the sweetest boy and funniest movie

Adam took this picture of Phillip today. I love this boy so much.

We re-watched Little Miss Sunshine tonight. (Warning: there's serious language in the upcoming clip link.) Grandpa and the chicken scene kill me. I'm still giggling.

tea for three

Ingrid stopped by after work today for a minute, and we had some tea. Those are paperwhites in the green pot on the left of the windowsill, and little terra cotta pots with (gasp!) artificial moss in them on the right.

And is it just me, or does this mini-pita look just like a chubby little bird? He was delicious smothered in baba ghanouj. Happy Thursday!

recipe-a-week #1: cheese biscuits

I didn't formally make this as a resolution, but I'm hoping to make one new recipe each week this year, all from print sources. No allrecipes ones for these, folks! It's really to get me using some of my excellent cookbooks more. I also like reading recipes from books - it's much nicer than a printout. (In no way am I disparaging allrecipes - it is my go-to site for recipes. Hmm... maybe I should make a resolution to not use any new allrecipes recipes this year and rely solely on what I have in books and print... now that would be drastic. I'll think about it.)

Regardless, this recipe is from The Globe and Mail, the weekend issue from either this past weekend or the one before. So it's not technically from one of my books, but it is from a print source. YUM.

Cheese Biscuits (with my notes in parentheses)

2 cups flour (I used a bit of whole wheat, which kept these from the fluffiest perfection)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sugar
2/3 cup butter (no wonder they're good)
1 cup grated cheddar
1/4 cup chopped dill, chives, or coriander (I omitted this)
freshly ground pepper
1 cup buttermilk (just add 1 tsp vinegar to 1 cup milk for buttermilk)

Glaze: 1 tbsp buttermilk, 1/4 cup grated cheese

Preheat oven to 450.
Combine flour, baking powder, soda, sugar, and salt in a large bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or fingers until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add cheese, herbs, and pepper. Add enough buttermilk to bring together into a sticky dough (slightly less than 1 cup). Scrape dough onto a well-floured surface . Sprinkle with flour and pat or roll into a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick. Using a floured 2 inch cutter (a glass works well), cut dough into rounds and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Brush biscuits with buttermilk and sprinkle each with a bit of cheddar cheese. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown. Makes about 16 biscuits. (I only got 12 with a large round biscuit cutter.) Enjoy!

tasty tea

As you may recall, I now have a love affair with licorice root; specifically Yogi Tea's Egyptian Licorice tea. Aveda also makes a tea which is lovely, and very simple. Licorice root, mint, basil, and sweet fennel. The Yogi tea has citrus in it, which Ingrid can't consume for fear of throat swelling and death, and the Aveda tea costs a fortune, so I bought the spices at the health food store, and made some up. Delicious! Needs some tweaking, but it's yummy. (No, I didn't measure, as usual. Sorry.) Apparently the fennel seed (which I used) is not the thing to use; sweet fennel leaves are the thing I need to make it perfect. (Follow that link, Ingrid - that's where it can be bought.) Try it and let me know what you think! I'm kind of thinking that I might give up on all of the other things and have straight licorice root tea. Mmmmm. So sweet!