Onion Biscuits – what not to do; the Update

Holiday’s are over, time to get back to work.

Remember this room?

This is, or will be, the Living Room.

Part of restoring an old house whilst living in it is there’s no place to put stuff. It just gets piled up in whatever room isn’t currently being worked on.

The first order of business was to empty the room.

We did.

Mon mari spent the last week stripping wallpaper, repairing holes and painting the ceiling.

As well as inspecting little areas like this….

Yep, that’s rotten wood in that corner.

Fortunately (yeah right) once he got the floor leveled in the kitchen and hall, he realized that this floor would be raised about 4 inches.

Well, in some places anyway.

The fireplace is one with a chimney that doesn’t go all the way to the top.  We may eventually put a little stove in it, but for the time being, it will be cleaned up and become one of those ‘decorative’ fireplaces filled with candles or some such crap.

Where did we put all the furniture?  Into every available nook and cranny in the den and hall, as well as carry a lot upstairs.  We’re crowded, but still livable. (I still have a chair to sit in to watch television – if I choose do so.)

Now we’re deciding on wall colors.  The French seem to only like bold, vibrant wall color – true blue, vibrant turquose, fire-engine red. I lean towards pale colors – ice blue, pale salmon.   Am I sadly out of date?

As long as I’m showing before and after….

This is how Baking Powder Biscuits look if you forget to either add baking soda or an acid to activate the baking powder. (Ahem….)

We’ll call them Baking Powder Crackers.

We won’t tell you what mon mari called them.  (It wasn’t very nice)

This is what they’re meant to look like:

I’ve been making a lot of biscuits lately, they only take 15 minute (well, these a bit longer) and they are perfect with all the soup we’ve been eating in this cold weather.

Onion Biscuits

1 small or 1/2 large onion
1 tbs olive oil
1/4 cup plus 2 tbs milk
1 tbs lemon juice
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbs butter (chilled is best)

Chop onion and sauté in oil over medium heat until tender. Put in blender along with milk and purée until smooth. Stir in lemon juice.
Put all dry ingredients into bowl. Add butter and cut in with pastry blender, fork or 2 knives. The idea is to get the butter and flour mixed so that it looks like tiny pebbles or coarse sand. Add onion/milk and stir lightly and briefly until just sort of combined.
Scoop dough out onto a heavily floured surface – any clean counter top or table will work. Knead lightly 5 – 7 times – that is: press it together lightly, turn it over and do it again, folding it over on itself as you turn it. It is not going to look well mixed or smooth like bread dough. Rub flour on a rolling pin and lightly roll dough out to 1/2 inch (1.25 cm) thickness. Try to get it square shaped. Instead of the usual circles cut the dough into 2 – 2.5 inch (5 – 6.25cm) squares. This makes all of the biscuits from one rolling – less handling. Put on lightly oiled baking sheet. Bake for 10 – 15 minutes in 425F (215C) oven or until lightly browned. Remove and serve immediately.

Note:  The way to make light biscuits is a minimum of handling. For those not familiar with baking powder biscuits – they are light and wonderful eaten with melted butter while still hot from the oven. They resemble hockey pucks the next day so don’t bother to save the leftovers.

There, now you all should be ready for the rest of the cold snap – lots of soup and biscuits!