(no subject)

[bedlamsbard]

I find the act of getting my hands in dough very soothing. It also makes me feel -- mmm, as a historian it makes me feel closer to men and women who have, throughout history, done the very same thing -- cut butter into pie crusts and biscuit doughs, kneaded bread dough, shaped loaves. I like that it doesn't require any special tools -- sure, I could cut in butter with a pastry cutter or two knives, and I could knead bread dough with my KitchenAid's dough hook (well, not at school, obviously), but I love the simplicity of it. My hands. A bowl. A collection of flour and other ingredients. And that's that.

Which is to say, I've been making biscuits -- my regular sweet potato biscuits, last week, of which I ate some and stuck the rest in the freezer to have something to grab on the mornings when I don't manage to arrange my mornings to get to Bruff before class, and today regular (no add-ins) biscuits, while I run through recipes to see if there's a biscuit recipe I like more than the others. Work the butter into the flour with your hands. Stir in liquid (milk or buttermilk). Turn it out onto a floured surface and knead it a bit. Pat or roll it out. Cut out biscuits. Bake. Lovely.

*

Returned a large pile of books to the library, which turned out to be merely an exchange for an even larger pile of books -- four for background reading on my honors thesis topic, two for leisure. My book collection, guys, my bookshelves are crazy looking. I must remember to take a picture of it some time.

I took a break from reading non-fiction last night to read the last Falco book I own that I haven't read yet (Poseidon's Gold), and finished it before noon today. I guess I'll order the next couple ones this weekend. *dramatic sigh* Unless I luck out and find one at Maple Street Book Shop tomorrow.

*

Work continues apace on the second of my Winnow socks.

Comments

[aella_irene]

This makes me want to try making American style biscuits. (Some time when my freezer is not full of soup and hot cross buns.)

[dogstar]

But that's the best TIME to make biscuits!

I wish I did not suck at baking- I'm much better at pasta!

[bedlamsbard]

Making pasta from scratch or cooking pasta? (One of my New Year's Resolutions is to make pasta from scratch.)

[dogstar]

Pasta from scratch. It's not always worth the trouble but when I've done it, it always comes out well.

[bedlamsbard]

Oooh. I really want to try that sometime!

[bedlamsbard]

*helpfully* Here's the recipe I used today.

[aella_irene]

And now, the inevitable question: how much does half a stick of butter weigh?

[bedlamsbard]

A box of butter is a pound, four sticks to a box, so 1/4 pound a stick...er, hang on, I'll just go look in the fridge. One stick of butter is 4 oz., so a half-stick is 2 oz.

(Warning: Those biscuits really, really did not freeze and reheat well, at least for me.)

[aella_irene]

Hmm. Were you freezing the dough and baking?

[bedlamsbard]

I baked, then froze. Although now I wonder if I microwaved them too long when I reheated them, since I made mine pretty small.

[aella_irene]

I find it works better to freeze, then bake for a little longer than the recipe says.

[bedlamsbard]

But it's slightly less useful for grab-nuke-and-go eating in the mornings. (Also, dishes.)

[bedlamsbard]

Actually, they do reheat well -- I had it in the microwave too long that time.