sweet goodness

i've been a working woman for over a month now and am still trying to find a balance to my time. the evenings pass too quickly. and the weekends seem like a mad rush to run all our errands and clean the house.

most nights, mr. pike arrives home before me and gets a start on making our dinner. he's got a few signature dishes - spaghetti, stir fry, grilled cheese sandwiches and soup, which are all very good. but neither of us want to eat those dishes over and over.

in the past, mr. pike's been hesitant to get too adventurous without me. yet now he's breaking out on his own. tonight he called me at the office to ask about dinner. i suggested chicken pot pie, because we had some leftover chicken and gravy. so mr. pike would just need to get started on the biscuits.

i told him i'd email him a recipe - and found one on foodnetwork.com from paula dean. mr. pike had the dough made up when i arrived. i helped roll and cut our biscuits, and we assembled our dinner.

as we sat down at the table, i took a bite of my biscuit smothered in chicken gravy and veggies. it was delicious. and since then i haven't been able to keep my hands off the biscuits, even though my belly's feeling pretty full. i just keep wanting more! paula dean and mr. pike created a heavenly treat. and i think it's so good that i couldn't keep it to myself.

BISCUITS from Paula Dean

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
  
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup melted unsalted butter

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut in the shortening with a fork until it looks like cornmeal. Add the milk, a little at a time, stirring constantly until well mixed.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead lightly two or three times. Roll out the dough with a floured rolling pin to 12-inch thickness. Cut with a 2-inch cutter.

Place the biscuits in a greased iron skillet. Gently press down top of biscuits. Brush the biscuits with half the melted butter. Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown. Brush the hot biscuits with the remaining butter. (I baked the remaining dough that we didn't use for the pot pie on a cookie sheet. Worked great.)