December 5, 2021
Hello from Massachusetts! Kev and I have finally settled into our new home in Massachusetts. We are approaching our second full month of living in our new home out in the quiet-ish suburbs. It took a bit of time for both Kev and I to adjust to our new home, a new state, and two new roles. My family in particular has been super excited for us to move back to the East Coast since we will only be a few hours away by car. When the holidays started to inch closer this year, Kev and I invited my parents to stay with us for a week and celebrate Thanksgiving with us. Thanksgiving in our family is an important time to gather, enjoy good food, and celebrate all the things we are thankful for throughout the year. It is one of the few holidays throughout the year where we spend almost the entire day cooking up a feast in the kitchen. Even though we just settled into our new home, there was no way we were going to skip the tradition this year. With my parents visiting this year, I was even more excited to roast up a whole turkey and some succulent side dishes. I absolutely love Thanksgiving weekend because of all the festivities packed into one weekend no matter the year. The festivities start on Wednesday night as we prep as much as we could before Thanksgiving Day. For me, it’s usually brining the turkey in vegetable broth seasoned generously with kosher salt, black paper, and a few squeezes of fresh orange juice from a whole orange. When the turkey is brined, I move onto cubing the loaf of bread and setting it out to dry out on the counter before I use it for dressing the next day. The final prep work I like to do before Thanksgiving Day is to prepare the pie crust dough using my trusty food processor. With just a handful of ingredients and a few pulses, the pie dough comes together in almost no time. The next day, I can transfer the pie dough from the fridge to the kitchen island and let it rest for 10 minutes before I begin rolling it out for my pie. Any leftover pie dough on Thanksgiving Day is cut into small triangles and used to make pigs in a blanket for an easy afternoon appetizer before the evening feast. Once those three tasks are crossed off my prep list, I can calmly go to bed. The next day, I wake up early to prepare my aged Gouda herb biscuits with a simple mushroom gravy. My take on biscuits and gravy is a great way to start off Thanksgiving Day with a filling breakfast. Mom and I wake up early to prepare the biscuit dough for the Gouda herb biscuits. Usually, when I make biscuits, I only prepare one batch of biscuits, which yields 8 biscuits. This time though, I decide to double the batch just to ensure we have enough for both breakfast and dinner. The Gouda herb biscuits are super easy to make and come together fairly quickly in the oven. The base of the biscuits starts with all-purpose flour, baking powder, kosher salt, granulated sugar, and unsalted butter. We use our hands to crumble the ingredients together until we form coarse crumbs. Mom then tosses in the Gouda cheese directly into a large bowl as I toss in the oregano and crack in tons of freshly cracked black pepper. We pour in enough milk (¾ cup) to allow the biscuit dough to come together. I use a flower shaped cookie cutter roughly the size of a biscuit cutter to cut out floral shaped biscuits from the biscuit dough. Mom arranges the biscuits neatly across two large baking sheets lined with parchment paper, brushes on some whole milk, and grates additional cheese on top of the unbaked biscuits. I top the biscuits with additional herb and kosher salt before carefully transferring the baking sheets into the oven to allow the biscuits to bake for about 13 minutes at 425°F. Once the biscuits were puffed up and golden brown around the edges, they were ready. While the biscuits were baking away in the oven, I made a quick mushroom gravy using unsalted butter, ap flour, diced onion, minced garlic, thinly sliced baby portabella mushrooms, kosher salt, and whole milk. In about ten minutes, the mushroom gravy was ready for serving. Mom, Dad, Kev, and I gathered across the dining table and ate breakfast together for the first time in a few months. We filled our bellies with the fluffiest cheesy biscuits and shroom gravy before moving on to prepare the rest of our Thanksgiving dinner menu. Mom assisted me with making my cheddar apple pie and roasting a whole turkey rubbed with rosemary olive oil butter. To round out the rest of our menu, we whipped together a sausage dressing, layered on the green bean casserole, tossed together some roasted potatoes, stirred up the fresh orange cinnamon cranberry sauce, and scraped together the turkey drippings for a simple pan gravy. By 6:00 p.m., Thanksgiving dinner was finally ready. We invited one of Kev’s friends, Clay, to join us for dinner. The five of us ate and chatted into the evening. When dinner ended, dad carved up as much of the turkey meat as he could before mom transferred the bones of the turkey into a slow cooker to make turkey soup. Clay brought home some of the leftovers while we saved the rest for the next few days. With another Thanksgiving dinner successfully done, we retired to bed early to enjoy the rest of our weekend festivities – exploring downtown Boston on Friday afternoon and watching the one and only game on Saturday. The win on Saturday was the cherry on top of a truly wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. Now, I can’t wait until Christmas festivities begin.
For the aged Gouda herb biscuits:
(makes 8 biscuits)
This recipe yields 8 biscuits. I did double my biscuit recipe to make enough for both breakfast and dinner for Thanksgiving Day.
· 2 cups all-purpose flour
· 2 teaspoons baking powder
· 1 teaspoon kosher salt (plus additional for topping biscuits)
· ½ teaspoon granulated sugar
· 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed
· 2-3 ounces aged Gouda cheese, grated (plus additional for topping biscuits)
· 1 teaspoon dried oregano (plus additional for topping biscuits)
· ½ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper (plus additional for topping biscuits)
· ¾ cup whole milk (plus additional for brushing onto tops of biscuits)
· honey butter*, for serving
Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
2) In a large bowl, combine the all-purpose flour, baking powder, kosher salt, and granulated sugar. Add in the cubes of unsalted butter. Use your fingers to press the cubes of unsalted butter into the dry ingredients until the dough resembles coarse crumbs. Fold in the grated aged Gouda cheese, dried oregano, and freshly cracked black pepper. Create a well in the center and slowly add in the whole milk. Use your hands to gently combine together all of the ingredients until a dough forms.
3) Shape the biscuit dough into a rectangular shape. Use a biscuit cutter of your choice to cut out as many biscuits as you can. Reroll the remaining dough and cut out additional biscuits. Carefully transfer the biscuits to the baking sheet leaving each biscuit about 1-2 inches apart from one another. Brush the tops of the biscuits with milk and top with additional grated cheese, dried oregano, freshly cracked black pepper, and kosher salt.
4) Transfer the baking sheet with the biscuits into the preheated oven. Bake the biscuits for 13-15 minutes until the biscuits are puffed up and golden around the edges. Serve the biscuits with honey butter*.
*To make honey butter, combine 4 tablespoons softened unsalted butter with 2 tablespoons honey until well blended.
Takeaways: I used aged Gouda cheese for the biscuits since I had just a few ounces left over from making macaroni and cheese. The biscuits also work equally well with sharp cheddar cheese or Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. If there are any biscuits left over, they can be wrapped tightly with plastic wrap and stored in the refrigerator for a few days. Any leftover honey butter can also be packed in an airtight container and stored in the refrigerator for a few days. My family loves smearing honey butter onto biscuits even savory ones. The pairing of the savory cheesy herb biscuits with the honey butter was just heavenly.
