Mile High Biscuits

This morning we wanted to make Biscuits and Gravy for our Saturday breakfast.  Usually, we just break out the Bisquick and make our biscuits.  It works fine, but Heather had found this recipe online this week and wanted to try it.  We are SO glad we did!  They are incredibly flaky, tender, and SO much better than from any mix we have ever tried!  Enjoy!

3 cups flour (can use 1/2 white flour and 1/2 wheat flour if desired)
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup buttermilk (you can also substitute 'homemade' buttermilk- 3/4 cup milk + 2 Tablespoons lemon juice- which is what we did.  They still turn out amazing).  Feel free to also use our tip using buttermilk powder!
1 egg
1/4 cup water

Preheat oven to 425 Degrees.  Using a pastry blender or two knives, combine flour, salt, sugar, baking powder, and butter until crumbly.  Mix in buttermilk, egg, and just enough water to make a workable dough  Mix the dough until it is just barely combined (DON'T OVERMIX!)  Roll the dough to 1 inch thickness on a floured cutting board.  Cut with a 2 inch biscuit cutter (or circle cookie cutter, or round glass)  Place biscuits on a greased baking sheet, touching one another, and bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.  Makes about 12-15 biscuits, depending on size and thickness.

TIPS FOR AWESOME BISCUITS:

1. ONLY hand mix your dough!  Don't bother with your fancy Bosch or Kitchen-Aid mixer on this recipe.  Go old school.  If you use your mixer, your dough will become too dry.
2. Don't over mix!  The best way to mix the dough is with a pastry blender or two knives, cutting the dough back and forth.  This method takes a bit longer, but will ensure the perfect biscuit.  You want little pieces of butter throughout your dough.  This is the secret to light and flaky biscuits!
3. Keep your dough fairly thick (1 to 1-1/2 inches).  A tall and thick biscuit is much better than a thin and hard one.  Keeping it thick will ensure a soft, chewy, delicious biscuit. 

Olive Garden Alfredo Sauce

We love with a capital L-O-V-E the Alfredo sauce at Olive Garden! It is just so addicting. So we decided it was high time we search for a similar recipe. What we found was the actual recipe straight from Olive Garden! We couldn't believe it! So we made it, then we made it again, and so on and so forth. It was delish! Clearly we can't make this all the time, but if we could afford the calories we would probably have this a lot! We've had it with homemade bread sticks and we've had it over pasta. Either way, you are going to love it!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup imported Parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 cup imported Romano cheese, grated
6 egg yolks from fresh jumbo eggs (I only ever have large eggs so that is what I use)
Salt and black pepper to taste

Procedures:

• Heat milk and cream in a heavy bottom saucepan until it begins to simmer. Turn off heat. Slowly whip in cheese, then remove from heat.
• Place egg yolks in a separate bowl and slowly whip in a portion of the hot milk and cream mixture. Slowly add egg yolk mixture back into remaining cream mixture. Place back on very low heat and continually stir until simmering. Take sauce off heat so it thickens (This will increase temperature of egg yolks, known as tempering).
• Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Serve over your favorite pasta.

source: http://www.olivegarden.com/Recipes/Sauces/Alfredo-Sauce/