Mending

I dreamt about a button the other night. This particular button is on a shirt I wore more often than I should have last week–a consequence of frantic packing for an unplanned trip–and it’s starting to come loose, leaving a thread that I found myself picking at absent-mindedly. In my dream, I pulled the thread and my shirt began to come apart at the seams. Not exactly a subtle message from my subconscious, given the events of the past 10 days: scary health stuff for very close family members, an emergency plane landing (not actually a huge deal, but on top of everything else…), and oh yeah, I turned 30 (that was actually awesome but not exactly minor).

Suffice to say, I’ve been feeling a bit like I’m not in control of things lately and if you know me at all, you know that this makes me a little…anxious. So I’ve been finding control where I can: I clean (every fridge I’ve been able to get my hands on is immaculate inside and out, mustards grouped together, sorry I didn’t get to the windows Mom); I bake (I am not above bribery via baked goods for healthcare workers to make sure my family is taken care of); I organize (my spices found new homes in perfect matching jars, with perfect clear labels); and, apparently, I sew.

If you want really detailed instructions on how to sew a button, the internet has plenty. For me, right now, I just wanted to keep this button from falling off, I don’t care how pretty or perfect it looks. So I pulled out my needle and thread, twisted a few knots, made a few loops, and called it a day. The button’s hanging in there, and so am I. It’s the best I can do.

Breathe. Everything will be ok.

Makin’ biscuits

Did you know, if you leave green onions in your fridge for two weeks, they will grow new green onions? These are the things I learn when I don’t clean out my fridge before I go out of town. It was a pleasant surprise to come home to a bag of perfectly bright green onions with only a slightly wilty outer layer instead of, well, the alternative.

But what does accidentally growing new green onions by way of neglectful refrigerator management have to do with biscuits? Well, I need green onions to make my favorite biscuits, of course.

Most people seem to have a preference for either drop biscuits or rolled. Personally I don’t think as anything can beat the flaky layers of the rolled version (given the lengths I will go to for flaky pie dough, is it any surprise?). I have not yet had a drop biscuit that didn’t just taste…lazy.

I don’t have any good stories to tell about these other than they’re fantastic. The cornmeal in the dough and salt and pepper sprinkled over the top adds crunch, green onions add tang, the yogurt makes them tender, the butter (of course) makes them delicious.

They’re pretty adaptable little guys too–I’ve left out the onions completely, added grated cheddar, used fine cornmeal instead of medium, used buttermilk instead of the yogurt and milk, cut in circles instead of squares (don’t you know the shape makes them taste different? I’m only kind of joking…). As long as you don’t overwork the dough terribly, it’s hard to make these “wrong.”

But the for-real best thing about these? They are so good with an over-easy egg I can’t even explain. And if you happen to have a little bit of ham to sneak under the egg? …Yeah. Just make these. You won’t regret it.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday with friends and family, lots of good gifts, plenty of tasty food.

I’m not usually one for new year’s resolutions, but in the name of accountability, I wanted to gather up a few of my cooking- and home-related goals for the year and share them here. Any resolutions for you?