Little Red Stove

As citizens of this world, we all feel the immense heartache and separation that this pandemic has brought upon us. My family and I feel the personal pain of COVID-19, and though we are all bombarded while we are awake and even in our dreams about the details of how this virus can impact lives or the economy, I hope beyond hope that none of you reading this now have COVID steal from you what it did from us. Though sadly I know that we are in good company, grieving alongside so many more than should ever experience this heartache.

With so much of our past lives eluding our grasps, there is something utterly beautiful that we can still hold firmly in our grasp that is unquestionably our own: hope.

Hope can come in a lot of forms.
– It can be phone calls with loved ones that are far away.
– It can be a reducing fever or day spent feeling better
– It can be an encouraging letter from your teacher or student
– It can be your favorite song or most treasured piece of art

For me, hope comes in the form of food. It’s been an instilled comfort in me from childhood, courtesy of daily family dinners.

Today was a day of healing and hope, as James and I are separated from our family. The people we love most in this world.
So what did we do? We put on our masks and gloves, and headed out to a rural farm in Virginia to pick strawberries, 6 feet away from everyone in all directions.
Strawberries for lemonade, sure. For pie, of course. Mainly? Strawberries for buttermilk biscuits.

Strawberry. Buttermilk. Biscuits. With salted honey butter…to be exact.

These little beauties were so sweet, so crisp on the edges, so fluffy and flaky. So delicious they made you forget for a moment what was going on.

Let’s get to it! I know you could use some hope, right? Or maybe know someone that could?

For 9 biscuits you will need:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 stick and 3 tablespoons cold butter, cubed into small pieces
1 pint ripe strawberries, washed and quartered
1/2 cup cold buttermilk
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

For the salted honey butter:
4 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons good quality honey
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
In a bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add in the cubed cold butter and using your fingers or a pastry cutter, break the butter into the flour until its the size of peas. I like to flatten the pieces of butter into disks like this:

In a measuring cup, whisk the buttermilk with the egg and vanilla.
Using a fork, gently fold the buttermilk mixture into the flour until there are still pockets of unmixed flour.
Add in your strawberry pieces, and now using your hands gently fold the strawberries into the biscuit dough.
USE CAUTION here lest you have bright pink biscuits. Little bits of dry flour are okay. Hey, if you are going for pink go crazy and break apart the berries into the dough.
If you’re like me, you like the clear separation of biscuit and berry.

Dump the dough onto a floured surface and pat into a 9×9 square. The dough should be roughly 1 1/2 inches thick.
Using a very sharp knife, cut into 9 squares and place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush the tops of the biscuits with buttermilk and sprinkle with a little sugar.

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown, flipping halfway through baking.

While they are in the oven, whip together the ingredients for the honey butter.

Serve warm, slathered with lots of honey butter. However much you need to make you smile and realize, there are beautiful days ahead.

Sending all of my love to each and every one of you.
XOXO
Megan