Dinner On A Wednesday



Taylor's Biscuits

   Tonight was one of those nights where I just did not want to cook. Fortunately, I had some spaghetti sauce I made last week and some noodles. I highly recommend making fresh tomato sauce every few weeks and freezing it. It certainly has helped me keep my committment to avoid processed foods.
I decided to man up and make some of Taylor's favorite biscuits to compliment the sauce. They take about 15 minutes of preparation and cook in about 12 minutes. The recipe like all of the recipes I use is very easy and quick.

Pre-heat the oven to 450 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together, 2 cups of flour in a bowl, 2 1/2 table spoons of Baking Powder and 1 teaspoon of salt.  Add 6 tablespoons of butter cut in small pieces. With two knives, cut the butter into the flour. Add 1 cup of milk and mix with a wooden spoon until your ingredients are combined. Now, gently knead the mixture onto the sides of the bowl.

While I was boiling the water and heating up the sauce, I had Taylor roll the dough on a cutting board that was lightly dusted with flour to a thickness of about 1/2".  We then cut it into squares and placed the squares on a cooking sheet. Bake the biscuits in the oven for about 12 minutes or until lightly brown. If you want to get fancy you can brush the tops with melted butter before baking.

The trick with biscuits is to use cold butter and to cut it into the flour as I have described. When you do it this way, you get the really flaky biscuits like the picture at the right.

Let me get on my soapbox for just a minute. You might be tempted to say to me that this is not a very healthy thing to eat. But the ingredients in this recipe are simple and fresh, you just cannot eat the entire batch. I admit that in the past, I have just bought the Pilsbury Biscuits from the dairy section and heated them up in the Oven.  And I will concede that they are pretty tasty. However, since I started this site and made my comittment to feeding Taylor fresh food prepared each night, I started reading the labels and considering the ingredients of prepared foods. You cannot convince me that butter is worse for you than articificial ingredients chemically manipulated to simulate a flavor. Flakiness that derives from Xantham Gum and Propylene Glycol Alganate preserved with something called TBHQ and colored with a chemical not identified at the end of the day is not good. If you start reading the labels of the food that we all eat it will scare you. I am not here to tell anyone what to do. I am just saying that I have absolutely no idea what TBHQ is or whether it is safe.

Okay, I feel better. For dessert we had fresh sliced strawberries, blueberries and pineapples.

Honey Pig -- Part Two

I went back to the Honey Pig in Annandale last night with Soon and her Korean girlfriends.  The Pig is a Korean BBQ joint in the heart of the Korean section of Annandale. The atmosphere is hip and the crowd is young. The food, which is cooked in the center of your table, is spicy and excellent. It is consistently named as one of the areas best late night spots for food and it is open all night on the weekends. If you drink the Korean version of sake, "Soju" you will definitely be up for the Karaoke Bar next door. It is Rocket Fuel ! Trust me, the Pig is a great night out for any occasion and the kids really enjoy it.

We had just about one of everything last night. We started out with Korean BBQ ribs followed by two kinds of Pork Belly, (Bacon), one was cooked without spices and the other was marinated in a very spicy sauce that was amazing. To eat it, you basically put the meat in a lettuce wrap and garnish it with roasted garlic or one of several spicy sauces that they provide. We had sides of Kimchi and peppers to enjoy along with our meal.

Soon ordered us a steaming soup that was made with a beef broth, Kimchi, Tofu and peppers. The flavor was definitely original. Kimchi is cabbage that is placed in a box and buried in the ground for several months while it ferments. It sounds kind of nasty but the flavor is quite good. Before you say no, remember, cheese is fermented.

After several bottles of Soju and too many entrees to count, we ordered the Squid with Spicy Sauce, cooked at our table of course. This is my favorite entree and the spiciness of the sauce really lights up the squid. After it was cooked, the server added bean sprouts, lettuce and rice to the grill and mixed in the remaining squid not already scarfed. This was cooked until the rice was cooked through and served. I am pretty sure that this was not on the Menu but it was amazing. I think it's one of those if you are Korean, you know to ask for it things. But now you know to ask! By the way, entire meal for 5 adults....$129.00.

For dessert, we went to Breeze Cafe in Annandale. (4125 Hummer Rd , Annandale , VA 22003).  This place is absolutely amazing and serves up incredible desserts. Like the Pig it is open 24 hours so you can imagine it does some business. I can tell you this, on a Monday night in the middle of summer, it was packed.

They have lots of pastries and cakes that looked amazing. But people are there for this flavored ice that you order with different toppings. My Korean friends ordered "Pat Bing Soo" which is a very sweet red bean over shaved ice. It was really good despite looking a bit odd. They also had a dozen flavors of gelato that were amazing.  It's a pretty cool place where you can sit out on the roof deck and enjoy your desserts.