It’s time for me to get in touch with my southern roots. I spent some time in Nashville, Tennessee recently and everywhere I went out to eat…. I was served a basket of freshly baked biscuits. I nearly died from happiness, they reminded me of the lovely rosemary buttermilk biscuits my southern Great Grandmother Presley used to make me when I was a little girl. I always remember her with her Fiskar gardening shears out in her backyard cutting fresh rosemary from her herb garden, that would eventually end up in our supper. It was those days that I look back on so fondly and wish I talk to her and ask who she learned to make biscuits from? Or why she choose to plant rosemary, since it’s so hard to cut? Who introduced her to Fiskar for the first time? Since I no longer have the luxury of talking to her, the next best thing I can do, is make a version of her biscuits. I am no longer going to let anything keep me from my baked biscuits, and luckily I have a rosemary bush growing in my backyard, just like Great Grandma Presley. Like her, I cut my rosemary with Fiskar’s Gardener: Platinum Series™ Smooth-action Pruner and am following in her footsteps in the kitchen too.

Since I had all these questions about the lovely gardening shears my grandmother treasured, I decided to do a little research…. this is what I found out:

• Fiskars turned 365 years old on October 31st 2014 and was founded in 1649 in Fiskars, Finland. Fiskars was founded in the Fiskars Village in Finland, which still exists today!
• Nearly 100 artists and designers currently live in the Fiskars Village. The creation of Orange Handled-Scissors was purely by chance.
• To use up extra plastic in the molding machine, left over from our orange juicer production, Fiskars created the first Orange Handled-Scissors. The color orange won out by two votes.
• Ideal for cutting stems and light branches.
• Self-lubricating, maintenance-free bearing drive.
• Fully hardened, precision-ground steel blade stays sharp, even through heavy use.
• Steel construction provides excellent durability.
• Softgrip® touchpoints enhance comfort and control.
• Easy-open lock protects the blade during transport and storage.
• Bypass blade style.
• Maximum cutting capacity: 5/8″ dia.
• Lifetime warranty

Ingredients for rosemary buttermilk biscuits:

• 2 – cups bread flour
• 2 – teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 – tablespoon sugar
• 1 – teaspoon coarse sea salt
• 1 – teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 – cup butter (cold- cut into tablespoons)
• 1 – tablespoon rosemary (coarsely chopped)
• 3/4 – cup buttermilk plus 2 tablespoons for brushing the tops

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Line a cookie sheet with a non-stick baking mat or parchment paper. Set to the side.
3. In a large bowl sift flour, baking powder, sugar, sea salt, and baking soda together. Set to the side.
4. In a food processor, transfer 1 3/4 cups of dry ingredients and butter. Pulse together until crumbly. 
5. Mix rosemary into remaining dry ingredients, then add in the crumbly buttery mixture from the food processor. Mix well.
6. Make a well in the center of the mixture, and slowly pour the buttermilk into the center. 
7. Mix with a wooden spoon until the mixture comes together.
8. Pour the biscuit mixture on a lightly floured surface, and knead with floured hands until the dough comes together.
9. Pat the dough down as much as possible with your bare hands, then using a 3 inch circle cookie cutter, cut out as many circles as you can. 
10. Place biscuits on the baking sheet and gently brush each top with buttermilk.
11. Bake for 15 minutes.
12. Serve with butter and jam.

Buy a pair of amazing Fiskar gardening pruners…. by clicking here! Then make your own biscuits!

“Pizza Pie, Pizza Pie” is the chant that is sung in my home in a big burly voice.  It is the call that let’s the tribe know there will be pizza in the oven soon.  We will mark the day in a bite of cheesy laced crust and celebrate every morsel.  This is how I live… like a disciple committed to the art of pizza.  Let’s take the first steps towards our pie and begin with the dough.  Believe me I wasn’t always this confident in my dough making, in fact I shivered in my boots the first time the ingredients sat before me, but now I know just how easy it is…. with that being said let’s sing….. “Pizza Pie, Pizza Pie.”

Ingredients for pizza dough:

1 – packet highly active dry yeast (rapid rise)

1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon warm/hot water

1 – tablespoon honey or sugar (I use honey)

2 – tablespoons olive oil

4 – cup all purpose flour or bread flour

1 1/2 – teaspoons table salt

1/2 – tablespoon fresh rosemary chopped (optional)

In the bowl of a stand mixer add yeast and water and allow to dissolve. Mix it a few times until you know all yeast is dissolved. Then add in honey and mix to combine.  The water will be cloudy. This is the perfect sign.

Next add in olive oil and give another mix.  Let water mixture sit for 5 minutes.

In a medium bowl mix flour, salt and rosemary.

Then add flour mixture all at once to the water mixture in the stand up mixer.

Fit a dough hook onto your stand up mixer, knead at low for 5 minutes allowing all ingredients to come together.  Increase the speed to medium and continue mixing for 4 minutes the dough will comes away from the bowl with it wrapped around the the dough hook.  This is exactly what you’re looking for. Dough will be tacky but not sticky.

Remove dough from mixer and place on a clean flat surface and knead with hands for a minute.

Then lightly grease a bowl with a teaspoon of olive oil and transfer dough into lightly oiled bowl.  Once dough is placed in bowl form into a ball turning to coat the surface with oil.

Then flip bowl over on a large plate and leave dough covered in bowl for an hour and a half at room temperature allowing dough to rise.

Once dough rises uncover and knead dough for a minute or two then divide dough into 4 equal balls.

Form each ball into smooth dough by kneading for a minute or two. Then place all balls on a plate and cover with plastic wrap.

Leave them covered for another hour at room temperature. They will continue to rise.  Then refrigerate over night or up to 3 days covered in plastic wrap.  Dough will continue to rise until the cold of the refrigerator makes it go dormant.

Stay tuned for a the rest of my pizza making adventures…..

All photos taken by: Mando Lopez