Super-Quick Cream Drop Biscuits

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I’ve had an annoying cold for a little over a week now.

I’m finally on the upswing, off the Robutussin and Vicks VapoRub, but I am still getting coughing fits every now and then.

Like last night. At 3AM. When Brad finally came to bed, I immediately got out of bed and hit the couch.  Because no one deserves to have to sleep next to this hacking cough.  No one could even pretend to be asleep next to me during one of my fits.  It’s probably the worst sounding cough ever. In the history of the world.

Ok, it’s really not that bad.  But I finally drifted off to sleep again last night, and when I woke up there was a gray light shining through the living room windows.  I hadn’t brought my phone with me, so I figured it was just past dawn.  I stumbled back into the bedroom, where the shades were down and it was still nice and sleepy dark.  Just for good measure before I zonked out again, I checked the time…

It was already 9:30! What was that crazy gray dawn light? Where was the hot summer sun that had been blazing in on us for what seemed like weeks and weeks?

Hidden, I guess. That melting hot sun was hidden behind a cool, foggy mist. And for some I-can’t-wait-until-fall reason, I jumped right out of bed, made myself a cup of tea, and got to baking.

Because baking during the day is completely out of the question when your apartment is a balmy 82 degrees before you’ve even turned the oven on.  But when the high is 73 and the sun is nowhere to be seen?  I preheated all the way up to 400°F.

I was making biscuits.

And not the difficult, layers of butter, rolled out, cut with biscuit cutter biscuits. Nope – I had been up half the night coughing. I hadn’t drank anything but herbal tea and orange juice and good old H2O for a week straight. This was going to be a quick, simple breakfast biscuit.  I was going to whip up some scrambled eggs with ham and have a nice, hearty, foggy morning breakfast.

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Thirty minutes later, as I sat down with my sleepy husband, my room temperature cup of tea (I’m really bad at tea), and my fluffy drop biscuits with eggs, the sun was shining bright through those front windows.  The fog had already burnt off and the white hot sun was pouring in on us like every other sunny summer morning before this one.

But I had won breakfast. The 400° oven was already off, and the thermostat only read a cool 75.  Plus, I had yummy, yummy just-baked biscuits.

xoxo

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Super Quick Cream Drop Biscuits

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cold and cubed
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp butter, melted
turbinado sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 400°F.  Mix the first four ingredients in a food processor or stand mixer until just combined.  Drop the dough in six equal parts (about 3/4 cups each) and drop onto a greased baking sheet.  The less perfectly round, the better.  Brush tops with melted butter and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.  Bake for 18-20 minutes.  Eat them piping hot right out of the oven.

Blood Orange Sorbet (without an icecream maker!)

Blood Orange SorbetWhen it gets too hot for turning on the oven, you have to resort to your Pinterest board dedicated to frozen treats.

For me, this lemon sorbet looked tantalizing.  It was just what I needed to cool down.  I could even maybe pour some bubbly over it and make myself a refreshing little cocktail!

But then I realized that, in the heat, my lemons had become fuzzy with mold.

Gross.

Never to fear!  There was other citrus that would be equally as delicious when frozen and covered with champagne!  Blood oranges!

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I loved the juicy flavor that was barely tart and simply sweet.

homemade by thekeyofkels! DSC_0040 homemade by thekeyofkels! homemade by thekeyofkels!

I have an ice-cream maker attachment for my KitchenAid, but this was way easier.

homemade by thekeyofkels! DSC_0055 homemade by thekeyofkels!

And it looks so cute in those tiny bowls… I might have eaten the whole bowl before thinking about how I wanted to pour champagne on it…

homemade by thekeyofkels!

Don’t make the same mistake.  Put yours in a coupe glass and have it for happy hour.  The heat makes me do crazy things – like forget about champagne.

It’s unacceptable, really.

xoxo

Blood Orange Sorbet

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 cup freshly squeezed blood orange juice
1 tbsp grated blood orange zest

In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar and water and simmer until sugar is dissolved.  Remove from heat.  Once cooled, stir in the juice and zest.  Pour the mixture into a metal baking pan and freeze until firm (2-3 hours), stirring with a fork every hour.  Transfer to an airtight container to store.

Homemade Butter With Your Kitchenaid Mixer

Last week I stopped by the raw milk stand at the Santa Monica Farmer’s market, which is right next to our dear friend who sells pork and flowers.

(i have such a normal life)

I wanted to buy a gallon of raw milk so I could make myself another batch of delicious homemade mozzarella.  But when I stopped by, my raw milk lady had a mason jar out with her, and was showing the guy in front of me a funny yellow blob that was inside.

She had made her own butter!

So, naturally, I asked her all about it. It was something I’m sure I had done in kindergarden or girl scouts when I was young.  And I had been wanting to experiment with shortbread cookies ever since making those shortbread caramels, so homemade butter could take my next baking project over the top!

I bought a container of cream with my mozzarella milk and went on my way.

butter from cream with kitchen aide

A little nervous about the arm workout I was in for with all the mason-jar shaking in my future, I told Brad about my plan.  Of course he had a genius idea.

Skip the mason jar. Use the KitchenAid.

butter from cream with kitchen aide butter from cream with kitchen aide

Only halfway feeling like I was cheating (i was making homemade butter! that’s already the opposite of cheating!), I started up my stand mixer and let it go.  Brad only gave me one bit of advice: Continue reading

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