make this now: tomato & corn biscuit pie

Three weeks vacation is a long vacation and we loved every moment of it. Well, maybe not getting bit by mosquitoes. If I'm thankful for anything about living in expensive Vancouver, I'm very thankful that there are no mosquitoes. Being bug-free, especially when camping for two out of three weeks, would have been miraculous. Highlights included driving the side roads in Quebec along the St. Lawrence, getting our feet mucky in the Bay of Fundy, driving the breath-takingly gorgeous Cabot Trail in Cape Breton, the fairy-tale village of Peggy's Cove, picking up shells off the red sanded beaches of PEI, and visiting the strangely deserted but beautiful city of St. John, NB.

I also fell in love with Montreal. Fell hard...and not just because of the poutine. It was exciting, relaxed, and perfect and I'm almost ready to pack my bags and relocate. French, do I really need to be that fluent? Honestly, it doesn't seem so! I also loved the Vermont town of Montpelier. It was beautiful and had everything I could want in a small town...except that it's not Canada. And as my friend Jason in Montreal beautifully put it, as long as you are in Canada, you are home.

Oh, and the food! We ate some pretty wonderful meals and I even managed to discover a love of cucumbers, peaches, plums and I even tried scallops for the first time (but definitely not the last). And while it was fun trying new foods, eating at new restaurants and beach-side shacks, it also feels good to be in my own kitchen. The first real meal I cooked when I returned was this pie. I had seen the recipe in my August copy of Gourmet magazine and it just looked perfect. Comforting and homey yet full of seasonal, fresh ingredients. It was the perfect meal to come home to.


The beauty of this recipe is that it takes all the complicated pie-making stuff and throws it out the window. Instead of a tricky pie crust, this one uses biscuit dough which is so much easier to roll out into a round-ish shape. If I had some zucchini, I'd even toss in a layer of that for a pretty green, red and yellow pie. It seems like a forgiving dish. And it's the perfect thing to make on a weeknight and it's good enough to serve to guests for brunch. If you aren't in your kitchen now cutting up your fragrant garden tomatoes or gently stirring up a batch of biscuits, you are clearly in the wrong. This meal must be made. Now. Get to it, I'll be waiting.

tomato & corn biscuit pie
(liberally adapted from Gourmet)
1 recipe of your favorite biscuit dough (minus the dill, onion & cheddar - but add some 1 t fresh oregano if you wish)
2 T mayonnaise
zest of 1 lemon
juice from 1/2 lemon
4-5 med-large tomatoes, deseeded & sliced
2 tablespoons finely chopped basil
2-4 fat green onions (about 1/2 c), sliced
1 c corn (freshly de-cobbed or frozen)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
a pinch or two of kosher salt
1/4 c old cheddar cheese, shredded
egg wash, milk or melted butter

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix up your biscuit dough and divide the dough in half. Roll out one ball of dough into a circular shape and line it into a pie plate.

2. In the meantime, mix together the mayo with the lemon zest and juice and set aside.

3. Layer in half of the tomatoes to line the bottom and sprinkle with half of the fresh basil. Grind some black pepper over it all and a small pinch of kosher salt. Add half the corn and half the green onions and drizzle over half of the mayo mixture. Repeat. Sprinkle the top of the pie with cheddar cheese.

4. Roll out the remaining ball of dough and top the pie with it. Seal the edges and make it look pretty like Martha would (or be like me, cross your fingers and just try your best). Cut in a few vents to let the steam escape and brush the top with a bit of egg wash, milk or melted butter. Put in the oven to bake for about 30 minutes until the filling is bubbling and the top is golden. Remove from oven and serve.

c'mon spring, let's get on with it! chicken pot pie with cheddar-biscuit topping

April has been turning out to be a pretty crazy month. Not only are taxes due at the end of the month, but the weather which should be by all accounts spring-like and warm, is too damn chilly for my liking. On Friday evening it snowed (luckily it didn't stick) and there's a snow warning for tonight as well. Great. At least it's sunny which is about the only nice thing I can muster about the weather here in the mixed up Pacific Northwest.


So while I should be eating spring salads and going for bike rides in skirts, instead, I'm holed up in front of my computer catching up on work and trying to steer clear of the cold weather that will be with us for the next week. At least we have found a dream accountant, so that's one less April worry to have nagging at my tail. Another comfort is making a warm and hearty meal, which not only warms the kitchen but also the spirit. A pot-pie filled with chicken and vegetables and topped with flaky biscuits in April? Sign me up.


This would be really simple to make vegetarian or vegan by stripping out the chicken and cheese and using a non-dairy milk and margarine instead. Throw in some more vegetables or substitute for what you've got lagging about in your fridge. This is a really easy recipe to play around with and if you find that you need more liquid, add it! Not thick enough? Whisk in some more flour or make a slurry with cornstarch and dump it in. Despite it's humble beginnings, it's really an impressive dish. If the weather isn't giving you any love, let this pot pie do all the work.

chicken pot pie with cheddar-biscuit topping
1 small rutabaga, peeled & diced
2 T olive oil
1 onion, diced
1/4 t red chili flakes
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, diced
1/2 t dried thyme
1/2 t dried oregano
2 c mushrooms, halved or quartered
3 T flour
1 c mushroom broth
1/2 c milk
1 c frozen corn
2 c leftover chicken, chopped
salt & pepper

for biscuit topping:
2 c flour, plus more for work surface
2 1/4 t baking powder
3/4 t baking soda
salt & pepper
6 T cold butter, cut into small chunks
1/2 c yogurt
1/4 c milk
3/4 c shredded old cheddar cheese

1. In a medium sized saucepan, boil rutabaga until tender. Drain and set aside.

2. Meanwhile, add oil to heavy cast iron pot and saute onion, garlic and chili over medium heat until shiny. Add celery, thyme, oregano and mushrooms and saute until soft. Sprinkle vegetables with flour and stir until flour cooks, about 2 minutes. Stir in broth, add corn, rutabaga and chicken and simmer until broth thickens, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper, if necessary.

3. Preheat oven to 450°. Make topping by whisking together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pepper. Cut in butter with a pastry knife until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some pea-sized lumps. Add yogurt, milk and cheese and stir until just combined. With floured hands, knead dough against the side of the bowl until the mixture holds together. If it's sticky, knead in up to 1/4 cup more flour.

4. Drop small mounds of topping over chicken mixture and bake until brown, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

diner style: all-purpose biscuits

So you've been successful at making poached eggs, right? Well, hell, why not try your hand at some buttery biscuits to slide right underneath that egg? First, I should preface this entire entry by stating right off the bat that my biscuit-making chops are only a couple months old. In fact, I don't think Canadians really eat biscuits...to me, it's an American thing like chicken fried steak and well, biscuits and gravy. A biscuit is like a Southern cousin of the scone and is meant to be flaky and light and not just eaten for breakfast - my recently transplanted to North Carolina friend just told me about a place by her house that is a biscuit-only restaurant (with drive-thru, of course). When I've taken trips below the 49th parallel, I've definitely had my share of biscuit n' gravy eating and the best ones I've ever had were at the Dish in Seattle. It was high time to recreate that buttery, light perfection!


When I stumbled across a biscuit recipe from The Non-Dairy Queen it looked relatively fool-proof to a newbie like me, so I decided to give it a go. Rumor has it that Canadian flour has extra gluten (read: heavy) compared to the stuff found down South, so I'm sure these aren't authentic in the least, and these aren't as feather-light as the ones I've had in American diners. But it's a simple recipe and it's pretty damn good one at that...especially since I've played with the recipe a few times adding and substituting like I love to do. I've made this recipe with only all purpose flour and most recently a mix of white and whole wheat. Didn't matter, these biscuits still turned out delicious. I also have made this with just skim milk but then this morning ran out of most of my milk so I subbed in some plain yogurt to make up the difference and once again, the recipe wasn't worse for wear. So go ahead, try your hand at biscuit making. If you do decide to use Earth Balance, I'd suggest reducing the salt or getting rid of it entirely.


These are great smeared with blackberry jam or torn into two halves to make a great poached egg breakfast sandwich. Or give your healthy resolutions a break and stir up some gravy to go alongside. It will be our little secret.

all-purpose biscuits
1 c ap flour
1 c whole wheat flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 c unsalted butter or Earth Balance
1/2 c yogurt
1/4 c skim milk

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a large bowl, combine flours, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter until you get something resembling coarse meal.

2. In a mixing cup, combine the yogurt and milk and stir until blended. Add to the flour mixture and gently stir to combine the mix into one lump of dough. Don't over blend.

3. Dump onto floured counter top or an unfloured Silpat mat and flatten into a 3/4" thick circle. Cut out circles with biscuit butter and place on a cookie sheet. The Non Dairy Queen says to keep them touching for soft sides, but I like them crispy on the outside so every biscuit has a wide berth. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until they are slightly golden on the outside.