I am a country girl who thanks God for biscuits and gravy. This was a staple in Montana, served hot and greasy at the Dude Rancher in Billings just the way we country folk like it. So this week’s French Fridays with Dorie challenge evoked some wonderful childhood memories of branding season, cooking over an open fire and listening to John Denver sing about being a “country boy.” I resisted my sous chef’s suggestion that I cook this week’s dish in a heavy cast iron skillet over a gas flame, while he made mooing sounds in the background, but just barely.
St. Germaine des pres Onion Biscuits is certainly not country food, but I am not complaining. Since I was out of milk, I used heavy whipping cream. And because I don’t own a cookie or biscuit cutter, I improvised and instead used my ravioli cutter. This inspired me to press the dough to a thinner thickness and the biscuits ended up more like cocktail bread. My intrepid sous chef wanted something with a little more pizazz, so I added bacon and topped it with an Herbs de Provence goat cheese from my local farmers’ market and a dash of tomato relish. Paired with a little spring salad from my garden with a freshly made Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette, the result was magnificent! Oh, and I did go ahead and pop open a bottle of Foppoli Sparkling Wine. One can’t properly eat without wine and in my experience a good bubbly works well with any food.
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| Flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and cold butter |
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| Add softened onions, and milk (heavy whipping cream and a little bacon in my case ) |
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| Use fork to create dough – this is a lot like making a pie crust |
Right now I’m knee deep in March Madness, Palm Springs Style. That means endless functions, charity events, and two of my favorite annual sporting events—the BNP Paribas Open and El Paseo Fashion Week. If you want to see the beautiful desert I live in and watch some fabulous tennis, catch it starting Saturday on The Tennis Channel with the finals the following weekend on ABC. It is the world’s fifth largest tennis tournament and the likes of Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer (my two favorites) will hopefully be playing through next weekend. Go Rafa!!!
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| Use your hands to form a dough to press out on lightly floured surface |
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| Cut pressed dough – ravioli cutter worked just fine |
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| Place on silpat/cookie sheet and bake approx. 15 minutes |
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| Spring lettuce from my garden |
El Paseo Fashion Week is a series of runway fashion shows from top designers and related fashion and food events. The frenzy generated by attendees trying to out-dress the designers and their models is a sport unto itself and worth the price of admission. If you are in the area the week of March 18, make the effort to attend.
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| This is a terrific brunch idea – a little salad, a little biscuit and lots of champagne! |
This recipe can be found at:
http://www.foodbuzz.com/recipes/2829161-birthday-wishes-and-saint-germain-des-pr-s-onion-biscuits
Or better yet, buy the book – Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan – trust me, you’ll love it!
To read more French Friday’s with Dorie posts, or to join the group:
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| From my garden – no reason other than it’s a beautiful rose! |
bacon – yes please {champagne too}
Nice cooking to make a very plain biscuit into an elegant meal with lots of pizzaz. Bacon is perfect in these biscuits and is very comforting during all the March madness.
What beautiful brunch…your biscuits look lovely! I would love bacon in these…yum!
Wow Christy! Your certainly out did yourself both on cooking and posting! March Madness Palm Springs style is something I could get into! You crack me up that you own a ravioli cutter but not a biscuit or cookie cutter! Oh yeah, you’re a country girl:)
Absolutely lovely. I like the look of the design from the ravioli cutter. These certainly make brunch into something very special. I love the cheese on top
with the tomato relish.
Me, too. I love the shape of your biscuits. March Madness in Palm Springs sounds like a blast! Have fun.
Love your biscuit topping ideas! Great photos!
Lovely ideas! And I, too love the shape of your biscuits. Nicely done.
Clever to use your ravioli cutter. And the toppings look perfect.
I would have never guessed you grew up in Montana. I love it up there (my best friend’s husband was stationed there for a few years).
Would also kill to be in Palm Springs right now. It is currently in the 20’s & snowing & very windy. Not so spring like here 🙂
Very fun! We have many things in common, a love of cooking, Meyer lemons, lettuce form our gardens and a love of tennis! Great post, I enjoyed it very much;-)
Oh and don’t forget the champagne!
What a fantastic post, Christy! I’m envious of your spring greens – our seeds just arrived, so we’ll be planting on Sunday.
We served the Asparagus Bisque warm, but I think it would be just as good chilled.
Have a terrific weekend!
Ah, biscuits and gravy. I haven’t had that it the longest time and it sounds so good to me right now. What a great idea to just throw the bacon in the mix! And I really like the use of the ravioli cutter to make these. It’s so much fun when we have to improvise. We will be watching that tournament on the Tennis Channel. Sounds like you are really busy, but fun events. That picture of the rose from your garden is beautiful.
Your biscuits look YUMMY! I am hosting a brunch next weekend I am going to copy your menu. I have Meyer Lemons too.
Vamos RAFA!!!
Something about this screamed bacon at me too. Lovely idea and lovely brunch indeed! Great post!
I was so wondering if anyone was going to do biscuits & gravy this week. It used to be one of my very favorite breakfasts when I was in college and had a metabolism which could keep up with anything. Those were the days. But your brunch biscuits & bubbly look delicious as well. Have fun with March Madness.
Oh wow – that looks and sounds fantastic!
Goat cheese and tomato relish sound like incredible toppings! Great photos.
Oh, boy,you made an elegant dish from these little biscuits…love the idea of the goat cheese and tomato relish…mmmmmm. And adding bacon to the dough was genius, too 🙂
LOL – bubbly goes well with everything! I like your ravioli shaped biscuits.
Wow, does your dish look terrific! If I could I would have invited myself to brunch/lunch.
I envy your produce from your garden…Those greens are so healthy! I have long been wishing a garden of my own…someday!
Way to be creative! It really does look fantastic! And I’m super jealous of your garden, Christy. I wish I had space to have a real garden and grow actual vegetables!
I wanted to let you know that I’ve given you the Liebster Award! You can check out the details here: http://adventuresceb.blogspot.com/2012/04/liebster-award-and-not-quite-fried-rice.html. I hate leaving links to my own site in other people’s comments but there’s no helping it this time. Love your blog!