We ♥ Handsome Biscuit

Every now and again, Anne's work-at-home daddy comes downstairs and suggests that we take our lunch hour off premises. When that happens, we grab our things and rush out to one of our many, established favorite area restaurants, but sometimes the adventurous spirit strikes us and we seek out a new place. Last week, we hit up Handsome Biscuit on Colonial Avenue, and as soon as we had our first bites of our lunch, we knew it was going on the list.

Handsome Biscuit (which opened just a few weeks ago) is a quirky place -- and we love quirk. The menu features sandwiches made on fluffy homemade sweet potato biscuits, with a whole slew of inventive add-ons and sides (caviar! pickled veggies!) They also feature a selection of Dr. Brown's sodas and even biscuit bread pudding (to die for). So far each of us has already picked a favorite -- PB&J for A., barbecue with slaw for J., and eggs over easy with bacon and cheese for me.

Eating out with a picky toddler can get more than a little repetitive, so whenever we find a place that offers kid-friendly food and also something new and interesting for an adult palate, we can't resist telling the world about it, even if that might mean that we'll have an even harder time getting a table in the lunch rush! But in this case, the buzz is well-deserved.

I am head over heels with the restaurant renaissance that's been happening in Norfolk lately. Handsome Biscuit is a welcome addition to the roster. We love you, Handsome B.! We'll be back soon! (I promise).

Happy Friday! Where/what will you be eating this weekend?

Strawberry Flummery

One of my all-time favorite cookbooks is The Virginia Housewife, written in 1825 by Mary Randolph, a cousin of Thomas Jefferson's. It's considered to be the very first American cookbook, and despite a few idiosyncrasies of the time (like instructions on what to do with a leftover calf's head?), it's amazing how much of the information in the book is still useful today. One of the recipes that I come back to again and again is for flummery, a dish first brought to the New World by English colonists. First Lady Dolley Madison famously served this "delicate fruit stew" at dinner parties in the White House.

Yesterday I looked at the half-gallon of berries left over from our strawberry picking adventure last weekend, and decided that some strawberry flummery was in order. (Doesn't that just sound like a delicious dish? Flummery even rhymes with yummy...sort of).

Mary Randolph's original flummery recipe reads as follows:

One measure of jelly, one of cream, and half a one of wine; boil it fifteen minutes over a slow fire, stirring all the time; sweeten it, and add a spoonful of orange flower or rose water; cool it in a mould, turn it in a dish, and pour around it cream, seasoned in any way you like.

My modern adaptation is just a little different:

2 pints berries
1/2 cup sugar (we use honey)
2 tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot powder
3 tbsp cold water
juice from 1/2 lemon
Heavy cream or full-fat coconut milk

Combine the berries, sugar, and 1/2 cup hot water in a saucepan and set over low heat. Stir constantly, until the mixture is liquid and comes to a boil.

While this is happening, blend the cornstarch or arrowroot with the cold water. Stir this into the boiling berries. Add the lemon juice, reduce heat, and simmer for a minute or two. Remove the pan from heat and spoon the berry mixture into individual bowls. When mixture has cooled and thickened, pour a dollop of cream or coconut milk over the top of each bowl before serving.

Most flummery recipes call for it to be chilled until set and to be served cold, but we like to eat it still warmish -- that way there's a nice interplay of cold milk and warm berries. We haven't had problems with the arrowroot thickening up if left at room temperature for a little while. On a truly hot day, it would probably be more refreshing served cold. But honestly, there is no wrong way to eat flummery. It's berries, sugar, and cream. You could eat it right from the pan and be perfectly happy -- I know this from experience.

Virginia-Style Brunswick Stew

Brunswick stew is -- or might be, there's some confusion -- a Virginia original. There are variants up and down the southern US seaboard and I have had many of them. It's interesting, the different twists that each locality puts on this classic. In Georgia, the broth is thin and very spicy.  in North Carolina, pulled pork is used in place of chicken or beef, and the stew tends to be so thick that you can stand your spoon in it. Virginia-style Brunswick stew falls somewhere in between and therefore is juuuuust right, like Goldilock's porridge.

Brunswick stew is one of my favorites for pulling dinner together in a hurry out of the odds and ends left in your freezer at the end of a busy week. Once you have the base, which is smoky, spicy, and tangy, you can add almost any protein, veggies and legumes you want and it still comes out delicious. I know some purists say there must be okra. Some say there have to be butter beans or peas. This week, we made our Brunswick stew with corn and lima beans that I excavated from the bottom of the freezer, some spicy pork sausage (from Crabill's, by way of Greenway Beef), and the leftover rotisserie chicken we had earlier in the week. We're looking forward to trying a version with venison during hunting season. And my friend's mom assures me that when she was growing up in Virginia, squirrel was a necessary staple of Brunswick stew.

You can find the recipe that we use most frequently below. I promise there is no squirrel in it.

Brunswick Stew

-2-2.5 lbs chicken
-1 onion
-4 cups chicken broth
-2-3 russet potatoes
-1 can (28 oz) stewed tomatoes
-3 tbsp barbecue sauce
-1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
-1 cup corn
-1 cup butterbeans
-2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Cut chicken into pieces and saute in cast iron pot with onion in butter or oil until just barely cooked through. Add chicken broth, stewed tomatoes, diced potatoes, barbecue sauce, Worcestershire and one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. Bring to a boil. Add corn and butterbeans, then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until meat and potatoes are tender to the point of falling apart (stew should be on the thick side). If you've pre-cooked the chicken, this should take 1.5 to 2 hours or so. About 15 minutes before taking the stew off the heat, stir in the second tablespoon of vinegar, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve piping hot.

My little cooking buddy was lured in by the smell of onions frying and watched the whole process with great interest.

For the record, Anne can demolish three or more bowls of Brunswick stew, no joke. Last time we had it, I was so entertained watching her that I forgot to eat my bowl of stew, so she ate that, too.

Have a great weekend, everyone!