Mandy and Jace

We decided several weeks ago that we needed a vacation. It has been a crazy and stressful past few weeks and we needed to get away and blow off some steam and stress. So we loaded up on Friday and went to where we feel at home, Dallas. We have never figured out why, but we have always had this sense of being at home every time we cross into the city limits. It starts in Ft. Worth, then we take this huge sigh of comfort and relief when we see the Dallas skyline. We shopped and ate and slept and slept some more. It couldn’t have been a better weekend.

Sunday before we headed home we stopped by the Dallas Farmers Market and loaded up on all of the fruits, veggies and meat we were going to need for the week ahead. We made out with some tasty stuff! Here’s this weeks plan that will be made with the food we got in Dallas.

Tonight: sweet and sour pork stir fry made with pork loin, pineapple, ginger and rice
Tuesday: dinner with our best friends Chad and Jamie
Wednesday: grilling steaks on the patio. Also, roasted potatoes, grilled veggies and salad
Thursday: take out night
Friday: date night

Happy eating!

I will never forget when Jace made these for me for the first time. It was my birthday and I woke up to the smell of biscuits and gravy. They were so stinkin good! I think he might regret making them though because from now on he will be known as the biscuit maker of the house and I like them pretty regularly.

This is the recipe for the biscuits, if you want to know how to make the gravy to go with it (I don’t know why you wouldn’t) you can find it here. We used veal stock in that recipe, but since our local grocery store no longer sells veal stock we use chicken stock and works just as well.

I know making biscuits can be a little intimidating but I promise it is easy and they are a million times better than the canned biscuits.

Home-style Biscuits
adapted from Homesick Texan

2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick cold butter, cut into small cubes
3/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees
Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt together in a large bowl.
Add the cubed, cold butter and work the dough with your finger tips (to prevent the butter from getting too warm) until it comes to a crumb like consistency. You’ll want to basically stretch the butter until it looks like a flake covered in flour.
Add the buttermilk. It will be sticky but work the liquid into the dough. Sticky enough that Jace has been known to use gloves when he’s not too sleepy to forget.
Pour the dough out onto a floured counter top and knead for a minute or so. If it’s too sticky to work with coat your hands and the dough with a little more flour and continue. It should no longer be wet after kneading.
This is the fun part. Form the dough into a ball and hit it with the end of your rolling pin. (I’ve always wanted to hit something with that thing) Every few whacks turn the dough and fold it over, this will create layers. Do this for 3-5 minutes.
Roll the dough out until it is 1/4 inch thick and fold it in half. Using a biscuit cutter or something round like a glass or can cut the biscuits by pressing down into the dough and then turning the cutter. Then you should be able to pop the biscuits out. Cut as many as the dough will allow and then roll out the scraps and make as many as you can out of that. Croud the biscuits in a greased baking sheet or glass pan close together and bake for 10-15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
Pour gravy over them or eat them plain. They are delicious.

I realized the other day that we have been in our new house for almost a year now. I can’t believe it! The 6 months or so that it took to build the house felt like 3 years but it sure hasn’t seemed like we’ve been in for a year. I am sad to say not much has changed in a year. I still don’t have much on the wall, there is a lot of empty space on shelves that I could go buy decorations for, and there are no curtains up…yet. I have had the hardest time trying to find curtains for our living room. I don’t know if I was being too picky or there just weren’t any cute ones out there, but it was definitely a battle. I finally found these on Overstock.com in the chocolate color and they come in today. I am crossing my fingers that they look good. If they don’t we will probably have bare walls for a while longer.

Here’s this week’s dinner plan.

Tonight: roasted chicken (made like our turkey), mashed potatoes, squash and zucchini
Tuesday: beef fajitas
Wednesday: build your own pizza with whole wheat pizza dough
Thursday: take out
Friday: date night

Happy eating!