However, the sudden sunny days of February (I know: the weather is whack this winter) sent me in a dither over the pear offerings in my local supermarket.  I’ve made numerous soups with them, but the other day I wanted something sweet and something that preserved the actual shape of the pears.

Et voila: the baked pear.  And because I have a ton of jam in the fridge–I seem to collect jams, as much for the varied flavors as for their jars–I decided to toss  some of that into the mix as well.  Not a bad way to start the day, or end a long evening.

Jam-Filled Baked Pears

• 2 medium-sized pears; peeled, halved and seeded
• 4 tsp butter
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 4 tsp jam (I used a peach-apricot medley)

Preheat oven to 350F.  Combine brown sugar and cinnamon; set aside.

Please pear halves, cut side up, in a shallow baking dish.  Place 1tsp butter in the center of each. Drizzle with lemon juice.  Sprinkle cinnamon/sugar mixture over pears.  Top with a tsp-full of jam for each pear.

Bake for about 15-25 minutes, til heated through.  (15-25 minutes can be a long range of time for pears, but people have different preferences for tenderness.  After 15 minutes the pears will be sufficiently baked, and after that it’s a matter of your personal taste in softness.  Me, I prefer not to have to employ a knife when cutting my dessert fruits. 25 minutes for me!)

Serve warm, perhaps with a vanilla bean ice cream.  Enjoy!

My natural instinct, when faced with something so overwhelming discomfiting, is to fall back onto my Southern roots.  Biscuits have become an institution by now, and today I decided that sun tea was necessary to my mental survival.

Today was a beautiful day — the kind of beautiful fall day that is soon going to get swept up into cold, blustery, windy days, when scarves wrap themselves a little too tight around your neck and boots start growing up your legs, when mittens become a necessity instead of an option and hats get pulled further down on your ears.

Wanting to take advantage of the beautiful weather, but knowing I had to stay in and be a responsible student, I decided to make sun tea.  It’s easy, it takes time, it doesn’t need babysitting, and it boosts you full of caffeine.  And, if you’re like me, it calls for things you already have in stock.

Fire Escape Sun Tea

• large jar (I used an old applesauce jar)
• Cold water
• 2-3 tea bags, or 2-3 tablespoons of loose leaf tea

Make sure the jar is very clean, as it is possible for bacteria to grow in the tea if the jar isn’t sterilized.  A good, thorough cleaning and immediate drying off should be fine.

Place the tea (either in bags or loose leaf) in the jar and fill with cold water.  Cap tightly and put outside in the sun.  Fire escapes are marvelous for this!  Leave in the sun for 2-3 hours, max 4 hours.

Strain the tea.  (I strained it and returned it to the jar.)  Place in the fridge and leave til cold.  Before drinking, add sugar if you want to.  Et voila, it is done!  A quick summertime ice tea, at pretty much no cost or effort to you.

-bisoux

That’s right. I am now ensconced in a four-bedroom flat in Washington Heights, New York City, even though the four bedrooms are only occupied by three people (can I get a shout of “guest room!” Sweet).  We are still arranging our furniture and stocking our pantry, but it’s a home.  We even have the two requisite plants to prove it.

This morning was the first time in the month I’ve been living here that I felt ready to take on the oven and make breakfast.  I’ve been itching a while for a really good biscuit, but between the work, unpacking, and mental mapping to do, I wasn’t ready for a huge project.  So I put away the Paula Deen butter-heavy recipe and went instead with an easier, butter-less version.

I made these biscuits to make New York feel more like home; I made them because my Tennessee roots have been showing (mostly, I think, in a rebellion against the stiffness of much of NYC); I made them to show off to my roommates; I made them because Lexy told me to; I made them because I needed to.

And they were divine.  They didn’t last long, but while they lived, they were wondrous little fluffy beings.  Dotted with apple butter or scored with butter, these little creatures are absolutely delightful.  A great kick to the morning, a citywide homecoming, a return to yourself, a great banner of pleasure for your tastebuds.  Oh lovelies, I can’t wait to make you again!

Basic Breakfast Biscuits

• 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups milk (I used 1%, but I reckon heavy cream or even half & half would be great*)

Preheat oven to 400F.

In a bowl, stir together the dry ingredients.  Add milk (or cream) and stir until a dough forms.

Drop heaping 1/4 cups of batter onto a greased baking sheet.  Bake until tops are golden brown, bottoms browned, about 18-20 minutes.  (I baked these on the bottom rack of my oven, but the middle would probably have been a better idea.)

Slather with jam, butter, or fruit.  Enjoy!

-bisoux

*NOTE: using 1 cup heavy cream and 1 cup regular milk helps to make the biscuits a bit denser; the addition of a couple of handfuls of grated cheese gives them a more serious mien.  Yum!

Scones have, by now, become pretty standard fare in my breakfast arsenal.  But Jessie is allergic to nuts, and so I had to eschew with the pecans I would normally have liberally sprinkled throughout the dough.  Too, I’d run out of heavy cream and  ended up using a heavy vanilla Greek yogurt as the dairy base.  Sour cream probably would have been fine as well, but I had the yogurt on hand and I really do like it, so…

Pumpkin Scones

• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/3 cup vanilla Greek yogurt
• 6 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 425F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In medium bowl, combine pumpkin puree, yogurt, brown sugar, vanilla.  Whisk together.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.  Add in the cubed butter and mix by hand until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. (Add in raisins if you’re choosing to include them.)

Pour flour mixture into the liquid mixture.  Mix it all together with a wooden spoon.  The dough should be a bit crumbly.

Turn out onto the countertop.  Pat into a rough circle, large enough to cut 8 medium-sized wedges.  Cut the wedges, and place each on the baking sheet so that none are touching.

Bake for 15 minutes.  Cool a bit before eating, but don’t wait too long before you dig in: you definitely want these warm enough to melt butter.

Jessie, with her broken stomach and decimated appetite, ate two.  Success!

-bisoux

* Okay, so I had the dance party and Jessie watched  owlishly from her precarious perch on the kitchen counter, worried that I was going to whisk too vigorously and splatter her with batter.  In my defense, the worst I did was fling batter onto my own arm.  And that was only because I pulled an especially sassy move, which Jessie (also in my defense) appreciated.  Aretha, queen bee, you inspire!

Days like this were made for blanket-bound havens, steaming mugs of hot chocolate, good music, and board games.  Days like this were made for warm laughter and warmer bread.

My go-to bread, regardless of weather, is beer bread.  It doesn’t need time to rise; it doesn’t need to be kneaded; it doesn’t need to be babysat through an afternoon.  No starter, no timers, no cheesecloth.  And the whole loaf takes only one hour to make, which gives you time to construct a blanket fortress or call up the gang and organize a snowed-in Scrabble extravaganza.  Or whatever.

Ever since I stumbled upon this amazing concoction, it has become a firm staple in my life.  And the lives of my friends, as I keep pressing variations upon them.  And each one — from a VT wheat beer, to a heavy Guinness, to a nice PA lager, to the burble of Three Philosophers – has been better than the last.  This is the bread that keeps giving.

Agave Beer Bread

• 3 cups flour
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp agave (or honey)
• 1 bottle beer (12 oz)
• 4 tbsp melted butter

Pre-heat oven to 350F.  Grease your loaf pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  With a wooden spoon, stir in the beer and agave.

Pour half of the melted butter into the loaf pan.  Spoon batter into the pan, and pour the rest of the butter on top.

Bake for 50-60 minutes, until golden brown (or a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean).

Let cool, and serve!

There are plenty of cheeses you could pair with this, or  you can just slather it with butter/jam.  It’s an amazing winter treat, a good bread to (always) have handy, and a good way to use up those extra bottles of beer leftover after a party.  Oh, and it’s pretty much foolproof!

-bisoux