth.  Refrigerate until you’re ready to ice the cake.

 

Oysters on the Grill

Because I’m the biggest brat in the world, when I sent my parents a christmas card, I asked for oysters.  To be fair, my mom got a card asking for her specialty cookies, so at least I don’t discriminate between the people who raised me.  Anyway, so when I got home, my father had oysters on ice waiting for me.

This post will be the first of a series, called “Captain James Cooks.”  My father, Captain James Rosemond, runs a dive charter out of Carteret County, NC.  His boat, the lovely vessel Tortuga, is docked on Piver’s Island.  You can see his website here.  It was my father’s mother, Barbara, who inspired this blog, and there are certain things that he cooks that are just mind-blowing.  So the segment will feature the Captain cooking his recipes for us.  The name of the segment was inspired by the legendary navigator and cartographer, Captain James Cook.  In a beautiful cross over of interests, one of my favorite authors, Tony Horowitz, wrote a book about one of my dad’s heroes, called Blue Latitudes.  My dad thought he was really clever when he came up with “Captain James Cooks.”

So about oysters.  While you can usually get mussels year round from all over the world, like most things, oysters have a season.  Usually, oyster season spans all months that end in “-er.”  The season starts around September and lasts through December.  Which makes them a prime holiday food.  We’re not real fancy with our oysters, and most times you’ll see my dad or brothers eating them right out of the shell, but I prefer them with a little extra.  Tabasco sauce is a great topping, as is horseradish.  My favorite combination is a saltine with horseradish on it, topped with the oyster and a little hot sauce.  Guaranteed to clear your sinuses.  

Oysters on the Grill
Source: Captain James Rosemond

A few dozen in-season oysters

Saltines to match

Horseradish

Tabasco sauce

Ice

Keep your oysters on ice until you put them on the grill.  Heat your grill to 300-400 degrees.  Lay the oysters directly onto the grill and close your lid.  Check them every five to ten minutes.  As soon as the shells open, they’re ready to serve.  Use a shucking tool to remove the oyster from the shell, and either eat or slide that sucker onto a saltine.

 

 

 

Chocolate Mousse

This year, because of an impending wedding, my father’s new dive charter, and the fact that all of my siblings are either in school, employed by AmeriCorps, or in the Army, we are not exchanging Christmas gifts.  Which is great, I was only asked to bring home pie, which is why this week I made seventy odd holiday cup pies.  

So, as a result, Dan and I celebrated our Christmas a bit early, on the 22nd.  Which was a great idea.  I was going to make chicken marsala, spinach tossed in olive oil and garlic, and for dessert, a lovely mousse.  Now, I know you probably think I’m a crazy masochist for making a mousse after what I will probably refer to in the future as the Pie Blitz of 2008, but what is a romantic Christmas without dessert?  Well, it turns out, I am a masochist and a giant clutz.  After I melted the chocolate on the makeshift double boiler, I went to remove it from heat, and sloshed water all over my hand.  Which left me with serious burns and an inability to do anything but whine.  So, I finished off the mousse and watched Gilmore Girls until Dan got home, and HE made the chicken marsala.  I stayed on the couch and watched Gilmore Girls.  Romantic, right?

This recipe, unlike some of the pies I’ve made, is a bit complicated.  It takes a little finesse, and it takes a little time.  Finesse that I mostly don’t have, as I’m a raving idiot who burns herself.  Mostly, it’s just a bunch of whipping.  Whip and whip and whip, then some folding, and then a little chilling, and then a lot of enjoying.  

 

Chocolate Mousse

6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

1 cup heavy cream

1 tbsp warm water

1 large egg

2 large egg yolks

Pinch of salt

1/3 cup sugar

Heat chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water.  You don’t want the bottom of the bowl to be making direct contact with the water.  The water should also be slowly boiling, not rapidly.  Stir the chocolate occasionally until it’s melted and smooth.  Remove chocolate from heat, but keep the water simmering.

Whip cream until it holds soft peaks.  Cover and refrigerate.  

Whisk egg yolks, egg, salt, and sugar together until foamy and light.  Place over saucepan and whip with electric beater.  Move the whisk in a circular motion until the eggs are fluffy and hot to the touch.  Don’t keep it over heat too long, or your eggs will scramble.  Remove from heat and continue beating on high for five minutes until thick ribbons fall from the beater when lifted.  Whisk in water.  

Fold 1/4 of the egg into the chocolate.  Incorporate completely, then fold in the rest.  Finally, fold in the cream to make it smooth and light.  Pour into serving dishes, cover, and refrigerate at least one hour.