If You're Happy and You Know It, Eat Some Carbs

Summer suppers at our house are usually some sort of grilled protein and a salad.  It's too hot to consider much else (and cooking roles reverse, with Andrew on the grill and me on chop chop duty.) 

But yesterday was all rainy and junky, so chili and biscuits were on order.  My great uncle Jon's chili recipe nearly serves all of Clifton...I improvised it down to half that and still had a large dutch oven full.

Because the biscuits were a spur of the moment idea, I needed to find a non-buttermilk recipe.  If you don't have buttermilk, you can add 1 tablespoon of vinegar to 1 c of milk, but the recipe I found needed 1 1/4 c buttermilk (and my brain doesn't work well with maths.) 

Thank goodness for the bridal edition of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.  They have a non-buttermilk recipe (plus a drop biscuit and buttermilk biscuit variety).  All ingredients were on hand, so it was on!

Biscuits:

3 c. flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1 stick butter, cold, cut into pieces
1/4 c. shortening
1 c. milk

Preheat oven to 450.  Mix the dry ingredients together.  Cut in the butter and shortening until it resembles coarse crumbs.  Form a well in center of mix and pour in milk.  Stir with a fork until just combined.  Turn out dough onto lightly floured surface and knead dough by folding and gently pressing until dough holds together.  Pat or roll out to 3/4 inch thickness.  Cut dough with biscuit cutter and re-roll and cut scraps.  Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet 10-14 minutes or until golden. 

Golden.  And delicious.  I'm surprised we have any left!

Serve warm.  Like I needed to tell you that.  Make these.  Put Pillsbury out of business.  They were foolishly easy.  I'm pretty sure Shakespeare said "a warm biscuit doth a happy husband make."