I Can Show You My Cheesy Biscuit

Not a cheesy biscuit

My wife and I love a big breakfast on the weekends (see homemade biscuit sandwich above).  We frequently make many incredible meals including over easy eggs, scrambled eggs, omelets, sausage, bacon, avocado, cheese, biscuits, and/or pancakes (not necessarily all at once).  After realizing that the biscuits at Cafe Java were so good because they split them and toasted them on the griddle with a little butter we began doing the same thing, and it made our biscuits even better.

A couple of months ago I was feeling just a little too healthy and decided to experiment with a biscuit, some cheese, and our comal.  What resulted was the creation of the cheesy biscuit.

The comal was already hot after toasting the biscuits, so I added some shredded cheese.

Then I placed the biscuit half on top of the cheese.

After letting the cheese melt a bit I used a spatula to push the cheese closer to the biscuit.

Then I used the spatula to scrape it off the comal and onto my plate.

A cheesy biscuit with some hardened "baked" cheese.  Ready for bacon and eggs.

This whole process doesn't take any longer than 90 seconds, and the result was delicious.  This was probably my best idea since starting this blog.  Here's a view of a cheesy biscuit from a different day with less of the hard cheese on it.

This is very easy to make at home.  We use the Alton Brown Southern Biscuit recipe.  The cheese we use is a combination of HEB Mild Longhorn cheddar and HEB Monterey Jack (both mentioned before right here in comidablog!).  We buy the blocks and shred it ourselves, not that pre-shredded stuff!

Give this a try and let me know how it goes for you in the comments.

Carne Guisada at home

I made carne guisada for the first time several weeks ago.  It turned out good, but it didn't have enough gravy.  I cobbled together a recipe from a book and the one my wife uses along with her notes.  On our last two pots of carne guisada we've used prime top round from HEB.  Although it is prime it has only been about $6 per lb (since it's top round) and has been very good.  The extra marbling has made a big difference in flavor and tenderness.

Carne Guisada

Here is one of the recipes I used:
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1826,145177-235193,00.html

The other was from "The Tex-Mex Cookbook" by Robb Walsh.  The ingredients and instructions were basically the same, but as previously noted I should have used more water/beef broth to make more gravy.  I also used tomato sauce instead of of whole or fresh tomatos because I think the sauce comes out heartier.  We like onions and garlic so I used six cloves of garlic and one half of a large onion.  We also do not use bell pepper in our cooking.  The book recipe adds potatoes, but since this isn't picadillo, that was never even considered.  The cooks.com recipe says to simmer for 45 minutes and the book says one hour.  I left the carne guisada simmering for about an hour and a half.  With the right pot you won't lose much moisture which means you could basically simmer even longer if desired, or if you aren't really hungry and ready to eat.

Meat used:  Prime grade top round beef
Pan used:  Stainless steel 3 Qt. saute pan.
Recipe changes:  Additional garlic, additional onions, no bell pepper, no potatoes, replaced half of water with beef broth.

Grocery Find - HEB Almond Milk

I've been buying HEB Lactose Free milk for about three years and while it has been very good, drinking more than a glass would still result in very mild stomach discomfort.  Milk substitutes have always been interesting to me, but I've never tried one.  Soy and rice milk are two popular choices, and recently hemp milk has been getting more publicity.  I would never drink soy milk because of the natural estrogen.  Almond milk is another substitute that I had not given much thought, but about two months ago HEB came out with their own almond milk.  They had a $1 off coupon so I decided to try it.

HEB almond milk

I'm very happy with this product.  I've never really enjoyed the taste of milk and the almond milk has only a hint of almond and vanilla flavor and not much else.  I went with the unsweetened vanilla variety because I don't need extra sugar and the vanilla adds a flavor the almond milk needs.  The drink itself is creamy and goes perfectly with cereal or pastries/desserts.  Strangely enough the package touts that it is 60 calories per serving, but the nutritional information on the side says it is 40 calories per serving.

HEB almond milk is now the milk substitute of choice in my house.

Some Secrets are Better Left Unsaid - Grocery Find Review

A few months ago HEB had $1.00 off coupons for Duke's mayonnaise.  This made it considerably cheaper than the staple a my house, Hellmann's.  I had read about Duke's before, and the article/webpage/message board (found it) seemed to indicate Duke's was absolutely the best mayo available.  It actually sounded like a regional type brand at the time, and I imagined it as some kind of deep south product not available to the rest of the country.  In fact they claim that Duke's is, "The Secret of Great Southern Cooks".

I grabbed the coupon and bought it.  It was much creamier than Hellmann's which tends to have a clumpier consistency, but flavor-wise it just didn't hit the mark.  It seemed to lack that egg yolk bite that Hellmann's has.  It was probably better than the current Kraft mayo (the Kraft mayo of the 80s was wonderful).  It turned out to be almost a chore to finish it when thinking about how much better the food would be with Hellmann's.

Duke's, not a "Best Food"

Pass up the Duke's even if there is a coupon and go for the Hellmann's.  Then come back here and send the $1 you would have saved to Comida Blog, or you can just thank me in the comments.

I'll have the regular - Normal lunch at home, chicken sandwich

As Lils pointed out in her post about lunch, eating lunch out everyday can be expensive, bad for your calorie count, and bad for your career if you have an "asshole boss".  This is sage advice no matter where you live.  Despite the glamorous blogging lifestyle most of my lunches are chicken sandwiches made at home.

The ingredients are simple:  HEB whole wheat bread, mayo, mustard, cheese (normally Monterrey Jack or cheddar), Boar's EverRoast chicken, lettuce, tomato (normally Roma), and avacado.  Most of the time this is eaten with "blue" Chee-tos (puffs) and water.

The sandwich is simple, and tasty enough for me to normally eat it two to three times a week.

Happy New Year from The Comida Blog

I know this is late, and posting has been light, but The Comida Blog wants to wish everyone a Happy New Year.  We are unsure if anyone besides the actual bloggers even read the site, but if anyone else is reading we thank you.  We all have full-time jobs that we probably hate (I know I do), so we don't have as many posts as we would like.  If anyone else is reading let us know in the comments.

For now here is a picture of something from HEB I did not buy.

Breakfast tacos at home - August 28, 2010

Hatch chiles judged, deemed “disappointing”.
Weekends are when I have time to make a great, hearty breakfast.  I had been thinking about these breakfast tacos since I finished the ones from the previous Sunday.  Hatch chiles are in season right now and we bought some pre-roasted mild ones at HEB.  This would be my first bacon, egg, cheese, Hatch chile, and avocado taco.  Having never used the chiles before I had no flavor expectations, but considering all the hype they receive I was hoping for a palate changing experience.  Unfortunately for the foodie hypesters the result was underwhelming.

It is possible the preparation was lacking.  After rinsing the skin off and deseeding them I threw them in the skillet with some olive oil and let them sauté for a bit.  I did not add any salt, and perhaps that was my mistake.  Of course, the taco was very good.  It had bacon, cheese, avocado, and egg, how could it not be?  I just don't think the chiles added anything to them, kind of like Entourage to HBO.

El Lago flour tortillas (from Sun Harvest, the ones from HEB aren’t the same)
2 large Hill Country Fare eggs
1 ½ strips of HEB brand bacon
HEB fat free, lactose free milk (purple carton)
½ regular sized Haas avocado
HEB Mild Longhorn cheddar cheese
HEB Monterrey Jack cheese
1 Hatch chile, roasted, skinned and deseeded
Kosher salt, black pepper

Cook bacon according to directions.
Shred cheese to your desired ratio of yellow to white.
Halve avocado, using the half without the pit to make slices.
Add a two to three second pour of milk to a bowl with the two eggs.  Add black pepper and beat.  Start a skillet on medium and add olive oil.  Place chopped chiles in skillet once it’s at temperature and let sauté for five minutes (For non Hatch tacos, omit the olive oil and chiles and use cooking spray in the skillet).  About one to one and a half minutes before putting eggs in skillet, add a pinch of salt and mix.  Put the heat just below medium and then pour eggs into skillet.  Mix well with the chiles.  Keep watch on eggs to make sure they don’t dry out on the edges.  Mix it around with a spatula occasionally.  I like my eggs wet so I make sure heat isn’t too high and take them off the heat while they still have a wet look to them on top.
Use comal to heat tortillas
Place eggs in tortillas, top with cheese, bacon, and avocado slices, and enjoy.  Take a nap in the afternoon.