Cheddar and Chive Biscuits
Since it's Soup Season, seems like it's time for something you can dunk. Starch is how I get my kids to eat lots of things-- "Three more bites of your curry, then you can have another piece of bread." Or "Another tablespoon of wasabi, then you can have a biscuit." Especially if we're eating down the same pot of soup for 3 nights in a row, I try to switch it up with cornbread, biscuits, and other carb-craving things that can be slathered with butter. This morning Wyatt said to me, "Mom, you know what I could eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday? Bread with butter." I suppose that's better than Sour Patch Kids.
These biscuits are quick as your wrist can stir, and delicious warmed for breakfast the next morning with eggs. Drop biscuits are not my default, but my trusty biscuit cutter has now actually BROKEN from so much use, so it's forced me out of my rut a little bit.
While you're baking these up, I'm going away on a silent retreat for a couple days. (Thank you, dearest Yancey). I wouldn't quite say I'm going to "find myself," especially since those of you who know me might say, "What? Isn't that what you're always doing?" I may be an extrovert, but I'm about the most introspective one you'll ever meet. So I don't think I'm totally lost, but I need some recalibration. Without giving everything away here, I'll just say some deep-seated Fear of Failure issues won't leave me alone, and it's really time to deal with them.
I want to always be learning, and that means failure will be part of it. Ever impervious, Yancey always says, "So what?! You just try again." This is the guy who got a job as a fine woodworker with no experience, built two houses just to see if he could do it, then worked, rejection after rejection, to get into the fire department for three years. Thank God I'm not married to someone as naval-gazing as myself. We'd go on retreats once a month and never actually get anywhere.
After reading the book in 2005 and then seeing the movie this summer, I finally checked out the actual Julie and Julia blog, stagnant now for a few years. No photos, no ads or endorsements, but some really good writing. The last entry, on the day of Julia Child's death, says this:
Who knows how it happens, how you come upon your essential gift? For this was hers. Not the cooking itself so much – lots of people cook better than Julia. Not even the recipes – others can write recipes. What was Julia’s true gift, then? She certainly had enormous energy, and that was a sort of gift, if a genetic one – perhaps the one thing about her you can pin down on the luck of the draw. She was a great teacher, certainly – funny, and generous, and enthusiastic, with so much overbrimming confidence that she had nothing to do with the surplus but start doling it out to others. But she also had a great gift for learning. Perhaps that was the talent she discovered in herself at the age of 37, at the Cordon Bleu School in Paris – the thirst to keep finding out, the openness to experience that makes life worth living.
I got teary reading that--that Julia's true gift was her gift for learning, that she didn't really discover it until she was 37. I've been thinking about this quote all week, and feel like I was meant to read it before my Introspection Summit. It's a privilege to spend any time at all trying to uncover my essential gift--Filipinos are digging themselves out from the flood of the century, we are still at war. I know I always give disclaimers like this. They aren't meant to discredit my angst, but to put it in perspective. And maybe to say that now, more than ever, the world needs all of us figuring out how to give our essential gifts.
So these two days have seemed frivolous to me, at moments, until I recognize that staying stuck doesn't help anybody. I'm off, with a jar of chai and my french press, to keep learning how to learn; fingers crossed that I'll return with a less entangled version of myself in tow.
Cheddar and Chive Biscuits
Adapted from my Gourmet cookbook. They call for scallions (green onions) which would be great, as would all sorts of other things--finely chopped red onions, fresh herbs. I used chives because my little clump is still producing away.
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
6 oz sharp white (or other) Cheddar, coarsely grated (1 1/2 cups)
Handful of chives, finely chopped
1 cup well-shaken buttermilk
Preheat oven to 450°F.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a bowl, then blend in butter with your fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in Cheddar and scallions. Add buttermilk and stir until just combined.
Drop dough in 12 equal mounds about 2 inches apart onto a buttered large baking sheet. Bake in middle of oven until golden, 18 to 20 minutes.
September 28, 2009
Reader Comments (43)
Blessings, calm, wonderful solitude to you for the next 2 days. There are SO few of them in these decades as a Mom, and this will give wonderful perspective. Meanwhile, I'll be baking your biscuits. I think I still have a biscuit cutter, although I often cut them in squares or rectangles or diamonds with my french chef's knife----don't have to re-roll. Love to each of you, and how delighted you'll be to see each other!
These totally look like Red Lobster biscuits!
Dearest Sarah,
I haven't known you for long and when we do get together for playdates we barely have time to talk. As far as the details of your life and journey go, and what has brought you to this place -- fearful, courageous, discouraged, and hopeful all at once -- I know so little.
I tend to fall back to into the safe "good luck, hope you find what you need, whatever it is" kind of comment at moments like these.
But instead, I have something to say to you. I thought about just emalling you instead of using the comments section, but what the heck.
I was dropping big fat tears as I read through this post. I'm sad for the angst you carry with you, your sense of an unfound essential gift in your life. And perhaps there are some things like that you need to find, things you need to do.
But tonight, my hope for you is that you will begin to see that you are already living your essential gifts in a full and beautiful way. That once you get untangled, you'll find that you can be content and in love with yourself now, where you are now. You have a remarkable, tender, thoughtful soul. Your essential gift is you, yourself, and at this you cannot fail.
Striving, striving, striving, striving. Many of us were raised with this as an unwritten highest value. But by it's very nature, striving leaves us unable to be content with the present moment. To take pure joy in what is simply here, now. Striving puts on a good show while sucking us dry.
God gave me two remarkable little boys to help me learn this lesson. Two little boys who desparately need me to stop with the striving already and just BE. Painful lessons, and I've learned them kicking and screaming. But worth it...
Peace be with you.
Love, Naomi
And those DO look like Red Lobster biscuits. I would know. Speaking of failure, there was the time I was fired from my job waitressing at Red Lobster. Ouch. That was not my essential gift, for sure.
I thought of Red Lobster right away too! A recent Pioneer Woman contest (how she can give away all those mixers, I'll never know) asked people to name their fav restaurant - I was amazed how often Olive Garden popped up. Enjoy the retreat, and btw, you have a lovely network of friends, fam, fans, and just generally good supportive people going on here. I enjoy reading your comments as much as your posts!
3 things:
1) Those biscuits look scrump-tiddly-umptious.
2) You may want check out the 'most popular' posts on this blog: http://www.reschoolyourself.com/ (look to the right column)
3) You remind me of a quote close to my heart: "*Don't ask yourself what the world needs - ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive*." -Howard Thurman
Good luck, and know that you're already a creative inspiration!
Have a wonderful retreat, Sarah. I like how to share the various pieces of your life with us, including what you are grappling with. Thanks.
And also with you, Naomi. And also with you.
I know, I know, pds, sounds like it could be a letter to myself... hopefully it's helpful for Sarah and not just me projecting. :)
Have you seen this blog? I'm guessing you have, but if not, check it out! http://fat-of-the-land.blogspot.com/
These biscuits look amazing! I'm making a roast tonight and these biscuits will go perfect...thanks for the recipe!
Are you sure you are not a Four on the Enneagram? I am and you sound so much like me! Direction of healthy integration for a Four is a healthy One! Ha! Hope you have a wonderful time on your retreat. I ENVY your time away! ;)
Those biscuits look better than Red Lobster's! I love the combination of chives and cheddar! I can't wait to make these. Do you think I could use a food processor to mix them instead of my finger? I'm not very good at that. Thanks!
may your time away be life-giving for you...as you are for so many of us. i think i have to make these biscuits tonight (with the soup i'm making - too bad chris!) and when i eat them i will think of you and send you my love. xo
My friend Jo Ella just put me onto your blog and I'm a new - and enthusiastic - follower.
This quote of yours describes me perfectly: "I may be an extrovert, but I’m about the most introspective one you’ll ever meet." Thanks for putting it into words, and so well at that.
Blessings to you, on your getaway; may the Lord be a light to your feet~
Susan
Thanks for sharing Sarah...the good, the praises, and the struggles.
We all need time to "reconnect" to center. Reminds me of a line in one of my favorite poems, "remember what peace there may be in silence."
Much Love,
Jessica
Love Howard Thurman. Bought a card this summer with that quote on the front.
I like this poem/essay of his:
How good it is to center down!
To sit quietly and see one's self pass by!
The streets of our minds seethe with endless traffic;
Our spirits resound with clashings, with noisy silences,
While something deep within hungers and thirsts for the still moment and the resting lull.
With full intensity we seek, ere the quiet passes, a fresh sense of order in our living;
A direction, a strong pure purpose that will structure our confusion
and bring meaning in our chaos.
We look at ourselves in this waiting moment - the kinds of people we are.
The questions persist: what are we doing with our lives? -
What are the motives that order our day?
What is the end in our doings? Where are we trying to go?
Where do we put the emphasis and where are our values focused?
For what end do we make sacrifices? Where is my treasure and what do I love most in life?
What do I hate most in life and to what am I true?
Over and over the questions beat in the waiting moment.
As we listen, floating up through all the jangling echoes of our turbulence, there is a sound of another kind –
A deeper note which only the stillness of the heart makes clear.
It moves directly to the core of our being. Our questions are answered,
Our spirits refreshed, and we move back into the traffic of our daily round
With the peace of the Eternal in our step.
How good it is to center down!
From – Meditations of the Heart by Howard Thurman.
Thinking of you with the Sisters, in your little room with your colored pencils, eating cafeteria style in the dining room, taking a break from your wide variety of work in the world, sitting in that chapel.
Looking forward to your return and praying for some clear, dynamic dreams tonight.
Love you.
Hi Sarah. I read this entry while making soup for my son who has the flu. Decided to make these biscuits to round out the meal. Because I cut back on the amount of cheese, they were not cheesey enough. Guess I learned a lesson. Love your blog, and not just because of the recipes. Your writing is a joy to read.
Sarah,
Next year WE should all send you to this conference.
http://assets1.blogher.com/files/BHFood09Badge.jpg
Do you know of it already?
Thinking of you.
Jackie
Hey pds, yesterday afternoon I tried to do some striving instead of just being, and you were there to see it. Note to self...wasn't pretty. It's nice to have you around. It's nice to have Sarah's blog to chat on even thought you are just downstairs. :)
I got teary reading this post. So often, I feel stuck, like I'm just spinning in circles, not really going anywhere...or even knowing where I WOULD go if I could. I hope the next couple of days are insightful, and please share what you learn.
This is not really the link...just the badge...but it is called BlogHer. A conference for woman bloggers...that's you Sarah! You need support and encouragement to continue on.
Oh, boy. How did you know I've been craving something just like this? I want some right now, so I am bookmarking the recipe as a second-best option! Thanks for posting it, and enjoy your retreat.
And you know when the boys are asleep, you can even come down for an extended conversation! I won't tell them if you don't.