"roasted stew and biscuitry" -Anti Chef

It's cold here. I spent the better part of Election Day standing outside "stumping" for a couple of really educated people I know who were running for local Board of Education seats. I don't really like politics. I like good food, mind bending dialogue, rain on warm summer days and the under dog. But at times when one finds the self in a 'povertous' stretch one will often make choices contrary to those made in a time of more financial clarity. Isn't that what this blog is about??? Where am I ?

Anyhoo - when I'm not standing out in the cold to try and be of help to a friend, or answering the forwarded office phones for seventy five dollars a week whilst the boss and Mama play in Jamaica, I like to spend my time writing cerebral horror poems and cooking meals that warm both heart and home. I made a roast over the weekend with the expectation of my in laws. I won't bore you with that recipe...unless you ask me. But you know how a roast has all kinds of good accompaniment with the carrots, onions, celery and parsnips...resulting and including bad ass gravy....mashed potatoes, and nice green side. I chose peas, which I added to a saute of tiny little diced carrots, onion, and some butternut squash I had laying around. Again with the butternut squash and peas and carrots recipe, later...ask nicely this time. (hay zoos) It was a nice supper. So - you know there's leftovers. Ahh....that's where I was, am....the leftover thing.

Get the casserole dish...and don't worry about any habit you may see forming. Trust your old pal the anti chef here, it's me kids...this is going to be great, and it wont hurt a bit.

You need basically enough stuff to fill a 9 x 9 inch or 9 x 13 inch dish, and a can of biscuits. Yeah, you could make some, but most people exist in a world so busy that they never have time to even let the biscuit they get from a drive through cool before they eat it, let alone envision or dare i imagine undertake the "old fashioned" task of actual biscuitry. They, much like I, perpetrate counterfeit biscuitry...obtaining previously manufactured biscuits - either canned, or baked from a mix and served warm, over counters, through windows....bad, bad, biscuit. So, make some of your own if you have the time, the recipe and the balls....go ahead....what, okay Cutiepie....i will also post my Grandma's biscuit recipe they are nice, ask nice...whatever.



So take all of the leftovers, slice the roast into chunks, cut up the onions and carrots and parsnips and celery from the roasting operation, throw 'em in a nice large sauce pan with the leftover bad ass gravy, and green pea and butternut side remnants....heat this up slowly and gently....that's slowly....and ....gently....then pour this "stew" into whichever baking dish it best fits in. You want a thick stew consistency, but if your gravy has gotten too thick it won't work, you may have to thin the mixture out a little with some sort of liquid....water or stock....stock if you have it, but water is cheap. Also if your gravy has gotten too thick...it is probably not bad ass, but somehow, you will live.



Once you have your "stew" in the baking dish place a layer of biscuits on top and bake as directed on the biscuit can...I did it at 350 for about 17 minutes...you just want to make sure the "stew" is well heated before going into the oven with the biscuits and everything should be just fine. Also, with most canned biscuits being really thick, I like to rip them into thirds by tearing them, "flaky" ones are really easy to separate into three different "layers" and this bakes up nicer than full biscuit size....gives you a better stew to biscuit ratio...very important, or at the very least, a ratio not to be under considered. Just bake the extra biscuits on the same baking pan as the "roast and biscuit" cooks on.

This is one of those flying by the seat of your pants ones, but it is also really, really easy. Once you have gone through the four to five hour process the day before to prepare the roast and everything else this is a breeze. And bear in mind, I got a 2.69lb eye of round roast for about thirteen bucks...add the veggies and all we are looking at maybe twenty and it feeds four grown ups and a two year old for two full meals....well, she will be two in a couple of months, but they fly by. Time flies by...so spend it with the ones you love. Embrace unemployment if you must, and go back to the roots on how to survive the tough times. Buy good quality products to feed your family with, and make the most of everything you buy...and that will excuse you, and me...for canned biscuits once in a while. Our country didn't seem as fat and lazy to me when "the king, the clown, and the colonel" (thanks Tony Bourdain) weren't getting so much of our time and money because the schedules we maintain to actually provide for our families do not allow us time to actually see our families...fast food has gone from a treat, or cheat, to a way of life for many of us, and it is a bad scene.

I guess I should throw up a biscuit recipe, since in my Grandmother's day, having flour, baking powder and shortening "around" was part of having a kitchen, and making biscuits was more common than making a fuss at the counter over whether or not you wanted cheese, or mayo on that...think about it...think about your grandma.
-ac