Something Easy: Beer Bread

I was in a strange mood a couple of weeks ago and started reading a cookbook. Reading like you would a novel. In good news, it was an interesting cookbook and I found many interesting recipes. One looked so easy that I couldn't help but try it right then. And we already had all the ingredients in the house! After making this just once, I know I'll be making it again and again. It's buttery, dense and delicious.

I dedicate this one to Megan, who gave us the incredible cookbook (Sara Moulton's Everyday Family Dinners).

Happy cooking!

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Beer Bread

Ingredients

3 cups flour

3 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 stick (8 Tbsp) butter, melted

1 12-oz beer (we used Blue Moon)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Place the stick of butter in a 9x13 baking pan. Place it in the oven while it preheats. Remove when it's melted (3 or so minutes).

3. Meanwhile, mix together dry ingredients (flour sugar, powder, salt) in a mixing bowl.

4. Use a large spoon to stir in beer until fully incorporated. The batter will be thick and a bit sticky. Make sure not to over-mix.

5. Remove all but about 1 Tbsp melted butter (enough to coat the bottom of the pan) from pan into a separate cup.

6. Place batter into greased pan and spread out as best you can. (A spatula coated with cooking spray works well for this.) I didn't get my batter to fill the whole bottom of the pan, but it didn't matter. The bread will expand as it cooks.

7. Pour the reserved melted butter over the batter.

8. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until golden.

9. Voila! Bread!

ps- You can easily jazz up this recipe (not that you need to) with a sprinkle of cheese or a dash of cinnamon sugar on top before baking.

Not an ad, just a suggestion.

Fizzies!

A thick lump of dough.

Spread out in the pan and covered in melted butter.

Ready for sharing.

Happy cooking!

Something Comforting: Chicken & Biscuits

Welcome to the first new recipe in AGES! I could apologize for days for my absence, but that wouldn't be as effective as just posting a recipe again.

I made this one for Chase one day (ages ago) when I was home and he was on campus all day. He came home to the smell of delicious chickeny goodness. I found the recipe in the Gooseberry cookbook Chase's mom gave me for Christmas. It's full of good, easy recipes, and this was the first I tried.

I made a few modifications to the recipe, mostly to add more layers of flavor, but also because the biscuits were overwhelmingly salty. I like salty, but this was a bit ridiculous. Modifications below, as always.

Happy cooking!

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Chicken & Biscuits

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts, cut into cubes

2-3 Tbsp vegetable oil

6 strips of bacon, cooked and crumbled

1 can cream of chicken soup (10 oz)

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup flour

1

½ tsp baking powder

1 cup buttermilk

½ cup butter, melted

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

¼ tsp dry basil

¼ tsp dry parsley

pinch of dry rosemary, crumbled

2 Tbsp green onion, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

2. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, add vegetable oil and cook the chicken through.

3. Meanwhile, combine cream of chicken and chicken broth in a greased casserole dish until well blended.

4. Stir bacon, basil and parsley into the mixture.

5. In a separate mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, pepper and rosemary. Then mix in buttermilk and melted butter. This will make a very thick biscuit batter.

6. Add fully cooked chicken into the broth in the casserole dish.

7. Spoon the biscuit batter on top of the broth, making about 5 large biscuits.

8. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, until the biscuits are golden.

9. Serve garnished with green onions.

The recipe, plus some.

Cooking the chicken (a wok works even better than a skillet for this!)

Broth, bacon and chicken, looking delicious even in dull light.

Biscuit batter into the broth.

Golden and delicious after a hot half-hour.

Happy cooking!

Something New: Biscuits & Gravy

It's finally time for the B&G side to have their day in the kitchen. I was happy to see such a passionate response last week when the question of Chicken Noodles vs. Biscuits & Gravy came up. I may have to put recipes to a vote sometime again soon. I am always happy to have input on the content here.

As for this recipe, I tried to make it as simple as possible. Making gravy can be tricky, but the key is getting the flour to milk ratio right so that your gravy thickens properly. And that golden ratio? 2 Tbsp flour for every 1 cup of milk (2 percent or soy). If you're using skim milk, however, the ratio will change. You may need an extra half to whole tablespoon of flour. And yes, this recipe works great with soy milk. Just adjust the vanilla amount based on your soy milk flavor.

Happy cooking!

ps- Although this recipe is quite delicious (and so easy) with canned biscuits, I'm working to find a great from-scratch buttermilk biscuit recipe. I haven't found it yet, so if you have one, I'd love for you to send it my way!

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Biscuits & Gravy

Ingredients

1 lb country-style ground sausage

2 cups milk

4 Tbsp flour

¼ tsp vanilla extract (seriously)

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

1 can buttermilk biscuits (8 count)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven and begin cooking the biscuits according to package directions.

2. Form half a pound of the sausage into ¼-½ inch thick patties (about 4-5 patties).

3. In a large skillet over medium high heat, brown the sausage patties until cooked through. Remove to a plate and cover with aluminum foil to keep warm.

4. In the same skillet, brown the rest of the sausage as ground sausage.

5. When the ground sausage is browned through, carefully drain excess grease, leaving about a Tbsp of grease in the skillet.

6. Add flour to the skillet and stir to coat sausage. Then mix in milk, salt, pepper and vanilla.

7. Reduce heat to medium and simmer until the gravy has thickened.

8. Split biscuits (which you remembered to take out of the oven!) in half and top with sausage patties. Smother in gravy and enjoy.

Sausage cooked and coated in flour.

Thickened gravy waiting to smother a biscuit.

Happy cooking!