Bacon-Onion Biscuits

Mama and I recently went through a ginormous stack of magazines that we've had for years for any number of reasons, mainly recipes. We cut/tore out anything and everything that caught our attention. This recipe, from the December 2006 issue of Better Homes and Gardens, certainly caught mine. ;) Of course, I had to make a few minor-ish changes; I'll post my changes at the end of the original recipe.

Ingredients:

• 4 slices of bacon, chopped

• 1 large onion, chopped

• 3 cups of all-purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon of baking powder

• 1 tablespoon of sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

• 3/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar

• 3/4 cup of butter

• 1 cup of milk

Directions:

In a skillet cook bacon and onion until bacon is slightly crisp and onion is tender. Drain off and discard fat.

In a bowl stir together flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, and cream of tartar. Using a pastry blender, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Make a well in center of flour mixture. Combine milk and bacon mixture; add all at once to flour mixture. Using a fork, stir just until moistened.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead dough by folding and gently pressing dough for four to six strokes or just until dough holds together. Pat or lightly roll dough to 3/4-inch thickness. Cut dough with a floured 2-1/2-inch biscuit cutter, rerolling dough scraps as necessary. Place unbaked biscuits on baking sheet; freeze 1 hour. Transfer to a plastic freezer bag. Seal, label, and freeze up to 1 month. Makes 12 biscuits.

TO SERVE: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place frozen biscuits 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheet. Bake 25 minutes or until golden.

Okay, first of all, I doubled. The other changes I made were mainly in the baking part, although I think I probably cooked the onions a bit more than is implied in the recipe (that bacon just wouldn't get crispy!). Oh, and I didn't drain the fat either (why drain bacon grease?!) I used a small biscuit cutter; didn't really think we needed 2 1/2" biscuits at fellowship. :) After that I baked the biscuits just like we usually do our normal biscuits: cast iron skillets with bacon grease in a 425* oven while cutting them out, biscuits flipped in the bacon grease, bake for 20-25 minutes or until done. Once they were done, I put them on cooling racks since I wanted to transfer them to a plastic container fairly soon.

I have a few changes I'd like to try next time as well: Buttermilk instead of sweet milk; I don't think a bit more tang would hurt the biscuits at all, and they might even rise a little better. More bacon. Go figure. I wouldn't mind trying to freeze them like they suggest either, but these are the kind of things we'll most likely want as soon as the dough's made. ;)

Oh, and the bacon butter I brought with these biscuits was just a pound of room temperature butter with as many slices of crispy bacon crumbled into the butter to make it look right. Nothing difficult, just gotta think to cook the bacon ahead of time; it can take a while to get the bacon good and crispy.

Enjoy!

Macaroni Grill Rosemary Bread

I found this recipe HERE. We actually have the real Macaroni Grill recipe somewhere, but we can't find it right now. If we ever run across it again, I'll try to remember to post whatever differences there are. :)

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbs. yeast
• 1 Tbs. sugar
• 1 cup warm water
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2 tsp. salt
• 2 Tbs. rosemary
• 2 Tbs. butter
  

Directions:

Place yeast, sugar and water in large bowl or food processor and allow mixture to become bubbly.

Mix in 1 T butter, salt, and 2 cups of flour.

Add one tablespoon of the fresh chopped rosemary.

Knead for about 10 minutes by hand or in food processor about 5 minutes until smooth and elastic.

Add more flour if necessary.

Oil a bowl, put dough in it and cover with a towel.

Let dough rise in a warm place for one hour until doubled.

Punch down dough and divide in half.

Let dough rest about 5 minutes.

Spray baking pan or cookie sheet with cooking spray.

Shape the dough into 2 small rounded oval loaves.

Sprinkle remaining 1 Tablespoon of rosemary over the loaves and press lightly into the surface.

Let loaves rise again until doubled, about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until lightly browned.

Carefully remove from oven, brush with remaining butter (and salt if desired).

I've made this twice now. Once I used soft white wheat, and once hard white. The hard white definitely did better; it was not nearly so crumbly! I'd like to try it again with store-bought all-purpose or bread flour, but we've never had that on hand when I've made it. Also, I just used the ingredients as a guideline. I generally double the amount of yeast that a bread recipe calls for merely because Daddy taught me how to make bread, and he does that. I don't know if it's necessary or not, but I've never had a problem with it rising. :D And, of course, it used a bit more that 2 1/2 cups of flour, but not too much. Anyway, hope y'all enjoy this! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Grits 'n' Greens Casserole

This is a recipe that we all enjoy - it's southern all around.

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups cream
2. 8 cups chicken broth, divided
3. 2 cups grits - NOT instant or quick-cooking
4. 1 large bag frozen collards (we've used home-grown greens and it works great)
5. 2 sticks butter
6. 2 1/2 cups Parmesan
   
7. 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
8. 1 cup cooked and crumbled bacon

Directions:

Grease a 9x13 casserole dish

If you want to brown the casserole, pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine cream and 6 cups of the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Stir in grits and cook over medium heat until the grits return to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to a simmer and stir frequently to keep it from burning, 25-30 minutes.

Add milk if needed to thicken to proper consistency (about like slightly runny oatmeal).

While grits are simmering, cook frozen collards with remaining 2 cups of chicken broth 'til tender, about 10 minutes. Drain well in colander, squeezing out remaining liquid.

Add butter, Parmesan and pepper to cooked grits, and stir 'til butter is melted. Stir in cooked greens and spoon into greased casserole dish. Top with additional Parmesan and bacon. Dish can be served at room temperature or heated in a 350 degree oven 'til browned on top.

Green beans with Tomato vinaigrette

This is a great way to use green beans, especially ones fresh from the garden!

• 1 can diced tomatoes


• 2 shallots, chopped


• 2 small cloves garlic, minced


• ¾ cup olive oil


• 1-2 T. tarragon vinegar


• salt, to taste


• pepper, to taste


• fresh basil


• Steamed green beans

Directions: Mix all the ingredients except for the green beans into a saucepan and boil. Steam green beans and put in serving dish. Pour tomato vinaigrette over.
We use onions instead of shallots which tastes just fine.

Easy Dirty Rice

It was requested that I post this recipe, which I took to church this week. I think I doubled it for church. It is a variation on a recipe from a small book I picked up a couple of years ago called Rival Crock Pot Slow Cooker Recipe Card Collection.

• 1 pound bulk pork sausage (Recipe calls for 1/2 pound of Italian; didn't sound like enough; and I didn't have Italian--nor do I like it as well.)
  
• 2 cups water (I added chicken bouillon--one cube per cup of water.)
  
• 1 cup uncooked long grain rice (I used Uncle Ben's.)
  
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1 large green bell pepper, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup finely chopped celery
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper

1. Brown and drain sausage. Place in crock-pot.

2. Stir in remaining ingredients. Cover; cook on HIGH a couple of hours. (The recipe says LOW for two hours, but I find more and more, especially with removable crocks, HIGH is required for at least part of the cooking.)

When I made this, I cooked the sausage at home. When I got to church, I put all the ingredients in the crock-pot and mixed it up, turned it on HIGH before corporate-prayer-time, and let it stay on HIGH until lunch. Very easy!

Enjoy!

Mary Susan

Rosemary Pasta in Roasted Garlic Sauce

I made this recipe last night to have with some steaks that Daddy grilled. It went over very well!

• 6 Tbs butter, divided
• ½ cup of finely chopped onion
• 6 cloves of coarsely chopped garlic
• 1 cup of chicken stock
• 2 Tbs chopped fresh rosemary (we didn't have fresh, but dried worked fine)
• 1 (16 oz.) package of spaghetti (we use vermicelli in place of spaghetti usually)
• ¼ cup of grated Parmesan cheese
• kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over low heat. Add the onions; cook and stir until they turn a deep brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in the garlic, and cook for 2 minutes, until fragrant. Mix in the chicken stock and rosemary, and increase the heat to medium-high. Cook until reduced by ⅓, about 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the pasta, and cook until tender, about 8 minutes. Drain, then add noodles to the sauce in the skillet. Stir in the remaining butter and Parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve in a large bowl family style, or place about 1 cup of pasta in a large mug or small bowl. Insert a dinner fork in the center of the pasta and twirl the fork around, holding the mug steady. The pasta will wind up tighter and tighter as you turn. Remove the fork and immediately turn the pasta out onto a dinner plate of shallow bowl. Garnish with extra cheese and rosemary sprigs.

Link

Turnip Greens

Ingredients:

1. a big bunch of fresh turnip greens (rinsed well)
2. a bit of water
3. Mrs. Dash
4. Black Pepper
5. 1 cayenne pepper
6. a couple of cubes of beef boulion (more or less to taste)

Preparation:

Cook the above ingredients in the pressure cooker for about 10 minutes. After the ten minutes are up, remove the lid and let the greens simmer while you finish up the rest of the meal.

Tip:

You really do need a big bunch of greens, even if there are only a few people planning to eat them. Turnip greens (and other greens - mustard, collard, etc.) cook down a whole lot, so we usually pick enough to fill an ordinary grocery bag. It should fill up the pressure cooker at first, but once they're done cooking, you'll just have a nice bowl full.