Monday, February 27, 2006

Light night...

Today was pretty busy so we had a couple of light items for dinner tonight. I was looking for something that would be pretty filling, but not heavy.

To start us off I made White Cheddar and Black Pepper Biscuits. I wish I would have made a double batch of these just to put one set in the freezer. The tender biscuits, made with buttermilk, have a sharpness from white cheddar and just the right amount of bite from the pepper. I was afraid there would be an aftertaste of baking powder since there is quite a bit in the recipe, but neither of us detected it. Instead of rolling and cutting them, I decided to speed things up and just turn them into drop biscuits. Since most of the work is done in the food processor, these can be whipped up in no time.
Keeping with the light, but filling theme, we went with Apple, Almond, and Mixed Greens Salad with Zinfandel-Cranberry Vinaigrette. The fresh tasting dressing is made from cranberry juice, zinfandel, lemon juice, shallots and olive oil. Dried cranberries burst with flavor when bitten into as they were plumped up by steeping them in boiling apple juice. Crisp apples bring a nice contrast in texture to the tender baby greens. Toasting the almonds brings out much more of the nutty flavor which allows the serving size to be small, but they still pack a punch. Next time I would include some gorgonzola or another type of crumbly cheese to add another dimension.

7 comments:

  1. Joe,

    The salad looks amazing. I am anxious to try my hand at it and see what results I get. I don't get to comment often on your site, but I do read it and find your posts to be a wonderful addition to the food blog community!

    Thanks for the great recipes!

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  2. Hi Seth - Thanks for the kind words! I'll be interested to hear what you think of it or any changes you make!

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  3. This post is being taken hostage for ARF/5-A-Day #9. ;)

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  4. These dishes look fabulous. I've been meaning to make cheese biscuits, and these look/sound so good-but I may leave out a strong pepper flavor (I think my boyfriend wouldn't be up for it- lame).
    Thanks for stopping by my blog, too!

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  5. Sweetnicks - Thanks for including me! I didn't even think about this recipe for that!

    Jess - Thanks - Yeah, I would reduce it some if he is not a fan - but they are quite good with the bite from the pepper!

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  6. hey there - i was wondering how your biscuits turned out. i followed the recipe, except i omitted the cheese and pepper and added 1/2 tsp baking soda (because the buttermilk creates an acidic environment, ideal for baking soda as a leavening agent). anyway, thanks again for the great recipe!

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  7. Aayesha - We loved them! The recipe already had baking soda in it, do you mean you removed the baking powder and added more soda?

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