A Southern Thing

To be sure, I'm not so up on Southern things. Like the Republican Party. Or the Baptist denomination. Or the Confederate Flag. Or most "southern" things.

But when I read this article that was linked on Smitten Kitchen, I knew that I was missing something important: White Lily biscuits.

Now, first of all, I wish I could explain to you how I am about food. For about the past 5 weeks, each time I've gone to the grocery store, I've picked up a bag of White Lily flour, and contemplated buying it to make the recipe on the back. But the recipe has shortening in it, and I don't like to make things with shortening too often. So each time, I would look at it, decide that it wasn't yet time, and put it back.

But then, a few things happened:

1. Smitten Kitchen posted a recipe for a tomato corn pie. And yes, the pie does look delicious, and I think I'm going to make it with Anna soon. But more importantly, it has a biscuit crust. So I started thinking about biscuits. A lot.

2. I made my first Ikea trip this weekend, and one of the things I decided to buy was a set of cutters. And one of them is a biscuit cutter.

3. I started craving biscuits, and decided to go somewhere that would have them. So, this weekend, I was in a friend's area, and I stopped in to eat brunch with him. I specifically requested brunch because I wanted a biscuit. But a specific kind of biscuit: flaky, light. The biscuit I had was incredibly dense. Still delicious. But still not what I was wanting.

So. I cracked:

These were exactly what I've been wanting: light, flaky. I made them on the small size, ate a few and threw the rest in the freezer. There aren't a whole lot of times I'm thankful to live on this side of the Mason-Dixon line--but shit, if the availability of this flour here doesn't firmly place itself in the "PRO" column, I don't know what does.

Notes:

- I had just finished baking these and imagining them with strawberry jam when I remembered that I don't have any strawberry jam. Quel dommage--I had to eat them with raspberry. An acceptable substitute. And these biscuits begged for real butter, and--of course--I caved.

- One of the unexpected things that happened in my year off from here was a lot of time spent in the kitchen, listening to Radiohead or Red Hot Chili Peppers, whiling away time making dinner and desserts. I hope to post some of those recipes here, although I can promise my photos will never be as impressive those you can find at real food blogs.

- I just realized that September 1 is TODAY and that there is no new banner. I apologize and promise it will be up in a day or two. You'll have to forgive me for finding biscuits more important tonight.