Cream Biscuits

Prep Time: 7 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes

Grade: B

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Sources:

Cook's Illustrated Magazine (January 2000)

Baking Illustrated

The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

This is not my favorite biscuit recipe. However, it is a nice way to use up cream, and it is an extremely easy recipe. The biscuits are on the table in under 25 minutes, which cannot be beat.

I prefer other buttermilk biscuits because I like the butter flavor. These are just slightly bland. I will make these again when I have some cream I need to use up, but otherwise, I will stick to other recipes.

Pumpkin Bread

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Cool Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

This is a nice simple recipe for pumpkin bread and I will definitely make again. It was very good.

Penne and Chickpea Soup

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes

Grade: A

Make Again: Yes

Recipe Source: Cook's Illustrated Magazine (Sept 1999)

This is such a simple soup recipe, and very flavorful. It calls for 4 pieces of bacon (including rendered fat) and 1/4 c. olive oil. However, I soak up much of the rendered fat from the bacon (leaving about 1 T.) and then add only 1 T. of olive oil. This still leaves you with a very rich broth. The broth flavor comes from the bacon, garlic, rosemary, and the tomatoes.

The biggest problem with the soup is that it doesn't save well, because of the pasta. The pasta soaks up all the broth in the leftovers. So, I take some out of the pot for freezing before I add the pasta and then add less pasta.