Biscuits worth writing home about.

AKA Holy Sh*t Biscuits. Yeah, seriously. It's the first thought that popped into my head when I took a bite. Next thing was "I made these?!?!". The first thought has a better ring to it. Sue me.
So, lately I've been craving some American foods like chili, cornbread, barbeque, big chewy cookies, etc. Suddenly finding myself unable to just go anywhere and find these things makes me want them even more. (I'm pretty sure that the 5 of you that read this are friends or family. But if not, I moved to Scotland 5 months ago.) Not that I ever went out for chili, but you know what I mean. It doesn't help that we've been watching Food Network and that show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives has been on. Last night he went to Pine State Biscuits in Portland. They make some tasty biscuits, and I've never been quite happy with the ones I've been making. So, using that episode (I found it on youtube!) as a guide for the technique, and another recipe tweaked to be more like theirs, I DID IT. I cracked the biscuit code! Flaky but moist, nice crispy top and bottom, and the height?!? Skyscraper territory! They were almost 3 inches tall!

Bacon, bacon, bacon....

 
I'll admit it, I love it. It's a tasty, crispy, salty, smoky treat. It's inspired MANY crazy things: Bacon Maple Bar, Bacon Salt and Baconnaise, weird bacon goods, bacon chocolate bar, ummmm Bacon Explosion anyone? Sure, I've tried a few, and even liked them (bacon maple bar...mmmmm). However, I also like veggie substitutes, and am always looking for ways to create them at home. Tofu, tempeh, even this...but, none of them quite capture it. I have never found a sub for bacon that I could really get behind. Now, that's all changed. See that picture up there, well, that's not bacon, it's COCONUT! Yeah seriously, and it's DELICIOUS! I found many recipes online for this, but none that I found used thick strips of coconut...so I corrected that problem. Vegans and vegetarians, (and even omnivores!) you can thank me later.

This is dedicated to the one I love...

 

It's been a long while since I've posted, I apologize. I was staying with friends after I returned from a trip abroad, and that's not really the best environment for food blogging. I just finally got back into cooking again, with this recipe (the easiest tastiest thing ever, and it brought back my desire to cook!). It's got 3 ingredients and you probably have them on hand. Don't deviate from the recipe (even I didn't!!!), the beauty is in the simplicity! 

Ok, so onto the recipe I really wanted to blog about, actually it's more of an idea than a recipe. I recently shared one of these tasty bars with my sweetie and was inspired. I'm not a huge milk chocolate fan, so I switched it out for bittersweet but I used all the other elements of that bar in this macaroon recipe. I took a typical coconut macaroon, then dipped it in Indian curry spiked chocolate which was followed with dry roasted almonds. The results? Just look at the photo! You know you want to put that in your mouth. 

Pan-Fried Gnocchi with Sage

Mmmmm....squashy! Not the ones you've had too much of all Summer...these are their hardier bros. Yep, Winter squash! I've had a couple of  these squash hogging up my hanging produce basket for over a week, it just wasn't the right time yet. But when the wind picked up the other day, and it was perfectly chilly outside, I knew it was time to turn the oven on. I roasted an acorn squash (I'm testing a recipe using these, not successful the first go round) and the butternut squash used in the recipe. I just rinsed them, sliced them in half, scooped out the guts, then drizzled them with olive oil, sprinkled them with salt and pepper, cut side down on a lined cookie sheet, and threw them into a preheated 425F oven. I tend to just check on them after about 20mn or so, and let them go a bit longer if you can't easily pierce it with a fork. The squash gets soft without losing all it's texture and it gets delicious carmelized bits. Roasting the squash is the hard part, now it's smooth sailing. I like to roast my squash a couple days ahead (or a couple at a time) to make it easier for weekday meals.

The elusive macaron.

No, I don't mean macaroon, the sweet haystacks full of coconutty love, though I adore those. Nor do I mean the other macaron, Parisian style sandwich cookies, as beautiful as they are tasty. Nope, worrying about whether or not my cookies have "feet" is just something I'm not prepared for. I'm talking about the OTHER macaron, it's almondy, chewy and not too sweet. They come from a village in France, St. Emillion, where they are famous for these little guys and their wine....

Soup weather

 
It's hitting that point in Portland where it's getting dark earlier, there's more of a chill in the air, and you wanna stay in bed and snuggle just a little bit longer in the morning. To me, this means soup time. A nice comforting bowl of soup can warm me up quicker than our heater can, and costs less too! I was reading this post and I knew I just had to make it. With some revisions of course! I had some cauliflower to use up, so I decided to roast it, and ladle the soup over the top instead of using the crusty bread (although it looks amazing, I just didn't have any).

I took Heidi's adaptation of Richard Olney's recipe and varied it a little, because I just can't seem to make a recipe exactly as it's written. It's a real problem of mine.

Carnitas heaven...

(click the above photo at your own risk. You might be wiping drool off your keyboard though)
Ok, so I know it might be a bit weird to post a pork dish right after a vegetarian sausage recipe. It's how I roll. We don't eat much meat, and I generally prefer "faux meats" to the real thing. In the case of carnitas however, there's no substitute. I had this idea in my head that hours of slaving away were involved when making carnitas. This recipe completely blew me away! It's basically 2 hours of inactive cooking time (then maybe 20-30mn where you actually need to pay attention), and minimal ingredients!
I saw it on Homesick Texan, and it's DE-LI-CIOUS! I also wanted to mention that this recipe isn't particularly "south of the border". So, if you wanted to forego the tortillas, and just serve it with the rice you have on hand, you've got my permission. Or, you could serve it lettuce wrap style, with some shredded carrots, etc. It's really flavorful, so it doesn't really need anything actually. The husband and I ate the leftovers straight outta the fridge, with our fingers. Yeah, we're nothing but class around here.

You can adjust this to whatever size piece of pork you can get your hands on, but you're gonna want to make extra. Trust me.