A Little Introduction

Welcome to my kitchen.  You've received an invitation to my blog because you've expressed interest in being able to make something you tasted at my house.  I want to make this interesting and fun, but also give you a blueprint to make some really outstanding dishes.  I'll also give you my thoughts on whatever I'm trying to perfect at the moment.

Today, I'm working on biscuits. Seems easy, right?  But I can't tell you how many recipes I've tried, and I'm just not quite happy yet.  Some are made with Crisco, some with butter, some with lard, some with half Crisco and half butter.  Some use AP (all-purpose) flour, some use pastry flour, some call for White Lily (soft winter flour found in the South).  Some use milk, some cream, and some buttermilk.  The technique is usually the same (although that varies too), and I have learned a few tips there.  What I'm looking for is something flaky, melting in your mouth, but strong enough to hold some butter and jam or some kind of meat (ham?  fried chicken?  sausage?).  I think the biscuits of my dreams are the ones made by a cook at the sorority I lived in for one semester in college.  She was from the South, and her biscuits were perfect.  So I'll keep experimenting until I get something that tastes like I remember.  Of course, memory can fool us, too...

Before we begin, I have a few words to say about ingredients and cooking equipment (I'm saving ovens for a longer, somewhat fanatical, post).  Have you ever tried to duplicate a friend's recipe and it just doesn't taste the same?  It turns out that there are a lot of variables, not only in the exact ingredients you use, but in the equipment you cook with.  I will be extremely (some will say obsessively) explicit about what I use, based on years of trial and error and reading cookbooks and magazines.  This is not to say that you have to do exactly the same thing, but your results will vary accordingly.  It is also true that we each have our own palate, so what tastes good to me may not to you.  I suggest starting with as close to my version as possible, then vary according to your taste after that.

One of the things I have learned is that the quality of ingredients really does matter.  Sometimes that means that they are more expensive, but sometimes it is more important that something be fresh.  Chocolate, for example, loses flavor with age.  Flour lasts about two years, so you'll probably be able to use it up long before it gets stale.  With each recipe I plan to give you my thoughts on each ingredient, along with some suggestions about brands to look for.

By popular demand, the first recipe I'll post will be my signature Blondies.  So stay tuned!

Judy