City Flats Bistro Revisited

Nice lunch today in downtown Holland at CityVu Bistro at the City Flats Hotel. They now have a "Flat Rate" lunch with soup (a rich beefy mushroom), salad bar, and a variety of flatbreads for $7.99. Very tasty!



-- Post From My iPhone

Another Pair of Earrings

Here's another pair of earrings that I made recently. I picked up the carved turquoise looking beads in Shipshewana this summer (just made of plastic, I think). I combined them with bali silver beads- kinda fun looking!

Blue Topaz Crystal Earrings

Last week I decided I needed a little break from my lesson plans. I hadn't made any jewelry since summer. Earrings are fast - I can do a pair in under a half hour usually. I made these out of swarovski crystal to go with this necklace. Easy Peasy! It felt so good to do something non-school! And then, I actually made 2 more pair, so I actually have something else that I can post hopefully sometime soon.

Rosemary Parmesan Biscuits

It has been so long since I have blogged here - I wonder if everyone has stopped checking in to see if there is something new???? Teaching fifth grade still has left me with hours of preparation and little time for anything else. But this weekend I wanted to take a break and leave at least one post to let everyone know that I was still alive!

I'm hoping to make this recipe for biscuits again today. It is based on a recipe from the USA Weeekend Magazine from February 2008. It has a neat trick where you grate frozen butter into the dough which makes these biscuits easy and flaky! I have added fresh rosemary and parmesan cheese to make them savory, but you could leave that out or add different flavorings.


Rosemary Parmesan Biscuits

2 cups unbleached flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, frozen solid
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 Tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. With a fork, mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Using the large holes on a grater, grate the butter into the bowl. Add the cheese and rosemary. Use your fingers to mix the ingredients. Add the buttermilk and stir with a fork or hands until just mixed. Add a bit additional buttermilk if needed.

Turn out dough onto a floured board and pat into a square about 6 inches across. Cut the dough into 9 squares. Shape each square into a roundish shape and then set on a lightly greased cookie sheet. (I use an airbake pan to keep the bottoms from getting too brown.) Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden.