I'm not usually a biscuits and gravy person, but when it comes to Hatch chiles, I make exceptions. As the Hatch Chile season begins to wind down, there's just a couple of weeks left, it's time to grab your last few tastes of freshly roasted green chile. The folks at Melissa's Produce sent me a…
Other than the sunshine that appeared unexpectedly, one of the best things about our weekend in Vancouver, BC was the coffee. Not surprising, right? The wet, chilly weather that dominates the PNW most of the year makes mass coffee consumption a given. What that weather doesn’t require is local roasting and attention to detail in every step of the coffee brewing process. And that’s what you get at Revolver in Vancouver’s Gastown neighborhood.
Peeling back the wrapper on a can of refrigerator biscuits and thwacking it against the edge of the counter takes me back to childhood. I’m not talking about the big flaky layer biscuits, I’m talking the cheapest ones – the skinny tube of “homestyle” or “buttermilk” refrigerator biscuits that come 10 to a can. I’ll eat them every which way, but not as baked biscuits. Most of the time, I plunk them on top of Chunky Chicken Noodle soup and let them steam up in a shortcut version of chicken and dumplings. It’s comfort food from childhood that still hits the spot to this day if I’m not feeling great.
One of my all time favorite summer songs is DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince's SummerTime. It's a head-bobbin', windows rolled down song that takes you right back to the summer of 1991, but is still a jam 20 years later. You know the one:
Summa, summa, summa-time. Time to sit back and unwind...
Here it is... the groove slightly transformed
just a bit of a break from the norm
just a little somethin' to break the monotony
of all that hardcore dance that has gotten to be
a little bit out of control it's cool to dance
but what about the groove that soothes that moves romance
give me a soft subtle mix
and if ain't broke then don't try to fix it...
Half Price Books has been an amazing source for cookbooks. Somehow there are always good finds, whether semi-recent releases or books of a certain vintage. I always want to leave bookmarks or post-its sticking out of some books saying, "BUY THIS ONE!!" And while sometimes you know why books end up on the clearance shelf -- 80s microwave cooking, anyone? -- others are a mystery. The El Paso Chile Company's Texas Border Cookbook
Originally, I was thinking about making these No Sugar Oat Drops, but it being the holidays I decided they were maybe a little too close to a granola bar...a little too healthy (yes, I'm crazy). I even bought the overripe bananas at the grocery in anticipation of making them, but then settled on a batch of Anzac biscuits.
Anzac biscuits are a brilliant invention all their own. Coconut, oats, brown sugar, butter, Lyle's Golden Syrup and a little baking soda and water. What's not to like? But since the holidays are all about gilding the lily, I thought I'd dress 'em up a little. By altering the recipe, it's not strictly an Anzac biscuit anymore, but it's an oaty, coconutty drop of delicious, that's for sure, and with a couple of additional tweaks, it just gets better. So coconut, oats...plus what?
