Toaster Oven Food: Buttery Pan Biscuits

I think we are finally drying out.  We were supposed to be pummeled by another storm, Olivia, but we (most of the Big Island) were lucky enough to emerge virtually unscathed.  I was also relieved to hear that D1's bf's family on Maui also made it through the storm okay.  I am eagerly awaiting the end of this hurricane season.

The storms disrupted work flow.  I was scheduled to attend a 2-day training, but the training had to be postponed.  I also needed to sort out my pacing guide, as missing work due to training, compounded with the storm days, meant altering my lessons.

In spite of the multiple storms (Lane, Miriam, Norman and Olivia), TheHelp and I managed to squeeze in a quick trip to Honolulu to see the eye doc. The trip occurred somewhere during those few days of rest between Norman and worrying about Olivia.

Since this past weekend was the first somewhat-typical weekend I've had in weeks, I decided to make us something good for breakfast...I was already in the baking mood since D2 voluntold me to make lemon bars for a Japan Club concession.

These biscuits are not your typical biscuits.  They are sweet and buttery and can be eaten out of the pan without any additional accompaniment.  They are quick to throw together, and most people have these common ingredients on hand.  Because they are portioned prior to baking, they are true pull-apart biscuits and do not need to be cut.  I find it easier to use a disher rather than my hands to portion the dough into golf-ball sized balls, but if you don't mind touching sticky dough, then there's no need to get a disher dirty.  My favorite part is not having to grease the pan (I always dread that part!).

click on recipe title for printable recipe

Buttery Pan Biscuits

     3/4 c butter

     2 c Bisquick

     1/3 c sugar

     1/3 c milk

     1 egg

     1/3-1/2 c flour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (325 degrees if using a dark, non-stick pan).  Place butter into 8" square pan.  Place pan in preheating oven and leave in oven just until butter melts.  Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly.  Whisk Bisquick and sugar.  Make a well and add milk and egg.  Mix well.  Using a #20 disher (goal is golf-ball sized portions), scoop dough and drop into flour.  Turn to coat.  Dust off excess flour and place dough atop melted butter in pan.  Bake for 25 minutes.  Cool pan on a wire rack until cool enough to eat.  Makes 12 biscuits.  Although I have never tried this, recipe can supposedly be doubled and baked in a 9 x 13" pan.

As I mentioned above, TheHelp and I took a short trip to Honolulu.  What was unusual was that we did not go to our usual eating places.  All meals were taken at new-to-me places.

We had breakfast at Bogart's Cafe.  This was completely by accident, as TheHelp was actually trying to go to Cafe Morey's.  We used the Bogart's parking lot to spin around to do another pass at Cafe Morey's, but decided to that the parking availability there as a sign to patronize one of the businesses.  We chose Bogart's because the only other place looked like they only did acai bowls.  Bogart's turned out to be really good.  I had their loco moco, which was thinly sliced ribeye (not the usual burger) with a rich port gravy.

After my appointments were over, we headed to Piggy Smalls for lunch.  I had not summer rolls, which was assorted chopped veggies tossed in a sweet-spicy peanut dressing.  Instead of being wrapped in rice paper, the veggies are meant to be eaten in endive cups.

For dinner, MamaHelp treated us to a fine meal at the Signature Prime Steak and Seafood.  It was THE best steak I have ever had.  Since it was dark, I wasn't able to get a picture of the steak, but I did manage to get a picture of the dining area.  I had not been to this place for over 25 years (when it was called Nicholas Nickolas).   I hope I can go back to the Signature another time to try the seafood...I would prefer NOT to wait another 25+ years before I go back again.

My favorite Drop Biscuits

What an awfully long week!

Commencement was all-consuming.

I did no cooking all week.  I couldn't even bring myself to cook this weekend.  Maybe I will recover sometime this week.  Maybe not.  Thank goodness for graduation party invites.


If I had been able to get off my ass yesterday, I would've made these biscuits.  Instead, The Help went to Jack In The Box and got me a biscuit sandwich.  It was awful.  If I hadn't been so lazy. . .

Actually, I don't think I was lazy.  I think I was tired.  Super tired.

Graduation was long.  It had to be.  The broadcasting demanded it.  I'm sure if I had a child graduating this year, the length would've been a minor irritation.  Unfortunately, every minute matters when you're wearing heels and standing for the entire evening.

Remind me not to take this beast on next year.

click on recipe title for printable recipe

My Favorite Drop Biscuits

     2 c flour (may replace up to 1/2 c with whole wheat flour)
     1/2 c powdered sugar
     1 tbsp baking powder
     1/2 tsp cream of tartar
     1/4 tsp salt
     1/2 c butter
     2/3 c buttermilk, milk, or cream

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Sift dry ingredients together.  Cut in butter until crumbs are the size of peas.  Gently stir in buttermilk.  Using a #20 disher (full+), plop dough onto ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake for 8-9 minutes, just until tops begin to brown.  Remove to wire rack to cool. 

Coconut Milk Rolled Biscuits

I've been having some really disappointing cooking days.  I just haven't been in the mood to cook much of anything.  I try to force myself to cook at least 3x/week, but even that is a stretch.  We've been getting by with a lot of "breakfast for dinner" kinds of dinners.

One thing good about having breakfast for dinner is the leftovers make good breakfast food (duuuhhhhhhh).  The other week we had waffles, and we were blessed with waffles for breakfast for the better part of the week.

Our breakfast food de la semaine is biscuits.  I made a bunch of them last night to start our week on the right foot.

Recently, I've been making baked goods with coconut milk. D2 has a thing for coconut milk so I've been buying Silk coconut milk whenever I go to Costco (they sell the double pack).  She doesn't like to eat coconut, except in shortbread cookies, but she loves the flavor of coconut.  Do you know someone like that?  Coconut milk adds just a hint of coconut flavor, and it seems to pair well with jams, jellies, and honey.  If you have a precious jar of special honey, eating it on one of these biscuits would be a great way to enjoy it.

Thanks to my boss, I can get local honey delivered directly to me.  This past week, he gave me a generous jar of honey for "all the help".  He said the honey was "Volcano honey", meaning it came from his hives in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park area.  In that areas, bees source nectar primarily from the ohia lehua blossom (found only in Hawaii).  Pure ohia lehua honey is white (due to crystallization), and makes a great Big Island souvenir.  It's definitely not the cheapest honey, but it is a special treat.

This coming week (or the week after that, for that matter) will likely not be the week my cooking activities return.  Boys volleyball season began last week so I will probably scrounge dinner at athletic concessions on game nights.  Last season, I must've eaten close to a dozen bowls of smoked meat and onion!  Not grumbling at all.  I wonder what kinds of goodies will be sold this year.

If I had more gumption/energy, this would actually be an excellent week to cook all kinds of things.  Miss Picky (D2) went on an early vacation with Mr. Dependable.  They went to take advantage of spring skiing in the Sierra Nevadas.  D1, who is on spring break (legitimate), met them in Reno.  I always shake my head at how large the Ds live. 

click on recipe title for printable recipe

Coconut Milk Rolled Biscuits

     2 c flour

     2 tbsp sugar

     4 tsp baking powder

     3/4 tsp salt

     1/3 c butter

     2/3 c cold coconut milk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Grease a baking sheet or line with parchment paper.  Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Cut butter into flour mixture until pea-size particles form.  Stir in coconut milk.  If mixture is dry, add up to 2 tbsp more coconut milk until dough holds together.  Turn dough onto floured board.  Pat into a 1"-thick slab.  Cut with a 2" biscuit cutter and place on prepared baking sheet.  Bake 13-14 minutes or until just starting to brown.  Remove from oven, cool slightly on wire rack before eating.

where did all the time go. . .

Toaster Oven Food: Sour Cream Biscuits

I missed 2 days of work last week.  In addition to the day off I took on Monday, I also spent a day taking care of medical stuff.  Yuck.

It was a good thing I was off on Monday.  D1 had a Key Club service project which entailed providing refreshments to 40 kids, so I was glad I could help with that.  There is no way Mr. Dependable would participate (or if he was willing, he would likely have been late).

I have no idea how D1 is going to manage all her activities next year.  She has cheer tryouts in a month, and she is hoping to make the team again.  If all goes according to her plan, she will have cheerleading, Key Club and class president to juggle next school year.  She will also need to take Driver's Ed at some point after early June (when she will be eligible to take the written test for her learner's permit).  Throw an AP class into that mix, and I'm already out of breath.  I'm feeling sorry for her and this school year hasn't even ended yet.

This is the time of year when work becomes fast and furious too.  Disgruntled parents have had enough and try to push schools around.  It all happens in late spring.  Too bad because I'd love smooth sailing for the next month.  Without any holidays left to look forward to, I'm just trying to survive til the weekend.  The weekend is when I can unwind and relax.  I enjoy sleeping in on Sundays.  Because I get up before 5:30 daily, "sleeping in" is sleeping past 7:30, which might not be what other call "sleeping in".  The weekend is also when I have time to bake things.

Speaking of baking. . .in late 2012, I had a pv (photovoltaic) system installed at my home.  It cost a pretty penny, even with the energy tax credits, but I'm glad I did it.  I don't think HELCO fees will ever go down.  Prior to the pv installation, I was only minimally aware about how my baking was adding to the electric bill.  Since installing pv, I've been very conscious about energy consumption, and I've been trying to look for ways to control my usage (blame the many cloudy days in Hilo, but I have never had a "Joe" bill. . .KumuKit commercial protagonist).  One of my recent adaptations has been using the toaster oven to do my baking.  My toaster oven can accommodate a pan up to 12" x 12".

One of the first recipes I tested in my toaster oven was sour cream pan biscuits.  I was shocked to see a well-risen, golden brown slab emerge from my toaster oven.  Since then, I've done a lot of other things in my toaster oven.  These are all things for which I would normally have fired up the big oven.  Now it seems like such a waste to use the large oven for something which fits in the toaster oven.  Wish I thought of this even before I got pv.

Regardless where they are baked, these biscuits will not disappoint.  They are sweet enough to eat with just a slab (yes, I meant slab) of butter, but because I have a sweet tooth, I love to smear jelly on them too.  The greatest challenge for me is being sure I have sour cream in the fridge.

 click on recipe title for printable recipe

Sour Cream Pan Biscuits

     2 C Bisquick
     1/2 c sugar
     2 eggs
     1 c sour cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (375 degrees for dark coated pans).  Grease a square pan (8" x 8").  Combine Bisquick and sugar.  Add eggs and sour cream.  Mix well.  Spread batter in prepared pan.  Bake for 25 minutes.

On Saturday, The Help and I drove over to the dry side of the island to pay a visit to the conures at Petco and to stock up on provisions at Costco.  On the way back, we pulled off the road so The Help could gather dry branches to make into perches.  Someone must have cut down a huge tree because there were chunks of wood scattered on the side of the road.  I buy CalOak firewood from Safeway for about $5 for just under a cubic foot.  I told The Help that if I had a saw, we could chop the chunks into manageable size and bring them home for firewood.  The Help said he was glad we did not have a saw.  Now why would he say something like that?

As far as food goes, this wasn't a very exciting weekend for me.  I got to eat my ahi nicoise salad at Village Burger on Saturday, but I actually had pork & beans (yes, canned) and Hillshire Farms cheddarwurst little smokies too.  I guess the cheddarwurst little smokies was foreshadowing because Mama & Papa Help returned from Honolulu and brought back some kim chee sausage.  Papa Help saw it at Palama Supermarket and had to try it.  They loved it so the brought some back for us to try.  I thought it was okay (keep in mind I do not like Portuguese sausage). . .better than Portuguese sausage.  The Help loved it and can't wait to get more.  He ate it with rice, taegu, and some kind of Japanese pickled cucumber which tasted like chiso.