What are you more likely to do, buy Rhodes Rolls to bake with dinner or make your own biscuits from scratch?  Up until about 1 year ago, my answer was buy the rolls!  Why not?  They are fast, easy and no doubt about it…Good!  But, what if you forget to get them out 2 hours before baking (that’s for the “quick method”) or dinner is in 30 minutes and there’s no time to bake them.  Now what?

Time for the  “perfect biscuit”.  It will only take 30 minutes from start to finish and that’s being generous with time.  I am telling you, here is your answer!

My chili was on the menu for dinner tonight and I was looking for something other than cornbread as the accompaniment (although my cornbread is mighty tasty, I must say)  I got out my brand new stainless steel bowl ($6.99 at Orson Gygi) and began whipping up my light and fluffy biscuits (notice this bowl’s shine with no scratches!).

 To begin you want to get your Mise en place (everything in place!)

 This is a simple recipe with little ingredients.

          2 cups Flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1/3 cup shortening
1 cup  milk

That’s it!

Add all your dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt and sugar to your bowl (it’s OK if it isn’t new!).  Then add your shortening and begin “cutting” it into your dry ingredients.  I use a pastry cutter but you can also do this with your fingers if you work quickly (don’t want to melt the shortening with the heat of your hand) – or a fork will also work, like our grandmas used to use.

Work the shortening in until it is about pea-size in the flour (a little hard to see in the picture but I assure you, it’s pea-size in there!).

Now add the milk a little at a time.  You may or may not need to use all the milk depending on the day (literally).  Add enough to make the dough pull away from the sides of the bowl to form a ball.  Too much milk will make them very sticky and hard to work with - then you’ll have to add more flour causing your biscuits to become a little tough.

Once you get your dough to pull away from the sides of the bowl, work with it just enough to incorporate the dry and wet together, dump it onto a floured counter top and begin gently kneading it – or as I do it, folding it over and over onto itself until it looks smooth and holds the shape of a ball.  Work it gently and you’ll have a tender biscuit – work  it too much and they’ll be tough.

Now you want to flatten it out with your hands (you could use a rolling pin but why dirty another dish for your kids to wash) until it is 1 inch thick – then, choose your biscuit cutter.  I personally have a few to choose from so I line them up and make my choice (not really but for pictures I did).  Do I want lots of little ones, a few giant ones or just enough for all of us to have a couple?

Today I chose the size for “just enough”!

Here’s a tip- when cutting biscuit dough, be sure to flour your cutter before each cut to prevent the cutter from pinching the edge of the biscuits as you cut.  This will make it so the edges will raise to full height instead of looking like someone pinched them before baking!

Cut out all your biscuits and place them on a lined or greased cookie sheet (don’t mind the little balls of dough across the top of this picture -  they are leftover dough, not biscuits gone wrong).

I only roll out the dough two times.  Any more than that and the dough starts to become tough. I collect all the scraps from the first cutting and reshape them into another ball to roll out my final biscuits.  From those scraps I just roll them in my hand and place them on the pan as mentioned above (or if Madison is around, she’ll play with it on the counter until she decides to eat ‘em.  Today she was outside playing while I was baking).

Bake in a preheated oven at 425 for 15 minutes or so.  Watch the tops and when they get golden brown, they’re done!

Voila - light, fluffy and yummy!  That’s a great little vessel for some slatherings of honey and butter.  What are you waiting for?!

As for me, I am going to go  scratch up my new bowl a little so it doesn’t look so new…

Bon Appetit!

Last Sunday was Taylor and Keaton’s 13^th birthday.  According to them, they are now able to watch PG-13 movies, have a Facebook account, stay up later on school nights and hang with the big boy crowd when company is over.  Little do they know it also comes with cleaning more of the house, taking out the trash every Wednesday night, tighter restrictions on girls and phone calls!  I guess that’s the price of growing up.  I can’t wait to see how eager they are when they hear all the new regulations!

Anyway, back to the birthday.  Every year I ask each of the kids what kind of cake they’d like to have.  In the past I have made everything from Winnie the Pooh, Rice Crispy Dragon, a Race Car and a Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream cake (ok, I didn’t really make that one but I spent the time to buy it!)  This year, being that they were entering teenhood, they thought they’d like an iPod cake.  A WHAT?  An iPod cake!   They showed me a picture they got off the internet and said (I quote) “Mom, it looks hard I know but we think you can do it!”

Now how can anyone say “no” to a couple of darling boys who believe (still) that their mom can do anything.  Maybe that comes from me telling them I can do anything all the time…but hey,  I am only trying to set the bar high for their future wives!  

So, one week, many prayers and many hours later here is what I gave them for their birthday. It was one of the funnest projects and most satisfying as well.  I even made my own fondant (recipe below).

I made every icon from the colored fondant and cut them out with various objects I found in my kitchen.  I used royal icing to do detail work and put the “settings icon” upside down (that was quickly pointed out while everyone was checking it out).  The cake was a vanilla sponge and filled it with a chocolate ganache and dirty iced with a vanilla buttercream (a layer under the fondant to make it stick to the cake).  Besides turning everyone’s teeth purple when they ate it, I would say this is one of my better cakes to date!  Now it’s upward and onward with many more to come!

Fondant Recipe
16 ounces white mini-marshmallows
2 to 5 tablespoons water
2 pounds powdered sugar

Directions
Melt the marshmallows and water in a double boiler or microwave.  Cover counter and hands in shortening.  Pour melted marshmallow mixture onto counter and pour half of the powdered sugar over mixture.  Knead until incorporated, then add remaining powdered sugar.  Knead until there are no lumps.
If too dry add more water, if too soft add more powdered sugar.

Color as needed with powder or gel colors.

What is a student-run restaurant?  Well, it is actually a class that culinary students take during their schooling to learn the different elements of running a restaurant.  Since many of the students are looking to own their own places one day, this class gives them a small glimpse of what it might be like.  Granted, this is a very “controlled” glimpse but it is all run by us (the students) with a bit of teacher guidance along the way.  Remember, it is to teach us to swim not leave us to drown.

Last week was my team’s first opportunity to work the kitchen.  It had it ups and downs but overall very successful.

To give you an understanding of how this all works, on Monday the Back of House (BOH) checks with FOH to see  how many reservations are currently on the books.  That is how we know how much food to prep for all our guests.  This week we had a total of 20 reservations  for both Tuesday and Wednesday.  To accommodate the random addition (or late reservations) we figured about 25-30 orders would cover us for both days.  We then start prepping as much as possible, so we aren’t rushing to make everything each day within the three hours before service.

It was French week so the menu consisted of:

Choice of Starter

Parsley Butter Escargot
French onion Soup
Watercress salad with Endive, Tomatoes and Cucumbers

Choice of Entree

Sauteed Frog Legs (that is not a type-o)
Served with Potato Parmentier and Stuffed Swiss Chard
     or
Stuffed Pork Tenderloin
Served with Potatoe Parmentier and Stuffed Swiss Chard

Desserts

Napoleon
Chocolate Mousse Cake
Lemon Soufflé Crepes

With the menu in hand we all divide up into stations: Sou Chef, Hot Station (entrees), Starters and Desserts. 

My first station…..desserts!  Yea!!!  It is no secret that this is my favorite place and joining me is Bri (short for Brianna).  Together we formed the dessert station of efficiency (chaos) streamline (upheaval) and structure (free form).  Ok, maybe it wasn’t as efficient as we thought in our minds.  However, we put out some amazing desserts using some components we were somewhat familiar with…and others we weren’t.  That is what this class is all about - giving us an opportunity to innovate, create and serve great tasting food.  Our challenge was to interpret the desserts the way we wanted to make them. 

And here is our interpretation:

So, by the end of day on Monday, Bri and I had everything prepped as much as we could.  The Napoleons and Mousse Cakes were in the fridge to set over night.  The Lemon Soufflé (lemon pastry cream) was ready for the Crepes to be made on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning comes and the kitchen is starting to hum with the anticipation of the first service for our team.

At precisely 11:30am, the first reservation arrives and everything is working like clockwork.  Service is great and easily managed so by 12:30, our last seating, we have knocked this day out of the park with ease.  Everyone is happy and confident that tomorrow’s service will be even better!  What’s that old saying, “never count your chickens before they hatch”?

It’s now Wednesday morning, 8:30am, and things are a little slower paced in the kitchen.  Almost everything is still prepped from the day before so there are only a few minor things to get ready for today.  I start making up the crepes, Bri makes the whipped cream and prepares the Napoleons.  All that’s left to do is garnish them and send them out the door.  (Today we are making them individually because yesterday we made them as one large Napoleon that was cut into individual pieces — nightmare!!!!  Can I stress that enough…NIGHTMARE!)

It’s now 11:30 and we are ready to rock and roll…but are we?!  Our first reservation is in their seat and the first sign of a rough day begins to appear.  At this time, the Sou Chef realizes we have forgotten to prep more baked potatoes for the entrees.  No baked potatoes???  That is a main component and something we can’t hide or cover up.  If it isn’t on the plate, it isn’t on the plate!  So what is there?  We all jump into action!  I begin cutting potatoes into quarters, someone gets the fryer ready, another grabs some seasoning and cuts up some herbs.  Within a matter of minutes we have enough potatoes cut and ready to fry into wonderful herb and butter potato bites.  They turned out fabulous and no one was the wiser in the dining room.  Now that is what I call thinking on your feet!  But remember, this is only the beginning and there are two more hours of  fun to come.

It is very clear that today will be nothing like yesterday (remember not to count those chickens!)   All of a sudden, 12 o’clock sharp and there is a backup of people waiting to be sat at their table.  This is HIGHLY unusual and without too much ado, they are all seated.  But wait, there are a few more people than we had planned for and it’s only noon!  By 12:30pm the dining room is full and the host is running down the hall looking for a classroom table he can bring in to accommodate the unprecedented amount of guests that are waiting to dine with us.  The kitchen is a full hive of busy bees flying from one station to another doing our best to help anyone get their orders out the door quickly!  I don’t think my head came up to look around once for almost an hour and a half of that service.  By day’s end we had served 35 people (15 over the planned number). 

It’s now 2pm and class has officially ended but we still had people in the dining room enjoying their time.  We, on the other hand, were frantically cleaning and trying to figure out what just happened and how on earth we fed all those people we hadn’t planned on!  We did run out of crepes and croissants (one of the starters) but that was it to my knowledge.  From originally preparing for 20 reservations across 2 days to serving over 40 in total, it was amazing!

By 2:30 everyone has gone, the kitchen is spotless and all is quiet once again.  We are all smiles inside knowing we made it through one of the most difficult days yet.  But now is not the time to pat ourselves on the back.  No, now is the time to read the comment cards!  Comment cards are our way of learning what we did good and what we need improvement upon.  Time to sit down and hear how it “really” went for our first week of service.  Honestly, it wasn’t as brutal as it could have been but definitely not as understanding of what a student-run kitchen is about.  I guess when you hand someone a comment card you are asking for their honest opinion, no matter how vague, brutal or gushingly kind!  The overall report was;  food was great, service was friendly but needed to be quicker, and some didn’t like the fact we ran out of food.  Better luck to us next time!

My new understanding of service is both more compassionate and more judgmental all in one!  A good thing?  I guess it depends on the type of service I end up getting.

If you’re wondering what I thought of the food we made this week.  Awesome Awesome Awesome.  The starters were so flavorful and good, the entrees where great – ok so frog legs aren’t my first choice and I choked on one of the tiny bones in the shin, bleck – and the desserts….what can I say!  They were fabulous with the exception of the Napoleon.  It was a little tough to cut because of the puff pastry but the flavor was amazing.  Just like the melt-in-your-mouth mousse cake and creamy lemony crepes.  Yum, I think I will make the crepes for dinner!