OMGSNAX!

last week, when i asked for suggestions for the next OMGSNAX! recipe, daniel requested “cinnamon raisin biscuits, like hardee’s used to make” — & since the last couple attempts were things he definitely doesn’t like, i thought maybe it’d be nice to try something he’d for sure enjoy. (although i have to say, just as a sidebar, that waiting for people to take their first bite of a new recipe is kind of nerve-wracking! or even trying a new recipe myself — i feel almost depressed about it, you know, just on the off chance that it’s terrible & i’ve just wasted a whole lot of my time.)

so this week, i looked up a few different biscuit recipes. most of them required being rolled out, & i’m sure you can guess what it is i don’t have in my kitchen … a rolling pin. so no to that. luckily, i happened to find ONE recipe that, although it featured sour cream (my nemesis), also required only gentle kneading instead of rolling. i made it this morning around 845am (after calling my dad before 8am for the recipe, as my internet was down (oh noes!)), & you know what? it worked out pretty darn well.

INGREDIENTS
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons white sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup margarine
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 teaspoons milk

METHOD
preheat oven to 450 degrees. in a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, soda, & salt. cut in margarine. make a well in center. add sour cream, 2 tablespoons milk, & raisins, stirring till just combined (add a bit more milk, if needed). on floured surface, gently knead 8-10 stokes. pat dough to 1/2″ thickness. cut with biscuit cutter, dipping in flour between cuts. place on baking sheet. bake at 450 degrees for 10-12 minutes. cool slightly on wire racks.
stir together confectioners’ sugar & 2 teaspoons milk. drizzle over biscuits. sprinkle with additional cinnamon & sugar, if desired.

DEVIATIONS & OBSERVATIONS
i didn’t deviate AT ALL. well, ok — i did end up adding an additional 2T milk to the dough b/c it really wasn’t moist enough, but part of that i attribute to not having a pastry blender so i had kind of a hard time cutting in the butter.

softened butter

dough

also, i probably should’ve put down wax paper or parchment paper on the table before daniel floured it — &, as he pointed out, i really should’ve been smart enough to remember to flour my hands! — but that’s just something to note for next time. it was a little bit messy, but nothing that wouldn’t wipe up with a damp washrag.

patting the dough

just out of the oven

the icing especially was super-easy to make, but i probably should double the recipe for it next time as it just wasn’t quite enough. (caroline agreed).

ORGANIC powdered sugar

iced biscuits, cooling
note the huge mess under the rack, b/c clearly putting down newspaper or paper towels would be WAY too much effort to go to

i always suspected i was a much better baker than i was a cook, & this is just further proof — apart from the pastry blender issue (i used a fork), i had no problems at all with this recipe. i guess i just feel more comfortable baking than i do cooking.

all in all, the biscuits went over well. daniel enjoyed them, my mom & my sister enjoyed them, & caroline & her mom enjoyed them. (i thought they were ok, but (a) i’m not a big biscuit fan & (b) EW RAISINS YUCKO.) to answer the question that’s on everyone’s minds: yes, i’d make them again despite the clean-up hassle.

biscuit aftermath!

 

 

“Cinnamon Sour Cream Biscuits” from allrecipes.com

an OMGSNAX! special edition

i’ve never made pancakes before. this is b/c i really really hate pancakes. waffles? delicious. pancakes? no. i understand that they are the same recipe, so i assume it’s a texture thing, but honestly? i don’t know.

so by the time daniel got out of the studio & over to my house tonight, it was 930pm & we were about to start another round of a favorite OMGSNAX! household pasttime, namely: “what do you want for dinner?” “i don’t know, what do YOU want?” i made it known that, after last night’s squash soup debacle, i wanted some squash ravioli; daniel said he’d just starve, & then decided that pancakes sounded delicious — & since i actually have both milk & eggs in the fridge right now (a rarity, as i don’t drink milk & barely eat eggs), i quickly agreed & then roped him into going to Whole Foods with me to get our respective dinners. here is our story:

INGREDIENTS
2 cups pancake mix (Whole Foods brand)
2T melted butter or vegetable oil
2 cups milk
2 eggs

METHOD
combine ingredients. heat skillet or griddle. make pancakes. serve.

DEVIATIONS & OBSERVATIONS
so i guess pretty much everyone knows how to make pancakes except me. get off my case. i’ve made latkes before, which, for the uninitiated, are potato pancakes, so it’s not as if i don’t get the general concept. i basically made the batter according to the directions, & then daniel did most of the actual pancake making. nothing too exciting. we took photos. yargh.

mixing mixing mixing;
you can see my dinner in the background by the canola oil

pouring the first pancake

preparing to flip

the “perfect pancake”; i think it looks like jupiter

daniel gestures at the big ass pancake he made

self-portrait of the cooks

daniel in pancake format

 

 

“Pancakes” from the back of the batter mix bag

i ♥ squash. srsly. my mom always tells me that, as a baby, my nose was a subtle hue of orange b/c of all the squash i ate. & then, for years? nothing. wouldn’t touch the stuff. stopped eating meat. still turned up my nose at squash recipes. & then i’m not exactly sure how this happened, but i accidentally tried some butternut squash ravioli. my mom probably brought it home from Big Sky Cafe & i, being moochy, snagged them & LOVED THEM. (& i’ll go ahead & plug putney pasta’s butternut squash & maple syrup ravioli, too, which i once ate for a record five meals in three days. don’t even.) so what i’m saying is, squash soup? MAIS OUI.

i guess i was talking to my grandma one day about how much i love squash, squashy squash squash, & she busted out this recipe she’d seen in Cooking Light for butternut squash soup & i took it & carried it with me for three months — THREE DAMN MONTHS in the front zippered pocket of my messenger bag — until wednesday night, when brian & i went to the grocery store & i bought everything i needed to finally bring the recipe to fruition. including an extra squash, b/c the one i’d been eyeing longingly on my counter since october (when i first thought i was gonna do this thing, HA) wasn’t big enough.

& so here it is — squash soup:

INGREDIENTS
8 cups 1-inch cubed peeled butternut squash (about 2 1/4 lbs)
1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
cooking spray
4 cups warm 2% milk, divided
1 14-oz can fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth, divided
1/4 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

METHOD
preheat oven to 400. combine squash, oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, & 1/4 teaspoon pepper on a foil-lined baking sheet coated with cooking spray. bake at 400 for 45 minutes or until tender. place half of squash, half of milk, & half of broth in a blender; process until smooth. pour puréed mixture into a large saucepan. repeat procedure with remaining squash, milk, & broth. cook over medium heat 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated (do not bring to a boil). stir in remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt & remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper. ladle 1 cup soup into each of 8 bowls, sprinkle each serving with 1 1/2 teaspoons nuts.

DEVIATIONS & OBSERVATIONS
let me tell you something: i hate Cooking Light. with the fire of a thousand suns, i hate it. i always forget that i hate Cooking Light, but i do. 2% milk? bitch, please.

quibbling about the fat content of ingredients aside, though, this looked like a pretty damn easy recipe. cook squash, add milk & stock, blend. right? well, not quite.

i mean, the A#1 problem here was how, exactly, to cube the squash. b/c i don’t know if you’ve heard, but butternut squash? kind of a pain in the ass to cut. usually when caroline & i make our squash/sweet potato/bell pepper medley (which, i know, is SO WEIRD that those are the theme ingredients of my first three OMGSNAX posts, & i’m not even being coy, it’s really freakin weird), i make caroline cut the squash b/c i don’t want to lose a finger. (is that mean? that i’m ok with the one of us who’s a guitar player possibly losing a finger? or does that just show that i have more confidence in her knife-wielding abilities than i do my own? let’s go with option B, shall we?) so i googled “tips on peeling butternut squash” (i’m nothing if not resourceful!) & i came up with this site, which said, basically, that you can cook a whole squash in the oven if you poke a few holes in it to vent, i guess.

(& YES, before you even get on my case, i verified that this was an ok method by checking out a few of the other sites returned in the google search, so SHUT UP.)

portrait of the squash as a young man
the one on the right is definitely butternut; the other? not so sure

so i thought, ok, & i stabbed a few holes in my two squashes & stuck them in a 350 oven for 45 minutes. after looking at all the squash photos on the aforementioned site, i felt a little alarmed that one of my squashes looked more like a banana squash than a butternut squash, but SURELY the grocery store wouldn’t mislabel, right?

the thing is that i got the squashes out of the oven & seeded the one that was DEFINITELY a butternut squash & then peeled it by cutting it into manageable slices & using a paring knife to remove the skin, & then the other squash? i cut it in half & it smelled really weird. now, maybe this was b/c it was a banana squash, or maybe this was b/c i had the squash almost as long as i had the recipe, & as i said, i got the recipe from my grandma in october. OC. TOBER.

halved butternut squash

so i thought, the hell with it, & i threw the weird-smelling one out & decided to halve the recipe. i certainly didn’t need any kind of 8 servings, anyway, what with the fact that it was just me eating & all (daniel hates squash & caroline was on a date), so i wasn’t too perturbed.

i will say that seeding, peeling, & cutting the squash took a pretty long ass time. maybe close to half an hour. & i burned myself a little, but i guess that’s sort of par for the course.

pan-roasting squash

i decided that maybe the squash was a little underdone as it was baked whole, so i tossed the cubed pieces with the olive oil & stuck them back in the oven for maybe 10 minutes while i measured out the milk & the stock. of course i substituted whole milk for 2% (& actually finished up the last 1/2 cup of the half & half from last week’s recipe), &, duh, as a vegetarian, i used organic vegetable stock (from a carton, not homemade as i sometimes do) instead of chicken stock, but it’s basically the same recipe.

my favorite kitchen appliance

i pretty much followed the directions from there on out — combined, blended, heated — & i did actually garnish with toasted walnuts, & you know what? apparently i hate walnuts. like almost to the point of gagging. who knew?

soup & walnut garnish

so, you know. there you have it. love squash, love things made with squash, dug the squash soup ok, hated the walnuts. the soup clearly needed to be made with half & half b/c it was a little thin with the milk (even whole milk, omg!), & i don’t know, i puréed the damn thing but it was still a little grainy. or gritty. not quite the right texture. & the texture of squash is one of the things i love best, so that was a bummer. i mean, the taste of the soup was good — it had the right amount of salt & you could definitely taste the sweetness of the squash (i mean, hell, what was gonna overpower it?), but the texture? MEH.

the aftermath

 

 

“Butternut Squash Soup with Toasted Walnuts” from Cooking Light (October 2005) c/o my grandma