finding time for cooking

for the time-starved or curious culinary adventurer

Easy Drop Biscuits from Outlander Kitchen

These biscuits are SO easy and SO good!

Easy Drop Biscuits from Outlander Kitchen

It’s no secret that I adore biscuits. They’re buttery and flaky and warm, you can put jam and honey on them, and they feel so good in my belly! But there are two things about biscuits that I don’t love. I really hate having to cut cold butter into flour—it may be irrational, but I really hate it. And while biscuits are amazing straight out of the oven, they’re usually dense, dry balls of bread that get stuck in your windpipe and try to choke them to death when you eat them as leftovers.

Easy Drop Biscuits

But no more! For Thanksgiving this year I needed to make another kind of bread for our hungry horde. We already had rolls, so I thought some kind of biscuit. The problem is that making regular biscuits for a big group is time consuming, and if they have to sit around for a while they’ll start to get dry and stale. Enter these amazing, easy drop biscuits…

easy drop biscuits raw

These use melted butter, and stirring everything together takes a couple minutes tops. You get this shaggy dough that you can use a spoon or ice cream scoop to plop directly into the pan, so no cleanup from having to roll out and cut the biscuits. And the taste and texture! Not only are they amazing right out of the oven, but we re-heated them for dinner that night and scarfed the last couple the next morning, and they still were light and fluffy as leftovers. So basically perfect.READ THE POST

One-Hour Skillet Focaccia Bread

Some days I feel like I have tried all the different bread recipes I need to. I mean, I’ve found several different kinds that are totally awesome, so why bother trying new recipes?

And then I stumble across a recipe like this and remember why—because sometimes you find a completely new kind of awesome to add to your arsenal. And by arsenal, I mean arsenal of carbs.

one hour skillet focaccia finished piece

I was making dinner the other day for myself and a friend, and was having decision issues. I finally decided to go with my pasta with goat cheese, roasted peppers, and chicken sausage since I could make that in my sleep, and also decided to try two new recipes—kohlrabi fries (recipe to come) and these delicious oat brown sugar strawberry shortcakes. Then, since I can’t seem to stop myself from overdoing it, I ran across this skillet focaccia bread and HAD to try it.

one hour skillet focaccia butter topping

It was surprisingly easy and also very forgiving (considering I forgot to follow one of the instructions). The texture was awesome, and I loved the flavor of the spices and parmesan cheese.

one hour skillet focaccia finished

But the best part was how fast it was. I’ve talked about how difficult it is to find a good bread recipe that I can make when I realize two hours before dinner that I forgot bread. Most of my great artisan recipes take at least 5 or 6 hours, and many of them are overnight. So to find something that can be on the table in 1-2 hours start to finish is pretty awesome. READ THE POST