Sunday Cooking: My Favorite Buttermilk Recipes

The best comfort food will always be greens, cornbread and fried chicken. 

~Maya Angelou

Comfort foods are always welcome on a Sunday afternoon.  The snow is gently falling, the fire is warm and crackling in the fireplace and after a long week of work, rest and good food are perfect remedies.  We went to Church last evening and have been able to relax today.  I finally got the winter wreath made too and love the way it looks: 

For today's post I will share some recipes that use that homemade buttermilk I made (and I hope you made too!).  

Buttermilk Biscuits

2 cups flour 

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder (don't forget to shake the can before you measure)

1/2 teaspoon sugar 

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick cold butter

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Sift together dry ingredients.

 Cube the cold butter and work into the flour mixture until it resembles small peas.  I like to use a pastry cutter. 

Mix in buttermilk to make a dough.  Knead the dough just a few times to come together.  Do not overwork, you do not want the butter to melt from the heat of your hands. 

Roll out dough to about 3/4 inch thick and cut into biscuit rounds or squares.  

Place biscuits on a greased baking sheet (use the label from the butter) about an inch apart. 

Bake for about 15 minutes until lightly browned.  

Buttermilk Fried Chicken 

1 whole chicken cut into 8 pieces 

2 cups buttermilk 

1 teaspoon salt

Mix together buttermilk and salt and pour over chicken pieces making sure all are covered.  Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour. 

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon thyme

pinch cayenne pepper

vegetable oil for frying

Mix together flour and spices in a bowl or bag.  Take individual chicken pieces from the buttermilk and toss in the flour mixture. 

Heat vegetable oil to 360 degrees Fahrenheit.  Brown and cook chicken pieces until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F.  Do not crowd the pan - I fry in two pans to ensure the chicken has enough room.

Buttermilk Salad Dressing 

1 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup mayonnaise

4 tablespoons sour cream

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

2 tablespoons chopped chives

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 garlic clove, finely minced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Put all ingredients in a jar, cover tightly and shake to combine.  Refrigerate at least one hour before serving.  

I'm so glad you took a few moments to visit today.  Tomorrow is the day we Make Every Monday Matter and the topic is light bulbs.  I want to learn the difference between regular bulbs and CFLs and the pros and cons of each.  I hope to see you then! 

In the meantime, my knitting needles that are by the chair near the fireplace are calling for me...time to put them to use :) 

Peace be with you, 

Star Schipp 

This post may contain affiliate links which means if you make a purchase using one of those links, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you.  It is a great way to support your favorite hobby farm blogger.  Thank you!      

A Recipe for Rosemary Garlic Salt - A Wonderful Gift!

Salt is born of the purest of parents:  the sun and the sea.

-Pythagoras- 

What a gift we have been given to have salt, herbs and spices to enhance our food.  Without them soup would be bland, pasta rather tasteless, meats unappetizing and popcorn would stay in the bowl.  

Learning to use these gifts the world has to offer makes your cooking rise to the level of artistic expression--even more so when you have grown the herbs in your own garden.  These days, you can seek out some wonderful crystals of sea salt that are so popular now - Himalayan Pink, Black Lava, white crystals that shine like diamonds or even Bolivian which is orange.  We have come a long way from Morton's "When It Rains, It Pours" table salt.  

If you are looking to add some excitement to your dishes, check into some of those different salts.  But also, grow some herbs right outside your kitchen window.  There is absolutely nothing fresher or more enjoyable than stepping outside with a pair of scissors and snipping what you need.  You can have all those wonderful flavors in your cooking pot within only a couple of minutes.  

Fresh herbs really cannot compare to the tins you probably have in your cupboard right now.  Fess up, some of those have been in there are very long time haven't they?  Throw them away.  They have lost their usefulness.  

In my garden, I grow basil, rosemary, sage, chives, dill, mint, cilantro, parsley, marjoram, savory, oregano and thyme for cooking.  At the end of the season, you can dry them yourself to use all winter or better yet, start some plants to grow indoors too.  

There are many recipes on the internet to create your own herb or spice blends and I hope you get out there and do that both for the satisfaction of doing it yourself but also because they make wonderful gifts.  Here are two of my very favorites:  

Italian Blend

Gather equal parts of fresh herbs and chop together on your cutting board or combine if herbs are already dried. 

I use these: 

Basil, Oregano, Rosemary, Marjoram, Parsley and Thyme   

  If using fresh herbs and you want to dry to use later, place the herbs on a cookie sheet in as thin a layer as possible and leave in an area where air will circulate but not in direct sunlight.  It usually takes a couple of days in my kitchen.  When herbs crumble easily, you can package in a pretty jar and give as a gift if you like. 

This recipe below is my very favorite blend of all time.  I hope you make it yourself and see what a difference it makes in pretty much anything you cook - except maybe not desserts.  ;)

Rosemary Garlic Salt 

Ingredients: 

1/2 cup kosher salt

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced

1 cup of fresh rosemary leaves - no stems 

zest from one lemon

Mound all the ingredients together on your cutting board.  With your knife, chop and blend until the mixture is fairly fine - like coarse sand.  Spread the mixture thinly on a cookie sheet and leave on the counter where air will circulate but not in direct sunlight.  This mixture usually takes a couple of days to dry thoroughly.  When completely dry, store in a pretty jar and use liberally in everything from chicken to potatoes to even your popcorn.  I so hope you like it. 

That's all I have for you today.  I hope you enjoyed your visit.  Tomorrow, I'll post on useful essential oils to help you through the cold and flu season which sounds like is going to be a rough one.  Certainly, the sub-zero temperatures in my part of the country are keeping people indoors and exposed to more contagions.  So, keep up the handwashing!  I hope to see you tomorrow.  

Peace be with you, 

Star Schipp 

This post may contain affiliate links which means if you make a purchase using one of those links, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you.  It is a great way to support your favorite hobby farm blogger.  Thank you!