What a week! In between meetings, being a full-time dog mama, and recipe testing, I am also gearing up to get back into the kitchen at Darke Pines. Some of ya’ll might be thinking, wait - isn’t that your kitchen all of the time? Well, yes and no. The DP kitchen is currently running at full speed, Monday through Saturday to keep up with all of the prepared foods we sell in our freezer, deli and for sandwich production. So that leaves me with Sundays’ to work on any new items or specials. Starting this week, I will be popping up at Darke Pines on Sunday’s with sandwich specials, pies and other surprises (like biscuits!).
As a early year bonus round of fun, the owners of our old apartment wanted to sell out of Jersey City - and they were successful rather quickly: it showed and sold in less than two weeks (!) - so we have temporarily moved into my in-laws Jersey City apartment. Will’s parents spend most of their time in Maine so we have the full apartment to ourselves - but it is not our space, if you know what I mean. Their kitchen counter is bigger though, and I have been taking full advantage of having all of this extra space by making biscuits.
Since cooking in Alabama this past January, I have started a daily ritual of making biscuits. It is really nice to have something familiar in the middle of all of this change. Perhaps going home is not just limited to returning to a physical place on a map, but also be a feeling we can conjure up anytime we wish. And, as long as you also do some form of exercise, what could be wrong with having a daily biscuit making ritual? Maybe the saying should be: if you want to make a house a home, whip up some biscuits!
I started keeping flour in an old metal tin with a lid. Not quite a flour drawer, but close enough. Buttermilk is always in the fridge. When we are half-way out, I go to the store for another jug. Biscuits start with working butter into flour, then you add buttermilk, and gently, and I do mean ever so gently, bring it all together. Anything more than the slightest pressing of flour will make your biscuits tough as nails.
From bringing out the flour bowl, to cutting the biscuits, and then the smell of them baking in the oven - all of that, makes me feel right at home. The batch I made yesterday rose so much during the baking that they completely toppled over. Not the most beautiful sight, but still every bit as good to eat. I’ve been handing out biscuits to the people behind the register at the grocery store and to our local coffee shop baristas. I must admit, it feels like people are happy to see me coming around these days.
One of the most delicious things you can put on a biscuit, other than butter and honey or cane syrup? Red pepper jelly. That sweet and spicy jelly is just too addicting! You can find red pepper jelly in pretty much any specialty cheese shop, but I have the easiest hack for it, and once you see how simple it is to make - you will not even be able to get over it! This recipe is not for canning, it keeps in the fridge. No need for pectin or sterilizing jars. No, my friends - this is something you can make in the morning or a day ahead and have be glad to have around for rest of the week. If you have ever had the Banh Mi from Darke Pines, this is the same jelly we serve with the sandwich. When we make it in the shop, I put this pepper jelly on basically everything. Like I said, you’ll die when you see how easy it is to make.
Speaking of keeping busy and making biscuits - I will be popping up at Darke Pines this coming Sunday, March 10 with jammy egg sandwiches, cracked pepper and lavender buttermilk biscuits with whipped butter and Alabama cane syrup, plus - mini lemon ice box pies! I will serve from 11am until 3pm, if you are in the neighborhood, I hope you will stop by and say hello.
The lemon pies could be just the perfect thing to have on hand during your Oscar watch party. For the first time in years, I am finally caught up on Oscar movies - The Holdovers and Anatomy of a Fall are my top picks.
The Easiest Red Pepper Jelly Recipe Ever
I love to make this pepper jelly for beef and chicken lettuce wraps. It also works with grilled portobello mushrooms and peppers. An easy weeknight dinner consists of plain rice, a box of butter leaf lettuce, grilled or oven roasted meats and veggies, maybe fried eggs - and a bowl full of this jelly. Crowd pleasing, all around. Let me know how many times you make it over the next few weeks!