Biscuits and gravy

 

Today begins National Biscuits and Gravy week.  I love biscuits and gravy.  I wish I could put biscuits on the menu.  But for me, biscuits aren't quite the same when they aren't fresh.  They taste fine heated up again in the oven (NOT the microwave), but they just aren't the same.  I know we say that about a lot of foods, but some foods (pizza, spaghetti, for example), in my opinion are just as good when reheated.

I've played with biscuit recipes off and on, but I've never found a way to make them such that when they are reheated you don't feel like you have settled on something less.   Pizza reheated is different than fresh pizza, but you don't feel like you settled for less.  There's something about it aging for a day and being reheated (again, NOT in the microwave) that makes pizza different but still excellent.  Alas, the same cannot be said for biscuits.

Biscuits.... Should they be eaten with butter only?  Butter and honey?  Butter and jam?  I like them all three ways.  And now that I'm informed as to this being National Biscuits and Gravy Week, I got thoughts in my head for a big breakfast as a dinner, a breakfast/dinner of biscuits and gravy and scrambled eggs and French toast with a tropical fruit smoothie to top it off.  

Doesn't that sound good?  I'd better eat low calories for a day or two first.  

Have a great week, everyone!

Breads

As we start September and begin to anticipate autumn weather and its cooler temps and rain and wind, I often start thinking a lot more about breads.

I think breads are one of the most amazing things.  A bit of flour, liquid (water, milk, shortening), some yeast, some nice flavorings --- it's wonderful how so many good breads come from such few ingredients, such ordinary ingredients.  To be sure, it takes some practice to develop good technique in making breads.  But overall, a bread is a very simple thing.  Yet at the same time enormously complex.  One small change in rising temperature or time, or cooking temperature, or changing out one liquid for another in the ingredients list, each of these things can make the outcome change significantly.

I think of myself as quite adept at breads, but I know that those who specialize in breads, who make them every day in quantity, these people are real experts who have honed their technique and judgement over time and through errors as well.  And they reach a point where they can simply feel the dough, look at the dough, poke at the dough, and they know exactly how much longer it needs to rise, whether or not too much moisture was input, whether or not salt was under-included or over-included.  They know how much steam the oven needs just by a developed sense.

As the fall starts, I think of all the breads I want to make, of the aromas wafting from the oven, of cinnamon rolls, and thick ryes, and soft white sandwich breads, and of pullas and other special loaves that many know by sight but not by name.  I think of all the time I could spend making breads and being happy -- except for the fact that then I couldn't also make cookies, and smoothies, and slow-roasted chicken and egg salads and so on. 

There's only so much time.  But it's all time put to good use if one is making wonderful food.